Home » Russia » Travel to St. Petersburg and Mongolia (part I)

Hello my dear subscribers,<br /><br />Tomorrow I am leaving to my next trip It is not only my travel addiction, that drives me. I have to travel for health reasons also. Life in America is pretty unhealthy. People in the not so prosperous countries walk for groceries, walk to work, run after overcrowded buses and fight with others to get inside. This provides them with much needed amount of daily exercises, the natural way. Americans almost do not walk. They go everywhere by car. Every task which requires even a small muscular effort is mechanized or automated. Even two story buildings have an elevator. This, along with abandons of food produce an un-intentional result. Americans became fatter and fatter. Dedicated people with strong will, would wake up earlier and go for a jog, go to gym and eat, not tasty, but healthy vegetables. This way they stay in shape. Ordinary folks don't do that and get fat. A Stunning 70% of Americans are overweight.<br /><br />This is an unexpected result of a sincere efforts to make people's live better and easier. I did not get overweight yet, but I definitely got out of shape during four months of sitting in front of the computer and traveling between the computer and the fridge.

Travel to St. Petersburg and Mongolia (part I)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 18:13:34

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the explanation of this phenomenon: There used to be a so called "radio" in every room of every house in Russia. Actually it was not a real radio, it was a loudspeaker connected by wires to central facility, which broadcast news, information and entertainment to the entire country. It was a great tool for communist propaganda and brain washing, almost on an Orwelian scale. However propaganda cannot go on for 24 hour per day. Some music and songs were broadcasted in between. And the opera was broadcasted very often. Communists did not like rock and jazz which, they believed may have bad bourgeois influence on Soviet people. But opera was OK.

TICKETS

In Russia there are two types of tickets: for Russians and for foreigners. Difference in price is up to 20 times. For example, Russian ticket to Hermitage is $0.50, foreigner's ticket is $11. I think it is fair and reflects the difference in the income. If they would make the price the same, foreigners will go almost for free and Russians will not be able to see their cultural treasures at all. People in my group were not rich and prices quoted as above, especially if they were compounded for several events, were too high for them. So we tried to cheat the controllers. Using advice from our Russian friends we developed a technique which work almost 100% of the time.

1. First, you should have a gloomy facial expression , no smiles.
2. Second, white socks and white undershirts should be not visible. You can uniquely identify Americans anywhere in the world by white socks. Also it doesn't matter how hot it is, an American man will wear two shirts, normal shirt and undershirt.
3. We arrange our group in such a way that the most Russian looking person goes first, and I am waving tickets in hand at the end of the group. And most American looking persons were hidden inside the group.

It works fine. Only one time, when we ...