I haven’t noticed an increase in invective but I’ve not been paying that much attention to the comments, lately. Still, I think this thread was quite reasonable and it was interesting how many commenters had actually journeyed to the USSR/Russia. I say, da, go for it, dude.

Fair enough.

Comments section has just been filled with weird invective in odd places lately.

It’s pretty easy to get a visa and a ‘sponsor’, basically just a question of money. I think there’s more opportunity to see something off the beaten path in Russia. Copenhagen is a nice city but ultimately boring, IMO. That being said I’ve never been to St Petersburg, but I don’t think visa requirements ought to be decisive parameters.

Uh, okay.

I was really only referring to the fact that I’d need to get a visa and a sponsor. There are lots of places I’d like to see. And it’s easier to see cities where a visa isn’t required.

Not sure this is a point worth getting riled up over.

So suck it up, bitch.

That said, if you do take the shore excursion route there are things you may wish to consider… One obvious (and sad I thought) feature of the guided tours through the Hermitage was the concentration on certain “high-dollar value” artists and works. OK, the Rembrandts and the single DaVinci were nice, but works by those artists I have seen elsewhere and with better presentation.

No, were I to take the tour again, I would immediately separate myself from the tour group (noting rendezvous time/place etc) and go the areas that contain stuff only the Hermitage has, that the tour groups walk past quickly. As an example – the rooms full of amazing Renoir, Monet, and the much less impressive Cezanne were just places to march through, on the way to the $$s.

The really sad part was that I think this reflected on the Russian national mood (or even less charitable, character) in some general way. To me, even more horrifying was that these high-dollar works by Rembrandt were on display in rooms with the windows open to the outside (so: get the rubles and yet not give a shit about destroying what generates the rubles). By this time I assigned it to the growing mental list of Things Russians Do, a list which did not contain many positive points.

Last note – if you are in the Baltic countries, then Estonia is well worth a visit and a stay. We enjoyed Talinn very much, and like most places we have gone, the history we learn _after_ the visit is so fascinating that we regret not doing more prework so the place-names would mean more.

Just make sure to answer “no” on the question where it asks if you have had “specialized military or nuclear training.” One would imagine that a yes answer to this would at the least get your application scrutinized a bit more heavily.

I have family there so it is easy for me to go but I have some friends who just visited this past fall without a lot of difficulty.

If you do not peak the language it is probably easiest to visit just Moscow or Petersburg. If you have some Russian-speaking friends I would recommend the “Golden Ring” of cities east of Moscow on the Volga. Yaroslavl being a very nice one to visit. Very beautiful places and the heartland of Russian history and culture.

If you go, I would advise you stay at least a bit in Pushkin, to the south — the Natali is their main hotel, and I know for a fact that they can bang out your visa stuff for you in no time at all. In fact, Velikiy Novgorod is only a bit further south (daytrip distance) and well worth seeing. But in any case, yeah. It’s a great city — puts Moscow to shame.

http://www.stpeterline.com/en/OnBoard/News.aspx