Please, before folks start crying about the money and the distance ....
I have the money to do it, and I sleep very well on airplanes.
What do you think about a long weekend trip, maybe four or five days to Russia and/or Ukraine .... just to get the lay of the land, before meeting any women, just to sort of figure out how dramatic my shortcomings (of which I am sure there are many) in eastern culture and language really are ?
Smart move. I strongly advise anyone to do just that to start with. I'd like to see you have more than a few days, but that is a really good start. There is simply no downside to getting a persoanl view of things.
Smart move?? What is he going to learn. Just walking around...where????? If he has a plan of where specifically
is going, where he may be meeting with a women in a city in the future, yes. His question is so general, he mentions 2 large countries, how can you give good advice???
Harantis, maybe pick a specific area or city, maybe then you can learn. Remember, you learn most from mistakes.
If money isn't a problem, burn it in a russsian website!!:))))
I think the guy has enough grey matter to figure that out. :-) It kinda goes without saying that if you are going for a short time, you'll only visit one or two at the most, cities/locations. No brainer really.
With due respect, I've collected more than my share of passport stamps over the years. I can't ever remember coming home having learned nothing; no matter where I'd been.
Although there was one time I did have my travel agent seal my ticket in an envelope, date and time on the outside of the envelope, with the instruction "anyplace a lot warmer than here" (so I didn't actually know where I was going until I arrived at the airport). Otherwise, I've always had a specific destination in mind. Usually, you just can't ask the pilot to, "Drop me off where you feel like it."
That said, it has been more than once where I have arrived in a foreign country with absolutely no itinerary, agenda, place to stay, or transportation. I've asked the cabbie to "Just drop me someplace in downtown. I'll figure it out from there." I managed to get along. I put myself in the position to the "stupid foreigner that doesn't have a clue." I had to talk to people, ask stupid questions, find a place to sleep, get a map and find things to do. It's what one might call adventure. I arrive in another country once, rented a car and asked for a map. I took everything from there. It perplexed the rental clerk that I didn't know where I was going (so he couldn't give me proper directions for exiting the airport grounds), but I was fine with it. I've had shady characters pull me aside outside of train stations trying to point me in the direction of a "great place to stay," I've been arrested and spent two days in jail in the Prague city jail back in the old Soviet era. I've been caught in a police shakedown when everyone in the eastern block was desperate for hard currency. I've walked through "Checkpoint Charlie" and later been hassled by the "East German" police for fratinizing with East Germans while behind the Berlin Wall (when there was still such a thing, in such a place).
At the end of the trip it was certainly less restful and far more work than being delivered to a lounge chair, next to a palm tree, in some sunny resort that has umbrellas in the cocktails, but it was certainly more adventure too. There have been many times I've ventured into the unknown. I came out alive at the other end, and better for the experience, or at least I had another interesting story to tell at my next cocktail party. Certainly another couple of thousand shot to hell, but as others have suggested, "You can't take it with you."
I suspect, maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect, that four or five days will be enough to prove me the stupid foreigner once again. It'll sharpen my game for the next trip.
I've also traveled enough to remember the two universal languages. "Yankee Dollars" and "American Marlboro's." (Not those crappy Turkish Marlboros). I always travel with an extra carton of cigs. They'll shorten queues for you, get you a better table in a restaurant and get you out of a bind. Even if the person you're dealing with doesn't smoke, they know the cigs will curry favor for them with someone who does. I've found this to be particularly true in countries where cigarettes and alcohol are banned.
harantis,
'Yankee Dollars' doesn't have as much of an effect in FSU as 'European Euros'. Simply because the Euro is worth more than a Dollar they prefer the Euro ..... of course :)
I did something similar. Went for 8 days split between Kiev and Odessa. Met a few girls that i had corresponded with. Learnt several good lessons which helped me with my subsequent trips.
Ah, wonderful! I love your willingness to see the world!
On Thanksgiving day last year, I flew to Turkey, on my way to Odessa. Bad weather closed the Odessa airport 3 days in a row, so I eventually gave up on Odessa and accepted a flight into Simferopol.
I arrived there, rented a car from EuropeCar (which I reserved by phone while still in the Istanbul airport) and spent the next 42 days seeing Ukraine.
It was great!
It was awful.
It was both, really.
Arriving in Simferopol rather late, it was too dark to try and drive to Odessa on the two-lane roads. So, I asked a taxi driver in my terrible, awful, broken Russian where a hotel was. Some tumble of languages and gesturing got me pointed in the right direction-- there was one very near the airport, and it was $8.00. Ok, I wouldn’t want to take my girlfriend to that hotel—but it was fine for that night! (Many of my friends back home would have been a little freaked out by that hotel. But, it was clean and fine—just very, very different.)
While driving around Ukraine, I got pulled over by militisia about once every-other day. Well, actually they usually flag you down—they stand by the road with a black and white stick and wave it at your car, and you stop. Maybe a few days would pass with no police checkpoints. But, when I got pulled over / flagged down, and they demand my documents, I NEVER give them my passport. Instead I carry a AAA international drivers license. I have two of them, and they are translated into about a dozen languages.
They were $10.00 at AAA in my city. Actually, they are about 8 years old, but they always seem to work. If the police make threatening gestures about throwing away my documents, or keeping them in their pockets, I try not to smile. Heck, they can keep it! It was ten bucks.
If the police want money, I usually play dumb, and they usually eventually give up. I did make a mistake my first trip there, and was driving the wrong-way down a one-way street. I got pulled over, and after haggling I paid a 40 grivna fine/bribe directly to the officer (down from 100 grivna.) So, they started at 100 grivna (20 bucks) and accepted 40 in the end (8 bucks.)
This last trip, a girl was showing me her city (Kherson) and we drove to the monuments that overlook the Dneper river. Well, turns out you’re not supposed to drive up to the monuments—it is a walking-only road. The police came, and I eventually had to pay 50 grivna. $10.00.
I would not recommend just showing up in Ukraine for most people! It would be scary and uncomfortable for many people to tumble around Ukraine. Many, many people looking for their partner in FSU countries have never been outside of the USA. But, it seems like you can handle it!
But, why not contact a couple of girls first? You wouldn’t have to be so serious about it. “Hello! I saw your profile, and I was going to be in Sumy in three weeks, and I wondered if you might like to talk a little bit in letters, and then meet for coffee in Sumy?”
I’ve done that, and made so many friends. If you’re going to be there, why not see the city with someone that might like to spend the day with you, showing you her city?
Many girls I’ve met are happy to meet someone interesting, and show them around. I mean, they really are happy to perhaps practice a little english, share their city with someone, learn about your country a little. And really, who would you rather see the sites of Kyiv or Odessa with— me or Anastasia/ Inna / Yana / Julia? :)
I think that goes against the way most people do it. But, I think it is a perfectly reasonable alternative, if going to Ukraine isn’t a huge deal for you!
I would recommend taking a list of “gold-list” agencies with you, so if you find yourself in Nikolaev on a Saturday morning without plans, you could call them up and go into the agency. You could flip through profiles, and they’ll be happy to call up some girls that you think might be interested in meetin gyou and see if they would like to meet. They charge a fee of about $10-$15 for that face-to-face introduction.
I loved tumbling around Ukraine. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Tours? No no no no no! Not for me! Maybe you either.
Let us know what you do!
Actually, I take one thing back. I said I wouldn’t want to be at that $8.00 hotel in Simferopol with my girlfriend. I changed my mind. I want a girl that would have no problem with that hotel, for the night. Someone that can walk the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Washington with grace, and can stay at that $8.00 Soviet hotel without it being a problem!
(In America, I’ve found lots of young women that can carry themselves with grace at the Intercontinental—but not so many of them could handle the soviet hotels! Part of the reason I’m looking for my wife there!)
Actually, I take one thing back. I said I wouldn’t want to be at that $8.00 hotel in Simferopol with my girlfriend. I changed my mind. I want a girl that would have no problem with that hotel. Someone that can walk the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Washington with grace, someone that can float through the Grand Hotel in Paris, and a young woman that can also stay at that $8.00 Soviet hotel without it being a problem!
(In America, I’ve found lots of young women that can carry themselves with grace at the Intercontinental—but not so many of them could handle the soviet hotels! That’s part of the reason I’m looking for my wife in Ukraine!)
I agree with you 100%. You can't put a price on those types of experiences.
Spend two days in the Prague city jail, and you come home with a new appreciation for freedom and the American justice system. What's that worth ?
In the US, offering "payola" to the police officer when he has you pulled over on the side of the road is only going to make matters worse (in most cases). The thinking is very much the opposite in other parts of the world.
In the town I live in, it's a $35 fine for driving 20 mph over the speed limit through downtown. However, it's a $100 fine if a 17-year old is caught smoking a cigarette. The moral to the story: Drive through downtown like a bat out of hell, just don't do it while smoking a Lucky Strike ! ..... While in other parts of the world, they'll all but kiss your arse for one, much less a whole pack, of American Marlboro's. I can remember having to hide my cigs when behind the "iron curtain" 30 years ago because I was constantly being mobbed or surrounded by people, all talking to me at the same time, offering me 10Dm, 15Dm, 20Dm (East German Marks) just for ONE American Marlboro cigarette. Back then, you could buy a pack of Marlboro's in the states for about 50 cents a pack, and an East German Mark was worth a maybe a dime. So they were willing to pay something close to 40 to 80 times what they were worth. Go figure !
King Arthur,
My experience in Saudi Arabia strongly suggests that you are correct. A Saudi jail is no place you'd want to visit. But the Saudis are very interested in being bribed with American cigs. Also, when headed to that part of the world I invariably bring a couple of old Playboy magazines to pass out to people who help me out. Pornography is a big no-no in that part of the world. But I've never worried about corrupting their morals .... since I know they don't ever look at the pictures, but instead only read the articles !!! ..... smirk .....
While in Latvia - several women laughingly told me about how dumb some American men can be. They told me that they would bring American cigarettes or Levi jeans and expect women to fall all over themselves. MAYBE before the fall of the Soviet Union, each of the girls said, that would have worked - but its foolish to think it would work anymore. Yet some guys they mentioned, still try it.
No. I don't bring Levi's. But if you've purchased American cigarettes in the EU anytime recently, you're lucky you didn't need to have your mortage banker with you. American cigarettes are EASILY four to five times as expensive as they are in most places in the states. (Places like NYC where the taxes on cigs are very high, excepted).
If you don't think American cigs are a currency, even in western europe, you're kidding yourself.
They smuggle cigarettes out from Ukraine into Western Europe, because they are so cheap in Ukraine and expensive in the West. Broad range of brands.
(I live in North Carolina. We're serious about tobacco here. One of the few things that people in Ukraine can recognize about my state is "Winston-Salem" - the city -- and that is only because of cigarettes.)
Recently there was an instance that a trucker hauling cargo for the U.S. Embassy was using that diplomatic cargo (not subject to search) to smuggle cigarettes out of Ukraine. He broke the seals on the diplomatic shipment (just furniture and household goods, in this case) and filled up the truck with cigarettes.
That is taking them out from Ukraine, to someplace where they aren't so cheap. You could make a fortune if you could get cigarettes from Kyiv to Manhattan.
So cheap there. So expensive in Western Europe.
If I remember right, they are like 40cents a pack.
I don't know if they are still doing it, but about 10 years ago, and for as far back before that as I can remember, the US G.I.'s stationed in Europe got ration coupons for things like cigarettes, gasoline and ice cream to keep them from starting their own black market. They were only allowed enough ration stamps for reasoned personal consumption.
Ukrainian Marlboro are UAH4.50 per pack which is circa 90 cents, not 40 cents. BUT, they are shite and burn away so quickly you need twice as many of them.