Eastern Europe

Another thing to consider is that in some of the former Eastern Bloc nations, Romania for example, there's still a huge white slavery trade that's very active. And even though they've been self-governing for about 20 years now, the health care systems (STDs) hasn't quite caught up with the economy.

So be careful where you hobby in Eastern Europe.

If it was me, I'd stick to the government-sponsored bordellos and licensed establishments / indies / even, SWs. Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

Interesting. For some reason Romania has always intrigued me. I just recently saw a creeepy foreign Romanian film called 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days........check it out if you have Netflix.

Most of them -- don't know about deepest darkest Russia -- speak passable English. When I was in Czech Republic in the early 90s I had to commmunicate in German or French.


When I was back there a couple years ago, even the streetcorner bums spoke English.

Maybe our schools ain't that fucking great, eh?

Wh Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

Howdy, Folks!

Roger that on the condition of American schools...

I too have made a number of trips to the Wild Wild East, starting in 1999 when things were at their worst. I have not been in the last 5 years but... I can speak at best very rudimentary Russian. I can easily navigate the metros on my own and can read most anything you see in a storefront. That is about the minimum I would advise in terms of Russia.

In Moscow or St Petersburg many people speak some English but more do not speak any. By the time you get to the next tier of cities like Ekaterinburg English is definitely not common, and then the next step down like Kazan very few people speak English. The towns essentially no one speaks English.

It is quite an adventure if you have a certain sort of mindset and do not mind a LOT of misadventure in the mix. Really, the experience of a lifetime in my opinion.

But honestly I cannot recommend Russia to anyone who has not already done a lot research, learned the alphabet and a fair number of words etc etc on their own. If you know for some reason you really want to go - enough to where you are doing some real background to support your trip, it may be just your thing. If not it is for sure not for you. You need to have a weird mix of smarts, street smarts, craziness and lots of basic raw stupidity to just roll around in Russia. It is not for most people, not really even for many people at all.

The truly Europe part of Eastern Europe is a much more manageable trip.

I too have made a number of trips to the Wild Wild East, starting in 1999 when things were at their worst. I have not been in the last 5 years but... I can speak at best very rudimentary Russian. I can easily navigate the metros on my own and can read most anything you see in a storefront. That is about the minimum I would advise in terms of Russia.

In Moscow or St Petersburg many people speak some English but more do not speak any. By the time you get to the next tier of cities like Ekaterinburg English is definitely not common, and then the next step down like Kazan very few people speak English. The towns essentially no one speaks English.

It is quite an adventure if you have a certain sort of mindset and do not mind a LOT of misadventure in the mix. Really, the experience of a lifetime in my opinion.

But honestly I cannot recommend Russia to anyone who has not already done a lot research, learned the alphabet and a fair number of words etc etc on their own. If you know for some reason you really want to go - enough to where you are doing some real background to support your trip, it may be just your thing. If not it is for sure not for you. You need to have a weird mix of smarts, street smarts, craziness and lots of basic raw stupidity to just roll around in Russia. It is not for most people, not really even for many people at all.

The truly Europe part of Eastern Europe is a much more manageable trip. Originally Posted by DatManDu

Can you elaborate?

It is kind of hard to really explain. Maybe an example will help.

Learning the alphabet and some basic words, some cultural aspects and a few things about the people, the fact that at the time you would only be able to exchange brand new $100 bills, nothing else, and at that time any sort of ATM or credit card transaction was really sketchy, so you had to carry a bunch of cash. That is being smart.

Not having anyone to meet at the airport, no contacts at all in fact, no name, much less an address of a hotel, not bothering to find out what time of day your flights arrive - essentially just showing up with no plan no identity, all your nice crispy new $100 bills and little hope of replacing them, in a country you already basically know and will soon confirm firsthand is so foreign you might as well be on another planet?

Now that is pretty fuckin' stupid. Colossally stupid in fact. Crazy stupid. But if it seems practical, sensible, just traveling with minimal fuss, something you would do and not think much about even then by all means go for it. You are definitely cut out for the place.