Get creative
Organize your art supplies and get painting! Pick a particular location you’ll visit on your trip, and compare your artwork to photos of the location when you return. Consider painting St. Basil’s Cathedral, Ivan the Great Bell Tower, or the Peterhof Palace and Gardens.
Not a painter? Check out these virtual tours of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Hermitage Museum and Galleries.
Pick a film
Watch a movie that relates to your destination. Some ideas for Russia include:
- War and Peace (1956)
- Dr. Zhivago (1965)
- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
- The Bridge of Spies (2015)
Study some history
Dive deep into the history of specific sites you’ll visit on tour. Study the Russian Revolution of 1917, the lives of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, or Peter the Great and his reign. Then, examine the Cold War and the fall of communism in 1989. The space race is always fascinating!
Choose a book
Read and discuss a book that takes place in your destination or describes the local culture. Pick from titles like:
- The Russians by Hedrick Smith
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia by Anne Garrels
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Fill up your plate
Arrange a potluck and encourage your friends to bring a traditional dish from your destination. Know a chef? Hold a cooking class with your travel group, or consider a group outing to a restaurant that offers your destination’s cuisine. Try blini (Russian crepes), pelmeni (fish dumplings), borscht (beet soup), herring under a fur coat (a layered pickled herring salad), or pirog (stuffed pie).
Learn the language
Call up a friend and practice your language skills. It helps to make flashcards with common sayings to use on the phone or throughout your travels (think about ordering at restaurants, buying souvenirs, and chatting with locals).
Did you know?
Russia is located across nine time zones and has the largest McDonald’s in the world!