[Gopnik]

Intro:

   

I was in Saint Petersburg from February to July of this year. I attended a Russian course at a local university and in the evenings I worked as a teacher in a private language school. I didn’t have as much free time as in previous trips to EE, but eventually I think I got to know the city quite well so I hope other guys can find this info useful.

About me: I’m Spanish, in my 20s, 6ft 1, average looks and game and I speak Russian.

With around 7 million people, Saint Petersburg is Russia’s 2nd largest city and it’s said to be much more European and cultured than Moscow. Located in the Gulf of Finland, it’s the northernmost city in the world with over 1 million people. As a result, the weather is shit for 8 months a year and this is definitely the main downside. During the winter, you can barely walk around the city as thick layers of ice cover some sidewalks and the ubiquitous mud and snow forces you to clean your shoes several times a day. In addition, you’ll barely see the sun light for a couple of hours each day and overall it can get a bit depressing during the toughest months. This year we even had snow in April and apparently, it was the coldest spring in 50 years or so.

On the plus side, the city comes alive in May-June and it feels like being in a completely different place. My advice is to visit between May – October. A few students might leave the city but a lot of them surprisingly stay. For example, I met several girls from Vladivostok who could only afford to go home and see their families once a year during Christmas.

Some people even argue that “Piter” is not a truly Russian city and for a good taste of the Russian soul you should visit Veliky Novgorod or a city further into the heart of the country.

Personally, coming from Poland I definitely noticed a minor “culture shock” and it was obvious from day one that I was no longer in an EU country. While I didn’t visit other provincial towns, I’d say the city certainly has a strong Russian vibe despite having many hipsters, alternative-type kind of people and a sizable amount of foreigners. There’s actually very few westerners and you can stand out a lot by speaking English, especially during the winter months when there’s no tourists around. The bottom line is that the city is not overrun with foreigners like Krakow, Prague and others and the exotic factor is very high.


The city:

There’s mainly 3 distinct areas, the center (центральный район) and the two islands in the north-west, Vasilievsky and Petrogradsky. Other than that, the city expands north and south (see blue metro line) but there’s not that much going on in those areas and I don’t think I ever visited the very north of the city. Beyond the 3 areas I’ve mentioned, it’s mostly «спальные районы» literally “sleeping/bedroom districts” which are basically massive residential blocks where there’s not much to do.

This is a map with the average monthly rent for a studio flat in each metro stop. Keep in mind that these prices are for long term rentals (at least 4 months or so) so you’ll probably pay significantly more when using Airbnb or similar for short term stays.

   

Overall, you’re looking at about 25-30,000 roubles per month (about 500 USD) for a good standard studio/1 bedroom flat in the centre for a several month rental. The best sites for finding accommodation are avito.ru and domofond.ru but you’ll need Russian. There’ also several VK groups where you can find good deals as well as on FB for short term rentals.

Prices for food and amenities are similar to those of Spain and other mid-tier places in Western Europe. Groceries were often surprisingly expensive and when for a night out I’d mostly spend at least 2000 rub (about 30 USD) on drinks and taxis, which is considerably more than in Poland but still cheaper than the US or UK.

In my opinion, the best areas are around the metro stops чернышевская (Chernishevskaya), маяковская (mayakovskaya) and владимирская (vladimirskaya). Ideally you want to be in a central location that is not too busy, which IMO rules out areas like невский проспект or гостиный двор. Other nice areas include василеостровская and петроградская but these two have the downside of being located on the two islands, which can be a pain in the ass during the spring/summer months when the bridges are lifted at night. Overall, I’d go for either чернышевская or владимирская as they both have plenty of bars and cafes to go to and are very walkable and pleasant for dates.

The city is certainly beautiful and it reminds be a bit of Budapest, although it’s missing a quaint old town area for pedestrians like you see in certain places in eastern/central Europe.

The traffic is a bit crazy at times but it’s nothing like Moscow. It took me a while to get used to living in such a massive city but after a couple of months I really started to like it there.

It’s obviously Russia and there’s a good share of weirdoes, homeless people, alcoholics («быдла, алкаши») but although there’s more poverty than in Krakow for example, it’s still somewhat wealthy and it’s not the shithole I imagine Ukraine to be. The service is usually quite bad as Russians have a different concept of general politeness and some streets can be a bit dirty. I don’t think I would mind living there for a couple of years but after that the winters would probably get unbearable.

I found SP to be surprisingly safe and I never had any problems whatsoever with hooligans, Caucasian people or scammers and this was also the case of most of my foreign friends.

Overall, despite the shit weather and culture shock SP is actually quite liveable. I’ve heard from other members that life in Ukraine can get really annoying after a while since nothing there seems to work properly. I haven’t been there yet but I don’t think this is quite the case for S. Pete. There’s also no obvious sex tourism problem, which I imagine is very big in Ukraine.


The girls:

I already had some experience with EE (Poland) and FSU (Minsk) but honestly, the talent in SP is simply amazing. I wasn’t particularly impressed when I first arrived in February, but I attribute this to the weather and mood of the winter months. There’s a lot less girls walking around nevsky and those that do are obviously dressed in big coats that are not revealing at all. When it’s warm though, you see plenty of stunners around, including a steady supply of 8s and 9s and a constant stream of 6s and 7s.

There’s practically no fat girls at all and of all the cities that I’ve visited, SP ranks number 2 for quality along with Moscow and only slightly below #1 Minsk, where I don’t remember seeing any girls with blue hair, tattoos etc which unfortunately are surprisingly common in certain scenes of SP (keep in mind that some of these hipster looking girls are still very hot though. Think femen Ukraine vs your average American feminist).

In addition, girls are often cultured, feminine and well-spoken. They tend to be a bit icy at the beginning but they were usually still very chatty and curious and they were glad that we could talk in Russian. I don’t ever recall having long silences on a date like some members say is common in Ukraine and I actually think Russian girls are very pleasant to talk to.

A lot of members where saying that Moscow had slightly better talent, but honestly I just didn’t see it. I visited Moscow for a weekend during May and it seemed to me like it was on par with SP. I had read that SP had more hipster looking girls, but I also saw a fair share of them in Moscow.

From my short stay in the capital, I’d say I saw more couples with a significant age difference, so I think it might be easier to date younger. Overall I don’t think there’s a noticeable difference in the girls’ appearance between the two cities but I can’t comment on the nightlife scene in Moscow.

The hardest part about Russian girls IMO is their flakiness. While I had experienced similar things in Poland, I found many girls there to go from 100-0 pretty quickly and sometimes I could not explain their loss of interest. I also can’t recommend SP for those who don’t speak any Russian as English levels are extremely low, even among young girls. I met a forum member who had his shit together and was having success through tinder but said he had to give up on DG because of the language barrier.

   
Many girls in SP love to wear these choker collars that Roosh wrote about some time ago.

Online game & Pipelining:

Tinder works great in SP and if you have semi decent pictures you should be able to easily get dates from the app. When I arrived, I was surprised to see how even some cute looking girls would message first, and within a couple of hours I had dozens of matches and couldn’t keep up with all the conversations. These didn’t always translate to a date, but overall Tinder is VERY good here provided you speak Russian.

   
A couple of times, girls sent me screenshots of thirsty foreign guys trying to chat them up in broken Russian from google translate, which they found kind of funny.


Another method to meet girls is through VK (Russian facebook). It’s a rather interesting social network that kind of works like Spotify, youtube, FB, IG and tinder all in one. My first couple of bangs actually came from VK, when I was trying to find a better flat in one of the many accommodation groups for the city. I kind of found this method by accident, but I think it might be interesting to try it out.

Here’s how you can use VK to get leads:

1) Find a VK group with many people - at least a few thousand (e.g. a group where people look for accommodation, renting a flat in Moscow or wherever)
   

2) Leave a comment saying you will be in the city for some time and are looking for a place to rent (in some groups you need to pay a few roubles through paypal to leave a public message on their comment board)
   

3) If the group is big enough and your profile pictures are good, you should start getting many girls liking them and the occasional friend request

4) Open these girls like you would on Tinder or IG

It’s all about visibility and having many girls looking at your profile. Some of these groups have dozens of thousands of members.


Nightlife:

Due to my job and Russian course I had a fairly busy lifestyle, so I was more dependent on Tinder and Social circle than on previous stays in EE. However, I still managed to do some damage in the clubs in S. Pete, which I’d basically divide into two categories:

1)“Russian” clubs where they play cheesy Russian techno, guys wear shirts, there’s no foreigners and they usually serve dinner as well

2)“Hipster” clubs where they play more trendy music, bring international DJs and attract a more alternative crowd as well as a few westerners.

Overall, I preferred “Hipster” clubs where the vibe was friendlier, the music was nicer and girls were still hot and the logistics made it easy to open. I wouldn’t rule out the more “Russian clubs” at all though, and I suggest you guys try out both.


Tansploshadka (танцплощадка)– located right next to the church of the Spilled blood (the main Russian looking cathedral of the city). It’s in a place called konyushennaya ploshchad (конюшенная площадь) where there’s a lot of clubs and bars. It’s certainly more on the hipster side and it reminded me of some of the more alternative clubs I went to in the UK except with MUCH better looking girls. Dancefloor game works fine here and there’s also plenty of approach opportunities in the outside area where people smoke and there’s even a basketball hoop where drunk people play for fun. It closes quite late, at about 5-6 a.m or so.

Stackenschneider – 2 mins away from Tansploshadka, also in konyushennaya pl. Hipster club where they play very loud music and you can’t see very well in the dancefloor. It closes very late and in the summer they have an outside area but I prefer Tansploshadka.

L.U.X Club – also in konyushennaya ploshchad but this one is a more “Russian club” where they even have dancers that are basically strippers. It attracts a younger crowd and a few foreigners that probably bounced from the other neighbouring clubs. It was half empty when I was there and it didn’t seem too good.

Mishka (мишка бар) small venue which seemed more of a bar when I was there for drinks, but gets going a bit later. It has a reputation for attracting foreign groupies but I don’t have any first-hand experience with this. It’s near the middle of Nevsky Prospekt.

Coyote Ugly (Гадкий Койот)– crazy “Russian” club where they do weird drinking games and girls are allowed to dance on the bar. The talent was good and it’s easy to chat up girls in the smoking areas. Not great, but my favourite out of the “Russian club” category.

Poison Bar (Пойзон)– there’s several of them around the city and they’re all karaoke bars with a dancefloor. Definitely a good place for foreign groupies who are looking for English speakers. The best ones are in Dumskaya and in Rubinshteina.

Discount club (in Leninskyi prospekt) – “Russian club” that is near Leninsky prospekt metro station (waaay out of the city centre). I went here with a Russian girl and her friends so I couldn’t do any approaches. There were a few rough looking guys, mostly Caucasians (as in from Dagestan, Chechnya etc) and some of them said something to me that I didn’t quite understand, but left me alone when my friends spoke to them and found out I was a foreigner. I was told fights are common here but the talent was good and I also noticed a lot of eye contact so I now regret not checking it out again. If you go without girls, better to get there early and be well dressed, I think two dudes in the line were “face controlled” because of this.

Golitsyn Loft (Голицын Лофт) – a cluster of bars in one big building with a central outdoors square that reminds me a lot of the ruin bars in Budapest, except with very few foreigners. The atmosphere and music are really cool and the talent is also good. I found out this place on my last week and I wished I had done so before. It falls more into the hipster category.


Date venues:

My advice is to always plan in advance your dates and find a couple of decent venues near your place so that it’s easier to bring the girl back. Russian girls prefer it when the guy chooses the venue and some girls might give you shit if you just improvise and can’t find a decent place (even if you barely just arrived for the first time). Others girls however are more easy going and don’t really mind.ç

I found a good pub that wasn’t usually very busy and was just 2 minutes away from my flat. I would usually take girls there and after a couple of hours bounce back to my place for dinner or tea and go for the lay. When a girl mentioned that she didn’t drink, we’d go to a quiet café also in my neighbourhood and I’d take it a bit slowlier.

If a girl wanted to go somewhere fancy I’d take her to a cocktail bar called Imbibe in Zhukovskogo street or to Dead poets also on that street.

Russian girls also like to go for a walk or a sushi picnic in a park when the weather is nice. Tavrichesky sad (Таврический сад) is a good place for this, but I’m sure just about any park would do.

When suggesting she comes over to your place, I think it might help to word it like this “Давай пойдём ко мне в гости” or “Ты хочешь пойти ко мне в гости?” Russians are very hospitable people and it’s even a bit rude to decline this sort of invitation. I think by phrasing it this way, it doesn’t quite seem like you’re just trying to bounce her back for sex.

In addition, several members mentioned that they were scammed or that girls were basically trying to scam them by taking them to expensive places or places where the bartenders would say they only had the most expensive drinks available. Chances are, if you don’t speak Russian and are meeting girls through tinder, that you’ll eventually run into one of these girls. While I don’t have any first-hand experience with this, I suggest you always decide where to meet for a first date and be extra cautious if the bar staff want you to order something different and expensive. It might be a good idea to google a place’s menu in advance.


The language:

After 3 years of hard work, I can finally say I’m fluent in Russian. I decided to sit the B2 exam (ТРКИ II уровень) mostly just as a way of setting myself a specific goal, although I recently found out it can also be useful for getting certain visas and residence permits. While I managed to pass the exam and I exclusively dated girls in Russian, I still struggle with certain sounds and pronunciations (for example, I still can’t say the fucking “Ы” sound correctly).

Although I’m quite fair-skinned for a Spaniard, due to my beard I’ve been told a few times I could pass for being Georgian or even Dagestani.

Russians generally look down on Caucasian people, so if you speak Russian with an accent, it might be a good idea to mention where you are from early on in the interaction, or even just open by asking if she speaks English, as this would automatically set you apart from the creepy immigrants who sometimes try to chat up girls in the streets (google “чурка” to see what I mean). If you are rather blond looking, this shouldn’t be a problem though.

   
If you are dark skinned, or have a beard and you speak Russian with an accent, you might be placed into this category. Obviously having good style also helps to set you apart.


Daygame:

DG is still an area I need to work more on and I barely did a dozen approaches or so. Initially I did mostly indirect, asking for places to buy certain items and so on and after a while I tried direct openers.

I got several number and IG closes but unfortunately I wasn’t able to take any of these girls out.

One of them for example was a young single mother and was looking for an older guy. Another one despite showing a lot of interest and having had a really good interaction, in the end was seeing some guy and stopped texting after a few exchanges.

While I wouldn’t say it’s common there for guys to meet girls in the streets, the culture certainly respects men for being proactive and it discourages young girls from staying single.

Overall, I think it’s perfectly fine to be direct and Russians generally don’t like to beat around the bush anyways as they’re very no BS and surprisingly extroverted at times.

Some particularly good spots for day game are the Galeria mall near Ploshchad Vosstaniya and also the smaller streets surrounding nevsky where there’s less people and it’s easier to get a girl to stop.


Conclusion:

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my time in Saint Petersburg and I think it’s a great introduction to Russia. The winter months can be depressing and you definitely need Russian but the city is surprisingly liveable for FSU standards and men tend to date up. The talent is great but stunners have plenty of options as everywhere else and you’ll need to have your shit together to pull quality. I’d say the ideal age here for a man is around 28-30 years old and although I didn’t see a massive age difference in couples, I don’t think 35+ y.o guys should have problems with younger girls. I occasionally lied about my age when chatting up cougars and girls in their late 20s and found out I had better results saying I was a few years older.

ONS and first date lays are rare but can still happen with 6s and the occasional 7. The nightlife is ok but for best results, it's better to “diversify” and try also online and day game. Westerners are rare so there’s a strong exotic factor (which was a great change after Kraków) and if you speak Russian, you can easily make a lot of local friends. The country and culture are fascinating and together with the quality of the girls will surely make me come back.

[kirdiesel]

Awesome man. Ive always been a big fan of Russian girls but sadly have very limited experience with any. I got 1 Russian flag but from a girl in Germany.

Sounds slightly similar to my recent experience in France.. many matches on Tinder but the girls have very little desire to speak English or have very limited English skills.

Would you say it just doesn't make any sense for a non Russian speaker to go there?

Lastly, any impressions of how black guys are doing in the country? See any black guys with girls in clubs or in the streets?

[icrus]

Good datasheet.

Some comments from my side:

-As far as rent goes, Piter is def way cheaper than Moscow. These prices in the center get you an apartment on Moscow's outskirts. Don't know about food but I imagine it's the same. Going out is maybe slightly cheaper, can't really remember. I also drink like a fish so I'd be happy to drink for 2000 haha.

-Weather is def shit in Piter and even worse than in Moscow (though this year has been an utter joke). Cold and humid, which makes winters even worse than they already are and summers not that great.

-You're right that it's definitely much more European than Moscow. It's probably a good start for guys that have never been here and don't speak the language. Which at the same time means it's also more beautiful. Other Russian cities are even more Russian and a world apart from both.

-Girls are def more hipsterish there than in Moscow or the rest of Russia. Which is also why I find quality there to be lower.

-I don't remember all that well because last time I went partying there is like two years ago but afaik the two main streets were Rubenshteyna and Dumskaya. Dumskaya is very trashy but has one good place with cute girls, Lomonosov. Beware of the gay club next door. Can't remember any particular places from the other one but overall nightlife in Piter is much more bar-ish and less clubs than in Moscow. Also because clubs there can be dodgy so I'd rather avoid.

-As you correctly say, knowing the language makes a world of difference.

-ONS are possible but bring strong frame and a party vibe.


To answer the other poster:

Yes makes sense but your pool of girls will be slashed in half. If you are black even more. Since you're a "niche product" so to speak, you'll get a few groupies with whom you would be absolutely killing it but a lot won't be interested. If you have someone on the ground that can introduce you and speaks Russian, I'd imagine your value would be raised tremendously. Overall there's very few black people in Russia so you'll def stand out. Obviously being well-dressed and having swag will make you very desirable for those girls that dig black guys.

[Gopnik]

(07-12-2017 07:52 AM)kirdiesel Wrote:  

Awesome man. Ive always been a big fan of Russian girls but sadly have very limited experience with any. I got 1 Russian flag but from a girl in Germany.

Sounds slightly similar to my recent experience in France.. many matches on Tinder but the girls have very little desire to speak English or have very limited English skills.

Would you say it just doesn't make any sense for a non Russian speaker to go there?

Lastly, any impressions of how black guys are doing in the country? See any black guys with girls in clubs or in the streets?

I once saw a mixed raced (half russian, half black) dude in one of the clubs. He was partying with his friends and seemed to be doing alright with the girls there. Other than that, there's a few african students and migrants but I don't think they have it easy for pulling. You would definitely stand out a lot from being African American.

As Icrus has mentioned, it's a small niche but you might find girls who are interested. There's a black American guy called Phillochko who does youtube videos and blogs about living in Russia. He seems to be doing really well and he barely speaks the language.

Overall, interracial dating is a bit of a touchy subject in Russia and some people still believe no one should marry outside of their ethnicity (Slavs with slavs, Armenians with Armenians etc). There's even lots of ethnic minorities that have been living in Russia for generations but still are purely Korean, Azerbajani etc. Russians make a distinction between Russian citizens (Россияне) and ethnic Russians (Русские).

I wouldn't let the language barrier completely discourage anyone from visiting, but you should understand that this would make chasing girls a bit of a headache and you would have to rely a lot on online game to find English speakers. You would also be a good target for the scammers and gold-diggers.

@Icrus Moscow is certainly more expensive than SP. You basically pay more for just about everything there. I was still pleasantly surprised with the city and there's a lot of nice areas like китай город, старый арбат and so on.

[reciproke]

Good timing, will return to Saint Pete in two weeks. This guide is accurate and can't really add anything, but I have some thoughts on the question of Moscow vs. Saint Pete regarding quality.

There is definetely some hipster fashion going on in Piter. I find it really optically displeasing, but to be fair, the behavior of the girls isn't as bad as they look. This can partially explain the difference in quality level with regards to Moscow. I wonder what the future development will bring, but so far is Piter still my favorite place on earth.

But the most important factor is that Moscow is a magnet for models and wannabe models of the Instagram type. But now you get fake tits, facial surgery, fake lashes and a lot of makeup - yeah, those kind of girls. Breast implants cost in Moscow around 300-400k rubel and you can almost be sure that they have a sponsor and are highly transactional. I personally don't see that as quality.

Let's also keep in mind that a lot of people move to either Moscow or Saint Petersburg for a specific reason. Also, there is some level of rivalry going on between inhabitants of those two cities. In general, girls tend to pick Piter because they want to study in a beautiful city with a lot of cultural background. I find the level of sophistication of girls in Piter really amazing.

In my opinion, hardcore hipsterish girls and hardcore transactional girls are both a minority and there's an abundance of pretty girls with long hair in summer dresses that have solid traditional values in both Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

[DiogoFC]

Dude, how the hell are you Spanish, on your 20s and speak freaking Russian?

[Rossi]

I'm going to Russia for a month next summer for World Cup. I have a feeling, I'll spend most of my time in St Petersburg

[Chaos]

Good sheet. I'm here right now and I agree with most things. I'm close to Vladimirskaya, the location is on point.

I'd like to add that I stumbled in to what you call as a hipster club called "Akakao" close to the Church of Spilled Blood.
This was quite a fun place with two dance floors and a lounge where it's more quiet where you can sit down and talk. It also has a terrace where people are hanging out which is perfect for approaching.

I was there on Saturday night and it had a good and young crowd and ratios were good aswell.
Lighthearted, non serious and fun place.

[Beirut]

Would a short term (one week) visitor be better off at nevsky or at your locations?

[Gopnik]

(07-12-2017 06:43 PM)Beirut Wrote:  

Would a short term (one week) visitor be better off at nevsky or at your locations?

I find Nevsky too busy and impersonal. You might be with a girl and she might bump into a friend or acquaintance while you're on a date, or you might see an old flame in the same bar... SP is huge but these things can still happen as many people go to nevsky to hang out.

The places that I've mentioned (Mayakovskaya and Vladimirskaya in particular) are merely 5-10 minutes walking distance from Nevsky but they're also less busy. I simply don't see any advantages from staying there as opposed to other central locations (the "центральныц район" is a lot more than just nevsky, so these locations are also in the centre).

(07-12-2017 01:16 PM)DiogoFC Wrote:  

Dude, how the hell are you Spanish, on your 20s and speak freaking Russian?

I simply got interested in the language a few years ago and worked my ass off studying it. There's no magic bullets here, just consistency

[RatInTheWoods]

Great report, thanks OP

[MongolianAbroad]

(07-12-2017 01:16 PM)DiogoFC Wrote:  

Dude, how the hell are you Spanish, on your 20s and speak freaking Russian?

And excellent English as well. Pretty impressive.

[Drix]

Another great report, amigo. Your Wroclaw datasheet gave me an awesome idea of Poland, Russia is another interesting country, thanks for the contribution. Glad you are doing well in everything, and i hope to meet you soon.

Saludos desde Perú, Drix.

[Chaos]

Anyone in town right now? Just came back from an escapade to Karelia.

[sportbilly]

Interesting you rank Minsk above Moscow for girl quality as I would disagree on that point,, however,, so much talent in either that it is kind of a mute point.

One day I have to go back to Minsk as I failed so badly when I went last year, feel like I have unfinished business.

[samsamsam]

How did you learn Russian so well so fast? I have been at it for a couple of years and can have pretty decent conversations. But cases and limited vocabulary are always my struggle. If I don't use a word often, I am just not gonna master it. I will admit words like угол have come in more handy than I would have thought and surprised I can pull the word out of my ass the first time I use it.

Maybe you could post something on this thread?

thread-22856.html

Great stuff you are sharing thanks!

[Gopnik]

(07-17-2017 11:22 PM)samsamsam Wrote:  

How did you learn Russian so well so fast? I have been at it for a couple of years and can have pretty decent conversations. But cases and limited vocabulary are always my struggle. If I don't use a word often, I am just not gonna master it. I will admit words like угол have come in more handy than I would have thought and surprised I can pull the word out of my ass the first time I use it.

Maybe you could post something on this thread?

thread-22856.html

Great stuff you are sharing thanks!

To be fair, my Russian didn't really take off until I moved to Saint Petersburg. Before that, I had a good grasp of the grammar and could more or less have a basic chat about common topics but I was lacking a lot of vocab and exposure to "real Russian" and I also knew pretty much zero slang.

I made it my goal to make local Russian friends and date exclusively in Russian even if it was hard at the beginning, which is something that most foreign students who come to learn the language don't usually do.

In addition, I noticed a big improvement in vocab retention when I started listening to podcasts (Youtube videos) everyday while commuting or just walking around. Every now and then, I find some interesting videos in Russian, I download the audio and I listen to them at least 2 or 3 times a day for about a week or so and I check any new vocab with yandex/google translate. I wrote more about this on this post:

thread-22856...pid1555550

Also, instead of trying to memorize single words, I found it helps me to learn a short phrase with that word, so for example with the word угол: "на каждом углу" (In every corner). E.g. "В России, я заметил, что на каждом углу есть цветочный магазин" something like that, you get the picture.

If you are struggling with case endings, I suggest you write down a set of basic sentences for each case that are easy to remember. For example, I used to struggle with the dative case, so I memorized these phrases and now I never have to think about the endings anymore:

Я даю книгу моему умному брату
Я даю книгу моей умной сестре
Я даю книгу моим умным родителям.

There's also certain tricks, like knowing that the feminine ending for an adjective is always -ой/ей for 4 out of 6 singular cases (the Genitive, Dative, Instrumental and Prepositional).

Overall, the hardest part about cases, is not the endings IMO, but when specific constructions and verbs take certain cases which are not very intuitive:

e.g. Я владею русским языком - "I speak Russian" (Literally, "I possess/I own the Russian language", meaning that you speak it fluently).

You basically need to know that the verb владеть simply takes the instrumental case (кем/чем).

There's loads of examples like this, here's another one out of my head:

Я разбираюсь в политике - "I understand/I'm well versed in politics"

The verb разбираться/разобраться is normally followed by the preposition в+ prepositional case (ком/чём) and the only way of knowing this is through context and exposure.

At the end of the day, you just need to stick with it and it will eventually pay off. I'm now back home in Spain and last night I went on a date with a Russian girl I "met" through instagram. She barely knows a word of Spanish or English and she mentioned several times how cool it was for her to meet a local who knows Russian .

[Australia Sucks]

Gopnik, hypothetically if a foreigner wanted to live in Saint Petersburg and study Russian for 6 months (Spring and Summer) and game girls while there, how much do you think would be a comfortable budget?

Lets assume you want to live in a centrally located studio apartment, study Russian, go on lots of dates with girls, eat out regularly, catch a taxi sometimes, make the occasional weekend mini trip to other cities, etc. However lets assume that its a person who prefers day game and does not drink or do night-game.

p.s. Yes I know 6 months its not enough but lets say after 6 months you move to a different place to study Russian.

[Gopnik]

(07-18-2017 07:01 AM)Australia Sucks Wrote:  

Gopnik, hypothetically if a foreigner wanted to live in Saint Petersburg and study Russian for 6 months (Spring and Summer) and game girls while there, how much do you think would be a comfortable budget?

Lets assume you want to live in a centrally located studio apartment, study Russian, go on lots of dates with girls, eat out regularly, catch a taxi sometimes, make the occasional weekend mini trip to other cities, etc. However lets assume that its a person who prefers day game and does not drink or do night-game.

p.s. Yes I know 6 months its not enough but lets say after 6 months you move to a different place to study Russian.

For a small studio in the centre, you're looking at about 400-500 USD/month provided you sign a contract for several months. You might also need to pay an agent fee since owners themselves rarely look for tenants and organise the visits to the flat and so on. This is usually 50% of one month's rent, so add in another 250 USD.

You can eat out for as little as 250 roubles (about 4.5 USD) in a regular сталовая or in теремок and for 8-12 USD you can have a decent meal in a normal place like две палочки.

A cheap date in a cafe or a normal bar will cost about 10-20 USD. The most I ever spent on a date was probably about 2000 roubles (35 USD). It goes without saying that Russian girls expect you to pay for them.

Overall, for what you describe, I'd say about 1200 USD/month, perhaps a bit more depending on how much you travel.

If you are serious about studying, you can make a lot of progress with the language in just 6 months.

[Australia Sucks]

Gopnik overall, out of all the places you have been to e.g. Russia, Belarus, etc which city would you recommend for studying Russian?

Given that Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc all have hot girls, this part of the equation is dealt with. Considering logistics, transport, food, summer and spring weather (fuck being in countries like that during winter), cost of studying, total cost of living, ease of getting into a mini relationship (I am not an ONS guy) etc. I mean for a foreigner who speaks no Russian and wants to learn introductory Russian (and prefers daygame over nightgame)?

[Gopnik]

(07-19-2017 09:08 AM)Australia Sucks Wrote:  

Gopnik overall, out of all the places you have been to e.g. Russia, Belarus, etc which city would you recommend for studying Russian?

Given that Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc all have hot girls, this part of the equation is dealt with. Considering logistics, transport, food, summer and spring weather (fuck being in countries like that during winter), cost of studying, total cost of living, ease of getting into a mini relationship (I am not an ONS guy) etc. I mean for a foreigner who speaks no Russian and wants to learn introductory Russian (and prefers daygame over nightgame)?

I can only really comment on Minsk and Saint Petersburg. Out of the two, SP is a nicer city and has a lot more things to do although the weather is a bit worse. It's also more than twice as big and therefore has more opportunities for meeting girls.

On the other hand, Minsk feels more soviet and I noticed a few sex tourists sponsoring girls but only in one venue as far as I remember.

Prices are a bit lower in Minsk but it's still more expensive than you'd imagine considering that the country is not very wealthy (i.e more expensive than Poland for example).

Also, since you speak no Russian yet, SP should be the better choice since English levels are slightly higher (but still very low). This is probably because girls are better off and some can afford to travel abroad.

It would be cool to hear from members who studied a language course in a place like Kharkov or some other city in Eastern Ukraine where Russian is the de facto language. Ukraine is definitely the cheapest of the 3 but I'm not sure how often locals use Ukrainian as opposed to Russian. I've never been there, but it seems that the country is an absolute mess and there's not much to do besides hitting on girls.

[Giacomo Casanova]

Great post Gopnik, very informative! How do you compare the easiness to get a shag from clubs compared to Krakow and Minsk? Being a Spanish is a great plus for Russian girls? For example, Swiss, French and Italians have definitely a strong advantage with FSU girls compared to foreigners from Anglo countries in terms of reception, from what I have noticed.

[Rocha]

^^The only things they like in Swiss guys is their wallets.
Besides from this, I dont see any other advantage of Swiss guys regarding any other Western nationality, quite the opposite, since native Swiss people are by nature the most anti-social in the West, quite the opposite of the sometimes hotheaded and typical impredictability of Slavs.

[ZAMSKI]

Awesome data sheet Gopnik!

[Gopnik]

(07-19-2017 03:00 PM)Giacomo Casanova Wrote:  

Great post Gopnik, very informative! How do you compare the easiness to get a shag from clubs compared to Krakow and Minsk? Being a Spanish is a great plus for Russian girls? For example, Swiss, French and Italians have definitely a strong advantage with FSU girls compared to foreigners from Anglo countries in terms of reception, from what I have noticed.

I'd say having a ONS is way easier in Kraków than in Minsk. In my experience, Belarusian girls are considerably more conservative and it's more common for girls there to be married before they're 25.

To be fair however, I was in Minsk 3 years ago, when I spoke almost no Russian and my game was a bit worse. Perhaps I'd get a different impression now, but I'm 100% sure, girls there are not as DTF.

Being Spanish has been a plus so far (in the FSU) but the biggest advantage comes from speaking Russian. Being Spanish in Poland for example is no longer a big advantage.

I personally haven't noticed a bad reception towards Anglo guys at all. Keep in mind that the first foreign language that these girls learn is English and even in Russia you can find "westernized" girls that love anything American.

The bottom line I'd say is being a westerner (no matter the nationality) is mostly positive in the FSU but the real game changer is speaking their language.

No one get's cockblocked just because of their nationality except perhaps guys from Turkey or other muslim countries (and even then, I've met Turkish guys with good game that do well).