Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

  New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site
  New Feature: SMS Notification alert
  New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist
  

FM Forums | Canon Forum | Join Upload & Sell

1
       2       end
  

Archive 2015 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia

  
 
PatrickSweeney
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


So, the wife and I are taking a river cruise. I've done river cruises before, that I know. but Russia?

Anything to look out for (good and/or bad) and to avoid?

What is customs like, are there places you aren't supposed to photograph, that you don't find out until someone points a Kalashnikov at your face?



Apr 27, 2015 at 06:35 PM
Sarsfield
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


Not to be glib or irreverent or obnoxious but why Russia? My brother spent several years over there and likened it to 1930's Chicago. Not sure why anyone other than Snowden would want to visit that country right now. Good luck with your trip.


Apr 27, 2015 at 06:59 PM
Paul Mo
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


Keep an eye out for collectible lenses.


Apr 27, 2015 at 07:09 PM
sirimiri
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


You should ask FM-ers Kolor-Pikker and Snopchenko about Russia.

I have a bit of experience there as a foreigner. I think it's safe to say that Russia isn't Europe, it really is well and truly its own place.

You've picked a great time to go, as the ruble is a bit shoddy right now and Moscow and "Piotr" (Sankt-Peterburg) are more affordable than they've been in many years.



Apr 27, 2015 at 07:39 PM
chez
Online
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


Sarsfield wrote:
Not to be glib or irreverent or obnoxious but why Russia? My brother spent several years over there and likened it to 1930's Chicago. Not sure why anyone other than Snowden would want to visit that country right now. Good luck with your trip.


Why not? Travel to me is about different cultures and different architectures. Lots of history in Russia. It definitely is on my hit list of destination places.



Apr 27, 2015 at 08:12 PM
Don Clary
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


I went on a river cruise from St. Petersburg, along the Neva river, through Lake Ladoga and Onega, to Kishi Island, to Goritsy, Yaroslavl, Uglich, along the canal to Moscow., in 2011. You'll have a great time! The tour guides on the ship were very helpful.

Near St Petersburg, you should visit Catherine's Palace (Puskin palace or Tsarskoye Selo) and Peterhof. Both were an extra cost option, and quite worth it. You should visit St Isaacs Cathedral, and Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St Petersburg.

You must visit Kishi Island , where there is a huge open air museum of wooden onion dome churches. They were dis-assembled from their original site, transported there, and re-assembled on the island.

In Yaroslavl, see and photograph inside the church of St Elijah the Prophet. This is significant, because most churches (especially in the Kremlin, the Annunciation, Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals) will not allow photos to be taken inside. You can take all the pictures you want outside.

In Uglich, you can photograph inside and out of Church of St Dmitry on Spilled blood.

In Moscow, go crazy inside the Kremlin, but a great tip from someone else: Pay the fee to go up in the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, as it will give you a high vantage and photographic point inside the Kremlin, that you can't get anywhere else!

I can speak limited Russian and can read the Cyrillic alphabet. That was a help as I ran around Moscow on my own and on the subway. Asked the locals for directions. The interiors of the different Moscow subway stations are spectacular.





Spilled Blood St Petersburg







Triton fountain in Peterhof







Kishi churches







Archangel and Annunciation Cath from Ivan Bell Tower




Apr 27, 2015 at 10:32 PM
Guest

Guest
p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


*snicker* 1930's Chicago... Yeah, right. Oh well. Maybe in the 90s.
I have no experience with river cruises unfortunately - always deemed them too slow for my hectic schedule - but I liked the ancient cities, Yaroslavl and Uglich among others.
in Moscow and St. Pete's there are decent English language direction signs and limited English language announcements in public transportation.
Places and, ahem, "people" to avoid are, I believe, the same as in every other country. There may be problems photographing important infrastructure like bridges and tunnels but I never ran into any, just heard about this. Not much sense in photographing a tunnel anyways, methinks. You are not allowed to use flash or tripod in St. Pete's subway system but the general ban on photography has been lifted a few years ago.
I'll scavenge around the archives a bit and expand upon the "recommended" sights... Stay tuned.



Apr 28, 2015 at 02:16 AM
John_T
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


...and the Hermitage cats...


Apr 28, 2015 at 03:08 AM
Guest

Guest
p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


John_T wrote:
...and the Hermitage cats...

Yeah, that too.
Alrighty, here are some of the spots I liked. Yaroslavl and everything in the region is a sure bet.
http://pp.vk.me/c10953/v10953358/38a/5M4iCY7Uvl0.jpg
http://pp.vk.me/c10953/v10953358/4aa/NJ6QGdlDi9A.jpg
Myshkin:
http://pp.vk.me/c10953/v10953358/6b4/8MjwcGTi6XU.jpg
Uglich:
https://pp.vk.me/c10953/v10953358/7d4/k5MnUgYr34I.jpg
Rostov the Great (not the southern one):
http://pp.vk.me/c10953/v10953358/9ba/i-B9b5-cTRw.jpg
Honestly, I don't know why they needed so many churches. Unfortunately, there's very few secular buildings from that era left - guess it's because before the 18th century the living buildings were mostly wooden, and thus have not survived. Some of the stone stuff was in a dreadful state. All of these shots are from my trip in March 2012; since it was winter they may not be indicative of what the OP is going to see. Well, from what I saw pretty much every old church is worth visiting for one reason or another. Ditto the old fortresses, but I'm less sure about the other kinds of buildings because most are not kept well and/or have been rebuilt in the interim.

Here's a few more I have up - this is from Vladimir region in March 2007 (wtf!)
http://pp.vk.me/c9297/v9297358/1675/jIjvC3gGMs4.jpg
Church of the Intercession on the Nerl (from mid-12th century; UNESCO heritage site). Made a powerful impression despite being under repairs at the time, and the pretty inclement weather (I remember my woefully inadequate shoes that occupied my mind instead of the actual shooting). This shot was made with a KM 7D camera I owned at the time. (!)
And one of Kazan (May 2007) - the Kul Sharif mosque (not historic).
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa262/snopchenko/Kazan/IMG_1525.jpg



Apr 28, 2015 at 04:11 AM
MGSwiss
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


My first suggestion would be to learn the russian (cyrillic) alphabet.. it will take you no longer than a few hours and helps you reading street names etc outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.. I lived in Moscow and agree that Yaroslavl is worth to see

Safe travels

Michael



Apr 28, 2015 at 04:56 AM
Guest

Guest
p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


MGSwiss wrote:
My first suggestion would be to learn the russian (cyrillic) alphabet.. it will take you no longer than a few hours and helps you reading street names etc outside Moscow and St. Petersburg.. I lived in Moscow and agree that Yaroslavl is worth to see

Safe travels

Michael


A good suggestion. Not that the alphabet is very different from Latin, since they're both derived from Greek, and many letters are identical (though not all have identical meaning). It's not like Thai or Tamil.



Apr 28, 2015 at 05:46 AM
sirimiri
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


Just when you think you've got Cyrillic licked, they throw the lower-case alphabet at you.

Undeterred, you press on and begin understanding that, too.

Then, they begin using Cyrillic cursive... and you cry out for your mother.

Russia on a good day is "spontaneous".
Russia on a bad day is "unpredictable".

Either way it is worth seeing, and will give one a much wider perspective. Like most travel, actually.

I spent two two weeks there earlier this month. Why can't we offer a good heavy cream (сметана ) like they do?



Apr 28, 2015 at 11:10 AM
Paul Mo
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


Sarsfield wrote:
Not to be glib or irreverent or obnoxious but why Russia? My brother spent several years over there and likened it to 1930's Chicago.


Not quite Russia, but I found the Russian hoods in Tashkent to be more 1980's hip hop two-piece nylon tracksuit and gold bracelet styles. Black BMW or Mercedes a prerequisite. Perhaps they were ahead of their time?

Like Chez, man, Russia is on the list.






Apr 28, 2015 at 09:06 PM
Dave McGaughey
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


I went about a decade ago. One important question: are you white (or look white)? Those with darker skin often have a less pleasant experience.


Apr 28, 2015 at 09:30 PM
Guest

Guest
p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


Dave McGaughey wrote:
I went about a decade ago. One important question: are you white (or look white)? Those with darker skin often have a less pleasant experience.

I find that overblown. There are lots of different people around but how many times do you hear about any accidents? One thing for sure: it doesn't help to look like a tourist (lots of expensive looking equipment on display, absent-minded looks, obvious lack of language knowledge) - that may attract unwanted attention of another, purely practical kind. Though I haven't heard a lot of such news either - it's either not that common now, or slips well below the newsmen's radars.
P.S. St. Pete's is a students' city so there are lots of people from all over the world. I walk past the academy of arts every day when going to the office, and it's teeming with Chinese. Lots of blacks studying in the Mining institute farther down the river. I dunno about the smaller cities though.



Apr 29, 2015 at 02:42 AM
3catsinky
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


I wouldn't mind heading over there myself, to the Ukraine or thereabouts and bring back a beautiful, blonde souvenir :-)


Apr 29, 2015 at 06:08 AM
Guest

Guest
p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


3catsinky wrote:
I wouldn't mind heading over there myself, to the Ukraine or thereabouts and bring back a beautiful, blonde souvenir :-)

It's a "little bit" complicated with Ukraine now but you sound so assured. Do you have a magic potion? Or does the MDP do that to the women?



Apr 29, 2015 at 07:59 AM
john_edwards
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


Been there, done that, had a great time.

Some things I learned that others probably won't mention:
Good vodka is really good
After visiting some of the museums and palaces the 1917 revolution really makes sense.
Make sure to visit the Gum department store.
If you have a pre-trip option of visiting Tallinn (Eastonia) it's worth it. And if you do go to the hotel
Viru and check out the KGB museum. You do want to do this.
And one thing, the people in Russia are pretty much like people anywhere. If you are friendly, polite and nice, they are too.

It's a great trip, one of many I'd do again if time permitted.
John



Apr 29, 2015 at 10:20 AM
PatrickSweeney
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


Thanks for the advice and info.

No worries about safety, and not being a target. I grew up in and around a big, dangerous city, and I pretty much naturally give off a "don't f with me"" vibe.

Been to Tallin twice, the first time I even went to Paldiski.

This promises to be fun.



Apr 29, 2015 at 10:54 AM
Guest

Guest
p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · OK, my turn; help on travels to Russia


If you find yourself in St. Petersburg PM me and I'll try to help you around if you need that (but better do it some time in advance because of the off chance that I'll be outta town at that time.


May 03, 2015 at 05:20 AM
1
       2       end




FM Forums | Canon Forum | Join Upload & Sell

1
       2       end
    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.