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	Create New Topic   My Posts   My forum buddies   Invite friends   Private messages Russian brides > Main Forum > taxi ride from hell - and, 'why do russian wear black? Author Post Harvey Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 8:40:16 AM   We decided to go out on Jan 7 -- "Christmas". Because of it being a holiday it seemed calling for a cab was difficult. So we decide to start walking and catch a cab on the way. Krasnodar, dark streets and mud in the "new section" of town. Little street lighting. It seemed the snow from New Year melted and it rained pretty much off and on over the week. We were south for a few days. We leave apartment and start walking to toward downtown. Krasnodar is a big place. Simlar in size to Philly. But when I first arrived I had visions of the Phillipines. It is an old village attempting to assimilate into a modern city. Very difficult to describe in short order. Run down shacks interspersed with 'modern' buildings and old style Russian architecture. Her devolopment is still under construction - most taxi drivers needed directions to find it. So we walk as we already have several times to the closest bus stop where taxis are usually waiting. There is one cab parked. He agrees to take us into the 'city'. About a quarter mile into the ride a Lexus RX300 pulls into our lane. And instead of hitting the breaks cabbie hits the horn. Then procedes to speed up and do a three second swerve around pass to be in front of this guy. Then taxi hits breaks. rx300 moves to right lane and passes. Taxi speeds up and cuts off rx300. Everything is calm for the next thirty seconds. Next thing I know I am looking out window from rear passenger side - rx300 is two feet from my face and getting closer. Taxi decides to make it closer and rx does the same. Now I am two inches from rx300 and both speed up. These two clowns decide to play chicken and rub paint. Now, going forty mph on a muddy dark street these two guy are trying to run each other off the road. I'm thinking Russian Disneyland ride. Cab driver is able to lean over and roll down window during this and starts to exchange pleasantries with other driver -- all the time six or less inches from each other and jockeying for road space. rx pulls ahead. Taxi backs off. Incident over... ???? NOPE! A kilometer later mr taxi speeds up and does a quick cutoff pass of rx. Then pulls ahead. He is the man - got last 'word' in. As we approach an intersection taxi man rolls down window and waves rx to pass. RX300 gets into turn lane and makes a left. Mr taxi makes an emergency left through two lanes of traffic and gets behind rx again. NO SHIT THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING! RX pulls over into parking lane and stops. Taxi pulls in behind and stops. RX puts it in reverse and backs into cab - bumper car style. Enough that I feel the jolt! They both get out and are standing face to face. I cant hear what is being said - I couldn't understand anyway. RX300 driver is a foot taller and much bigger than taxi driver. I'm thinking this ain't good. At least we're closer to downtown. It is a Russian standoff. RX guy then starts searching his vehicle -- could he be looking for a gun? A bat? What? The tension is too much watching from the back of the cab. Then rx guy opens back door of suv and leans in and comes out with a poster and a ladies purse. He turns off car and locks it up and just starts walking across traffic to the closest place that looks like a club or restaurant. Meanwhile on lookers are inspecting front of cab and cab driver looks at cab one more time. He gets in cab and takes us to our destination. The first words he spoke to us during the ride, "That guy has problems." Loosely translated. After we finally get out of the cab - no extra charge for fun in the streets - my lady says, "I think he is the one with problems." Just another day in the life... Harvey Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 9:07:12 AM   I asked a young man the other day, "Why is it almost all Russians wear black?" "It is our favorite color. Just as Irish people like green...etc." Oh so true. Pointy black shoes are still in fashion, black jeans and black coats. Black everything. Sure there those bold enough to weat red or a few other colors. And the sweat suit with addidas logo is very popular -- in black. I must say though that I do have an appreciation for knee length black high heeled boots. And the straight black hair past the shoulders with blues eyes (the ladies of course). mmmmm - yummy looking. So there I am with two coats. One a ski jacket light gold and flashy looking. The other a brown leather winter coat. The color of spring deer. If I was wearing it in the woods it would be the color of "target." Plus brown hiking shoes. I'm sorry, but why wear shiny black leather shoes when stomping through dirty mud ridden sidewalks and puddles of muddy water almost everywhere? My theory on why wear black. Jan 7 we take bus from down south back to Kras. She wanted to take bus so I could see more of landscape. It was very beautiful riding the Black Sea coast for a while. Very much like PCH north of San Francisco. Then head into the mountains on this bus. This bus! Sounded like an old vw bug. I was calling it the 'I think I can' bus. Much of the time this thing was in great granny gear limping up the mountain roads. I'd love to take this drive in the summer in my benz with the top down. Great driving course for fun. Anyway, when we finally limp in to bus station back 'home' I grab my beautiful brown leather coat that I stashed in the overhead when it was taking up the last two seats in the bus that needed room for asses. Actually two fine asses! My brown leather coat -- think brushed tanned leather -- was now a brown and black coat. So now I know why Russians like to wear black. I'm sure the cleaners can restore my coat to its original color. Harvey Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 9:34:52 AM   LANGUAGE BARRIER -- I did not want to pollute another thread about language differences so I'll keep my little story here. You really learn a lot about someone when it comes to competitive sports. If you call air hockey a competitive sport. After taxi ride from hell we decide to check out local mall downtown. It rivals any big city mall or shopping center anywhere! Gorgeous place. And all of the locals are dressed in finest and out strutting. This place is like the court at King Of Prussia. Typical mall style with young kids doing what they do everywhere in modern societies. Families etc. Cinema and gallery on upper levels. And an arcade. Let's play air hockey, shoot guns and bubble hockey. After getting my ass kicked the first two games of air hockey I say, "You are very serious." It took almost five minutes to break down the word serious. "I am not serious, I am having fun!" If you could have seen the concentration in her eyes and cat like reflexes and total concentration you would say she was serious as hell. Serious in wanting to kick my ass in air hockey! I had to step it up to even the match. I forget that even though over the past nine months I have been expanding her vocabulary with slang, colloquialisms and such, there are still words that have a distinct meaning in the Russian/English language dictionary. The cool thing about the bubble hockey game - I said it will be Russia vs United States - was that just before game starts it plays last the few stanzas of American national anthem then first puck shoots up. Game on and she is serious as hell once again. About mall -- I checked out elctronics store they have same exact camera I have but more expensive. Most things were more expensive the in the US. Except groceries. Seemed to be about the same. Food court had Russian version of KFC and there was the "Subway" sign. Same exact get up as in US. Oven making fresh rolls etc... I must say their ice cream shops beat the hell out of most in the US. Quality of ice cream and flavors is good -- but skimpy on servings. there was also a baskin robbins type place. In Russian with the '31' flavors logo. RodanTsunami Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 11:15:04 AM   Nice story Rhalph. I liked it. For those of you that knew my analogy to "Ginger" an "Mary Ann" , could be we are all seeking something different in our quest. When you wrote of the cultural popularity of black, I thought of the ladies I have met and the way they dressed. Then I laughed and thought of how someone made a similar analogy with "Betty" and "Wilma". My response was they were terribly confused,, since they were cartoon characters,,,,,, Now today I instandly thought of "Boris" and "Natasha" Ahh yes,,,,, Natasha,,,,,, she was hot wasn't she,,, "Bullwinkle" Harvey Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 11:45:16 AM   I referenced Boris and Natasha months ago on the forum. Interesting that they "locals" still fear 'Fearless Leader'. Even though she is very proud of the freedoms they now enjoy. I was presented with a painting of a famous landmark near her home town. It is a knock off but it is a pretty good oil on canvas. It was decided that I should not attempt to bring it home with me because they need to get permission from government to take such things out of the country. ??? It is just a copy of a painting by a famous - I don't know artist - painter from the region. Nicely done and framed well. Her mother gave it to me as a present. But they were fearful that it would be confiscated if I tried to take it with me. I was going to ask about this. If anyone knows what types of items are still restricted. I think certain publications also get scrutiny. As for Boris and Natasha, I remember when burger king gave out glasses with the Rocky and Bullwinkle characters. That form fitting purple dress and long flowing black hair. Yeah, baby, yeah! They are all over the place in southern Russia. RodanTsunami Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 12:20:14 PM   I am not aware of the restrictions for bringing art from Russia, but I have brought art from local artists home from both Ukraine and Moldova. I believe that recently created art by living artists is not claimed as a national treasure. I have heard of consideration being made of art older than 25 or 50 years. I have had the artist write a note on the back of the painting to me and one artist had business cards, but there was no problem with customs durak Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 1:37:23 PM   Ralph, Welcome Home! Glad you made it out alive... Terrific account of your taxi ride. What a great introduction to Russian culture! As far as I understand, Russia restricts export of "antiquities," which I understand to mean rare, valuable, collectible type items. I wouldn't expect an ordinary recent painting to be any problem. RodanTsunami Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 2:05:16 PM   Ralph; ou have given me an idea. I live on the west coast and when I have friends going to New York, I have them bring me a sandwich from a real deli on their return. I have tried to explain what good Mexican food is like to those in the FSU. The "Old El Paso" taco shells made me shudder. I was thinking of getting a good carne asada burrito and freeze it and plkae it in my checked luggage. Maybe even get some hand made tortillas from the barrio. Does anyone know about any restrictions to the Ukraine via Paris RodanTsunami Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 2:20:59 PM   Sorry wrong thread, meant to use "Taco Shells" and the "Typo's" are from crackeers in my keyboard RodanTsunami Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 2:23:09 PM   Oops! Missed some Harvey Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 3:55:15 PM   Maybe I didn't didn't explain painting well enough. I am not sure who painted it. It is very good and was painted specifically for the family many years ago. And she did mention something about national treasures and needing permission for such an item. Maybe it is more valuable than I believe. Or maybe they are just paranoid about it. I believe this painting could be 25+ years old. But as it is her very favorite place to go her mom wanted me (us)to have it as a 'wedding' gift. So it is the day we plan to take a hike and have a small picnic to this very place. By the way, temperature almost reaches freezing one night while in home town. We meet at sister's apartment have breakfast and pack lunch for "hike". This is only suppose to be a short venture. We go to the beach and plan to walk the shore. First impression of town beach, anywhere in America it would be closed to public access because of the amount of trash washed up. I managed to take photo of some syringes in the mess and a few other items of disgust. Beach route to bluff is impassible because of heavy surf. We back out and take land route. Up and down very steep streets. Actually mostly up. At one point there is a staircase made out of steel that rises about three hundred+ feet. With platforms to catch wind along the way. Then it is walking through the woods up and down and also because of recent rains muddy. But it is clean mud because it is in woods. Except that the amount of litter is evident everywhere. Mostly empty beer and drink containers. Eventually make it up to a plateau high above the town. I am told that twenty years ago this place was off limits as a military use only place. Then I start to notice as we walk along. It seems this was a strong hold point during WWII. There were bunkers and an underground maze of fortified tunnels that ran the entire length of te plateau over looking the Black Sea. And I didn't bring flash light for day hike. I venture into the 'tunnel' at one point and used flash from camera to see a few places. Pictures were very revealing. Every few hundred feet there were portal and cement turret looking structures eminating from the tunnel with four openings each, big enough to see through and fire through. Then at the very end was a major look out point with a big bunker all around it. Today is appears to be a place for young people to party as there was a camp fire built on top of it. But the view of the sea is fantastice. We are 400/500 feet above the sea at this point. Hike continued and it was an awesome view walking along the edge above the sea. Then it was down and up again. Eventually made way to top of 'rock'. Awesome views and took many pics of sea shore down below. Then went down below. Last hundred yards to acces beach was through a stream and having to climb down jagged rock formation with the waterfall. Now I have photo to match painting. Walk back was up a different waterfall from a different stream through the woods again. Came across an old abandoned camp site with buildings. Now occupied by some homeless. And of course anothe statue of Lennon. Not John I'm sorry to say. Observation: There are no signs of mammals or amphibians in thi area. And it is ripe for such creaturs. Every oncce in a while I would sea a pile of feathers. Thinking some varmint must surely have caught a bird. Then it dawned on me. All afternoon I was hearing gun shots. The local were pigion hunting. And all around most of the day I was hearing shot gun blasts all around the mountain side. I finally kicked up a 'pigeon'. It was a beautiful bluish looking grouse like bird. Still, no squirrels, chipmunks no deer or anything of the sort. I was told I could hunt wild boar but it was further to the north. One thing I did notice, there is no shortage of dogs in town. I have never seen so many dogs and cats just wandering about the place. But not in the woods. These are city stray dogs. And lots of them. But weather for Jan was perfect. Much like San Fransisco but not as cold during the day. Hike lasts for over six hours of walking up and down very steep terrain and through mud, picked blackberries and had picnic on shore of Black Sea. Not quite the Russian winter I expected. figgis Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 6:23:37 PM   Interesting reference about the car chace, it sounds like a normal day in the fast lane of the M6 in the UK, i have had a car up my ass on there and i was doing 130 mph at the time. It would be interesting to see how a Russian/Ukrainian would drive over here, i think they would end up in prison in a week or set a new land speed record. durak Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/10/2010 6:49:21 PM   Ralph, Interesting to read your observation about ground animals. I once spent a few days in a Ukrainian village, and I was deeply impressed by the quiet, peacefulness, abundance of plants and birds (the only time in my life I've heard a cuckoo's call). And while I was taking a walk, marvelling at how little disturbed the land was compared to rural areas I know in the USA, it suddenly struck me that I hadn't seen even one wild ground animal. At home, there are deer, woodchucks, opossum, squirrels, rabbits, bats, foxes, mice, and meadow voles aplenty -- even the occasional bear. But I didn't see any wild critters in this Ukrainian farm village. I supposed that any animal big enough to eat that wanders into such a district, would soon find itself on someones dinner plate. durak Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 1/12/2010 4:09:41 AM   I forgot to mention, that in Ukraine when people see a motorist who drives in a reckless, aggressive manner, they say, "he drives like a Russian!" (Он водит как русский) Drivers in Kyiv seem to me much more considerate than those in Sankt Peterburg. But I can say that since I started traveling to Russia in 04, the standard of Russian driving has really improved. Some drivers will now stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, unthinkable years ago. 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