{"id":10707,"date":"2018-05-01T07:35:48","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T07:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=10707"},"modified":"2018-06-08T18:43:29","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T18:43:29","slug":"advice-for-first-time-travelers-to-russia-by-emily-owens-altman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/advice-for-first-time-travelers-to-russia-by-emily-owens-altman\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice for First-Time Travelers to Russia by Emily Owens Altman"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is the first in a series of first-hand accounts<\/a> and tips from people who have traveled to Russia. They will share their experiences and give prospective visitors some advice. Our first guest author is\u00a0Emily Owens Altman, a librarian in Richmond, Virginia. The rest of this post is by Emily, with Russian spellings and translations of Russian words added in by me.<\/p>\n

\"GUM

GUM department store in Moscow \/\/ image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

Trips to Russia and Ukraine<\/h2>\n

I spent 10 months on Moscow in 2006-2007, during my junior year in college. I was at a small college which didn’t have a real exchange program with Russia, so I was enrolled directly at in a program of Russian for foreigners. I lived in a Russian \u043e\u0431\u0449\u0435\u0436\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u0438\u0435<\/strong> (dormitory) with mostly Russian students, and I didn’t really know many other English-speakers. I always feel really proud of how much I grew up that year…it wasn’t easy, but it was definitely one of the most important experiences of my life. On that trip, I traveled to St. Petersburg (\u0421\u0430\u043d\u043a\u0442-\u041f\u0435\u0442\u0435\u0440\u0431\u0443<\/span>\u0440\u0433<\/strong>) and Nizhny Novgorod (\u041d\u0438<\/span>\u0436\u043d\u0438\u0439 \u041d\u043e<\/span>\u0432\u0433\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0434<\/strong>; highly recommend!). The picture from July 2007 was at the very end of my Moscow-year.<\/p>\n

I spent another month in Moscow and Ukraine (mostly Kiev and Lviv; \u041a\u0438<\/span>\u0435\u0432<\/strong> and \u041b\u044c\u0432\u043e<\/span>\u0432<\/strong> in Russian) in summer 2009. Also a good trip! I stayed with friends in Moscow, but spent most of my days solo. I went to Ukraine (\u0423\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0438\u043d\u0430) on my own as well.<\/p>\n

\"Emily<\/p>\n

Emily in Russia \/\/ image provided by Emily Owens Altman<\/p>\n

Are Russians hostile to foreigners?<\/h2>\n

That was not my experience while I was there. These were the Bush years, and I do remember one person (a friend’s father) getting pretty hot about “\u0430\u043c\u0435\u0440\u0438\u043a\u043e<\/span>\u0441\u044b<\/strong>” (gringos, Yankees) and Afghanistan after a few drinks, but I didn’t feel physically unsafe. However, the current political atmosphere feels a lot more tense, so I’d probably be be cautious about identifying myself as an American around strangers. My other caveat would be that my experience was as a white person, which is unfortunately a privileged position when it comes to safe travel in Russia…I had a couple dark-skinned friends from the dormitory who were assaulted or harassed.<\/p>\n

How can I stay safe?<\/h2>\n

Moscow is probably not different from other big cities in this respect. Stay aware of your surroundings, and don’t look naive. I had a “trolleybus<\/a> (\u0442\u0440\u043e\u043b\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0439\u0431\u0443\u0441<\/strong>) face”…No smile, eyes unfocused but always looking around. I used a small purse with a high arm strap for my money and passport, and I kept it tight under my arm at all times. If I was carrying anything bigger, I used an ugly-looking tote, or \u043f\u0430\u043a\u0435<\/span>\u0442<\/strong>. My friend was pick-pocketed on the bus, and she didn’t find out until it was too late because her purse was hanging around the back of her hip where she couldn’t see or feel it.<\/p>\n

\"credit

Image via Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

How much Russian do I need to know?<\/h2>\n

It definitely depends on what your goals are and how well you handle discomfort and awkwardness, but I would recommend learning as much as you can. I think Russia is a much harder place to visit without knowing the language than Western Europe. Having money or sticking with a tour group or student group would be good ways around this.<\/p>\n

I wanted to travel solo, make my own plans, and learn Russian, and I would not have been able to do those things if I wasn’t already at a pretty solid intermediate-level when I arrived. Even if your goals are less ambitious, I think you’ll get a lot more out of Russia if you can at least read a map or menu. Learn to read Cyrillic if nothing else…it really won’t take more than a couple hours!<\/p>\n

How can I keep in touch with friends and family?<\/h2>\n

I’m sure this has all changed since I was in Moscow! I did not have a cell phone in the US at the time, so I bought the cheapest Russian cell phone I could find and a Russian SIM card as soon as I arrived in Moscow. I called home about once a month (minutes were expensive!) and mostly used the phone to text my friends in Russia. I didn’t have a computer at the time, but would stop by an internet-cafe once every week or two.<\/p>\n

Are food and water safe?<\/h2>\n

I avoided cold tap water (as did my Russian friends) but drank tea made from tap water constantly. Russian food is great, and I ate all of it. I gained 20 pounds during my year in Russia! I ate lots of inexpensive cafeteria lunches, street food, mysterious pickles from open-air markets, and never had any trouble. Use common sense, but I wouldn’t worry too much about food poisoning.<\/p>\n

\"bus

By Artem Svetlov<\/a> from Moscow, Russia – Moscow bus Ikarus-435 09469<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>, Link<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

What’s the best way of getting around?<\/h2>\n

I would be careful about taxis, especially as a young woman travelling alone. I had a couple unpleasant sexual harassment situations during my year in Moscow, and the scariest one was in a taxi, after the friend I had been out with that evening got dropped off. I haven’t researched whether Uber is safer now, but I would not hail an unmarked taxi or ride alone in one (especially late at night, especially after drinking).<\/p>\n

In Moscow, I think the Metro (\u043c\u0435\u0442\u0440\u043e<\/span><\/strong>) is the best way to get around. I used it daily, often alone, after dark, or after drinking, and never ran into any trouble. The bus, trolley, and tram all felt safe and ran frequently also (and sometimes you get some great window-views). This was true in Moscow and in the other cities I visited.<\/p>\nWe will continue this series in the future. I would like to thank Emily for sharing her insights. How does Emily’s experience compare to yours? What would you add?<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"GUM

This post is the first in a series of first-hand accounts and tips from people who have traveled to Russia. They will share their experiences and give prospective visitors some advice. Our first guest author is\u00a0Emily Owens Altman, a librarian in Richmond, Virginia. The rest of this post is by Emily, with Russian spellings and…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":10714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[507290,507291,7432,7433,349783,10800],"class_list":["post-10707","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-when-in-russia","tag-emily-owens-altman","tag-first-time-in-russia","tag-guest-blogger","tag-guest-post","tag-tips-for-travelers","tag-travel-to-russia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10707"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10793,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10707\/revisions\/10793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}