Job Discussion Forums

[poreddy80]

Hi,

I will be travelling to Moscow, Russia in January on a job assignment. My stay there would be 9 to 12 months. I just would like to know the cost of living in Moscow. The work location is Enisseyskaya 37 in Moscow.

Please let me know the below details if you can.

1. Rent for a decent furnished Single/Double bedroom flat (Going to stay with my wife) near Enisseyskaya 37

2. Food expenses per month for a family.

3. Transportation

[maruss]

You might be better trying the expat.ru site especially if you are going to live there as it has lots of different threads with all kinds of useful info.
Having said that,the economic crisis is hitting Russia quite hard and hopefully this will finally cause rents etc. in Moscow to go down as they have been ridiculously over-priced for far too long!You cannot get even a basic 1 room Soviet era flat for much under the equivalent of $1000 per month now and even that would be in a grimy suburb away from the centre!

[mdk]

Get yerself a metro pass. Last year $45 would get you unlimted metro for three months.

As to food are you going to buy carrots from a babushka on the street or are you going to Stockmann's and buy Oreo's and Asparagus? It depends.

I personally lived on Stardogs with those spiral sausages in them and mushroom or salmon blinis at Teremok stands. In a sit down restaurant like Cafe Moo-Moo or Elki-Palki it's good eats but you gotta pay for it.

Damn, I wish I had a Salmon blini right now. Or some Solyanka soup.

P.S. They do french pastry rather well in that shop down the street from Stockmann's....sigh!

[maruss]

Living on Russian junk food will fill you up but not provide enough nutrition and especially in such a climate and polluted environment,your immune system needs to be kept up to scratch if you are going to stay healthy!Many Russians have a notoriously short life-span and poor eating habits are definitely one contributory factor!If you drink or smoke as well,so much the worse!

[kazachka]

[mdk]

Hmmm. I take it you rarely partake of the doughnuts ( ponchiki) fried before yer eyes and dusted with powdered sugar at the sidewalk stands?

[kazachka]

My weakness is the lepeshki esp. the cheese ones baked hot and fresh on my corner. Chechil is likely one of my other cholesterol killers along with the classics-eggs and salmon. I'm sure If I ate red meat my cholesterol would go from bad to hopeless. I've had to monitor it over the past 3 yrs or so:( It sucks because it's a catch 22. I can't cut fats and calories or I lose weight, but if I don't watch it my cholesterol sucks thanks to my dad's poopy genetics. At 50kg and being 176 cm tall, weight loss is a NO NO. I was sometimes able to pork up to 54-55 in the US, but it's impossible here. It's got to be all the walking on top of my training.
I've had luck keeping it in check with a combo of those danakor yogurts and Cholest Off which I pick up en-masse at Costco when in the US. Garlic and red wine as well as oatmeal help too. I really don't want to have to go on smthg like Lipitor down the road
A few months ago, I went to Pronto Pizza with a friend and ordered myself a large seafood pizza. The waitress thought it was for both of us, but was sorely mistaken when my friend ordered some pasta. I had run 30km earlier in the day and was friggin HUNGRY! The waitress kept looking over at me in disbelief as I scarfed the pizza LOL. Then I ordered dessert...

[mdk]

My first winter in Tomsk, I dropped 20-30 pounds. Every time I've gone to Russia, I've lost weight and it comes right back as soon as I'm back in the US.

If you get cold in Siberia you probably don't need another sweater. You need some ice cream. or a shashlik, or a piroshki.

I gotta get out of this thread. I'm in Fresno trying to lose weight.

[kazachka]

It could also be because most of the food in the US is processed and quite a lot here still isn't to the same degree.