Post: #1576

(01-10-2019 04:56 PM)SaintLaurentJake Wrote:  I'll try to make a stop at Kazan again this summer when I return to Russia and possibly make a datasheet with thorough details.

Would go back in an instant to Kazan... The city is not overpopulated, rife with culture, beautiful and traditional women, and it's very convenient in general. Would recommend Bauman Street and areas near KFU... Having a good understanding of Russian is an absolute must if you want to do well here.

Everyone here is extremely chill and friendly. Very underrated city, and I would most likely look to live there in the future. Out of the three cities I visited (including SPB and Moscow), Kazan was the most memorable for me.

If anyone has any questions PM me.

Post: #1577

Kazan was cool, was during the WC so could be different to normal but it had one awesome Skybar that was full of talent, not cheap. Agree it's a pretty easy city, basically just a circle around the river with everything happening and yeah, there are some great women and a really solid variety to them.

Wasn't there long enough to really add anything but that but it's a pretty city that's worth a few days at least for anyone checking out Russia.

Post: #1578

Moscow and St. Petersburg: where to stay for first trip (non-Russian speaker)?

Post: #1579

(01-13-2019 06:27 AM)OM88 Wrote:  Moscow and St. Petersburg: where to stay for first trip (non-Russian speaker)?

What are you looking for from the trip, your interests?

Post: #1580

(01-13-2019 06:27 AM)OM88 Wrote:  Moscow and St. Petersburg: where to stay for first trip (non-Russian speaker)?

St. Peter. Just IMHO.

Post: #1581

(01-13-2019 06:52 AM)Bikal Wrote:  

(01-13-2019 06:27 AM)OM88 Wrote:  Moscow and St. Petersburg: where to stay for first trip (non-Russian speaker)?

What are you looking for from the trip, your interests?

Sightseeing and experiencing the country first, meeting women second.

Post: #1582

(01-13-2019 07:45 AM)AkiKinnunen Wrote:  

(01-13-2019 06:27 AM)OM88 Wrote:  Moscow and St. Petersburg: where to stay for first trip (non-Russian speaker)?

St. Peter. Just IMHO.

I want to go to both cities, not just one. So am looking for recommendations where to stay in each respective city. Sorry if I was unclear.

Post: #1583

Nevsky Prospect area, River Neva end down near The Hermitage is the best location in Peter, imo, more expensive but the majority of the major sights are on Nevsky or a short walk from it. If you can be near a Metro station that's ideal but there's a couple along it so if you're on Nevsky then you'll basically also be near a Metro. Note that Nevsky is pretty long so if you're at the other end you're going to be a fair way out of the action, there is a lot of nightlife though in the middle (I forget the name of the road but one that comes off Nevsky is a great early night venue full of wine bars and ridiculously high quality girls).

As for sights... Hermitage, Church of Savior on Spilled Blood and Peterhof are all absolute must dos, imo. Hermitage is the best museum I've been to and really you could remove all the art that's inside it and it would still be worth the price of the ticket just for the building. Peterhof is incredible as well, just in the scope and grandness of it all. If you've already been inside the Winter Palace at Hermitage then going inside Peterhof will just kind of feel like a watered down version, not that it isn't also incredible but if money is tight then you can save a bit on that but absolutely go to see the fountains and gardens and if money isn't an issue, go inside as well. Spilled Blood is outstanding and absolutely worth going inside, just incredible mosaic artwork.

After that I really liked Smolny Convent, though the only reason to go inside of it is if you want to climb to the top for the view and the negative is that it's in the middle of nowhere, St Isaacs is cool and worth going up top for the view assuming the weather is decent. Rooftops tours are pretty cool as well for a different view. Kazan is neat but has been super crowded inside every time I've been inside, other parts of Hermitage outside of the Winter Palace are also worth checking if you like art, Faberge museum is a great one, Peter and Paul fortress is cool with some pretty cool niche museums inside. If you can read Russian or are particularly interested in the weapons, the war museum on the other side of the river is phenomenal, incredible collection of weapons, political history museum is also good, the Mosque is cool from the outside but another empty one inside. There's a ton of other things as well, just an incredible city.

Moscow you want to try and stay near a metro and if possible in the inner ring. I personally like to stay somewhere near the Radisson Royal Hotel (Hotel Ukraine) which is a sight in and of itself as one of the Stalin scrapers but puts you central of most of the metro lines, walking distance to a fair chunk of the sights and New Arbat is a really good spot for food/drinks with some good night life and also really easy to direct taxis to even without Russian if you need to (get Yandex Taxi app though). There are plenty of other options but Moscow is just fucking massive and nowhere near as central as Peter so really anywhere near a metro inside the inner ring will have you decently located and you just go from there, it would probably take a month to see even a majority of the sights in Moscow, I've spent about a month there sight-seeing on most days and I've almost certainly got more things to do on the list still than I ticked off... Moscow must do's for me would be the Kremlin Armoury/Diamond Room (it's a separate ticket inside the Kremlin than the normal Kremlin but it's incredible and much better than the actual Kremlin, imo). St Basils obviously, the Red Square area in general is cool. After that it's mostly just niche museums all over the place, churches and cool buildings/parks that are worth doing.

Post: #1584

(01-11-2019 01:36 PM)emoney Wrote:  

(01-10-2019 04:56 PM)SaintLaurentJake Wrote:  I'll try to make a stop at Kazan again this summer when I return to Russia and possibly make a datasheet with thorough details.

Would go back in an instant to Kazan... The city is not overpopulated, rife with culture, beautiful and traditional women, and it's very convenient in general. Would recommend Bauman Street and areas near KFU... Having a good understanding of Russian is an absolute must if you want to do well here.

Everyone here is extremely chill and friendly. Very underrated city, and I would most likely look to live there in the future. Out of the three cities I visited (including SPB and Moscow), Kazan was the most memorable for me.

If anyone has any questions PM me.

What we need is to find where the women are the easiest, prettiest and most friendly in Russia. We still have no consensus on that. Kazan sounds good, but I can say for sure that the women are nice, but very difficult to bed as compared to Moscow or even if I dare to mention cities in nearby countries, like Kiev, Minsk or Dnipropetrovsk.
Saransk in the World Cup seemed to have the hottest sluttiest women, but it was a one time event and it is too small of a city.

Post: #1585

(01-13-2019 10:07 AM)JimBobsCooters Wrote:  Nevsky Prospect area, River Neva end down near The Hermitage is the best location in Peter, imo, more expensive but the majority of the major sights are on Nevsky or a short walk from it. If you can be near a Metro station that's ideal but there's a couple along it so if you're on Nevsky then you'll basically also be near a Metro. Note that Nevsky is pretty long so if you're at the other end you're going to be a fair way out of the action, there is a lot of nightlife though in the middle (I forget the name of the road but one that comes off Nevsky is a great early night venue full of wine bars and ridiculously high quality girls).

As for sights... Hermitage, Church of Savior on Spilled Blood and Peterhof are all absolute must dos, imo. Hermitage is the best museum I've been to and really you could remove all the art that's inside it and it would still be worth the price of the ticket just for the building. Peterhof is incredible as well, just in the scope and grandness of it all. If you've already been inside the Winter Palace at Hermitage then going inside Peterhof will just kind of feel like a watered down version, not that it isn't also incredible but if money is tight then you can save a bit on that but absolutely go to see the fountains and gardens and if money isn't an issue, go inside as well. Spilled Blood is outstanding and absolutely worth going inside, just incredible mosaic artwork.

After that I really liked Smolny Convent, though the only reason to go inside of it is if you want to climb to the top for the view and the negative is that it's in the middle of nowhere, St Isaacs is cool and worth going up top for the view assuming the weather is decent. Rooftops tours are pretty cool as well for a different view. Kazan is neat but has been super crowded inside every time I've been inside, other parts of Hermitage outside of the Winter Palace are also worth checking if you like art, Faberge museum is a great one, Peter and Paul fortress is cool with some pretty cool niche museums inside. If you can read Russian or are particularly interested in the weapons, the war museum on the other side of the river is phenomenal, incredible collection of weapons, political history museum is also good, the Mosque is cool from the outside but another empty one inside. There's a ton of other things as well, just an incredible city.

Moscow you want to try and stay near a metro and if possible in the inner ring. I personally like to stay somewhere near the Radisson Royal Hotel (Hotel Ukraine) which is a sight in and of itself as one of the Stalin scrapers but puts you central of most of the metro lines, walking distance to a fair chunk of the sights and New Arbat is a really good spot for food/drinks with some good night life and also really easy to direct taxis to even without Russian if you need to (get Yandex Taxi app though). There are plenty of other options but Moscow is just fucking massive and nowhere near as central as Peter so really anywhere near a metro inside the inner ring will have you decently located and you just go from there, it would probably take a month to see even a majority of the sights in Moscow, I've spent about a month there sight-seeing on most days and I've almost certainly got more things to do on the list still than I ticked off... Moscow must do's for me would be the Kremlin Armoury/Diamond Room (it's a separate ticket inside the Kremlin than the normal Kremlin but it's incredible and much better than the actual Kremlin, imo). St Basils obviously, the Red Square area in general is cool. After that it's mostly just niche museums all over the place, churches and cool buildings/parks that are worth doing.

Thanks man, I want to go even more now!

How important is it to learn a bit Russian beforehand? Realistically speaking time is limited and I usually don't spend a ton of time learning a language before my first time in a new country. Sorry got other things to do and so far this has never prevented me from enjoying myself in a new country.

Post: #1586

(01-13-2019 11:27 PM)OM88 Wrote:  

(01-13-2019 10:07 AM)JimBobsCooters Wrote:  Nevsky Prospect area, River Neva end down near The Hermitage is the best location in Peter, imo, more expensive but the majority of the major sights are on Nevsky or a short walk from it. If you can be near a Metro station that's ideal but there's a couple along it so if you're on Nevsky then you'll basically also be near a Metro. Note that Nevsky is pretty long so if you're at the other end you're going to be a fair way out of the action, there is a lot of nightlife though in the middle (I forget the name of the road but one that comes off Nevsky is a great early night venue full of wine bars and ridiculously high quality girls).

As for sights... Hermitage, Church of Savior on Spilled Blood and Peterhof are all absolute must dos, imo. Hermitage is the best museum I've been to and really you could remove all the art that's inside it and it would still be worth the price of the ticket just for the building. Peterhof is incredible as well, just in the scope and grandness of it all. If you've already been inside the Winter Palace at Hermitage then going inside Peterhof will just kind of feel like a watered down version, not that it isn't also incredible but if money is tight then you can save a bit on that but absolutely go to see the fountains and gardens and if money isn't an issue, go inside as well. Spilled Blood is outstanding and absolutely worth going inside, just incredible mosaic artwork.

After that I really liked Smolny Convent, though the only reason to go inside of it is if you want to climb to the top for the view and the negative is that it's in the middle of nowhere, St Isaacs is cool and worth going up top for the view assuming the weather is decent. Rooftops tours are pretty cool as well for a different view. Kazan is neat but has been super crowded inside every time I've been inside, other parts of Hermitage outside of the Winter Palace are also worth checking if you like art, Faberge museum is a great one, Peter and Paul fortress is cool with some pretty cool niche museums inside. If you can read Russian or are particularly interested in the weapons, the war museum on the other side of the river is phenomenal, incredible collection of weapons, political history museum is also good, the Mosque is cool from the outside but another empty one inside. There's a ton of other things as well, just an incredible city.

Moscow you want to try and stay near a metro and if possible in the inner ring. I personally like to stay somewhere near the Radisson Royal Hotel (Hotel Ukraine) which is a sight in and of itself as one of the Stalin scrapers but puts you central of most of the metro lines, walking distance to a fair chunk of the sights and New Arbat is a really good spot for food/drinks with some good night life and also really easy to direct taxis to even without Russian if you need to (get Yandex Taxi app though). There are plenty of other options but Moscow is just fucking massive and nowhere near as central as Peter so really anywhere near a metro inside the inner ring will have you decently located and you just go from there, it would probably take a month to see even a majority of the sights in Moscow, I've spent about a month there sight-seeing on most days and I've almost certainly got more things to do on the list still than I ticked off... Moscow must do's for me would be the Kremlin Armoury/Diamond Room (it's a separate ticket inside the Kremlin than the normal Kremlin but it's incredible and much better than the actual Kremlin, imo). St Basils obviously, the Red Square area in general is cool. After that it's mostly just niche museums all over the place, churches and cool buildings/parks that are worth doing.

Thanks man, I want to go even more now!

How important is it to learn a bit Russian beforehand? Realistically speaking time is limited and I usually don't spend a ton of time learning a language before my first time in a new country. Sorry got other things to do and so far this has never prevented me from enjoying myself in a new country.

Learning Russian is hard as heck and I am still trying to get out of the intermediate level. What is debatable is how much pure Russian fluency would help with the women...to what degree?. In Colombia or Brazil fluency in their language helps 100 percent.

Post: #1587

(01-14-2019 12:39 AM)lennon2791 Wrote:  

(01-13-2019 11:27 PM)OM88 Wrote:  

(01-13-2019 10:07 AM)JimBobsCooters Wrote:  Nevsky Prospect area, River Neva end down near The Hermitage is the best location in Peter, imo, more expensive but the majority of the major sights are on Nevsky or a short walk from it. If you can be near a Metro station that's ideal but there's a couple along it so if you're on Nevsky then you'll basically also be near a Metro. Note that Nevsky is pretty long so if you're at the other end you're going to be a fair way out of the action, there is a lot of nightlife though in the middle (I forget the name of the road but one that comes off Nevsky is a great early night venue full of wine bars and ridiculously high quality girls).

As for sights... Hermitage, Church of Savior on Spilled Blood and Peterhof are all absolute must dos, imo. Hermitage is the best museum I've been to and really you could remove all the art that's inside it and it would still be worth the price of the ticket just for the building. Peterhof is incredible as well, just in the scope and grandness of it all. If you've already been inside the Winter Palace at Hermitage then going inside Peterhof will just kind of feel like a watered down version, not that it isn't also incredible but if money is tight then you can save a bit on that but absolutely go to see the fountains and gardens and if money isn't an issue, go inside as well. Spilled Blood is outstanding and absolutely worth going inside, just incredible mosaic artwork.

After that I really liked Smolny Convent, though the only reason to go inside of it is if you want to climb to the top for the view and the negative is that it's in the middle of nowhere, St Isaacs is cool and worth going up top for the view assuming the weather is decent. Rooftops tours are pretty cool as well for a different view. Kazan is neat but has been super crowded inside every time I've been inside, other parts of Hermitage outside of the Winter Palace are also worth checking if you like art, Faberge museum is a great one, Peter and Paul fortress is cool with some pretty cool niche museums inside. If you can read Russian or are particularly interested in the weapons, the war museum on the other side of the river is phenomenal, incredible collection of weapons, political history museum is also good, the Mosque is cool from the outside but another empty one inside. There's a ton of other things as well, just an incredible city.

Moscow you want to try and stay near a metro and if possible in the inner ring. I personally like to stay somewhere near the Radisson Royal Hotel (Hotel Ukraine) which is a sight in and of itself as one of the Stalin scrapers but puts you central of most of the metro lines, walking distance to a fair chunk of the sights and New Arbat is a really good spot for food/drinks with some good night life and also really easy to direct taxis to even without Russian if you need to (get Yandex Taxi app though). There are plenty of other options but Moscow is just fucking massive and nowhere near as central as Peter so really anywhere near a metro inside the inner ring will have you decently located and you just go from there, it would probably take a month to see even a majority of the sights in Moscow, I've spent about a month there sight-seeing on most days and I've almost certainly got more things to do on the list still than I ticked off... Moscow must do's for me would be the Kremlin Armoury/Diamond Room (it's a separate ticket inside the Kremlin than the normal Kremlin but it's incredible and much better than the actual Kremlin, imo). St Basils obviously, the Red Square area in general is cool. After that it's mostly just niche museums all over the place, churches and cool buildings/parks that are worth doing.

Thanks man, I want to go even more now!

How important is it to learn a bit Russian beforehand? Realistically speaking time is limited and I usually don't spend a ton of time learning a language before my first time in a new country. Sorry got other things to do and so far this has never prevented me from enjoying myself in a new country.

Learning Russian is hard as heck and I am still trying to get out of the intermediate level. What is debatable is how much pure Russian fluency would help with the women...to what degree?. In Colombia or Brazil fluency in their language helps 100 percent.

The fact that you are intermediate level is a feat in itself.

Post: #1588

(01-13-2019 11:27 PM)OM88 Wrote:  snip

Thanks man, I want to go even more now!

How important is it to learn a bit Russian beforehand? Realistically speaking time is limited and I usually don't spend a ton of time learning a language before my first time in a new country. Sorry got other things to do and so far this has never prevented me from enjoying myself in a new country.

It's an awesome country, certainly one of my favourites and I'm not talking regarding the women element, we all know that, just the culture and history. Be shocked if you don't have a good time there.

The language is super helpful but it's a really hard language. I would recommend at least doing the Pimsleur type course before you go if you've got time just for some absolute basics and I'd absolutely make an effort to learn the alphabet so that you can at least read menus and signs to some extent. The alphabet is actually pretty easy to learn, unfortunately there are so few shared words that it's not as useful as it otherwise could be, but it's better than noithing.

Post world cup both Moscow and Peter have gotten much better with their signage but they're still pretty awful as far as English signage which can make things difficult at the best of times.

Many (most even, probably) of the museums don't include English which leaves you with the option of getting a tour or basically just looking at the displays and guessing to a certain extent. Sometimes there is an audio guide available but mostly that's at the places that also have English writing. Not speaking or having someone who speaks the language will shorten the tourism list a bit.

One good trick is to find a girl (preferably) or even a guy who speaks good English to go to the museums with you and translate the key stuff. Girls are much better at English than the guys in general and have other added bonuses, obviously, but I found the Russian guys who do speak English generally love to practice and make friends with English speakers so they're always an option as well.

Knowing the language will go a long way with the women but it's not impossible without it, plenty of the women do speak English but they're generally not the absolute top shelf quality ones, so you do eliminate several options but realistically you're not getting to a level where this changes in a couple of months of casual learning. Even if you had 2 months of dedicated learning you're only going to be reasonable most likely.

I'd also really highly recommend getting a sim card asap upon arrival as google translate, yandex taxi and more than a few other apps are super useful when you don't speak Russian or have someone with you who does.

Post: #1589

(01-14-2019 10:06 AM)JimBobsCooters Wrote:  

(01-13-2019 11:27 PM)OM88 Wrote:  snip

Thanks man, I want to go even more now!

How important is it to learn a bit Russian beforehand? Realistically speaking time is limited and I usually don't spend a ton of time learning a language before my first time in a new country. Sorry got other things to do and so far this has never prevented me from enjoying myself in a new country.

It's an awesome country, certainly one of my favourites and I'm not talking regarding the women element, we all know that, just the culture and history. Be shocked if you don't have a good time there.

The language is super helpful but it's a really hard language. I would recommend at least doing the Pimsleur type course before you go if you've got time just for some absolute basics and I'd absolutely make an effort to learn the alphabet so that you can at least read menus and signs to some extent. The alphabet is actually pretty easy to learn, unfortunately there are so few shared words that it's not as useful as it otherwise could be, but it's better than noithing.

Post world cup both Moscow and Peter have gotten much better with their signage but they're still pretty awful as far as English signage which can make things difficult at the best of times.

Many (most even, probably) of the museums don't include English which leaves you with the option of getting a tour or basically just looking at the displays and guessing to a certain extent. Sometimes there is an audio guide available but mostly that's at the places that also have English writing. Not speaking or having someone who speaks the language will shorten the tourism list a bit.

One good trick is to find a girl (preferably) or even a guy who speaks good English to go to the museums with you and translate the key stuff. Girls are much better at English than the guys in general and have other added bonuses, obviously, but I found the Russian guys who do speak English generally love to practice and make friends with English speakers so they're always an option as well.

Knowing the language will go a long way with the women but it's not impossible without it, plenty of the women do speak English but they're generally not the absolute top shelf quality ones, so you do eliminate several options but realistically you're not getting to a level where this changes in a couple of months of casual learning. Even if you had 2 months of dedicated learning you're only going to be reasonable most likely.

I'd also really highly recommend getting a sim card asap upon arrival as google translate, yandex taxi and more than a few other apps are super useful when you don't speak Russian or have someone with you who does.

Knowing the language is a must in Russia if you wanna get the "cream of the crop" women and experience some of the "off the beaten" sights where locals go as well as have some good conversations (there is nothing I love more than hitting pubs and talking to locals in their own language about topics relevant to them) however even after several months of intense study one will not get anywhere out of beginner level.

However there is one forum member on here (Digital Nomad) who keeps claiming that he had a great time there with 0 Russian language knowledge (you can search his trip reports) and bedded dozens of women (i'm skeptical of that) however I must warn that Russia during normal time period is very different from the WC period. World Cup I believe gave many forum members overly positive experiences and during normal time periods it really is not like that, much colder (literally as Winter now) and people rougher.

Also to ad as the previous poster mentioned it is always good to find a local to travel with and do a bit of language exchange. I've used tourbar.com with good experience in the past and recommend it to others when visiting Russia. The number of women who are looking for language-exchange partners and more on there is truly amazing

I have this wish that in the near future I will do Trans-Siberian express and hit up 2nd tier (non-WC) cities to really experience the culture and will share my experience on this forum. The veteran Russia travelers here know that true Russia is not Moscow/St. Pete.

Post: #1590

(01-14-2019 02:13 PM)TripleG Wrote:  [quote='JimBobsCooters' pid='1922184' dateline='1547478385']
[quote='OM88' pid='1921981' dateline='1547440069']
snip
I've used tourbar.com with good experience in the past and recommend it to others when visiting Russia. The number of women who are looking for language-exchange partners and more on there is truly amazing

Thanks a lot!

I just registered in tourbar and saw few sugarbaby types. Are there any non-sugar babies/ what is the usual arrangement? I don't mind buying a drink (and of course entry to museum) for essentially a tour guide but not looking for P4P.

Post: #1591

(01-13-2019 11:27 PM)OM88 Wrote:  

(01-13-2019 10:07 AM)JimBobsCooters Wrote:  Nevsky Prospect area, River Neva end down near The Hermitage is the best location in Peter, imo, more expensive but the majority of the major sights are on Nevsky or a short walk from it. If you can be near a Metro station that's ideal but there's a couple along it so if you're on Nevsky then you'll basically also be near a Metro. Note that Nevsky is pretty long so if you're at the other end you're going to be a fair way out of the action, there is a lot of nightlife though in the middle (I forget the name of the road but one that comes off Nevsky is a great early night venue full of wine bars and ridiculously high quality girls).

As for sights... Hermitage, Church of Savior on Spilled Blood and Peterhof are all absolute must dos, imo. Hermitage is the best museum I've been to and really you could remove all the art that's inside it and it would still be worth the price of the ticket just for the building. Peterhof is incredible as well, just in the scope and grandness of it all. If you've already been inside the Winter Palace at Hermitage then going inside Peterhof will just kind of feel like a watered down version, not that it isn't also incredible but if money is tight then you can save a bit on that but absolutely go to see the fountains and gardens and if money isn't an issue, go inside as well. Spilled Blood is outstanding and absolutely worth going inside, just incredible mosaic artwork.

After that I really liked Smolny Convent, though the only reason to go inside of it is if you want to climb to the top for the view and the negative is that it's in the middle of nowhere, St Isaacs is cool and worth going up top for the view assuming the weather is decent. Rooftops tours are pretty cool as well for a different view. Kazan is neat but has been super crowded inside every time I've been inside, other parts of Hermitage outside of the Winter Palace are also worth checking if you like art, Faberge museum is a great one, Peter and Paul fortress is cool with some pretty cool niche museums inside. If you can read Russian or are particularly interested in the weapons, the war museum on the other side of the river is phenomenal, incredible collection of weapons, political history museum is also good, the Mosque is cool from the outside but another empty one inside. There's a ton of other things as well, just an incredible city.

Moscow you want to try and stay near a metro and if possible in the inner ring. I personally like to stay somewhere near the Radisson Royal Hotel (Hotel Ukraine) which is a sight in and of itself as one of the Stalin scrapers but puts you central of most of the metro lines, walking distance to a fair chunk of the sights and New Arbat is a really good spot for food/drinks with some good night life and also really easy to direct taxis to even without Russian if you need to (get Yandex Taxi app though). There are plenty of other options but Moscow is just fucking massive and nowhere near as central as Peter so really anywhere near a metro inside the inner ring will have you decently located and you just go from there, it would probably take a month to see even a majority of the sights in Moscow, I've spent about a month there sight-seeing on most days and I've almost certainly got more things to do on the list still than I ticked off... Moscow must do's for me would be the Kremlin Armoury/Diamond Room (it's a separate ticket inside the Kremlin than the normal Kremlin but it's incredible and much better than the actual Kremlin, imo). St Basils obviously, the Red Square area in general is cool. After that it's mostly just niche museums all over the place, churches and cool buildings/parks that are worth doing.

Thanks man, I want to go even more now!

How important is it to learn a bit Russian beforehand? Realistically speaking time is limited and I usually don't spend a ton of time learning a language before my first time in a new country. Sorry got other things to do and so far this has never prevented me from enjoying myself in a new country.

Pretty damn important. I actually asked Roosh one time on Roosh Hour, it is best if you are fluent enough to communicate in Russian if you are looking to game. Otherwise you're better off finding English-speaking groupies. More common in SPB and Moscow. If you're going for a quick visit to feel out the country, a few lessons on Duolingo should help you.

Post: #1592

Speaking Russian is a must if you go to smaller cities unless you bump into some drunk horny girls or want to limit yourself to the handful of the educated girls. Even in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. If you know Russian you already have a big bonus.

Post: #1593

(01-15-2019 01:43 AM)OM88 Wrote:  

(01-14-2019 02:13 PM)TripleG Wrote:  [quote='JimBobsCooters' pid='1922184' dateline='1547478385']
[quote='OM88' pid='1921981' dateline='1547440069']
snip
I've used tourbar.com with good experience in the past and recommend it to others when visiting Russia. The number of women who are looking for language-exchange partners and more on there is truly amazing

Thanks a lot!

I just registered in tourbar and saw few sugarbaby types. Are there any non-sugar babies/ what is the usual arrangement? I don't mind buying a drink (and of course entry to museum) for essentially a tour guide but not looking for P4P.

I use showaround.com ...no P4P but might be hard to bang too

Post: #1594

@OM88, “don't mind buying a drink (and of course entry to museum) for essentially a tour guide but not looking for P4P”.

Who said p4p? Hope no one here does that and it’s against the forums rules. Read the profiles as there are plenty of girls there who are just looking for friends and to travel around a bit. If you have to buy her a drink and pay for a taxi so be it, even i have done it (and im a cheap guy when it comes to dating). Howver, having a personal tour guide who can explain the sights, and take photos is a great experience. Remember they do take time out of their days to be with you and to “doll up”. I consider it then a natural that you pay for these miscellaneous appetizers and it is natural for the first couple dates everywhere in EE.

Post: #1595

When I was learning Russian in Kiev I had a bunch of language exchange partners. One was a pretty hot pole dancer. One was a cute, young, sweetheart girl. One was married. One was a sexy student from some village. They were more valuable to me for free language practice than for seduction, but the point is there is some gold in some of these non-dating sites.

Post: #1596

(01-15-2019 07:39 PM)edlefou Wrote:  When I was learning Russian in Kiev I had a bunch of language exchange partners. One was a pretty hot pole dancer. One was a cute, young, sweetheart girl. One was married. One was a sexy student from some village. They were more valuable to me for free language practice than for seduction, but the point is there is some gold in some of these non-dating sites.

I'd be glad to know how you met them . It is kind of difficult to find such kind of women nowadays, as almost all webs for language exchange are like a soft version of tinder. Untill the creation of Instagram those pages were goldmines, now...they suck BIG time.

Post: #1597

The stark contrast upon returning home...

Post: #1598

I posted the below event in the Colombia thread, there has been cases of people getting drugged, robbed and even killed there. I got robbed in Russia, this is what happened to me.

HOW I GOT DRUGGED AND ROBBED

I’m going to explain an incident in which I got drugged and robbed, I don’t mean to instill fear with this, I just want others to know what happened to me and to learn from what I went through, I hope it helps others and I’d be more than happy if this account helps people and it avoids further incidents.

I’m going to try to be as accurate as possible but there are things that I just can’t remember, it’s been more than three years now and there’re parts of that night that I just never really knew what happened. One thing I can say for sure: this event is one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me.

It was November 2015 and I had just moved to Saint Petersburg, Russia, from another Russian city in which I had lived for more than two years. I was fairly new in Saint Petersburg (Piter) when this happened but not in Russia. If I remember correctly it was my second or third week in Piter.

It was a Saturday night and me and my roommate had a very large dinner at home, he cooked lots of pasta and I ate a lot (he’s a very good cook), after eating another friend came home and we started pre-drinking before heading out. We had a bottle of whisky between the three of us. After that we took a taxi and went to a bar, I can’t remember the name of the bar but I can ask my friend who might remember.

Once I got into the bar everything seemed fine, we ordered a few drinks at the bar and we were just having fun. I then realized that next to me there was a cute girl with red hair and we started talking, note that at his stage I was pretty tipsy but not hammered. We went outside to have a smoke and we were joined by a female friend of hers. Red hair girl said she was from the city in Russia I had lived more than 2 years before moving to Piter (coincidence?), at this point my memory starts to fade and I remember less. I tried to kiss her but she said it was too early for that and she’d come to my place later in the night.
Next thing I remember we were the three of us in a taxi and then we were in another bar, I think in Dumskaya street with those of you familiar with Piter.
At this point I’d say I was aware I was feeling weird but nothing really seemed out of the ordinary. I bought a few rounds of shots using my debit card (huge mistake) and right after that I remember very little. I had an image in my mind of me being at an ATM and then being in a taxi with the two chicks. I was at the back of the taxi and this I remember very well, I was woken up by one of the girls and she then said this to me: “Get out of the taxi” using my own name, to which I complied.

I got out of the taxi and then I was feeling really weird, I can’t compare how I felt then with anything else. I’ve taken recreational drugs before but I wasn’t feeling high when I got out of that taxi. I was more like feeling lost, it took me a while to realize I was on my own street and I was in the middle of the road at night. There was no one around me. Only then I had a feeling that something was odd, I kind of felt fear and panic at the same time. I looked at my wrist and my watch wasn’t there (it was an automatic Tag Heuer), I reached to my right pants pocket to get my phone and it wasn’t there (standard Samsung smart phone), I opened my wallet and my bank card wasn’t there, neither I had any cash. Then it hit me and it hit me really hard: I had just been robbed.


I ran to my apartment and woke up my roommate, I called the bank to cancel my card and by the taxi I got an English operator on the line all she could do was tell my all my money was gone, I had approximately 100,000 Rubles in my account, which equaled to around 1,200 USD. All gone.

The day after, still feeling not well, I went to a police station and filed a report, I needed to get an official translator for that, which wasn’t cheap. The officer that was there mentioned that there had been many similar incidents in the city. The police said they’d investigate but I didn’t really have much hope.
I went to my own bank, still with the official translator, and explained what happened. The translator put everything in writing and I signed some paperwork. They informed me of and showed me a bank statement where I saw that not only there had been ATM withdrawals but also purchases in bars. They account had been overdrawn and my balance was -2,000 Rubles. The bank teller said whoever used my card in those bars forced through the last transactions knowing there was no balance left. That was all the money I had in Russia back then, all was taken. Thank fuck I had some money in another bank account in my own home country.

I few days after I went back to my bank and they said they were not going to refund me because the correct PIN number had been used for all ATM withdrawals, therefore I was liable. I said I had been drugged and scammed and I had a police report to prove it. It didn’t make any difference. I told them to find the CCTC tapes for the ATM locations where my card was used and they said they needed a police order to do that, which I knew was bullshit.

I didn’t pursue it with the police, months after they called me on the phone and asked me to come to the police station because they had some information. I never did because I was about to leave Russia for good and I doubted they were going to give me anything back.


Aftermath:
-Tag Heuer watch: Valued at around 1,100 Euros. It was a present.
- Samsung cell phone: Valued at around 150 Euros
- Money in bank account all gone: Around 1,100 Euros.

No physical damage was done to me and I never had or felt any consequences.

This is what happened to me and how I remember it. To this day I still don’t know if I entered my own PIN number for those ATM withdrawals, if I gave the PIN number to the girls or what the hell happened. I didn’t have it written it down somewhere, that’s for sure, and it wasn’t particularly easy to guess, ie no date of birth etc.

I never went back to that bar/those bars. I warned all my friends in the city, though.

Have I been more vigilant and cautious when going out at night from then on? Yes, but I guess there’s been occasions when I left my drink unattended.

If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask.

Stay safe and all the best,

Polero.

Post: #1599

Thanks for the report. It's sad but true. And it can still happen in any big city in Russia.

The Pozdravlyayu

A friend of mine had almost a similar helltrip like you, but he refused to go to the "karaoke bar to drink some wine and smoke Kalian" with her female friend* in the very last second (btw the invitation was from a girl who during the online chatting said that she drinks very rarely). His red flag was when he remembered the long talking they had about sport and health lifestyle (he works out almost everyday) on the chat she shared his views, and right in the first date she asks him to buy "wine". Weird. The next day he showed me the dialogue they had on Whatsapp; oh boje. I said, my friend, Поздравляю, you just escaped the scheme of an aferista (and her cockblocking helper). She was young and attractive but no, thanks.

* (her female friend who coincidentally "just came to join us", what a coincidence) lol

Post: #1600

(01-15-2019 07:52 PM)eck Wrote:  

(01-15-2019 07:39 PM)edlefou Wrote:  When I was learning Russian in Kiev I had a bunch of language exchange partners. One was a pretty hot pole dancer. One was a cute, young, sweetheart girl. One was married. One was a sexy student from some village. They were more valuable to me for free language practice than for seduction, but the point is there is some gold in some of these non-dating sites.

I'd be glad to know how you met them . It is kind of difficult to find such kind of women nowadays, as almost all webs for language exchange are like a soft version of tinder. Untill the creation of Instagram those pages were goldmines, now...they suck BIG time.

They're out there, but the point is they will be a bit off the beaten path. Language exchange websites can be a good bet if you're sincerely making an effort and not just using it as a half-assed tinder clone.