Trip Advisor: watch out for high kerbs in St Petersburg .... and other thoughts about Russia.

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A Summary of our Russian Experience

In the centre of the big cities big cars occupy most road space: BMWs, Mercs, Jags, Audi, Toyota, Kia, Volkswagen, including a few Porsches, Lamborghinis accelerating with boy racer menace down city streets.

English is spoken in most settings, it's not difficult to get by if you can speak English ...... being able to read the Cyrillic alphabet is a big bonus , especially when on foot around the cit"y: street names and metro names. Carrying a table with Cyrillic / Roman letter equivalents helps or having Marion Farmer with you.

Visa and passport controls were efficient and non threatening.

People are friendly, helpful, smiley and care about you and each other. The blank / sullen face that we've seen in Eastern Europe is almost gone .... our research informs us that it's only toilet attendants, at the (few) places we've been asked to pay, have been 'workie tickets'.

Things are on the up... lots of renovation, especially in Moscow.

Everything works well. Wi fi, showers, plumbing. Well organised museums of all sorts, metro, barcode based tickets bought on line.....

Drainpipes are biggest in St Petersburg but over specified everywhere!

Few signs of destitution. Very few beggars, but a small police presence (although lots of people in uniforms and peaked caps).

A deal of noise pollution from megaphones... selling boat tours etc.

Lots of good street music.... A little heavy on P.A. based delivery, but great that it is encouraged/ tolerated.

Public parks very important to everyone and a joy to been in, well appointed and kept, gardeners and municipal workers everywhere ........... I suppose because people live in apartment blocks

There's a long tradition of loving books, ideas, words..... book shops and bookstalls agogo.

I've taken photographs in airports, stations, art galleries without any problem..... just once, photographing watermelons in a Moscow market, did a uniformed man tell me 'Nyet!'

We saw one small women's protest where there was a police presence but no interaction while we were there (difficult to be objective in a few days in tourist locations). Two individuals wore orange and black ribbons of St George, a Russian symbol of military valour..... we took it to be against Russia's Ukrainian policies.

There's little or no litter, wherever we have gone. Graffiti is almost non existent in town but well executed on railway sidings on the outskirts of Moscow e.g.

There is a desire for city residents to 'dress up' and follow western fashion..... to wear brands.... men in sporting gear..... trainers, stripy tops and trousers; women in catwalk fashion..... high heels, chic costumes........ (this rather generalised observation is probably not very supportable)......

Cost of tourist living was cheap in St Petersburg but pretty much parallel with UK prices in Moscow....but buying a bottle of straight forward red wine in a mid range restaurant in Moscow could cost you £30, £40- £80, and twice the UK price in a supermarket.

There are trip hazards every where..... big kerbs in St Petersburg, dodgy Tarmac pavements in Novogorod and lots of temporary hazards amidst all the building work in Moscow.

Euro pop is do be endured in restaurants and shops.... and a number of Moscow eating establishments have adopted the fad for large screens with fashion, music videos or urban sports: skateboarding, surfing etc.

FOOD

Georgian cuisine is very popular in St P and Moscow: folded flat breads with cheese, egg, potatoes, pasta dumplings with various fillings, cabbage soup, borscht, stews in pots and grilled fish.

Many restaurant try to do food from a number of nations: Italian pasta and pizza , 'wokfood', sushi, burgers, and kebabs ...... all in sections on one menu.

Sigh.....If you're the sort that likes multinational chains you'll find MacDs, KFC, BurgerKing, Subway, Etc all over the place. Coca Cola, Mars, Nestlé, Carte d'Or Ice Cream, Lay's (Walkers Crisps) and so on, are all in the local shops.

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