About

About me

My name is Arjan Mook. I’m Dutch, born in 1988, and I lived in Moscow with my Irish wife Nicole in 2018 and 2019. I have visited over 70 countries, many of them solo. Since I believe that the former Soviet States deserve more information in English, I started writing about travel in the former Soviet Union. Currently I live in The Hague, and write about backpacking the Causasus Mountains and the Silk Road, including Turkey. As well as Russian I took Turkish classes to prepare for my travels.

Why this website?

I have a passion for travel. This passion is shared by many, as you can tell by the enormous amount of travel stories in the media and online. It made me once think that every place was written about - at least in English and maybe even in Dutch. But then I moved to Moscow.

I found many beautiful and interesting destinations in Russia and its neighbouring countries that are barely or not at all covered in English. Luckily enough, I had a lot of time to travel, allowing me to explore the country. That’s when I decided to make The Baltican. It was out of passion for travel: no one paid me to write this, so it fully shows my own experiences and opinions.

Why the name “The Baltican”?

I needed a name that would be unique, sounds good and match the region I travelled in. Baltica is a paleo continent covering parts of what is now Eastern Europe and Russia. Baltika is also a Russian beer, and the Baltic States are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Out of these words I came up with The Baltican.