10. Sometimes,
getting off of the main tourist cities in a country will be a much better
experience. I had a friend in Russia
suggest that I only see St. Petersburg and Moscow, but I decided to go to Kazan
to see the better soccer games. Kazan is
such a cool city, with some really stunning architecture, some really good food
(even Pap John’s!) and a very welcoming, still very Asian-feeling culture. Most people don’t think to go to Kazan on a
Russian tour, but I am so thankful that I spent a bit of time in this beautiful
city.
9. Russia has a lot
of the “greatest” or “biggest” things in Europe. Just to name a few, the largest mosque in
Europe is in Kazan, the Qalsarif Mosque, the 2 largest skyscrapers in Europe
are in Moscow, and the 3rd largest escalator and 3rd
deepest metro station in the world are both in Moscow as well (Park Pobedy
station- 740 steps, 84 meters underground).
8. In Moscow, we went to a mall beside Red Square- and
almost every person had ice cream. We
also went to get ice cream, and the ice cream vendor had the scoops of ice
cream already attached to a cone in the freezer. The attendant took a pair of tongs, picked up
a cone with ice cream already on top, and handed it to us…quite a different way
of getting ice cream! And it was about
70 cents per cone- what a deal!
7. St. Basil’s
Cathedral in Moscow is an incredible building.
Everyone knows about the large, colorful domes, but very few people know
about the detail underneath the domes- each support and pillar is painted with
beautiful flowers, in blues and reds and gold trim, but each one is painted
differently- no two are the same. In
addition, there are little brick arches, alcoves of shelter, and a cool design
of the bricks making up the formation.
If you ever get the chance to go visit this beautiful building, do
it. Pictures don’t do it justice!
6. Moscow has the best metro system I have ever seen, hands
down. There are 14, yes 14 lines, and
almost every part of the city has a stop within a few hundred meters of
it. A few years ago, the Russian
government launched a competition to see who could create the easiest to read
metro map, so reading the map (in English and Russian even!) was not hard at
all. Each stop also has a different
theme, with a design unique to each individual station throughout the whole
complex. The station closest to my hotel
was called “Elektrozavodskaya” which must mean something about electric,
because the station was covered in lights and lighting bolts in the design of
the ceiling and walls. They definitely
spent lots of time designing each stop.
5. Google translate is an amazing thing, especially for when
you need to talk about visas and tourist registration (important stuff!) with
the hotel receptionist who doesn’t speak English…hopefully I will not have to
replicate that experience again…
4. Speaking of which, if you go to Russia, make sure to read
all of the fine print about how long you have to register before you get in
trouble with the government. Most times,
foreigners must register within 7 business days of arriving, which was great
for me because I would only be there 5 and therefore didn’t need to
register. But I missed the fine print
about “All foreigners who arrive with a ‘Soccer visa’ must register within 24
hours of arriving in Russia.” I was
quite worried I would never be allowed to leave the airport, but thanks to a
very friendly customs officer, I had no problems!
3. If you ever want to go to visit Russia, go next year for
the 2018 World Cup. If you buy a World
Cup (or Confederations Cup this year) ticket, you get a free visa into Russia
(which is quite difficult to get as an American!) for about 6 weeks total,
along with free train rides between the host cities (which would have been $40
or more per trip), free metro/public bus transportation in the city on game
days, and even discounts to the museums in the city. In addition, there were about fifteen tourist
information booths set up throughout each city to guide tourists with any
questions. It was quite remarkable how
organized this first tournament was, so I have no doubt the World Cup next year
will run just as smoothly. Who wants to
go with me? :P
2. Russian people are
not angry at Americans. Don’t believe
the lies that the American media feeds us.
At Starbucks one night, my friend and I started talking with a Russian
couple sitting beside us. They were both
genuinely interested in hearing about American culture, and we realized that we
had much more in common than we may have thought: she was a school teacher, he
liked watching soccer, they were going on a trip to celebrate the summer break,
they felt it is pointless that Russia and the US are so angry at each other,
and they realized that people are all the same throughout the world. It was really a positive conversation, which
changed my perception about Russian people’s attitude towards the US. All of the people I met were much warmer than
I thought they would be; there is nothing to be scared about interacting with
Russian people!
1. Russia is a
religious mismatch of a country, and it was quite cool to see a mosque, a
Catholic church, a Russian orthodox cathedral, and a Jewish Synagogue all so
close to each other. All of that being
said, evangelism in any form is still illegal, and the general culture of this
country is not a practicing religious culture, just a historical/familial tie
to religion. I have a friend who works
in a seminary in Russia, and he said we were not allowed to visit him because
of drawing negative attention to his work.
Please be praying that the Russian government will repeal the law that
makes it so hard to share the Word and will instead be open to the
life-changing message of the Gospel.
Luke Forshey
July 2, 2017
Very superficial experience and rush judgement
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