At those prices, drop everything right now and GOOOOOOOOOO.
I personally love winter travel in cold places. Fewer fellow tourists and cheaper! And I have no doubt St. Petersburg this time of year is especially beautiful.
I do too! I did Prague in late November/early December one year and it was cold, no question (I don't think it got warmer than the 20s the whole week). But I wore tons of layers so I stayed warm, and it was amazing. I would definitely do it again.
Just a heads up to add an extra layer: when we were living in Prague some of the law students I was studying with went to St. Petersburg over winter break. They did some serious bitching about how cold it was--and they lived in Prague.
They might just seek you out, who knows? We didn't intend to talk about Bush/Gore for 33 days, but somebody wanted to tell us their opinion almost everyday. Granted, western Europe is different.
Western Europe is very different. TTT is a veteran international traveler, so probably doesn't need my advice on the matter, but.I would not talk politics in Russia. At all. Under any circumstances. I think Putin is a "mother Russia" Russian and that makes him a whole lit more like Stalin than Gorbachev.
Probably true, closest I've ever been to Russia is Prague and that's still very European.
Their current woes (low oil and gas prices) are Saudi's fault, not the US'. Hell, Saudi is trying to punish the US, so we are on the same team as Russia.
Unless you mean the sanctions. Which I think only affect arctic, deepwater and shale production. Shale is super expensive to produce, so at the current prices, they may not bother producing anyway.
I mean, I know Putin is generally crazy, but I don't know that your average Russian, or even most sane government workers would blame the US for their current problems with the ruble.
i wouldn't worry about the average citizen as much as going through customs and having to deal with government officials.
My big concern would be timing. You need a visa and by the time you get that, things could be different. I'd go like RIGHT NOW or else wait a bit to see if things stabilize, improve, or get worse.
I'd love to see St Petersburg and the Winter Palace (Tsarskoye Selo) some day. But right now? Nyet. Just not a risk taker. I was watching the Anthony Bourdain "Parts Unknown" episode in Russia just last week, and I was like "Dude, don't ask those questions, no!"
Fuck no!!!! I'm afraid someone is going to start shooting at Russia. I'd love to go at some point but not right now. I feel similarly about Turkey which is on my bucket list.
Oh, now I'd love to mtn biking in Turkey. You should see some of the videos on that, but the places I would go are definitely out-of-the main areas, so probably not reasonable right now.
Post by jerseyjaybird on Dec 18, 2014 13:25:46 GMT -5
I'd go to St. Petersburg, sure, probably not to Moscow (have been to both). If you decide to leave before your planned departure, Finland is only a few hours by train and there are multiple trains daily.
No - why would you want to support their economy?!
Serious question (for everyone else, not expecting an answer from lys): Are we supposed to want the Russian economy to fail? I mean, I know Putin is crazy and they have passed some fucked up laws. But their economy going into the shitter is only going to make life suck for more people (not just Russians), and by that standard, there are a lot of other places we should never be going or things we should never be buying (like 90% of our shit which is made in China).
I think Russia is doing a lot of wrong, but I think the answer is for the world to put pressure on them politically as well as economically and slowly shift away from a dependency on Russia for energy. This won't happen overnight, but as they get their supply chains from other parts of the world up and running, Russia can diversify it's economy and hopefully change it's laws to become more open.
Just being like "FUCK YOU, A DEPRESSION ON YOU!" does not seem productive, as countries tend to get more protective and look for scapegoats and generally shit hits the fan in a worse way.
THIS!
I was reading yesterday that Putin's only real option is to stir up trouble in the middle east (another war or Iran nuclear programs??) to destabilize the region & push oil prices back up.
The best US policy right now would be to LIFT all sanctions, look like we're trying to help out hte people off Russia & keep them from suffering more, and that way Putin can't blame the world for his economic problems.
There is snow on the ground, yes? Then hell and no.
No probs. You can go to Sochi where it was too warm to host the Winter Olympics in February. Don't forget to tell us about your experience with communal toilets.
Post by mominatrix on Dec 18, 2014 18:10:04 GMT -5
I'd go in a heartbeat.
So much so that I just checked Kayak for how much it is to fly to St. Petersburg from Seattle... it's more like $1,000. Each.
Watch Reds before you go, it's an amazing epic with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson and a cast of thousands; it's a true story, set in St. Petersburg for the most part. And it's pretty fucking fantastic.