How Mark Twain Was the World's First Travel Blogger: Scandalous Notes on a Journey to Odessa and Yalta

Mark Twain became renowned as a master of irony and a keen observer of human foibles, but few know that he was one of the world's first travel bloggers. His 1867 journey through Europe and the Middle East turned into a series of sharp, sometimes scandalous sketches that were read with rapture across America. Particularly vivid and memorable were the writer's impressions of Odessa and Yalta—cities Twain described with his characteristic audacity, humor, and ruthless honesty. What did the southern borders of the Russian Empire look like through the eyes of a man capable of infuriating entire nations with a single paragraph?

On August 25, 1867, a young American journalist named Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a man the world didn't yet know as Mark Twain, disembarked at the Odessa coal port. The steamship Quaker City carried him and a group of wealthy compatriots on a grand tour of the Old World and the Middle East. At the time, he was just a 31-year-old wit, reporter, and adventurer.

In 1869, Clemens published his travel notes under the title "The Innocents Abroad." It was this book that launched the great writer's worldwide fame. He described all the cities he visited during the cruise: Gibraltar, Marseille, Paris, Genoa, Athens, and Constantinople. He also included the cities of the Russian Empire—Sevastopol, Yalta, and Odessa.

The then-little-known reporter got on board thanks to generous advances from two major American publications, the Alta California and the New York Tribune. The newspapers paid for his passage in exchange for a series of essays about his experiences abroad. The risk was considerable: the cost of the trip at the time was a whopping $1,250 (plus an additional $5 per day for personal expenses).

The first city in the Russian Empire along the route was Sevastopol. Twain wrote of the city, still in ruins after the Crimean War:

The overseas guests couldn't resist collecting souvenirs. Fortunately, there was plenty of them, lying right underfoot. The ship quickly filled with cannonballs, bayonets, ramrods, shrapnel fragments, and other gruesome finds from Malakhov Kurgan, Balaklava, and Inkerman. After this, the steamship was forced to call at Odessa to replenish its coal supplies.

Odessa wasn't originally on the itinerary, but fate decreed otherwise. The captain realized his coal supply was critically low, so the Quaker City called at the Odessa port. The passengers happily took the opportunity to disembark. They strolled along the Boulevard Stairs, visited the Vorontsov Palace, strolled along Nikolaevsky Boulevard, and were enchanted by the distinctive southern atmosphere of the bustling trading city.

"The Pearl by the Sea" was especially beloved by Mark Twain. He sincerely admired the city and its people, calling Odessa "the most American city in the world." He wrote that he felt at home there, as if he had never left the United States:

There were moments that slightly unsettled Twain. As soon as he set foot in Odessa, he saw a ragged tramp and declared to his companions, "I'll eat my shoe if this gentleman speaks English!" The tramp promptly responded in perfect English and offered to bet him five dollars. He posed a riddle: "What's the best part of a shoe if you have to eat it?" The answer was "the holes." Twain guessed wrong and forked over his money.

At the very first souvenir shop he was ripped off again: they sold him an excellent camera and 10 plates, of which only three were compatible with the camera.

Another meeting awaited the Americans at the monument to the Duke de Richelieu. A distinguished-looking man strolled along in a perfectly polished, buttoned-up tunic. With the help of a translator, he told a touching story about the "great Cardinal Richelieu," who supposedly founded Odessa, poured his heart and fortune into it, and then died in poverty in Crimea. Twain, who had recently seen the cardinal's actual tomb at the Sorbonne, listened with a smile and then paid another $5 for the "heart-rending tale."

After this, Twain decided to keep his ears open. And for good reason: on Deribasovskaya Street, he was offered a "unique antique violin" complete with a "barely worn" fur coat and "genuine Havana cigars" made in Odessa.

Leaving bustling Odessa, the steamship set course for Yalta. Back then, it was a small resort town, and Twain initially called it simply a "village." But he was delighted by the scenery:

There was no time for boredom, however: the guests were unexpectedly received by Emperor Alexander II himself at his Crimean residence. The meeting took place in the garden of the Livadia Palace. The Tsar gave a short speech about Russian-American friendship, after which the royal couple chatted informally with the Americans in English for half an hour, before allowing them to tour the palace. Twain couldn't resist his trademark irony:

The Americans soon returned aboard the Quaker City and set course for Constantinople. Ahead lay the Middle East, Egypt, and the long journey home. Twain returned to New York on November 19, 1867.

The voyage lasted five months. Twain himself, who subsequently traveled the world, always considered this cruise the most exciting and eventful of his life. Two years later, The Innocents Abroad was published, instantly becoming a bestseller and making the author famous.

Today, rereading Twain's notes about Odessa "divorces," Yalta landscapes, and an unexpected audience with the emperor, you realize: these aren't just travel essays. They're a vivid, poignant, and incredibly honest portrait of an era through the eyes of a man who could see the humor in even the most serious things. Which modern travel blogger do you think could match Mark Twain's ability to spot the absurd and tell it in a way that makes the whole world laugh?