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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front of a car. I know that he would not break just for me alone, but I thought it would be reasonable for the driver to slow down for me in the situation where a few yards later he has to slow down and stop for the red light. But my logic was wrong. He almost hit me and then braked hard for the red light. Riding a bike during the day is safe because cars are stopped in traffic jams and I even had the sadistic pleasure of doing slalom on bike around these super-macho a-holes stopped forever in the endless traffic jam.

GENERAL NOTES

In spite of some efforts in last years, Russia is still much less tourist friendly (for independent travelers)than such countries as Laos, Vietnam or Thailand. It started with idiotic rule of foreigner's registration. Except for Nigeria and former Soviet Republics of Central Asia nobody as far as I know require such registration. The process of registration used to require up to two days. You have to stay in line to OVIR. Than stay in line in bank, fill out 6 identical forms and pay amount in rubles equivalent to $ 0.05. Now it is much faster. There is only one laundromat in SPB. I already told you about bike rentals. Hovewer the main problem of Western tourists is their wrong mind set. Russians plan everything in advance. But Westerners expect that everything will be there when they need it. A Westerner starts to look for a restroom only when he really needs it. But line in women's restroom in Petergoff was one hour long... Well after all this criticism I should say that the center of the city was perfectly restored for 300 year celebration. I love Sankt Petersburg in any condition but I should admit that when restored it looks better

Alex Mumzhiu
Sankt Petersburg, Russia
June 19, 2003 11:30pm

Konstantinovsky Palace

I went to a concert of a popular Russian bard Timur Shaov. Tickets price was $7, pretty high for Russia, and all ...