Believe me, I don’t use that phrase lightly. I’ve traveled quite a bit over the past 5 years, this includes working on a cruise ship in the South Pacific, backpacking Europe, living in Melbourne and a small Czech town, 30+ days backpacking in Southeast Asia, a solo trip to Costa Rica, and take my word for it, this trip was a lot. Russia surpassed all my expectations.Īs incredible as Russia was (highly recommend you go if ever given a chance) what took this trip to a whole different level was the people.

Regardless of if it was good luck, coincidence, or divine intervention it left a lasting impact on not just me but everyone in my group. Russia found an uncanny way of giving us exactly what we needed, without us knowing it was what we needed. Petersburg, Sochi, and Moscow and I remember thinking at each place “this one will be my favorite” and then I always ended up liking the next stop more. Granted Russia is huge and we only spent two weeks there, but it still had a completely different vibe than I expected. I won’t go into too much detail about specific highlights in this blog (that will be coming in the World Cup: Cliff Notes blog next week) but I’m still surprised by how much I liked Russia and its people. To put it in context, of the 35+ countries I’ve been to, it’s in my top 5. While I remember Russia and the World Cup vividly the thing that has stuck with me when thinking back on it is how different traveling with a group of girls is.īefore we get into that let me say that Russia was incredible and is one of my favorite places in the world.

I’ve been back from Russia and the World Cup for about a month now and still am having trouble finding the words (rare for me) to describe the experience. Travel lesson #32342: The trip you think you’re taking is never the trip you actually take.

Behind enemy lines meaning