Women's Travel Blogs

There are some wonderful travel blogs out there written by men, such as www.nomadicmatt.com and the frugal traveller blog of the New York Times written by Seth Kugel, but I especially enjoy travel blogs written by women.

Recently I came across another very good one, http://kurdistandiary.blogspot.com, written by a young woman who is multilingual and enjoys travelling and often hitchhiking in remote parts of the Muslim world. That strikes me as a pretty dangerous way to go, but she writes about it in a most interesting way. Actually, when I was in Jordan about a decade ago I met a middle-aged woman from Ekaterineburg, Russia who was also hitching through the Middle East, and seemed to really be enjoying it.

I learned about this blogger because she was hitching for a while with another blogger I like, the British author of http://agirlandherthumb.com. This latter traveller and blogger has recently spent four months in Yerevan, Armenia and has also voyaged extensively in Turkey, Iran and Central Asia. Her blog includes a lot of great pictures, while that of her friend is more text-heavy. Both make great reading for the armchair traveller.

I have never hitchhiked myself, though I did once accept a ride on a country road in County Donegal, Ireland when a young couple offered me help in a the kind of downpour the Irish call "mist,"  I have also used the gypsy cab system in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Another blog I like to read occasionally is not strictly a travel blog, but is a very insightful account of the joys and travails of living in St. Petersburg. It is www.lizinstpete.blogspot.com, written by a young American woman who moved there several years ago. She is a committed Christian who has taught English and worked in orphanages, and has become a wife and mother. She married a Russian man she met through her church, and now has a very young son. She recounts the difficulties of raising a child in a small Russian apartment and dealing with local bureaucracy,as well as the fun of life with her new family and friends in one of the world's most beautiful cities.