Inspiring Travel Writing from Vitali Vitaliev
Vital Vitaliev was born in 1954 in Ukraine. A repressed Europhile with fluent English, he was working as a journalist in Moscow when he appeared as Clive James's "Moscow Correspondent" on Saturday Night Clive. In 1991, he and his family "defected", moving first to London, then taking up residence and citizenship in Australia. After a few years he returned to London.
He has worked as a journalist in the former Soviet Union, Australia and the UK and writes regularly for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. To the latter he has recently contributed a regular column, 'Vitali Vitaliev's America'.
He has made several television documentaries for Channel 4, ABC and the BBC, including My Friend Little Ben (1990) and The Train To Freedom for the Channel 4 series, Travels With My Camera (1994). He has appeared a guest on the BBC's Have I Got News for You and has featured regularly in Europe Direct, BBC World's magazine programme on weekday evenings. He has two travel books out, Vitali’s Ireland and Passport to Enclavia.
Vitali currently lives in Hertfordshire where he is Features Editor of "E & T" magazine. Vitali is a Nieman Fellow in Journalism (Harvard University) and has been shortlisted for PPA UK Columnist of the Year Award in 2009.
Vitali's latest book, Life as a Literary Device: A Writer's Manual of Survival, is available in bookshops and online.
Articles by Vitali Vitaliev
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Gibraltar
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Gibraltar
"Last Shop in Europe. Much Cheapness!" ran a tattered sign above the entrance to a tacky souvenir store-cum-cafe at the very edge of Europa Point in Gibraltar - the only place in Europe, from where in good weather one can see the coast of Africa 11...
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Perfect Day
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Greece
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Mainland Greece
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Mount Athos
At sunrise, I would be on Mount Athos, a self-governing republic of Orthodox monks in Northern Greece, where I once had an unforgettable sun-worshipping experience. To say that my Greek guide, who accompanied me on that particular pilgrimage to the...
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Falkland Islands
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Falkland Islands
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East Falkland
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Stanley
At RAF Mount Pleasant, the Falkland Islands' ‘international airport’, the passengers of our Ministry of Defence flight RR3200 were welcomed by blazing summer sunlight and by two unemotional bomb-disposal experts, a Sergeant and a Corporal. In the...
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Brighton Beach
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Vitali Vitaliev
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United States
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New York State
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New York
The Russian network of modern New York is as thick and branchy as a Siberian fir-tree. It incorporates more than fifty newspapers in American-accented Russian (for those who haven't quite learnt English yet) and one in Russian-accented English (for...
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Around the World by Private Jet
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Thailand
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The North
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Chiang Mai
''The slower you move, the farther you get" (old Russian Proverb).‘For Monks Only’ ran a peremptory sign above the only row of empty seats in the Domestic terminal of Bangkok airport, where I was shifting from one foot to the other...
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'Bruderscaft' Sneezing in Budapest
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Hungary
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Budapest Region
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Budapest
“Ah-tishoo!” I was woken by my own sneeze and realised, with horror, that I had the flu. I looked out of the window. It was early morning. My train - “Pannonia Express” - was stationary. A sign with a frightening word “...
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Cologne for the Weekend
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Germany
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North Rhine-Westphalia
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Cologne
Autumn is perfect for visiting Cologne. It is the best season for unhurried strolls in the Old Town or along the Rhine, for exploring the city’s numerous museums -- far less crowded than in summer - and for sipping beer in a traditional...
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Weekending - Shannon Region
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Ireland
Why go? With no linguistic and immigration barriers and few cultural differences with Britain, Ireland can be called “near-abroad” - a country where British visitors are bound to feel almost at home. County Clare and the Shannon Region...
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Livigno
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Italy
Livigno, located high in the Retiche Alps, between the valleys of Valtellina and Engadina, is officially part of the Danube Basin economic area, which is hundreds of miles away, and as such enjoys the right of free mooring in the Black Sea ports -...
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A nip across the Border
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Vitali Vitaliev
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Mexico
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Central Mexico
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Mexico City
"A Day in Mexico" is one of my favourite chapters in "Little Golden America" - a quirky and insightful travel book by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, two Russian scribes who criss-crossed the USA in 1935-36. As it transpires from the chapter's title,...