I’m not planning in going or anything. I just know very little about it and would be curious to know what it’s like from people who have been there.

Very European, I felt I was in Paris or somewhere similar.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/55iJ6W]Luxury goods shops[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

Their tube is lovely, much wider and beautiful stations.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/55iB4h]Moscow Tube Station[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

Their driving is abysmal and passing wrecked cars and corpses in rush hour is par for the course.

Kiev on the other hand was a shit hole and was more like how I thought Russia would be e.g. Obvious Mafia presence, blacked out RRs everywhere, hookers galore and generally very seedy….

Quite small and often rainy.

I rode there one day from California

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8cgeQM]20062010312[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/8cjzmm]20062010307[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Quite sleepy. Blink and you’d miss it. Easy commute to Glasgow though

EDIT – Dammit!

I quite like that on the map the burn running through it is called the Volga too 🙂

Too.
Slow.

A lovely, fascinating and bewildering place!

Have a blacked out S Class? Drive how you want, park where you want! (Disclaimer – my last trips there had an armoured S Class, with Igor as a driver. Igor had only two words of English. Police and Secret. 🙂 )

As above, the metro is truly stunning. Red Square is astonishing, especially for anyone who grew up in the cold war era. There’s a strong sense of a memory living there. Hard to explain, but an eerie place.

Expensive, too. Anywhere that’s “western friendly” tends to bump the prices up.

The hotel I use, the Metropole, feels like something from the cold war era as well. Often see armed minders sitting outside hotel rooms, and the hookers in the bar are fascinating to watch in action! No, not like that. 😉

Their approach to shop windows is, erm, interesting.

Friend of mine used to go a lot for work as he had a number of Russian clients, he said it’s one of the best things about retiring that he never has to go back. Extremely expensive, he never felt safe.

I felt safe. I had an Igor. 😀

I went when I was a kid during the Cold War – KGB minders, the lot. It was brilliant. Probably a bit different now!

Nice architecture and plenty of traffic jams to give you time to enjoy it

+1 on Metropole 😉

I went about 15 years ago. I liked it but preferred St Petersburg.
As others have said, the underground stations are amazing (and deep). Getting around (on the underground) was dirt cheap, the public toilets were generally awful (we started using the ones McDonalds).
I loved visiting the Soviet era monuments like the Monument to The Conquerors of Space, and the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman.
The train ride from Moscow to St Petersburg took about 4 hours, but we got got a free packed lunch, and the entire train was comprised of 6 seat compartments with a table. A more pleasant journey than any I’ve ever taken in the UK.

I don’t know how long ago footflaps was in Kyiv, but I can’t let his comments pass without some form of protest. I guess one’s perception of a city (or country) may depend on how much one knows of it ahead of time, and is positively predisposed.

A mate of mine went a couple of weeks ago and loved it. She went to St Petersberg too and loved that. I’ve always fancied it, since the Wacaday Russian special series circa 1989.

Scary & fun at the same time.

I worked there about 10 years ago, and as long as you paid up when you were getting mugged by the police there were no real issues.

Occasionally a doorman might get the hump with one of our party and you’d avoid the place for a few weeks. We never went anywhere with an obvious mafia clientele – they wouldn’t let ordinary people in anyway.

Traffic is completely bonkers, hotels are exorbitant, restaurants are good.

Language is impenetrable when you first get there unless you can read Cyrillic. e.g. Pectopah is actually restoran which is quite handy when you need some lunch.

People dying in the street was a thing too – on my first trip from Airport to city we saw a car crash with an obviously dead body in the road.

Moscow Times published the weekly police stats:
Murders:115
Bodies found:350

I wasn’t keen. Yes, great architecture and I was fascinated by the soviet era stuff but huge, most of it is ugly, polluted, ram packed busy, unbelievably expensive, full of a lot of arogant fat rich Russian oligarchs dressed in tasteless designer gear with 3 or 4 dolly birds clinging onto them, not overly friendly or particularly safe. The normal Russian folk I met were lovely, hospitable, kind and couldn’t do enough for you.

I’d never say to anyone don’t go on the strength of my opinion, but I won’t be Russian back!

By the way, I’m told that St Petersburg is far nicer, soni’ll heading out there at some point in the future.

Great stuff chaps. Keep it coming.

Found it a grim, grimy and menacing place.

I’m going there in October for work 😐

unbelievably expensive, full of a lot of arogant fat rich Russian oligarchs dressed in tasteless designer gear with 3 or 4 dolly birds clinging onto them, not overly friendly or particularly safe. The normal Russian folk I met were lovely, hospitable, kind and couldn’t do enough for you.

I’ve been to Minsk and Kiev and there are definitely 2 sides. They don’t really mix too much!

If you’re there for a business deal, then you’re moving in a world of oligarchs and corruption and it’s pretty seedy (and depressingly cynical) to British eyes. The paranoia among big money Russians is insane – I knew someone who wouldn’t let his daughter get the bus to school for fear of kidnap and ransom demands.

If you’re there as a friend or family, you see a parallel world altogether. Great people, loads of fun, you can sit out the front of your tower block with a beer and chat away as if the big money world doesn’t exist. Definitely worth a visit on these terms if you possibly can.

edit – orangespyderman, you’ll be fine – they’ll no doubt sort you out with an Igor 😉

Went for the England away qualifier in 2007.

Came back with the view that if I die and do end up going to hell, I’ll be back in Moscow.

If you’re there as a friend or family, you see a parallel world altogether. Great people, loads of fun, you can sit out the front of your tower block with a beer and chat away as if the big money world doesn’t exist. Definitely worth a visit on these terms if you possibly can.

Apply this to Kyiv. Wise words, doris5000.