Summer 2011: Kalmykia, Adygea, Abkhazia,…

It’s been a long time since the last major hitchhiking trip. After Hörstel – Moscow in November 2010, I’ve been quite absence from the roads of Europe. Way too long, so to say. Lucky enough, summer vacation is coming around in about three weeks and it’s time to hit the road again. Unfortunately, this time it won’t be towards the European hitchgathering, which is held on August 5, 2011, in Kara Dere, Bulgaria.

Abkhazia (Image by Olga Kozina, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5)

For July and August, my initial plan is to first hitchhike from Enschede towards Moscow as fast as possible. Not exactly Moscow, but a tiny, small village in the middle of a forest south of the Russian capital. So far nothing new, the road is well known to me already and can be labeled as “easy peasy” and “pretty boring”. Maybe, maybe I’ll do the route via Ukraine (Lviv – Kyiv) instead of the usual Lithuania – Latvia – Moscow. This might be up to coincidences, personal mood and the random spirit of hitchhiking.

(Note: If you’re having no clue what I’m talking about, check the map below for a rough orientation)

Afterwards, depending on the working schedule of Maria, we’re hitchhiking together (or me alone) south towards Abkhazia. Abkhazia is internationally recognized as part of Georgia, but considers itself an independent state. It’s status is only recognized by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru and since about a week ago also by the pacific island state of Vanuatu. Anyway, unfortunately it’s only possible to enter this state via Russia, which at the same time means being illegal in Georgia. What I’ve read so far and seen on images regarding the nature and landscape of this part of the Kaukasus impresses me much, which is one reason to travel there. So, I hope to provide my readers here with a bunch of photography once I’m back. Lucky enough, we’ve got the internet in 2011, as they offer entry permit letters / visa by e-mail!

Temple in Kalmykia (Image: Public Domain)

On the way there, options are quite open. Volgograd is one city worth visiting, mainly because of it’s importance (former Stalingrad) for everybody interested in modern history. Also a place worth to visit seems the Republic of Adygea with it’s beautiful mountain ranges.

Also on the list is the only Buddhist republic in Europe, Kalmykia. Yes, there’s a Buddhist republic existing on the soil of Europe! Russia seems to have to offer so much diversity, especially close to it’s Kaukasus regions, I could continue counting places to visit here endlessly…not to forget that we’ll pass Sochi for sure, but I’m not really keen on visiting that overcrowded holiday resort…

Afterwards, Maria and me will for sure hitchhike back to Moscow and then towards Moldova, passing Ukraine once more. I hope we get to visit the beautiful city of Odessa as well before heading westwards.

A lot of hitchhiking, hiking and wandering for such a short period. We try to keep you folks up to date here more frequently than we did last year, but well, on the road usual life, internet and all the rest seem so far away, though this time I’ve got to work on the road, so occasional internet connections are a pre. Let’s see how this works out.