Way to Russia Talk Lounge

It's not so much as to whether they can afford them or not, as to feasibility. Russian cities have little established infrastructure between them. As a result, suburbs are under-developed and less c ...

Intourist: As I said, Estonia is a much more developed nation than Russian and always was. It's a different culture. Even in the soviet times when everything was and looked the same in all cities in s ...

I'm a noob about this kind of stuff. What is MID? Ministry of something? Did they have an inside connection?

Thanks for the info!

MID is Ministiry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerstvo Innostrannikh ...

A friend of mine did it last week through a channel at MID for $200. It took about 4 or 5 days.

No way in hell you're getting me on either of them. I really do hate heights. Combined with the aging aspects of both of them, you'd have better luck playing pick-up stick with your butt-cheeks than ...

Shout English at the top of your lungs while drunk, carrying thousands of dollars worth of goods and traveling on a late-night prigorodnaya elektrichka if you want. I have, and had no trouble apart fr ...

I haven't actually crossed the Ukrainian border by train, but friends and relatives have, and I've crossed the border with Latvia, Estonian and Finland.

No, you don't get off the train. Passport c ...

I am wondering why you've been in Russia for 12 years.

I enjoy it. My career's here (for the time being), I have family here, friends, interesting experiences, I'm next to Europe, I get to speak R ...

I was trying to figure out what you disagree on with MrSpice

Well, if you can only live here if you speak Russian, then those of us that didn't speak Russian would never have come, would we ? You ...

Incidentally, if Russian officials do ever give you an unfairly hard time whilst questioning you; take private comfort in the fact that they are only doing it out of nothing but fear

Hmm, I think t ...

Spice, again, with all due respect, but Estonia (and other Baltics were 'Soviet' for forty years to your seventy. Still a long time. While admittedly smaller and perhaps more easily managed, I never ...

If he does not speak Russian well enough for a street conversation, he should not live in Russia. It's not a place where many people speak English.

I happen to strongly disagree. Yeah, it's tough ...

Hmm... it's just a debate, Intourist. No big deal. I'm not sure why you became so confrontational.

When I'm rudely told not to reply if I don't like it ? [Sign of frustration from Intourist]. Wha ...

Jesus Christ. If someone did cross it, Maxca, it was a scientific expidition or explorers or something. The region on either side (in the winter when it's frozen) is several thousand miles of frozen ...

Intourist, it has been done before. If I had unlimited financial resources and a couple of years of free time, I think I'd do it. OBVIOUSLY, it's not a drive, it's an expedition.

So stop bashing o ...