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Just got back from Moscow. What a blast. It was everything I expected and more. One day it’s not going to work out that way. I always set off with romantic notions of a place – in a travel sense – and luckily everywhere I have been so far has delivered.
A few things I learned from this trip:
1) I gotta learn me some Russian. Even if it’s just the Cyrillic alphabet and a few basic phrases.
2) Trying to blog every day is a nightmare. Finding an internet cafe, writing and uploading pics ends up taking over your trip. When I set off the big Russian trip later in the year I think I’ll keep it to a weekly missive.
While I’m on about the blog, keep visiting the Babuskastan site. I’m going to be adding new entries about the trip to Moscow even though I’m back.
Still to come: My adventures with a taxi driver with Tourettes. And a meal in a strip club.
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Cyrillic is definitely something you wanna learn. It’s not that hard, and once you’ve got it you can read and say _anything_ you see written, and more or less correctly. It’s wonderfully phonetic.
And yeah, don’t be blogging every day. If you’re gonna spend a lot of time in one country, perhaps you could moblog from a camera phone?
Welcome back! Have enjoyed following the Babushkastan blog and am looking forward to following the “big trip”!
And can I just make a request.
When you go on your trip around the former Soviet Union, could you include The Price Of A Pint section. It could be the benchmark of pricing around these places and therefore will be of economic value to your more discerning readers.
Blogging every day is a total pain even in the comfort of your own home.
No point spending time in an Internet cafe blogging every day, we’d much rather you were busy getting out and about!
Loved the Babushkastan site. The story about the meal in the strip-club was really funny.
By the way, Peter, how did you find Russian service, that you were so impressed by, judging by one of your blog posts?
Did they live up to your standards?
Hey Natalia,
The service was fine – if a little unexpected at times!
I was particularly impressed by the babushkas manning the turnstyles on the Metro. One put her body on the line to block a drunk guy getting through without paying. She blocked his path shouting ‘Nyet! Nyet!’. She scared me and I had a valid ticket!
Hi Peter,
Good to hear that
I personally still miss how I was treated in shops in Sydney – big difference with what I get here, in Russia. Although, you are a foreigner, so they might have allowed for that..;-)
As for the бабушка in the subway strory.. O! That’s what they do and love doing the most! To tell s/o “you can’t do that” or “it is not allowed” is the only way they can feel important, so they use every chance they get to excercise that right. Why does not security do that, you might ask? Cause they are bloody always have better things to do like “watch out for terrorists”.. That’s everywhere in this country – who cares about dealing with minute everyday things when there are still so many people starve in Africa