Travel Russia

[Dirty Bird]

I'm just wondering if anyone here had done it before.
And what sort of stories (positive and/or negative) you might have of Russia.

I've just about got all my plans for a trip at the end of this year set in place. Just need to pay deposits probably in about 21 hours. (~5pm Adelaide time tomorrow)

What I'm looking at is.

Dec 2 - Adelaide ---> Melbourne --->
Dec 3 - ---> Hong Kong ---> Beijing
Dec 4-21 - Trans-Siberian tour including Beijing, The Great Wall, Mongolian Ger Camps, Lake Baikal, Yekatarinburg, before finishing up in Moscow (but doing nothing there).
Dec 22 - Moscow ---> St Petersburg
Dec 23 - St Petersburg
Dec 24-Jan 1 - Tour from St Petersburg to Moscow, including Novogorod. (Christmas - St Petersburg, New Years - Red Square, Moscow)
Jan 1 - Moscow ---> Dubai
Jan 2-Jan 4 - Dubai (with a day tour), then Dubai --->
Jan 5- ---> Perth ---> Adelaide

 

[Lazarus]

There are better places to go

 

[centrelink1]

Go for the world cup. Would be awesome.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Go for the world cup. Would be awesome.

I'm considering doing that too. Do trans siberian in the winter, and then in the summer in 2018. Highly tempting. But it'll come down to other commitments in 2018. I can not forsee what my future will turn out like.

 

[Ross Prunster]

Awesome place Russia. Was there for about 10 days 10 years ago. Contrasts re standards of food, prices of drinks, etc were amazing. Not a huge lover of the arts, but one of the best nights i've ever had was a perfromance of cossack dancing/entertainment in St Petersburg. Wild nightclubs in Moscow and St Petersburg, warned not to go to a couple in Moscow re gang wars, moscow circus was incredible - animal activists certainly did not have a voice in Russia back then; having a mafia escort on the tour bus, back alley visits to dodgy CD stores - $1US a cd, hookers trying to break in to the room at St Petersburg, hiring a band for $30 in Smolnsk while paying 30c for a vodka and lemonade, getting called a 'typical f###### Aussie' for not buying crap of a street seller, spat on by demonstrating geriatric communists, great beer, shit beer, hot women in St Petersburg, hotel overlooking red square, arbat street, jet fighter/tank/attillary museum in Moscow, monuments to war heroes all over the countryside. Go to Russia - great place,

 

[Dont be a lemon]

[YOUTUBE]f7JoWoUkceQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Copernicus]

Would love to go, if I were single, simply because I have a good friend there and the Russian women are ridiculous.

Good luck, remember your itinerary is for winter and it is ****ing cold there. St Pete hasn't been above freezing for months.

 

[Papa G]

Awesome place Russia. Was there for about 10 days 10 years ago. Contrasts re standards of food, prices of drinks, etc were amazing. Not a huge lover of the arts, but one of the best nights i've ever had was a perfromance of cossack dancing/entertainment in St Petersburg. Wild nightclubs in Moscow and St Petersburg, warned not to go to a couple in Moscow re gang wars, moscow circus was incredible - animal activists certainly did not have a voice in Russia back then; having a mafia escort on the tour bus, back alley visits to dodgy CD stores - $1US a cd, hookers trying to break in to the room at St Petersburg, hiring a band for $30 in Smolnsk while paying 30c for a vodka and lemonade, getting called a 'typical f###### Aussie' for not buying crap of a street seller, spat on by demonstrating geriatric communists, great beer, shit beer, hot women in St Petersburg, hotel overlooking red square, arbat street, jet fighter/tank/attillary museum in Moscow, monuments to war heroes all over the countryside. Go to Russia - great place,

My wife nearly started crying when the bears came out, at first she thought they were people in costume. The Circus was awesome though. Best I've ever seen. Will concur with quite a few things in this post, although on the CD's, they weren't back alley, they were on the high street. Best looking women in the world in St Petersburg. The Moscow underground is amazing (sans bombs), but you'll get into trouble if you take photos.

 

[Partridge]

Would love to go, if I were single, simply because I have a good friend there and the Russian women are ridiculous.

Good luck, remember your itinerary is for winter and it is ****ing cold there. St Pete hasn't been above freezing for months.

Russia is fantastic. I went there about 11 years ago. Absolutely loved the place. Novgorod is on the small side, but it's there for historical value, but St.Petersburg and Moscow are brilliant. Both very different too.

Couldn't recommend it highly enough. And yes, the women are incredibly hot.

 

[raskolnikov]

I lived in Moscow for four years. Fantastic city. Would go back in a heartbeat if the wages were better. You really need to spend more time in Moscow. After four years I still felt like there were parts of it that I hadn't seen.

 

[100action]

Although the media tends to blow the issue way out of proportion if you are non-white or defiling the white race by being in a interracial relationship (if you're bringing along a woman of exotic species) then it would be best to avoid isolated and dodgy places. Ask around and encompass such details in your research, should be much better now than it was 5-10 years ago due to antifa pressure on police and what not, reading around many coloured people inhabiting Moscow claim to not have seen skinheads in years.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Everything is booked. The major stuff I want to see in each destinations are just about all covered. Just 1 or 2 things in Dubai I'll have to see myself. But everything in Russia is planned

 

[bradrowe#32]

The Moscow underground is amazing (sans bombs), but you'll get into trouble if you take photos.

What's all this about then?

 

[PieBeast]

Best time to visit St Petersburg is in June, you'll get to experience the white nights. The nights are almost as bright as days during this period due to some sun descend anomaly, highly recommended.
And if you're even slightly arts inclined do not leave this place without visiting the Hermitage Museum, which is full of of weird and wonderful historic European artifacts.

Oh and post pics of your conquests.

 

[Scootyb]

thread needs pics of russian beauties

 

[Copernicus]

Google images

 

[Twist_of_Lemon]

Say Привет for me.

My girlfriend is often saying she wants to go back to live in St. Petersburg. Seems to be finding it hard to adjust to Australia.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Say Привет for me.

which one of these is that
Privet
Lrivet
Privyet
Lrivyet
Preevet
Lreevet
Preevyet
Lreevyet


If my memory is correct, Lrivyet is what it is. But I want confirmation

also, trying to learn the language at the moment, you can see I can read it, but I don't know what it means, I havn't gotten to that stage of the language yet. Anyway, what does that mean?

 

[Twist_of_Lemon]

Yes, it is privet.

 

[mdc]

also, trying to learn the language at the moment?

Unless you're fluent in another Slavic language (i.e. Polish or Serbian or similar) you're probably wasting you're time. And unlike some of the friendly West European folk, the Russians will be unlikely to appreciate your slow, incomprehensible attempts at speaking their language.

Although it may be useful to know "good day" - dobrii den', "goodbye" - dasvedanye and "thank you" - spasiba.

 

[Bert1]

Thought I went there once.

Turns out I didn't. Was just a local rapist park

 

[Ross Prunster]

Unless you're fluent in another Slavic language (i.e. Polish or Serbian or similar) you're probably wasting you're time. And unlike some of the friendly West European folk, the Russians will be unlikely to appreciate your slow, incomprehensible attempts at speaking their language.

Although it may be useful to know "good day" - dobrii den', "goodbye" - dasvedanye and "thank you" - spasiba.

Gave the 'dasvedanye' to the smiling matre dei as he held the door open for our group to walk out in a restaurant in St Petersburg. With the huge wide grin, he's nodded and given in the thick russian accent 'Get F*****'. Got a laugh from us.

 

[Papa Juggs]

Trans-Siberian?

 

[Copernicus]

Unless you're fluent in another Slavic language (i.e. Polish or Serbian or similar) you're probably wasting you're time. And unlike some of the friendly West European folk, the Russians will be unlikely to appreciate your slow, incomprehensible attempts at speaking their language.

Although it may be useful to know "good day" - dobrii den', "goodbye" - dasvedanye and "thank you" - spasiba.

The main stumbling block surely has to be the cyrillic language. It is very hard to wrap your head around a new and somewhat unintuitive set of characters.

 

[Ed_Gein]

Gave the 'dasvedanye' to the smiling matre dei as he held the door open for our group to walk out in a restaurant in St Petersburg. With the huge wide grin, he's nodded and given in the thick russian accent 'Get F*****'. Got a laugh from us.

Quality.

I would have laughed it off as well.