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Communist Smurf
Joined: 24 Jun 2003
Posts: 330
Location: San Francisco
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 Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject: What would you do if you were leaving? |
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I've got a little over a month left before I leave Russia. I'm trying to figure out what things I need to do before I leave. I'm certain I'll be back eventually, but it might not be years from now.
What would you do if you had a month left?
CS |
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Castro
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 57
Location: still Russia
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:52 am Post subject: |
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You would do things you cannot do in the States!
There are plenty of 
Besides, if you come back sometime
it won't be the place you know for the moment! 
for example, no drinks outside, no kiosks selling alcohol ....
there is a new legislation in a couple of month!  |
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bobs12
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
Posts: 310
Location: Saint Petersburg
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:37 am Post subject: |
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1) Rent a car and fake a doverennost' to take it across the border.
2) Fake a Russian driver's licence in the name of your least favourite personage.
3) Break every speed limit in Finland, showing that licence every time you get stopped.
4) Open a bank account and take out credit.
5) Rent as many videos as you can carry.
That's about as much as I can think of right at the moment. |
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Communist Smurf
Joined: 24 Jun 2003
Posts: 330
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Castro wrote: |
| for example, no drinks outside, no kiosks selling alcohol .... there is a new legislation in a couple of month! |
Do I understand you correctly that beer will no longer be sold in kiosks in Russia???
That is a change I would not have expected... I sometimes go to a kiosk because I'm thirsty. While window shopping, I look at the price of Iced Tea and realize I would be saving money by buying a beer.
One thing I've never done, I've never traveled far from Moscow. There is a Russian immersion program in Tver that I was considering doing. I've always wanted to see village-life in Russia.
CS |
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Communist Smurf
Joined: 24 Jun 2003
Posts: 330
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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| bobs12 wrote: |
1) Rent a car and fake a doverennost' to take it across the border.
2) Fake a Russian driver's licence in the name of your least favourite personage.
3) Break every speed limit in Finland, showing that licence every time you get stopped.
4) Open a bank account and take out credit.
5) Rent as many videos as you can carry.
That's about as much as I can think of right at the moment. |
I never knew you possessed such a creative criminal mind. 
I was hoping for something more along the lines of "memorable" things to do. Not "get out of dodge" scams. Although I could have used this list as I was leaving Cairo, primarily because I don't plan on returning.
CS |
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bobs12
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
Posts: 310
Location: Saint Petersburg
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| Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Communist Smurf wrote: |
| I never knew you possessed such a creative criminal mind. |
Thanks for the birthday wishes 
Before coming to Russia I masterminded an online fraud scam that one of my friends used. It netted the wee bugger *thousands*, and I mean tens of thousands. Out of gratitude, he went on to try to scam me for �700. That's what money does to people 
Okay, probably still not much help to you, but my list of 'things to do before leaving' generally included one or more variations on the following:
1) Scamming a few hundred dollars with an internet bride scam
2) Busking on Nevskii
3) Beating up a pickpocket in the metro
4) Haggling with a prostitute in a club (had a friend who kind of did that inadvertently, just kept telling her to go away, she came down from $300 to something silly like five or ten)
5) Collecting 100 roubles worth of empty bottles
6) Scamming a money-change bandit with a fake $100 bill and a friend in uniform
7) Getting a "все менты козлы" tattoo. An Australian acquaintance got "память" tattooed on the underside of his wrist in Tallinn. It was beautiful, except that when he was proudly showing it off to us, I pointed out that the мякгий знак was back-to-front. My "если ты это читаешь, пошёл вонь отсюда" got the prize for best finally-once-and-for-all-leaving-Russia-after-one-too-many-babushkas-have-kneecapped-you-in-the-metro-with-impossibly-heavy-and-sharp-cornered-babushka-bags tattoo. No offence Russia, a few months later I decided that I wasn't going to leave. Doesn't everyone? You'll be back, mister Smurf. You can check out, but you can never leave...  |
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Castro
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 57
Location: still Russia
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| Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 8:56 am Post subject: |
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CS,
Sorry, I put it on the wrong thread
According to the new Russian law from April the 1st you are not allowed to drink even alcohol-free beer in so called �Public Places� (means wherever except for home or special bar)
http://www.beerunion.ru/shownews.html?d=01&m=11&y=2004&uid=3800
As for the immersion program it sounds good. I heard this kind of tourist programs is the most popular between �new new-Russians� who prefer to leave the country only for business trips!
I see you�ve been to Cairo. I am going to spend Christmas Holidays there. Would you recommend some places to go or avoid? Thanks, |
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zaneth
Joined: 31 Mar 2004
Posts: 545
Location: Between Russia and Germany
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| Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 11:44 am Post subject: |
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Definitely, positively, absolutely, empirically, immediately, must get out of Moscow. See Russia before you leave Russia. I don't know if Tver qualifies as village life. Hook up with some university in a small town and arrange to give lectures to their students for a couple of weeks in exchange for room and board in a nearby wooden house (if you can arrange it).
Well-water. Horses. Wooden houses. Goat herders. Old ladies in their natural habitat.
Hang out with old men who sit by little fires and keep an eye on their cows.
Too bad it's too early in the season to go ice-fishing. That would be great.
See Sergiev Posad.
Take an intensive balalaika course. Or garmoshka.
Teach english in a village school for two weeks. Yeah, that's it. They're desparate for teachers.
Get out of the Moscow Oblast. |
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bobs12
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
Posts: 310
Location: Saint Petersburg
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| Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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| zaneth wrote: |
| Take an intensive balalaika course. |
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Communist Smurf
Joined: 24 Jun 2003
Posts: 330
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:56 am Post subject: |
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| Castro wrote: |
| I see you�ve been to Cairo. I am going to spend Christmas Holidays there. Would you recommend some places to go or avoid? Thanks, |
As you might guess, Cairo isn't much of a "Christmasy" place.
Do I have recommendations of where you should go? Well, obviously you'll go to the Pyramids. Zamalek is a nice little island on the Nile. It's a great place to go during the summer because there are a lot of trees overhead giving you shade... but as you said, it'll be Christmas. Khan Al-Khalili is the market and certain parts of it feel like a scene out of an Indiana Jones movie.
You should do things there you can't do anywhere else. Like order a small fries from McDonald's and have it delivered to your house.  I've seen it happen.
CS |
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Castro
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 57
Location: still Russia
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| Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 9:25 am Post subject: |
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CS,
Although Egypt was one of the first countries to adopt Christianity (first Christian society - 67 г. St. Mark the Evangelist, first Christian theology - Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria and a first Christian monk - St. Anthony, BTW, Egypt is a Motherland of Christian Monasticism) it is not a Christian country anymore. But it would be interesting to have a look at something different! Not just the Pyramids!
Well, I am not going to celebrate Christmas there.
Visa expires on 24th of December and we need an Arabic country to go to. Sure Russian Christmas is on a different date but Russian consulates have gone native throughout the world. They can (and they actually do) celebrate Catholic Christmas. С кем поведешься, так тебе и надо ! 
Thanks for the recommendations though! |
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