Quote: (05-18-2014 03:36 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:
Fantastic report! I've read all of it and my head is reeling. Great stuff!
1) Did you ever feel threatened or in danger? It seems quite safe if you passed out so many times on your trip and never got robbed. Quite the opposite of what most people believe about Russia.
2) Did you plan your accommodation ahead? I.e. if you were arriving in a city and had someone meeting you, did you already know that you would sleep at their place, or you left it open until the last moment (with the option to go to a cheap hotel or something if things don't turn out well).
3) What level is your Russian language at?
1. In the train I felt threathed a few times by some drunks.
I could have easily knocked them out but I didn't want to start any drama.
If anybody start with some bullshit in the train you will have tons of people backing you up. Nobody likes an aggressive loud drunk.
Apart from that, yes one time in St. petersburg when a guy pulled a gun and a knife to my throat. Here is that story. http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-25741.html
Russians are in general very friendly and takes care about you.
But then you have these streetkids running on drugs and robbing people.
If you are at the wrong place at the wrong time... Then...
In Khabarovsk I got attacked by a pack of street dogs. I feel much more threatened by them than people.
2. Yes. I always tried to line up somebody who would meet me.
Easy way to avoid the hassle with the local transports.
I always asked the one who agreed to meet if they knew a place for me to stay in so I ended usually up staying with someone of their friends.
It was actually like couchsurfing, but with genuine people outside the CS community who never had seen a foreigner before. What people did was they posted a picture of me on VK and asked if somebody wanted to host me a few days. It worked out well.
It was a fantastic tactic to really get under the skin of real Russian culture. And yeah. I always looked up some cheap hotel in advance as a backup plan.
3. My level is beginner. But it's strong enough for taking care of most things.
I can manage a little small talking, buying stuff, ordering in restaurants, dealing with local transportation etc.