Russia Wrap - Aug 12, 2008 - Ivangorod, Leningradskaya, Russia

DAY 30: Russia - Estonia Border

At 2:00 this morning we arrived by train at the Estonian Border. We were sad to be leaving Russia after spending so much time there, but glad to be heading into more familiar territory in the European Union.

Our train was comfortable, although we took regular seats for the overnight trip of 8 hours. We were prepared for the hard/straight wooden benches of Russian trains and were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the station to find the soft/reclining seats of an Estonian train! Other backpackers on board were similarly pleased.

Unlike our previous border experiences between Russian and Mongolia, we did not sit for 6 hours!! We crossed into Estonia after a wait of an hour, passing through without any baggage inspections, customs declarations or passport problems ... the only question we were asked was if we had any red or black caviar :)

*TRAVEL TIP!*

If you ever want to travel to RUSSIA, do not believe ANYTHING you read. Our impressions of Russia were all very good, although we were scared into believing that there were a wide variety of negative outcomes. It is almost like a Cold War echo that still exists between the West and Russia.

Much of the information we read about border, police and visa practices is about 3-4 years out of date. We were never once stopped by police, nor were we ever exploited by any authorities. Our border crossings, while long, were completely hassle free and EASY. The paperwork that we were supposed to fill out only happened at the Mongolian border.

Our pockets were never picked, nor were our bags ever slashed. We were never mobbed by gangs of children and robbed. We were not mugged by anyone. While people in Russia do drink a lot, we never had problems with drunken Russians chasing us down the streets or being a nuisance of any kind. We felt safe at all times.

We did not feel that people took advantage of us because we were tourists. There were no scams againsts tourists in Red Square, no dropping of the wallet schemes.

People in Russia are generally not negative towards "Westerners." We sensed absolutely no animosity from anyone, and most people can not even remember the Cold War. All they know is a free and (nearly) democratic Russia, and they enjoy and value the same things that we do in Canada.

Things are not all decaying and falling apart in Russia. There is a great deal of building going on, and many foreign observers like Russia because of the nature of its Emergent Economy. Building and development is happening everywhere!

We suspect that the horror stories one hears come from stupid tourists who are not on their best behaviour. Generally speaking, we stayed out of trouble and tried to represent our country in the best possible fashion.

SO the moral of the story is: go to Russia and do not worry!! Don't even believe what your goverment says. Everything we were warned about by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs seemed to be complete BS.

Russia was SO enjoyable for us, and greatly exceeded our expectations! It was a completely hassle-free and memorable experience!!