This 91 Year Granny Has Lived All Your Travel Dreams One Country at a Time

Meet this 91-year-old Babushka (simple granny) from Russia who has proven to the world that it is never too late to chase your dreams. Elena Erkhova, known as Baba Lena, from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk has travelled all across the globe.

This 91-year-old has travelled and documented her journey to places that all of us millennials dream of. Baba Lena, unfortunately, passed away at the ripe age of 91 years, but even from "the beyond" she has not stopped inspiring people. Her Facebook page is the legacy of her adventures from different corners of the world.

The beginning of her journey

Let me remind you she wasn’t born in an ear where travel was easy and yet she managed to travel beyond the Soviet Union in her younger days. Back in the 1970s when Elena was in her 40’s she managed to travel to Prague, Poland, and East Germany, countries that were allowed as travel destinations outside of the Soviet Union.

But travel is never cheap and her dreams were cut short due to the lack of money until she turned 83. One fine day her friends questioned her why doesn’t start travelling again now that she had the resources. This made Lena chase her dreams once again and complete her bucket list one country at a time.

How did she manage to do it?

Elena’s determination was now unstoppable. She used her saved-up pension money and money from selling flowers and knitted goods. With this, she managed to visit many places around Russia, e.g., the Republic of Tuva, Novosibirsk, Mount Elbrus, and Moscow, as well as places outside Russia, like Germany, Thailand, Tenerife (Spain), Italy, Vietnam, and many more.

How did the journey go?

Most of her travel included sightseeing in the new cities and meeting new people. But if you see her page, you will realise that Elena wasn’t afraid to explore the unknown. She can be seen riding a camel in Israel or a motorcycle in Vietnam like the true badass that she is.

It was during one of her travels that she met a fellow Russian named Ekaterina Papina. Papina shared a picture of her encounter with Lena and the picture managed to go viral online, receiving over 14,000 shares on Facebook.

Since then, her grandson set up her social media pages to document her travels. Unfortunately, when grandma Lena passed away due to cancer her youtube and Instagram pages were emptied leaving her Facebook page as the memorial.

As the quote goes "every individual has their clock, and we all achieve things according to it". Lena’s clock re-clicked at 83 and she heard the tick. She found her calling eight years before passing away. she did not think twice about her age before kayaking in the lakes of Mongolia or jumping in the pool of Tenerife. She is a true story of inspiration as to what humans can achieve when we set our minds to it and age is just a number. She is inspiring people all around the world and her legacy lives on. Not such a simple Babushka, is she?

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