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Vladimir27
Frequent Guest
Joined: 04 Mar 2004
Posts: 11
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 Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:03 pm Post subject: My Moscow Visit |
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A number of past-visit observations, arriving on Sept 8th:
The City is absolutelly magnificent. All of you Moscowites should be very proud of your city. It is to my liking - very clean, flowers everywhere, and very easy to get around, either Metro or buses. So much to see, from the Red Square and
Kreml, to Museums, Churches, Arbat and up to the Park Pobedy.
One item to remember for the future travelers: I hope you will have a better luck with your Travel Agency. For starters, no "Optima" TA. Their NYC Office, proved to be next to useless. My hotel in Moscow and St. Petersburg were way out of city proper and I've lost numerous hours in transportation from and to hotel.
Othe then that, for my first time in Russia, I was just overwhelmed, with nice people, so much to see and oh yes, the Bolshoy with an opera in three acts called Khovanschina!
Thanks to all of you! |
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uday
WayToRussified
Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 323
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| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 12:25 am Post subject: |
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I just came back too, and share many of the same thoughts.
Moscow was very nice and clean, the metro system is amazing and the nightlife wild.
The tourist agency was useless in my case also, they would not register me visa, so I never bothered with it.
I must disagree about the people being 'nice' however. In russia I encountered the most rude and uncivilized bunch ever... mind you, I did meet some (not many) great people, but by and large they were rude and tended to have a certain disdain for foreigners (more so in St P than in Moscow) |
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Vladimir27
Frequent Guest
Joined: 04 Mar 2004
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:56 pm Post subject: My Moscow visit |
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Udey, you are right on the money!
My remark about nice people had to do with my Russian.
I speak fluently and this changed the whole picture. I would not know, how to get around there without the language. In fact, it did pissed me off, to note in
St Petersburg, that the foraigners were charged for the same bus excursion from three to five times more then the Russians.
I did get away with my trips, but one lady guide told me to keep quiet during the trip, because of my slight accent, since i've paid only 500 rubles instead of 2000!
Still, all in all, if I had the money, I'd go back there in a heartbeat! |
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uday
WayToRussified
Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 323
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| Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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Yes in hindsight I really wish I would have taken a course and learned more of the language.... those 'teach yourself russian' books didn't help me at all! In fact, my poor attempts at speaking it seemed to offend people more than anything.
It was funny because I tried to get a ticket from Novgorod to Moscow, and I asked the price of 5 different cashiers and got 5 different prices! None cheaper than 2000 rubles, which I know is incredibly high (and this is for platzcart). So I asked my russian friend to come with me, and he got the ticket for something like 300 rubles! I love it how they try to rip foreigners off.
But in all, I loved my experience there and would also go back in a second. |
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