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Hi guys,
After having visited the United States of America (great people !), I want to visit another fascinating country that I have loved for a long time: the federation of Russia.
However, I know little about traveling in Russia, tbh, except that the West (St Petersburg and Moscow mainly) is more modern.
I do speak some Russian, and I'm still studying it. Do Russian in general speak some English / French ?
Have you been there (or are you Russian) ?
It's pretty famous that Russian are quite xenophobic, but as a white skinned blue eyed heterosexual European, it should okay.
Any special place to visit except the famous ones ?
Thank you, guys !

I have been to the Soviet Union, Moscow and Leningrad.

I found there were the same amount of cool people and arseholes as anywhere else, but I am a white western guy, so....

(But I've had similar experiences in Japan FWIW.)

Obviously you'll want to visit the Hermitage and the Summer Palace in St Petersburg, and the Kremlin in Moscow. I remember Leningrad being in general a beautiful city, with all the bridges and canals.

I expect a lot of the stuff has gone from the time when I was there. Is there still a GUM department store in Red Square?

 godardc wrote:
Hi guys,
After having visited the United States of America (great people !), I want to visit another fascinating country that I have loved for a long time: the federation of Russia.
However, I know little about traveling in Russia, tbh, except that the West (St Petersburg and Moscow mainly) is more modern.
I do speak some Russian, and I'm still studying it. Do Russian in general speak some English / French ?
Have you been there (or are you Russian) ?
It's pretty famous that Russian are quite xenophobic, but as a white skinned blue eyed heterosexual European, it should okay.
Any special place to visit except the famous ones ?
Thank you, guys !

Now is probably not the best time to attempt such travel.

However, in that vein, I can impart at least some details on travel (thanks to an aborted trip last year). You will require a visa ahead of time, this will cost money (varies depending on where you come from) and take a few weeks to acquire. You will be required to have a local sponsor for your trip who will have to apply for the visa on your behalf and register you with the local authorities (this can be a hotel) where you are staying. If you spend time in multiple different cities and spend more than 7 days at one, you will have to reregister with the local authorities in the new place through your sponsor. Your visa will also be required to be valid to *leave* Russia (don't overstay your visa and don't lose it or stuff will get weird). There are regions and entire cities which, as a foreigner, you cannot enter without prior authorization.

That said, St. Petersburg is by all accounts an awesome place to visit, and Moscow is basically the heart of Russia, those are the primary two places I'd be looking at visiting, just keep in mind they're ~700km apart so factor that into travel plans. One fine day I'll make it over there...but alas, probably not soon. Hope you manage to make it there!

Ofc I'll be traveling this summer and not right now haha
I would have preferred traveling in winter, as I wanted to see Moscow under the snow but summer isn't bad, is it ?

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I have been to the Soviet Union, Moscow and Leningrad.

The Soviet Union, Leningrad... It feels so old and it was merely 30 years ago. Just a generation ago !