Naryan-Mar

I can think of one reason of visiting; Naryan-Mar’s sailing club is the only organization allowed to sail to Novaya Zemlya. If you could somehow join it and sail with them to Novaya Zemlya you’d be one of extremely few people that have been to those northern islands.

Otherwise Naryan-Mar is basically as far east as you can get by a sailboat in Europe.. At least it’s the most easterly port open without special permission.

Ok.. I’ll say it’s worth visiting because it is kinda interesting but I have a feeling if you’ve been to a couple of these kind of towns you soon stop to find them much fun..

There isn’t much to see except the half run down place itself.. but I kinda like the aesthetics of such places. There is even less to do. But the local minister of tourism and sports was very entusiastic about a new gym and sauna they had there. He was a strong-man himself you know! (he was happy to tell us)

The only road to the town leads to absolutely nowhere. We went there… it was kind of funny. Still wonder about the tourism part of his job.. We made the front page of the local paper for being crazy enough to visit!