August 18, 2020 Arriving at Ulan-Ude station at 6:30 in the morning, I was returning to familiar territory. I had flown to this city with a girlfriend (an American) during the first week of January 2019. In a way, it was sad to return there alone, as I had such fond memories of traveling there with her. Yet I had connected with the city of Ulan-Ude in a special way. It was the first city I visited outside of Moscow. Not St. Petersburg, not Volgograd, not any of the charming and archetypically Russian cities on the Golden Ring, but Ulan-Ude, the far-away and sunny capital of one of Russia's most distant and unique republics. The Selenge River outside of the city From the train station I took a taxi to the same hotel where I had stayed before. At the hotel there was also a restaurant, where I had eaten before, featuring local Buryat cuisine- in my opinion, among the tastiest in the world. The food is heavy, hearty, and reflective of the animal-bas...