CU L8ER USSR

Tuesday 28th September

With our iminent departure from Russia looming, I thought that I would share some observations with everyone. They are of course only my perspective and shouldnt be taken as gospel, but are merely presented here for others to perhaps identify with should they happen to find thereselves in this part of the world.

1. The key word that sums up Russia for me is "Functional", everything just works, ok it doesnt have all of the bells and whistles that some people are accustomed to, but nethertheless it works sometimes better than elsewhere. Take for instance their transportation system, now Russia is bloody mahoosive, in fact its so bloody big that its pretty incredible how their public transportation system could outshine that of the UK in every respect, but it does. The metro system in Moscow and St Petersberg is simple to navigate and costs the equivalent of a stick of chewing gum to ride on all day. Their train system just works, on schedule, with trains that were around long before I was and without the mod cons of back home, but in many ways it outstrips what we have in every way.

Most of the major cities have a functional tram system that is even cheaper than the metro yet convenient in the respect of being able to actually see where you want to get off. If that wasnt enough there are a million and one buses waiting eagerly to pick you up for the cost of a peanut and ferry you to your desired (or potentially not) destination.

2. Russian cities can be pretty ugly but to compensate they pack them full of beautiful people and it seems that the more ugly the city, the more beautiful people they breed to counter the balance. Now please bear in mind that I am talking about the sub 40 age bracket, after that it goes downhill pretty quickly to the point where I believe mirrors are banned from most houses and people only go out after dark. But the sub 40s are numerous and higly appreciated!

3. I never thought I would ever utter these words but "Russian chocolate is the best, full stop" I am completely gobsmacked by just how good the stuff is and someone should start to import it asap.

4. Lada??? Whats with that? I think its suffice to say that Jeremey Clarkson has pretty much sown up the disucssion on these cars, however I would just like to add that they are absolutely everywhere and in shapes and sizes unknown outside of the country.

5. Smoking! I believe that someone a long time ago passed a law that states anyone in Russia from the age of 8 upwards must consume at least one packet of cigarettes a day! Everyone seems to smoke here and a packet costs the equivalent of a chocolate bar back home(incidently a chocloate bar costs the equivalent of a peanut again).

6. Although it isnt for me to pass judgement, there seems to be a certain amount of repression within the country still. It is near on impossible for locals to obtain visas for most countries and if by some slim chance they are able to the chances are that they would need to travel to Moscow in order to obtain them (sometimes multiple days away with no limit on how long they would need to stay).

Russia has been a land of contrasts for me, you very seldom see people smiling, some of their prospects are pretty minimal, however they continue to work their socks off to make the country run like clockwork. There is so much that the country could be but there seems to be a lack of progression with most people just working all day to scrape a living with no promising future to motivate them.

Anyway on that rather sombre note, we are now on the train to Mongolia, the train is far more modern that our last one so I guess I may have to retract or at least modify statement 1, however that seems like too much hardwork.

There are also people who speak english onboard so its been nice to have our first proper conversation with people who dont just stare at you blankly. We were joined last night by some random large Russian in our compartment but he was gone again this morning so I guess we scared him away :-)

Ta ta for now!
Darren