Travel Tales

<p><strong><em>Travel Tales: Russia & The USSR</em></strong></p><p>Is a collection of travel stories of one of the travel world's most shall we say <em>duplicitous</em> destinations — a bit mysterious somewhat alluring yet still demanding a modicum of caution. Russia formerly the Soviet Union aka the USSR is a place you can never quite get comfortable with. Oh for sure things improved much when the Soviet Union as such collapsed and morphed into what is now a more modern-day Russia or more formerly "The Russian Federation." Russia for sure abounds with history and untold artistic treasures and has modernized considerably bringing itself into the more modern-day 21st century. Maybe not quite among the world's most eagerly sought out destinations on Earth to visit like say the Mediterranean the pyramids of Egypt the shopping and culinary meccas of  Western Europe or the wilds of Africa Russia remains however in the minds of armchair travelers and adventurers alike looking to travel one day to Russia say to St. Petersburg or Moscow or perhaps even take a river journey between these two cities or take a train trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Russia though lacking in the relatively innocuous and more mellow travel like say to Europe  certainly now has suddenly become one of the more challenging countries to visit. Given the current world political arena travel to Russia from the West for the foreseeable future will virtually cease to nil. Shall we say that this book on travel to Russia during the Cold War through its return to the world stage and now to its presence in the world as a pariah nation — now in the negative news media on a daily basis — is certainly not recommended as a destination for the unknown foreseeable future. This book then is more attuned to the armchair adventurer and those travelers who are now more curious than anything else and now more than ever before — about what travel to Russia <em>has been like</em> in the recent past and now that Russia is largely off the plate for travel at least for the foreseeable future. Now is the time to sit back and contemplate more about what travel to Russia <em>was </em>like in the recent past now that it is not likely to return any time soon as a goal for future travel adventures. So given our <em>True Travel Tales</em> destinations sub-series what was travel to the old USSR and Russia like at least at the beginning of the more modern-day twenty-first century and slightly beyond? It is one of our purposes of the <em>True Travel Tales</em> series to provide a cross-section of travel life in the world's most popular and alluring places that along with the good comes sometimes a portion of the bad as well. In the <em>True Travel Tales</em> series we aim to pull no punches. You'll see some of the good and best sides of Russia as it reached the more modern era and in so doing you'll also sample some of the more discomforting or disquieting darker aspects as well that sadly were also part of the cycle of travel life in such a diverse and exotic region as the USSR and our token look of travel to Russia in its greater glory in the more modern day.</p>