So, meet Elena Erkhova, a 91-year-old lady from the Siberian City of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. She seems to have always been an avid traveler, and back when the Soviet Union was around, the people did have a lot of opportunities for travel, albeit in a more closed environment. But hey, the union was gigantic.
Back in the 1970s, when she was in her 40s, Lena had a chance to travel to Prague, Poland, and East Germany—some of the countries that were allowed as travel destinations outside of the Soviet Union.
But travel was never cheap, and her journeys were cut short due to the fact that she didn’t have the time or the money to do any of it... until she turned 83, when her passion for travel was rejuvenated and she decided she once again wanted to see more of the world.
In an interview with Ananova, Lena said that her friends had asked her why never traveled. She had the money at that point, after all. And she thought to herself, “well, why not?”
Lena used to save up money from her pension as well as selling flowers and knitted goods. And this worked for her to be able to travel to places you wouldn’t expect a 91-year-old on a Russian pension to travel to.
Locations include many places around Russia, e.g. Republic of Tuva, Novosibirsk, Mount Elbrus, and Moscow, as well as places outside Russia, like Germany, Thailand, Tenerife (Spain), Italy, Vietnam, and many more.
During her travels, she wasn’t afraid to take part in a variety of activities. For the most part, it was sightseeing and visiting truly spectacular places, but she is also seen riding a camel in Israel or a motorcycle in Vietnam—Vietnam style—going rafting, partaking in cultural endeavours and celebrations, and more.
During one of her travels, she met a fellow Russian named Ekaterina Papina. Papina shared a picture of her encounter with Lena—who, by the way, always traveled alone, making it all even more amazing—and the picture managed to go viral online, receiving over 14,000 shares on Facebook.
Since then, her grandson created a social media presence for Lena and started documenting her travels on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Unfortunately, Grandma Lena passed away from cancer back in 2019, and her YouTube and Instagram were emptied out. Only her Facebook account still stands as a memorial and legacy of her travels.
And her legacy lives on. We’re still talking about it, but many other news outlets have done that too. To date, the elderly lady had over 8,000 followers on Facebook, over 5,000 followers on Instagram, and over 750 subscribers on YouTube, though these numbers could have been greater back when she was alive and people simply withdrew from these particular pages as they became empty.
For Russian speakers, there is a video—a documentary, more specifically—about Baba Lena called How To Travel At 90? — Babushka Lena, detailing her travels and experiences during them.