Firstly for any travelers reading this, if you have to choose between St. Petersburg and Moscow, go with St. Petersburg. Moscow is interesting, but incredibly frustrating at the same time. Even in the most popular tourist locations like the Kremlin there is no English, or even pictures so you can figure it out, everything is in Cyrillic. Also the metro and train system here is very difficult to figure out, and finally the people are not approachable, and downright unfriendly to foreigners. I cant tell you how many times we were denied things, here, or told not available, just to turn around and get it from someone else.
St. Petersburg is the complete opposite, the metro has maps with both the Cyrillic and English Alphabet which makes it a breeze to navigate, people were friendly and willing to help, and as you would expect in the major tourist sites there were maps (pictures) and even signs in Languages other than Russian. Why the difference, maybe the proximity to Europe? Also we felt that the sites we visited in St. Petersburg were in all very rewarding, while some of the sites we visited in Moscow are not worth the entry ticket price.
For example, if I had to do it again I would not pay to enter the Kremlin, it is just as beautiful from the outside as from the inside. Also don't waste your money on the Amory, the jewel display is nothing to right home about, we were told you must see the Fabergé eggs, so we payed the 350 rubles, and when we got there said "is that it?". If you have seen the Queens Jewel House in London you will be very disappointed in the Amory. Also St. Basils is very beautiful on the outside, but not worth the admission.
So to sum up Russia, it is very expensive, you will find yourself charged for everything from using the toilet, to taking pictures of the skyline (we never paid for the use of our camera, only got busted 1 time). The country seems very insular, they are not geared up to support foreign travel and in fact make you feel very unwelcome. However St. Petersburg is a ray of hope, and if they can do away with the backwards visa rules and make it easy fro Europeans to visit, I can see that city taking off as a must visit city. The architecture, history and atmosphere are awesome.
1 comment:
St. Petersberg is the center of Russian monarchy; Moscow is the center of communism. I guess royalty is a better foundation for hospitality than dictatorship.
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