Fear of bribery, monotony and the similarity of the visited countries have proven not to be real. My expectations were low, so I was positively surprised. Most of days during this 4 month journey have brought something new and interesting to my life. People turned out to be very hospitable, helpful and smiling - Russian language was very important and helped to break “the ice” quickly. Local people have some sort of sentiment to Poles - probably because of common former socialist system. People like similarity, it was our advantage over the Western tourists.
I am not an expert in churches, tombs, monuments and so on, but the cave monastery in Vardzia, Caucasus castles, hidden churches in the Armenian mountains, tilework wonders of Persia, the atmosphere and architecture of the old Silk Road cities, tombs of Samarkand, etc. left the unbelievable impression on me. And could I forget about the nature? Just to mention a wild Caucasus views, incredible originality of Ka-Lut Desert, size and wildness of the Pamirs, turquoise lakes of Tian-Shan or Charyn Canyon sand formations. Although geographically I have been in Asia, the culture and style of the former Soviet republics states made me feel the unique mixed Asian-European atmosphere. It is also amazing how low is level of commercialization of these areas - we should hurry up to visit it, before the locals will discover that tourists are to be served, not to be helped.