russia

[PhillyB]

looks like i'll be going for two weeks in december if everything works out.

 

anyone been? any tips? ideas? general advice?

 

anyone here speak russian? i'm packing in as much as possible between now and then, debating ordering rosetta stone (though the idea of dropping 400$ on the full package makes me cringe.) i'm familiar with cyrillic already because i tried to teach the language to myself about five years ago, but ended up getting bored with it; i'm picking up where i left off and accelerating pretty quickly.

 

flights are stupid cheap. $500 roundtrip from NYC to Moscow. can't beat that

[PhillyB]

in b4 "bring a coat"

[TruCatzFan]

in b4 "bring a coat"

I'm a little confused in figuring out what you do. Know that you own your own bar somewhere, at least I think so.

But you also travel a lot to South America and stuff. Is that work related. I'm thinking that maybe you have a career and run the bar as a hobby?

Or have you just budgeted your money appropriately so that you can take off on a whim. Will the wife and baby be going?

[PhillyB]

I'm a little confused in figuring out what you do. Know that you own your own bar somewhere, at least I think so.

But you also travel a lot to South America and stuff. Is that work related. I'm thinking that maybe you have a career and run the bar as a hobby?

Or have you just budgeted your money appropriately so that you can take off on a whim. Will the wife and baby be going?

 

i work for the man... no owning of my own bar yet. i'm finishing up degrees in anthropology and archaeology and preparing for grad school, so traveling is both a personal passion of mine as well as professionally and academically-motivated. 

 

i can afford to travel because i don't smoke, keep my bar tabs under $10, don't drink unless i'm out with friends, pay for basic cable only, drive a shitty car, buy low and sell high, and reinvest every dime i earn into my properties (i paid off my house last week and i'm about to buy another one.)

 

i also work 60 hours a week in spite of being in school full-time. i allot money for trips by tossing all the change i make in tips in a jar instead of cashing it, as well as the odd dollar bills. thus far i've paid for two trips to peru and one to ecuador with it. another month and my russia trip will be fundable as well.

 

no wife and kid on this one. one of my best friends and i have been plotting to go on a trip together since we were teenagers, so we're finally gonna do it. we're 98% sure russia is our spot.

[TheRumGone]

 

i hear they like to drink vodka over there. or at least that's what my professor who fled the kgb reeked of.

[TruCatzFan]

i work for the man... no owning of my own bar yet. i'm finishing up degrees in anthropology and archaeology and preparing for grad school, so traveling is both a personal passion of mine as well as professionally and academically-motivated.

i can afford to travel because i don't smoke, keep my bar tabs under $10, don't drink unless i'm out with friends, pay for basic cable only, drive a shitty car, buy low and sell high, and reinvest every dime i earn into my properties (i paid off my house last week and i'm about to buy another one.)

i also work 60 hours a week in spite of being in school full-time. i allot money for trips by tossing all the change i make in tips in a jar instead of cashing it, as well as the odd dollar bills. thus far i've paid for two trips to peru and one to ecuador with it. another month and my russia trip will be fundable as well.

no wife and kid on this one. one of my best friends and i have been plotting to go on a trip together since we were teenagers, so we're finally gonna do it. we're 98% sure russia is our spot.

Very cool. I respect your work ethic for sure... Not many people like you and me out there these days. Most people these days are looking for gov handouts and feel entitled to everything without putting any work in. I'm working towards my BS of Science in Information Technology specializing in Security. I'm active Duty military and have been deployed 8 times. I'm a little behind where I should be at this point, but I've been catching up since I broke my back. I also have several IT Certs in Security. I have Security+, CISSP, and Certified Ethical Hacker V8. I'll retire when I'm 38 from active duty. I'd like to have my Masters by then. My wife teaches High School English but hasn't worked since our son was born. We made that decision before he was born. So we're making it on an E-7 salary. She's gonna go back to work in the fall. Edit: next fall. He'll be 3.5 by then.

We are also pretty well traveled. We've been on several 7 day cruises to the East, West, and Southern Carribean. Just got back from Hawaii recently. kind of sucked due to my injury but enjoying the sun and heat was a nice change from Alaska. We are good stewards of our money as well. We coupon, buy low and or on sale.

Pretty cool to learn about people's personal lives on here.

Best of luck to you on your trip. Stay out of trouble, especially with a childhood friend in Russia.

[Chimera]

What part of Russia? The backwoods areas are probably more xenophobic than backwoods Americans. Cities are fairly safe, but still keep your eye out for pickpockets. Like anywhere else, use sense when getting around - officially marked taxis, avoid brothels, etc.

[PhillyB]

What part of Russia? The backwoods areas are probably more xenophobic than backwoods Americans. Cities are fairly safe, but still keep your eye out for pickpockets. Like anywhere else, use sense when getting around - officially marked taxis, avoid brothels, etc.

 

have you been?

 

we'd be flying into moscow... we should have 10-12 days, so we'll probably hit saint petersburg, stalingrad if possible (the snow might make accessing the memorials kinda of difficult) and maybe chernobyl for the hell of it. as much as i'd love to head east, and the trans-siberian railway is one of my adventure meccas, it's not really feasible for this particular journey.

 

day-long layover in either frankfurt or geneva, too, which is cool.

[Squirrel]

in b4 "bring a coat"

 

 

Screw a coat bring a parka!

[Mother Grabber]

 

 

[Chimera]

have you been?

we'd be flying into moscow... we should have 10-12 days, so we'll probably hit saint petersburg, stalingrad if possible (the snow might make accessing the memorials kinda of difficult) and maybe chernobyl for the hell of it. as much as i'd love to head east, and the trans-siberian railway is one of my adventure meccas, it's not really feasible for this particular journey.

day-long layover in either frankfurt or geneva, too, which is cool.

no, but I knew many Russians when I lived abroad. they encouraged me to go , but I never found the time.

Basically what they told me is stick to cities and use common sense

not sure about Geneva, but a daylong layover in Frankfurt would be great. it's a very long walk, but you can catch an ICE train from the airport and visit a few cities in a day

[PhillyB]

we want to ride in a MiG but it's expensive as hell

[Chimera]

we want to ride in a MiG but it's expensive as hell

They are tiny - do they have space for a pilot +1?

[Panthro]

Arsen is from the Ukraine I think