In which a retired Polish butcher explains how to live to be 100 and serenades us on his trumpet.

On borders, learning Polish, the influence of culture, and the importance of a sense of humor.

Clown horror is horrid for clowns, a ballet scandal on the silver screen, and a pack of protesting porkers. 

Two days in Irkutsk and one on Baikal, where we meet a soft-spoken mechanic and visit two very different tourist destinations.

A second post from Krasnoyarsk, where we meet a poetry-writing, rug-weaving centenarian.

How to be patriotic to a nonexistent country, get a proper education, and deal with a highway through your house. Plus buildings, bridges, and bratwursts to die for. 

Krasnoyarsk: knocking down stereotypes about Siberia and meeting a centenarian who will not be stopped.

On the importance of coffee, academicians, a museum, a rooster, the harvesting of turf, and collectivization.

Burger King makes money (its own), broke taxi passengers turn green, and summertime snow. Plus, a ballerina with a backup plan, Borodino, and the Museum of Death. 

A train ride, a war hero, sunflower fields, and the Loch Ness monster - just another day on the road for the Children of 1917 team.

In which we move east to Samara, on the Volga River, and meet two centenarians living alone in very different ways.

Elections are the new dinner and a movie. Plus, Moscow's heading east, rap battles get a bad rap, and pickles and melons galore.