After I graduated from college, I traveled in Europe for two months, worked as a bartender in California for a year, then traveled in Russia and the Middle East for six months. I taught summer camp in southern Russia and then backpacked from Cairo to Istanbul. I ended up teaching English in Palestine for about a month along the way. Here are a few stories and letters from those times.*

• Moscow
  Coming back to the first big city I ever lived in and loved
  
  
• Camp Golden Shaft
  The Shaftiest
  
  
• Black and Blue Sea
  The gorgeous Northern Caucasus
  
  
• Peace and Lenin
  And a lot of great kids
  
  
• Rainbows and Wine
  How to be a Russian tourist in Russia
  
  
• Novo Nights
  The raging nightlife of Novomikhailovsky
  
  
• Escape from Golden Shaft
  On a slow train drinking champagne
  
  
  
• Exodos
  to Cyprus and Egypt
  
  
• Oasis
  Siwa in the Sahara
  
  
• Egypt Me
  Egyptian Tourist Hell
  
  
• Mafish Mushkila
  It means no worries...
  
  
• Jordan Jordan
  What a great couple of countries
  
  
• Jordan Jordan 2
  Beause I couldn't get enough
  
  
• Palestine
  Six weeks teaching English in a beautiful hilltop village that is threatened severely by the Israeli occupation
  
  
• Beirut Blues
  A rebuilt center and all the latest mobile phones
  
  
• Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey
  Coming Soon
  
  
  
  

  
  Travel Stories 1

  
  I traveled abroad for the first time when I studied in Moscow in the fall of 2000. In December of that year, two friends and I took the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Vladivostok. In the summer of 2001, I did atmospheric research at the Ocean University of Qingdao, China. After I graduated college, I traveled for two months in Europe. Here are a few stories and letters from those times.*

  
  
  

  Belarus and Lithuania
  Thanksgiving break with Lukashenko and Frank Zappa
  
  

  Letters from St. Petersburg, Apatity, and Murmansk
  A week in northern Russia
  
  

  Northern Baltics
  Four days of autumn in Estonia and Latvia
  
  

  Notes from Bulgaria
  Kickin' back in Sunny Beach
  
  
  

  Qufu and Tai Shan
  The holiest mountain, a rainy day, and a dumb dog
  
  

  Shanghai Part 1
  Subway, Skyscrapers, Xiaolongbao dumplings
  
  

  Shanghai Part 2
  The Jade Buddha, The Sex Museum, Clubbing (with mixed success)
  
  

  Beijing
  A beautiful day and an unexpected encounter
  
  
  

  Europe
  France, Spain, Switzerland, Croatia, and Italy

  
  
  
  

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*Please do not copy or reprint any of these writings without my consent. My address is pamolson02@yahoo.com if you would like to contact me. Thanks!