Day 30 - Summary

Instead of a long summary of what happened during this trip and what is the taste that this country left to me (and the rest of the group), I chose to compile a list with the TOP 5 best and worst things about Russia.


The 5 Best things:

1. Women - http://www.geometria.ru (enough said)
   
2. People's hospitality - Extremely warm and hospitable. Who will forget Vasily and Alicia, Vladimir, all our business colleagues, the chef at the company's restaurant and of course Alexander the Great ... taxi driver! :-)
   
3. Food (during the first week) - Everybody was impressed by the soups. Some of us even found the recipes on-line.
4. St. Petersburg- a big Russian city with the feeling of a European capital. Beautiful buildings, restaurants and great partying!
5. History - You learn so much for the past, you understand so much from the present and you can predict a little bit of the future (all clauses apply for Russia and for other countries as well)
   

The 5 Worst things:

1. Service - Delivering food on time, smiling and being polite probably costs extra in Russian restaurants.
   
2. Means of transport - Check previous post.
   
3. Food (during the last week) - OK, soups are great. But after 10, 15, 20 days in a row then you want to eat something more solid (like a steak maybe?)
   
4. Buildings/Roads - Next to the newly built ones, there are also some which seem to be ready to collapse. Even in the city centre.
   
5. Language problems - You don't speak Russian? Learn ... or otherwise use body language. Very few (even young people) speak English.
   

Day 25 - Going around the city/country

Since distances are very big (one can even say huge) in Russia, it is very common to use the various means of transport. Even though people here enjoy walking endless distances as it seems, it is still advisable to give it a try with the various alternatives. Otherwise, get prepared to walk more than half an hour at least to go pretty much anywhere.

Subway
Big cities (like Moscow & St. Petersburg) have very big subway systems. Most of the stations are quite old and they give the impression of being abandoned but at the same time there are some rather new ones. The most impressive one in my opinion is the one in Moscow under the Liberty Park, where it takes a 2-3 minutes escalator ride to get to the top and then walk within the station until you get out on the sun light. Crowds getting jammed is part of the daily routine and the noise on the platforms seems never to end; the trains are extremely loud and it is almost impossible to say or hear anything when being in them or on the platforms. The surprising thing also is the rate that trains arrive and depart. The interval can be as low as 30 seconds from train to train and that can keep on going for a lot of time! It makes you wonder how is it possible to get jammed in the Metro, since there are so frequent routes.

Buses
Not much experience here. Just that they are not exactly very modern ones.

Local buses
Marshrutka! This is the name to remember. Small (or actually smaller than the normal ones) buses which go around the city on predetermined routes but passengers can hop on and off at any point. Very similar to the Turkish "dolmus" for those who may know. The drivers are a whole other story! Immigrants who barely know Russian (according to the Russians), speeding like if they don't drive a bus but a motorcycle and giving a whole other meaning to the word multitasking; smoking, driving and giving tickets back and forth AT THE SAME TIME! During rush hours, it is common that people will be jammed like ants and in order to pay your ticket, the money have to reach the driver hand-by-hand from person to person ... and if there are change the same thing back.

Trains
I am talking about the intercity trains here. They are quite OK actually. But since distances in Russia are huge, everything takes so much time! When sleeping in a coupe (I am not even discussing about sitting on a normal train sit), you will probably end up with complete strangers. Some might be interesting but most of them will not be able to speak English (even young people), so you will have to deal with living for 15 hours or so in a very small restricted space with strangers that you cannot communicate. Nice eh? :-)

Taxis
Now this is my favorite part!!! What is called race driver in most countries, here it is called taxi driver. I am seriously NOT joking! Apart from the fact that you can practically stop any car on the street to take you to your destination on a pre-arranged price, even the official taxis (like the ones the hotel can fix for you) are not exactly what we call taxis. For example, we daily had a small van to go to work (ok, that was a good one and Alexander could even give us receipts!!!) and another one which was different each time. Either a sport Mitsubishi Lancer or a "modded" Huyndai or some other sports car. The guys are crazy!!! Every morning it is a ride to death. And when I say that (for people who know how I drive), then you can imagine. On Friday it was just the best. Now that they know us a bit better, they had no problem playing music on the stereo system to the maximum volume, and drifting (!!!) on the road! I mean pulling the handbreak and stuff like that! I am really not lying here! After that, there is nothing that can impress me anymore with taxi drivers. I thought I have seen everything in Greece and Turkey. But these guys here are a whole other story! :-)


So, all in all, if we manage to survive the means of transport for a few more days, then I guess we'll have a lot of more things to narrate about it and Russia in general later on.

Day 21 - Weekend in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg is by far the most "European" of the Russian cities that we've seen up to now. And that's not just our opinion. Our Russian friends admit it as well. Classic-style buildings, big streets, parks and monuments, the famous fountain at the city's port, the famous Hermitage art museum (which we never found the time to visit), the spectacular Petergof (which we also didn't find the time to visit :-P) and all the small or bigger canals around the city center, gives the feeling of a rather big but at the same time stylish city. In contrary to Moscow, this city is not crazy, you don't walk around feeling constantly dirty, stressed and with noise at all times! It is almost NOT Russian! One of the few things which reminds you of its Russian origin are the hundreds of Sushi bars!!!! I know it sounds weird, but this is the new trend in Russia. Sushi places EVERYWHERE! And quite good ones actually!

But then again, you go out at night!!! Well dressed girls, limos in every block, many clubs, (kind of) cheap alcohool and party until early in the morning. After all, that is why we (me, Fred and 2 of his Swedish friends --> Micke & Stefan) didn't see much of the city in the morning. Both days (Friday & Saturday) it was a partying extravaganza (until 6:30 and 4:30 in the morning respectively). Lots of drinking (right Stefan?), lots of dancing and lots and lots of fun! I think I will need rehab (from a partying point of view I mean) after this! Nizhnyi Novgorod looks like the right place to be right now ... (since relaxation is what we need)

Photos from our trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/creep09/StPetersburg

Day 15 - A glimpse from back home

It's been only 15 days away from home (Stockholm), but we all feel a bit home sick. Therefore today we thought of doing something utterly Swedish. Like visiting IKEA ... :-)

It may not be as big as the one in Barkarby or Kungens Kurva but it certainly qualifies as a huge mall. On top of that, the IKEA owners tried a new site deployment scheme here, by building a complex called MEGA around IKEA. MEGA is in fact a shopping mall which has a lot of small or bigger shops (supermarket, electronics stores, clothes stores, etc) and a complete IKEA in its premises. The "funny" thing is that MEGA is built and owned be IKEA! So why did they do it like that ...? New idea? Adaptation to the Russian consumption culture? I have no clue ...

From our side, we tried to promote the Swedish culture and mentality and I think we did it in the best way. Check the photos for evidence:







Note: at the far end on the right, it's Vasily and his wife.

Day 14 - Weekend in Moscow

Intro: I am sorry for not posting enough, but I consider it ridiculous to post things such as: "(...) Today I took a walk and it was raining soooo much! And then I saw a dog chasing a cat! Soooo exciting! (...)".

Real thing:

Weekend in Moscow! I am gonna spare the details and instead of huge boring descriptions, I will try to be short and right to the point about the impression the Russian capital gave me.

• City: BIG, ENORMOUS, HUGE, very fast, very alive, really never sleeping, looooooots of people, loooots of traffic, dirty, NOISY, enormous areas, big parks (most of them with an entrance fee !!!), 7-lane avenues (per direction), luxurious cars, amazing historical monuments, new skyscrappers, bridges and churches, a real metropolis! Aaaah, did I mention BIG ?!
  
• People: stressed, mostly serious looking, a constant river of people getting squeezed on the subway and the streets even on weekends, lots of immigrants from the neighbouring countries, lots of tourists from the neighbouring countries, 90% of them not speaking English, not service oriented, either extremely poor or extremely rich, taking photos of themselves constantly, girls posing to their friends like if they are models (kind of ridiculous to be honest, worse than Sweden).
  
• Food: really really TASTY (like in Nizhnyi as well), fantastic soups (can't stop eating them), great snacks (piroshki, pliny, etc), soooooooo good bread, equally expensive as Stockholm usually, McDonalds-oriented attitude unfortunately (!!!)
• Women: hmmmmmmmm, let's try to be objective: most young ones close to being models, impressive bodies, tall and thin, the best part comes when they pass by you and you keep following them with your eyes (...), soooooo extremely officially-dressed all day long (heavy make up and high hills all the time), not well preserved above 40 years old though (fat and not ellegant).
• Atmosphere: this city and country still "smells" Perestroika. Even though it tries HARD to get rid of its past, it does so in an ugly way. Rushing to adapt the western culture, without having the "bases/foundations" to control an open-market environment. Therefore huge class gaps are created. New giagantic buildings/constructions are on their way and next to them homeless people sleep on the pavement. (OK, I know it happens in a lot of places, so I am not gonna reflect any further and skip the political analysis)
  

Photos showing the above can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/creep09/Moscow

Day 7 - Partying in Russia

OK, now ... how should I start?

During this weekend we all had some first-hand experience with what it means to party in Nizhnyi. I will focus on this city because I don't know how it is in Moscow or St. Petersburg ... but I will soon find out! And IMHO, it was great! Let me explain myself.

We went to a club called Milo. Our kind colleague Vasily, his wife and his friends met us there. We have booked a table so everything was kind of arranged. Right away drinks (and sushi for me and Fredrik) started coming. Tequilla, vodka, another vodka, then another, then beers, then more beers ... I think you see where this is going. The rest of the night we were all dancing non stop just like most of the people in the club. The only thing that could distract us from dancing, was getting more beers (they were not as cheap as you may think though) or the go-go girls on the stage which were dancing in a certain - not so "christian" - way, wearing the absolute necessary. Shoes (to be protected from broken glasses maybe), ear rings, make up and glossy something all over them (not to get lost in the darkness maybe ?!) and some minor, tinny, winny (I guess because it was kind of hot there) body covers (I'm not sure if you can call them clothes). As for the rest of the girls there you wouldn't call them exactly ugly (far from that), but they were more "conservative". Not that they were wearing much more of course (from what I can recall). And in case you think I am lying, here you are (if you try hard, you may find some known faces):

• Friday party: http://nnov.geometria.ru/gallery/30500
• Saturday party: http://nnov.geometria.ru/gallery/30504
  

But what happens when you have Swedish guys drinking???? As I have repeatedly said (some people here were making fun of me, but now I think they should take it back), SWEDES DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRINK! Any objections? I will spare the details and just show you the photo I took outside our hotel, when the taxi driver got us there and I had to drag 3 bodies (Freddie is not in the picture because he was "making friends" with a statue nearby). This is NOT a montage!

Next morning they did not remember ANYTHING, they were BARELY ALIVE and COMPLETELY BROKE (bye bye my dear traktamente)! So, until next time ... so long!

Day 2 - Working in Russia

In Russia people work really hard! I mean it!

But what happens when a Greek goes to Russia, where everybody seems to be workaholic? Well ... a picture is worth more than a thousands words! :-P :-P

Seriously now, after going to the premises of the company with the "high-tech", people-carrier taxi, things were not exactly "Swedish"! People starting carrying computers, changing rooms and in general doing a bit of "Agile" planning (first do, then see if it works). So when we were "advised" not to help anyone because we were the guests, the option was obvious to me. Even more, when I found these boxes of wine under my office (4 of them) things looked apparent! :-)

The most exciting part of the day though was lunch time!!! We had to walk through mad and small lakes of water (result of the morning ... and noon ... and afternoon rain) to find our way to the bus which would take us to the restaurant in the main company building 5 minutes away. Now, that was an experience. People even with suites had to fit in a mini-bus which would go through larger lakes of mud and water or even the pavement (there was a liiiiitle bit of traffic, so the driver could simply not afford waiting). After entering the building and the card-reader control, you walk 2 floors down to the basement where a restaurant of not more than 10 tables was serving different sorts of food. No need to say no one apart from our Russian colleagues was speaking English, so poor Ivan had to do the translation for all of us! The food though and the prices were descent so that was the pay-off. The other good thing was that no one was complaining about all this (one more difference with Sweden)!

In the country of big differences, things cannot always look disappointing. The hotel is GREAT, the rooms are GREAT, the 8th floor EVEN GREATER (me and Fredric will investigate further what is going on there !!!) and the view from my room really awesome!

Day 1 - So it begins ...

People in Russia DO NOT SPEAK English.

... or at least their majority to be more precise. OK, we knew that pretty much from the beginning, but it's a whole other issue seeing it happen.

When for example, you are at the airport's passport control trying to enter the country (in an airport which still "smells" Perestroika) and several people with big green hats (the police), look at you in a weird way trying to guess what does a Greek who is coming from Sweden with a bunch of other Swedes is doing in Nizjnij Novgorod, then you start understanding that it is YOU that needs to adapt and not the others!

Or when you go to the supermarket trying to buy some water and the guy at the cashier stops you and looks at you like if buying a bottle of water is the strangest thing, talks to you with any willingness to use body language so that you understand each other, then only one solution exists. Bring Fredric along with his "magic" pocket-dictionary and let him do the talking ... :-) At least this is what I am gonna do during the following days.

Until then ... пока.

http://petersburgcity.com/for-tourists/phrases-english-russian/expressions/

Editorial

Traveling to a country like Russia is very exciting, but at the same time it might also be risky. So, in order for people to know that I am still alive and in order for some of my friends and colleagues to follow (and why not see) the interesting things that (will) happen during this month (July 2008), I decided to create this blog.

I hope those who will bother reading it, will find it at least fun to read and maybe leave a comment every once and a while.