I’m going to describe here my experience when travelling to Russia last month.

Russia is becoming a more popular destination for tourists from all over the world since some years ago, so that’s the reason for this post; I feel in obligation to warn possible future tourists about some things.

I organized a trip to Russia and Scandinavia through Dubai. The itinerary was: Moscow – Oslo (flight) – Stockholm (flight) – Helsinki (ferry) – St. Petersburg (train) – Moscow (train).

Moscow and mainly St. Petersburg are really beautiful cities. St. Petersburg is, without any doubt, one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. However, travelling to Russia was something really complicated and why not telling “traumatizing” in some ways.

Above, I detail some problems I had:

My bags were broken and things were stolen from inside the TWO times I departed from Moscow (Domodedovo airport – to Oslo and when coming back to Dubai), and it doesn’t only happened to my bag... there were at least 5 passengers from my flight at the Emirates Luggage counter at the airport (Dubai), all of them with bags without the zipper puller and lockers (yes, it doesn’t matter if you have a locker with universal key in your bag, they break the zipper, once it’s easier) and all bags were not properly closed. All passengers obviously checked their belongings right there in the airport when they saw their bags broken, and there were missing things in all cases. At my bag, there were perfumes, an external HD (ok, I shouldn’t have checked in that, anyway…) and a shirt missing. From a British woman, perfume, make ups, shoes. I didn’t wait longer to see what about the other passengers. Of course, there was also a lost with the bag itself. Emirates or any other company doesn’t have responsibility for things inside checked in bags, be aware of that.

That happened at the airport when I was already coming back. Let me come back in time now, tell you a little bit about the day-by-day in Moscow and St. Petersburg:

Just a very few people speak English in the streets (if it’s a person older than 40 y.o., this person don’t speak English at all). Signals or orientation in English are rare. Taking a subway, train or ask for information is something really difficult. English is spoken in hotels (of course), top restaurants (some), souvenirs stores, and that’s all. I travel a lot, I’ve been to the most hidden places in Southeast Asia for example, and even in those places I had never seen something like that. A simple “hello” or “thank you” is not spoken. Taking the train from St. Petersburg back to Moscow was a nightmare. No one could obviously give information at the train station because English was not spoken. The panel with trains and platform information was written in Russian only, I was “lucky” that my train was a bullet one, different from the normal ones, and I could identify it by running between platforms. Ticket was bought with the hotel concierge, so I knew the wagon and seats at least (to buy tickets at the train station is impossible if you don’t speak Russian – and tickets are written in Russian only).

I’m always concerned about generalizations. However, I can tell without any guilt that Russian people at its biggest part is really rude, at least those ones living in Russia. They are no friendly at all, they don’t smile, they look at you in a terrible way, they don’t make a minimum effort to be nice with tourists, even with mimics (only way to communicate in most cases). They simply push you if you don’t walk fast like them, they don’t respect lines if they see you are a tourist in the line. A simple question we all make “do you speak English?” seems to be a big offense to them; many of them simply turned their backs on me after I asked that, and answered something in Russian which I bet wasn’t nice.

Tourists are treated like possible suspect of something. In all stores there is a huge man who follows you wherever you go, or if he doesn’t do that, he keep looking at you. Even in hotels there are those men. That’s terrible; it’s a feeling of being a viable suspect of thief or terrorist every time, I don’t know.

There are not taxis as we know in Russia (at least in Moscow or St. Petersburg). What exist are ordinary cars (some with identification, at its biggest part “Ladas” or really old cars) that simply stop and ask you if you need a (paid) ride… taximeters doesn’t exist; they charge you how much they want and you can accept or not. You must have a map of streets with destination clearly marked (English not spoken) every time you think about taxis, and if possible, a map with streets names written in Russian. Taxi Drivers are able to tell “four hundred” or prices they wanna charge you, so that’s ok to know how much you are going to pay at least.

Russia is not as safe as the biggest part of Western Europe. Be careful where to go and when. Lots of dark streets in the nights, many drunk people in the streets.

After the Domodedovo suicide attack, to departure from this airport (and I guess, from all other) became difficult. You pass through a first X-Ray at the main entrance, with all your luggage, there is a huge line. A rude man police officer touches you hardly (even if you are a woman – no female offices when I passed by). Until getting into the airplane, more 2 X-Rays will be in your way (talking about police: all police officers in Russia were really rude, and of course, didn’t speak any English – If you need police for anything, you are definitely lost).

Well, in a few words, that’s it.

If you really want to go to Russia, I recommend choosing St. Petersburg and skipping Moscow (more beautiful and less rude people).

Don’t forget to carry everywhere an English or your language-Russian dictionary.
I’m kinda against tourism packages or travelling with groups with a tour guide, but in Russia, I truly believe this is the best thing to do.

To finish, I wanna make some things clear here, to avoid problems with people who might feel offended with this post: I am talking about my own experiences, about what happened to me in my trip, to what I saw. It doesn’t mean all tourists have or will have problems if travelling to Russia. Also, I didn’t tell at any moment that all Russians from all parts of the world are rude. What I told is that the biggest part of the Russians from the places I visited, in Russia, were. I don’t want to upset anybody here.

I do understand that Russia had recently (yes, 20 years is recently) left a political system that isolated the country from the world in a way for a long time, and I know it can explain some problems they have now (language and rudeness). I know that, I don’t blame anybody. I’m just talking about my experience, hoping to help next travellers to Russia, and that’s all.

Cheers!