Final Thoughts on Russia

The Church or Christ The Redeemer

Back from Russia now and after a very tiring journey home including a nightmare stop off in Munich, I will no longer listen to people saying the UK is inefficient after being told at Munich that we had to hurry to our departure gate for our connecting flight to Heathrow we had our passports checked twice and then had to go through security – Even scanning the soles of my feet with a metal detector, when I was barefoot – and get our bags scanned, seemed like a lot of security as we were never actually going to be landside of security. Only to get to the gate and find there was a two hour delay on the flight. Needless to say we were not best pleased, particularly as we had no Euros eventually we got onto the flight and added Lufthansa to the list of airlines I will never fly with again (Not a massive list, just Lufthansa and Easy Jet to be honest.) Anyway, Trouble getting back to the UK aside I wanted to write a quick summery of our Russian adventure focusing more on the experience than what we actually did (On the final day our visit to the heart of Moscow was at the same time as the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister so it was a bit of a wasted day as everything was shut down pretty tight, but we walked around and enjoyed the relatively police free areas away from the Kremlin. If I had to pick five words to sum up the holiday they would be; Cold, Rude, Intimidating, Pricey and frustrating – I understand that these may not seem like very glowing words and I would agree, Russia is not for the casual tourist, I would recommend going to Prague first and getting around without using any English as a way to break you in slowly. But to fill in a bit more detail: Cold – Speaks for itself, it was -10 everyday we were there and there was constant heavy snowfalls, This was not too much of a problem when in the centre of Moscow but the walk to/from the Metro station was often a killer after a long day – Try to visit in Summer or stay next to a metro station. Rude – When I say rude I mean more as a generalisation rather than for individuals, Pretty much all of the individual Russians I was actually able to talk to were friendly, some would simply blank you when they heard English but the others would happily struggle through a bit of conversation in half English half Russian (My only contribution to the Russian part was Spasiba (Thank You) and Niet (No)) However the problem is that I am particularly obsessed with manners even for an Englishman and so the Russian approach was a severe culture shock, If you were to queue up in Russia you would soon find yourself at the front of one of several queues as the Russians would start to queue either side and slowly push you out of the way. Intimidating – This is the police rather than anything else, We were told that the Police supplement their income by fining tourists and as a result we went out of our way to avoid them, or looking like tourists, annoyingly this means I can not confirm this piece of advise for myself as we did not speak to a policeman at any point whilst we were there. People in Uniform however were everywhere and the stress of trying to not look like tourists was quite draining, it really made me appreciate the UK Police who I am very confident would gladly help a lost tourist if needed – obviously if they weren’t busy chasing criminals. In fact at any time when I was younger and needed help I always sought out a policeman and was rarely disappointed, so it was a real struggle to get out of this way of thinking. Pricey – The Pricing issue was an incredible juxtaposition of the very cheap and the very expensive, it seemed to work mostly along class lines where if it was used by the ordinary Muscovites or a necessity (or was handmade) it was very cheap, if it was for the very well off or imported then it was very expensive. Vodka was less than a £1 a litre where as Mineral Water was up to £3, you could pick up a packet of cigarettes for £0.30 but Strawberries would set you back £30 (for about £2 worth in the UK.) Perhaps the most telling example of how people were cheaper then goods an advert for a Lap Dancing Club advertised Lap Dances for 50 Roubles or £1.10, these went up through a Private Dance (£8) up to a VIP Dance for £11 I dread to imagine what that involves. For the most part though everything cost as much if not more than in other world cities so if you are going (Unless it is on a Stag Night) take lots of cash. Frustrating – The frustration was mainly caused as I am very keen on photographing architecture and Russia has a lot of wonderful buildings combining old churches (Both original and reconstruction) with very ambitious Soviet building projects and minimalist design blocks – however not being able to be seen as tourists and the fact that many of the buildings are illegal to photograph (And unless you can speak Russian it can be very hard to know if you are outside a hotel or a government building) I missed out on hundreds of good shots that I would have happily taken if I had been back in London.