Off East

We’ve been here for a week now so I thought it was time I shared my thoughts on Russia so far!

First impressions of St Petersburg (or SP as the locals refer to it) upon arrival at the airport was how bloody cold it was!  We’ve arrived in Russia in what is proving to be the coldest winter they’ve had for 5 or 6 years (lucky us!) so we’re not alone in seemingly spending a lot of time talking about a) how cold it is or b) how much warmer it seemed when it’s -15 as opposed to -26 degrees.  It is bearable if you wear about 50 layers of clothes, keep moving and nip indoors every hour or so for a quick warm-up (which isn’t a euphemism – the moment would be lost by the time you’d managed to remove all your bloody clothes

The other thing that makes a massive difference is the wind chill factor – the slightest breeze really does bite so we’ve been avoiding hanging around in open spaces for too long.

Anyway, cold weather aside (which we’re getting used to now), I am loving Russia.  I have to admit that I lclearly had loads of stereotypical preconceived ideas about Russia and it’s people.  Most of these have thus far been proved completely wrong. So here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1) Russian food is actually very tasty – and consists of a lot more than potatoes and beetroot (although they do feature quite heavily).  We’ve eaten really well everywhere and sampled delicacies from Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the rather ubiquitous take on Italian food – pizza.  It’s also pretty good value too.  Russians also LOVE cakes and ice-cream which Steve is really pleased about…

2)  Muscovite’s are generally quite a miserable bunch without any real care for the customer.  Service is generally really good however it is delivered without a smile.  In contrast, the people we’ve met in Ekaterinburg (more on that later) are lovely and really friendly.

3) Moscow and SP aren’t really reflective of other places in Russia.  They are far wealthier and generally think that as cities, they are the centre of the universe.  SP is very rich culturally (the Hermitage collection was amazing) and you can go and see ballet or opera every night of the week).  Moscow is very rich in capital (or at least there are some SERIOUSLY wealthy people who seem to love nothing better than flashing their cash).  Moscow is designer-shop central and everyone is immaculate – all the time!  All the women wear 4 inch heels even in the ice and snow and very short skirts.  They must either be immune to to the cold or very style conscious.  Steve loves it, I just feel scruffy in my michelin-tyre-esque outfits!

4) The Kremlin is not some KGB bunker.  It is in fact the walled historical centre of Moscow in which President Putin resides when ‘in town’ and is a large area containing numerous cathedrals, churhces and other important buidlings.  The KGB incidentally no longer seem to strike fear into the hearts of Russians and they speak (quite disparigingly) about them in public.

5) Old-school Communism has sadly been replaced with mass-corruption.  If you have money you can do more or less anything you want – and get away with it (particularly in Moscow).  If you don’t have money (which the majority of Russians don’t have massive amounts of) you’re pretty buggered.

6) The architectural style of the many quite ugly/concrete-looking buidlings in many Russian cities is known as constructivism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(art) There are also some really beautiful classical buildings which Stalin didn’t destroy!

7) Russians do still drive Lada’s (although no longer the only car on the road!) – and they still work in the constant freezing conditions!

The metro in Moscow is pretty amazing.  It’s super-cheap, efficient and the interiors of the stations are incredible.  The station names are in the cyrillic alphabet though which makes navigating your way around a bit tricky…!

9) Trying to speak or understand Russian without having had any lessons is more or less impossible!!!

10) Vodka still gives me a nasty hangover reagrdless of whether I’m drinking it in England or Russia :-S