Hello from Moscow & St. Petersburg
Date:	9/6/99 5:03:07 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Typing this from St. Petersburg.

1. Moscow. Got my visa at 8 am Friday, waited for the bus
to Moscow at 3pm, arrived there the next mom, 19 hours
later, on a Saturday. The bus dropped me at a bus stop, not
station. Everything around me was in Cyrillic language,
including Kodak, Pepsi, etc. I had no idea where I was, had
no Russian Rubbles, did not know which way to go, no one
spoke English, no info desk or tourist agency around, not
that I would have known if they were. But the weather was
gorgeous. I stood there for 30 minutes, asking myself what
the hell I was doing here, smoking a cigarette. At 9am I
got myself into motion.

Found a policeman and asked Centrum. He pointed "that way,"
2 kilometers. OK, with more than 50 pounds (23 kg) on my
back I began walking. Just to make sure I asked again
another policeman 30 min later. The direction was OK but he
indicated 3 more km. At 10 am, I saw a huge circular
complex quarter mile on my right. Thinking it was a
station, I walked that way. No, it was the stadium. I
stopped and observed the faces of people passing by me,
looking for a univ student type. I decided on a young
couple. Correct.

Eugen his name, and Christina, his girlfriend, first got me
into the basement of a building, to exchange money black
market. I got more Rubbles than from a bank, which were
closed this being Saturday. Next I asked for the train
station. Eugen told me there were about a dozen in Moscow,
which one I wanted. I said train to St. Petersburg. He got
me a taxi, negotiated the price, and within minutes I was
at the Station. One of my iron rules on this kind of trawl
is to secure my NEXT destination before I do anything at
this destination. (The other rule is never arrive at a city
you do not know after hours, for everything that might be
helpful is likely to be closed.)

I came to the Information desk. They did not speak English.
Following a Tarzan and Cheetah dialog, with me in the role
of Cheetah, I asked the lady to show me the ticket counter
for the St. Petersburg train. Next, I wanted a hotel near
where I was, not trusting myself with public transport, as
I could not decipher directions and stops, or even which
metro. Then I wanted a city tour.

To make things short, I got my ticket to St. Petersburg the
next night, and the bus for the city tour was right up
front. I took the 3-hour city tour. When everything looked
desperate at 9am, by 11:30 1 had everything under control.

Moscow is an immense city, not designed for walking except
at selected spots. Yes the cars and busses look older, many
streets and sidewalks need overhaul, as also many of the
gorgeous and ornate buildings, some of which cover several
large block Moscow is a vary pretty, imposing, classy city
really lacks nothing on NY or Washington, and it is larger.

2. St. Pete. Since I already saw Moscow on the tour there
was no reason for me to stay longer, as one more day would
not enable me to enlarge on what I had already seen. I
changed my ticket to that night, the midnight sleeper that
would arrive at 8 am on Sunday. I did, took a taxi to the
hostel, checked in, and then walked the NEVSKIY Street from
Hermitage Museum about 3 miles to the hostel, until about
9:30 pm, leaving the next day, my last in Russia, for the
Hermitage Museum and a 3-hour city tour in the afternoon. I
will take the midnight (Monday/Tuesday) bus to Tallinn
tonight. I am wry glad to have added Russia to my agenda,
enriched by seeing it.


Russia, Perspectives, Anatomy of Backpacking
Date:  9/6/99 7:01:11 AM Eastern Daylight Time
==============================================
1. Perspectives. One friend in the list complained about my
"jibes" against the USA. Friends, I am not so much writing
a travelogue with my email but mostly impressions. While we
are very fortunate to live in America, to me being a "good
American" does not mean closing my eyes to our sometimes
acute shortcomings. For example, I passed thru literally
hundreds of villages and walked miles and miles in dozens
of cities, mostly in "poor' Eastern Europe this far. When I
pointed out that I have not seen anything as neglected (and
dangerous) as the southeast Washington, DC, perhaps not
even northeast DC, I did so because this is true, like it
or not. I have also not seen the neglect and poverty of our
washed out coal mining towns, scattered properties in the
Appalachia with old tires and broken cars serving as lawn
ornaments, garbage scattered around. It is because I have
NOT seen any of these, despite the relative poverty here,
that I felt this stark contrast, the degree to which we
neglect a large portion of our population and land too.
That I am an ultra liberal has nothing to do with these
obvious conclusions. I want to massage my obviously biased
views and perspectives of ourselves, and of others. None of
this should take away from the pride we feel for being
American, but also appreciate the rightful pride others
feel for being a Russian, German, Lithuanian, etc. I am
merely sharing these views with you. If you are offended,
skip to the next paragraph.

The news we haw in USA about Russia is mostly about the
Russian Mafia, the country's economic problems, that things
are in chaos here, etc. Perhaps all true. But just walking
the streets in Moscow and St.Petersburg you see something
else. Well dressed men and women, hordes of them, going to
cafes and restaurants, visiting museums, having romance in
parks, just strolling and having fun, DESPITE the hardship
they and their country face. Some of the older faces I saw
at Moscow train station reminded me of the road map faces
in our old cold mining towns in West Virginia and
Pennsylvania, obviously belonging to people who have known
hardship, have endured it for much of their lives. By the
way, police and military presence in Moscow, especially at
public places and stations, is amazing. Hordes of them,
making sure street crime is minimized. I had no problems
with pick-pockets, actually worried more about the police
that, rumor has it, sometimes abuses its office to demand
money from foreigners. Again, I had no such problems.

As for traveling to Russia alone, the caution I made about
travel in Eastern Europe in general goes double for Russia.
The country is perhaps a decade behind in amenities. Join a
group if you want to come here. There is almost nothing in
Latin alphabet in Moscow, very few people on the street
speak English. Every bit of information is as hard to get
as taking meat from a lion's mouth. I am an experienced
traveler and learned perseverance along the way, but this
is not a game for those who do not have the personality for
such adventure. I should add that Korea is as difficult, as
perhaps also Tahiti. But even in Tasmania, part of
Australia that is THE best organized country for tourism, I
had some problems initially.

2. Riga, Anatomy of Backpack Travel. I arrived in Riga at
about 5:30 in the afternoon. I had no hostel address,
nothing. But as we are pulling into the bus station (after
19 hours from Berlin), I made a mental note of the
cathedral towers, etc. to mark the center of the Old Town.
Loaded by 2 pieces of packs on my back, that now weigh more
than 50 pounds-in Berlin they weighed 23 kg-due to many
post cards, travel brochures, etc. I collected so far, I
walked about 1.5 miles thru winding streets to reach the
cathedral, hoping to meet other backpacker types there to
ask questions as to where to stay etc., although I had
already ominous hints that I would not find many, for I was
the only tourist on the packed bus, as on the trip to
Warsaw.

I should add that it is a matter of pride for a backpacker
NOT to pay a hotel, unless all options have been tried. In
other words, of course I could have moved into a hotel and
immediately solved my problems. And sometimes when one or
more hostels are full, one has no other choice. It has
never happened to me yet; I always found a hostel, room &
board, etc. Then I saw a young couple still with packs on
their backs. They were students from Lithuania, also
looking for clues. Both, a girl and young man, spoke
English. We got together, though they were looking for a
camping spot. Then the girl saw an "i" sign that stands for
INFO. It was in a desolate room, but the guy spoke good
English. He said yes there is a hostel, for $20 per night,
go this way, turn so, turn again ... I said OK where is the
other one? Oh, that one is a rooming house that charges
only $5 per night and is right around the cathedral. So 2
hours after I got out of the bus, I was set. I celebrated
by going to the best restaurant in town, at a hotel near
the cathedral, and having wonderful lamb steaks with
veggies and red wine, then a very good desert. After
joining the night crowd at the cathedral circle for a beer
party, I went to my room, on the 4th floor of an unmarked
building, old but spotless clean, and slept like a baby.

The next morn, I found the bus station and just when I was
about to get my ticket to Tallinn, as planned, I decided to
ask about an excursion to Russia ... and here I am. By the
way, the Hermitage is out of this world; as far as St.
Petersburg, yes, it is a very pretty city, but I think
Moscow is even more impressive. It is obviously a city only
a "super culture" could design and build ...