The Rohrbaugh Forum
Miscellaneous => The Water Cooler -- General Discussions => Topic started by: Aglifter on December 07, 2005, 11:58:43 AM
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Just got back -- very nice city, very pretty -- if any of ya'll are into paintings/have wives who are -- I can't reccomend the Hermitage highly enough -- amazing collection, and no glass, ropes, barriers etc, just you and da Vincis, Picassos, Rembrants, etc hanging on a wall. It seemed like quite a safe city -- far more than Frankfurt, or Chicago, Detroit, etc -- I wanted to check out a Russian gun store, but "good" Russians, like the ones I stayed with, don't have anything to do with guns, even though it's pretty simple to own them under Russian law (you can't own pistols, and have to have a special permit to have a rifle, but you can keep a shotgun in your house, and can keep this AK-47 based shotgun in a car, provided you keep the clip out of it. I saw a billboard for crossbows, but I couldn't find the store -- I wanted to check out their electronic rubber bullet revolvers -- seemed like an interesting idea.) As far as not being armed, it didn't bother me, but I think I had 6 inches and at least 150 pounds on the men walking around -- I did get to terrify a pickpocket that I caught w. his hand in my coat pocket -- not too much since I didn't want to upset the girl I was with.
Sorry for the novella -- if anyone is thinking about going to Russia, send me a PM -- I have some suggestions that would probably be helpful
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Aglifter, tell us more, very interesting!
Tom
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Interesting trip. All I think of initially - is the number of hours in the air:D
I have wondered how much things may have changed over the last few years. Are things more ''Westernized''? What appears to be the average person's wealth factor (or not)?
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That is a long way for an Aggie to go for a date. I have
seen some Russian women here and there are a lot of
beauties. They probably don't talk back, either, unless
marriage comes into the picture.
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Aglifter:
Yes, tell us more.
Catherine the Great was a lady of tremendous "appetite," fine art included. I hope to spend some time in the Hermitage before I shuffle off this mortal coil.
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Not a date, old friend of mine. It's quite Westernized -- I don't think the Soviets ever were able to made much of an impact there -- it was always the most Western city in Russia. As far as expenses, basically, a BAD hotel -- at a level that doesn't exist in the US, and is all that exists in some of the odder parts of the world I've been in -- costs $40/night, but a very nice one costs $100. Same, I think w. food -- all the restaurants I went to were between $60~100 for the two of us, but it was a good dinner, with drinks, etc -- service is abysmal though. Everything is wonderfully designed, seems to be a huge supply of architects. I'm sure there are very poor people, but Russian society is tremendously segmented, and I didn't have any contact with them... I also saw plenty of Rolls, Range Rovers, Hummers, and even a Maybach cruising around -- didn't have any contact w. the oligarchs either.
The ballet is quite nice as well -- I have to admit that I didn't understand the really artistic bit -- we saw two, the first, I found quite dull, but was informed that it was very good, the second, which was a comedy, I thought was pretty amusing, and was told it wasn't too well done -- oh well, us Aggies aren't meant to be too cultured.
As for the flight, fly business class, and British Airways is a pretty pleasant airline -- I think it's about 7 hours from JFK to heathrow, and then about 3.5 hours after to Saint P -- It's pretty easy to arrange to have an extended layover in London -- I have an easier time w. the jet lag is I break the flight up, and London's quite pleasant, as is Dublin -- pretty easy little hop flight.
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Our relations with Russian are so different now.
I was finally able to talk with all 18 countries in Russia with my amateur radio station. Russia was sub-divided into 18 countries for radio purposes.
To prove that a contact was made, I had to get a QSL card from each person confirming that the conversation took place. QSL card is post card size.
Anyway, back then you could not write directly to a person. I sent my requests to Box 88, Moscow, USSR.
My total of different countries talked with was 303. I got QSL cards from all, except two.
Thanks for telling more about the Russian trip. It is very interesting. We are glad you said more about it.
Bill
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Aglifter, thanks for more info on trip. It sounds interesting and fun to see the sights. No country music huh?
Tom
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Thx from me too Brad - I was unsure what to imagine.
Well - I have done the ''pond flight'' too many times and that 7 hours is all I ever needed - tho I guess another 3.5 after some layover time is not too bad.