20th Birthday Trip - Adventure Russia!

Where next??? - One of the toughest questions for travel enthusiasts.

Especially when you are about to turn 20 and the idea comes to mind to travel for it. I wanted to experience something! So I stood in front of my scratch map and stared at all those boring countries that hadn't been scratched off yet, looking for the ones that seemed as cheap and adventurous as possible. After all, I'm turning 20 years old and I want to make an unforgettable trip for this special occasion.. with as little budget as possible.

So there I was... searching for adventure and color on the map...

In short, I decided on Russia!

Conveniently, the flights were really cheap and the layovers were scheduled in a way that I couldn't help but make the most of it. The route was set: Stuttgart - Warsaw - St. Petersburg - Moscow - Riga - Frankfurt. To save even more money and get acquainted with the culture, I decided to try Couchsurfing. So if there's one thing that's certain, it's that I'll never forget my 20th birthday!

My parents were rather skeptical about my great idea. My mother was worried and my father expressed himself as usual with raised eyebrows and a look that didn't need words. Nevertheless, I am of legal age and can make decisions for myself - whether they are good or not will remain to be seen.

I decided not to make this trip known. If I don't like it, not everyone will ask about it, there have already been enough skeptics.

And then the first problem arose: The visa.

Russia is not exactly the country known for mass tourism, so getting the visa was quite annoying. After all the documents were gathered, I sent them with a heavy heart together with my passport by mail to the responsible central office in Frankfurt. After payment of the visa fees, everything went very smoothly and I slowly realized that I am really going to go through with it...