First Impression on Russia

Before visiting Asia or China, in many Europeans or Americans’ mind, China is supposed to be a poor country and falling behind the times. Their impressions on China still stay in Mao Tse-tung Period. My impression on Russia is similar. Soviet Period has been past for decades, the economy in Russia is still stuck. So the city should be very old fashioned. I find some of my colleagues also think so after I share my experience with them when I’m back. Definitely, we are all incorrect. I’ve ever read a few people’s traveling blog mentioning Moscow and St Petersburg are 15-20 years behind Beijing and Shanghai. But this sounds ridiculous to me. How they judge the prosperity of the cities depends on how many skyscrapers there are. But I prefer the history and culture in the cities.

俄罗斯の初印象

如同平时与亚洲国家毫无交集的欧洲人在涉足之前对中国的印象仍然停留在古代或者毛泽东时代一般，初来莫斯科之前，我脑海中的莫斯科应该是个陈旧落后的城市，因为苏联的衰落以及俄罗斯经济的不景气，前苏联鼎盛辉煌的时期一去不复返，经过近几十年的洗礼，这座城市的整体水平应该也就同曼谷差不多。回来之后与同事分享，发现他们也与我去之前的想法一样。当然，事实证明我们都错了。可笑的是，我看见一些人在关于俄罗斯旅行的日志中分享道，莫斯科和圣彼得堡，至少落后北京和上海十五至二十年，而我却并不苟同，因为他们评判一座城市发达与否的标准是高楼大厦的数量。

 

This city surprises me quite a bit

Negatively, internationalization in this country is far out of my expectation. I find most of the travelers living in the hostels are from other places in Russia. In another words, I didn’t find that many travelers from other countries. And they don’t speak English at all. I was expecting more people can speak at least a little bit English in the cities like Moscow and St Pertersburg. But the reality is during the few days I stayed in Moscow, I had not met any Russian speaking even one or two statements in English except the receptionist in the hostel and waitress in Cafe Pushkin. The only way I could let others understand me is to use my body language and afterwards I found talking with Google Translate is the most efficient way.

When I went to Thailand and South Korea, I also had some similar trouble in communication, but we all (even with taxi driver) eventually figured out by one or two English words. Or there were some sales persons speaking a little bit English. So in these non English speaking countries, I didn’t feel that much inconvenience caused by languages.

I’ve finally realized how painful those expats feel when there is no English menu and waiters don’t speak any English at all in Hong Kong.

这座城市有太多的意外

让我感到负面的是，这种城市的非国际化程度也远远超越了我的想象。在Hostel见到的人，也基本上都是俄罗斯的外地人为主。毋庸置疑的是，国际化的程度很大程度依赖对英语的普及程度。以前曾听说在莫斯科与圣彼得堡，相对俄罗斯其他城市而言要显得更加国际化一些，然而事实却是在这四天中，我几乎没有遇见一个会说英文的。唯一能流利交流的是Hostel的前台女孩，以及Cafe Pushkin的女服务生。除此以外，我的表达几乎都是靠一指禅。

曾经在韩国和泰国，都偶尔遇到过无法让对方正确理解自己说什么的情况，然而对方总能从只言片语的英文中大致明白，即便是taxi driver。而且总会有一些店能够遇到可以很流利用英语交流的店员，所以在我看来，即便是在这些国家，英语不是那么普及，也并没有真正让我觉得有任何不便。我也终于明白了在香港生活的外国人有时遇见一句英文也不会的老一辈的服务生是有多头疼。

 

From my perspective, the ‘Surprise’ comes from the cultural and educational difference in both countries. In tier 2 or 3 cities of China, when you talk to young people (1980s or 1990s) who rarely speak English, they can speak out at least a few words as long as they have graduated from middle schools. e.g. ‘how much’ and numbers, etc. Even when someone is speaking ‘Chenglish’ or any form of informal English, you can still get some ideas from what they are saying. The main reason causing this difference is : in China, ‘English’ is the primary foreign language and almost equivalent with ‘foreign language’.  But English is not mandatory or primary foreign language in Russia. it’s stated in some article that there are some similarities between Russian and Deutsch, so most people would choose to learn Deutsch or Español. But I don’t know if this is the case.

而意外的感觉主要来自于：在中国，即便是在二三线城市，对于英文不好的人来说，只要读过中学，至少能够说出一些基本的英文单词，例如数字，how much之类，即便是Chenglish，蹩脚的英文参杂一些中文仍然能够把大致意思表达清楚。因为英语是中国教育中的第一外语，在一定程度上，"外语"这个词几乎默认等同于英语。可是对俄罗斯人而言，英语并非其第一外语，有人说德语与俄语有部分相通之处，所以大部分人选择德语作为第一外语，因而大多数俄罗斯人连最基本的英文数字都不会说，每一个数字都必须依靠计算器表达。

 

OK, let’s move forward, languages take too much paragraph.
In my mind (no, in most people’s mind) Russian girls are taller and stronger. But it is compared with Ukrainian girls. Yes, generally Russian girls are tall, but pretty slim, and not strong at all. In Moscow, I have the impression that most girls in the street look delicate and beautiful especially East Slavs and Tatars (I was told so but honestly I can not differentiate). It is even more difficult in finding ugly girls in Moscow than finding beautiful girls in Hong Kong. This country is full of pretty girls.

好了，语言这件事占据了太多的篇幅。

脑补中的俄罗斯姑娘应该体型偏大，偏强壮（脑补成了德国女孩）。

令人感到惊喜的是，"美女如云"用在俄罗斯是真的再贴切不过了。

莫斯科街道上的俄罗斯的年轻女孩，随手抓一个，都是精致翘楚的美妞，在我看来，莫斯科街头的女孩中，丑女的比例，比在香港街头美女的比例真的还要低太多太多。换句话说，在莫斯科街头的女孩中，找个长得不那么好看的比在香港街头找个还不错的更难，想象一下用抓娃娃机在这座城市随机抓起一个女生，都是女神。所以美女俨然成为了这个国家的特产，这也是东斯拉夫民族优良的特性。

 

A Russian girl told me, girls are cool in Russia because the weather is too cold and smiling consumes too much energy. (sounds ridiculous, hah?). I used to see some travelers’ negative comments on agoda.com, complaining some staff in the hotel ignoring her/him probably because of her/his ethnicity. But I guess the misunderstanding usually comes from the miscommunication as they can not communicate with each other at all. Although I had an experience that a flight attendant in Aeroflot Airlines showed unhappy face to me, most of the people I met in Russia were still nice even we didn’t understand each other and they kept speaking Russian to me.

Different from those tourism friendly countries like Thailand, you will never feel over welcomed in Russia.

俄罗斯人的冷漠想必也是有目共睹，见到有中国人在Agoda的评论区抱怨职员的冷漠是因为自己的肤色，而在我看来，或许更多是来自于语言，因为无法沟通，对方用冷漠和漫不经心的方式掩盖自己无法与你沟通的事实，又或者是强烈的民族自豪感从骨子里鄙视英语。即便是在俄航遇见对我似乎不太友好的稍显年长的空姐，但多数路上遇见的俄罗斯人普遍都很友好，虽然他们极力对我说俄语似乎很想帮我。

不同于泰国这种旅游服务业高度发达的国家，虽然同样都无法表达，但是你在俄罗斯永远无法感觉到在泰国时受到的热情对待。

I read one statement on instagram, saying “My favorite style of traveling, is not to check-in the attractions only, but slow down my steps, and watch how the people live in the city. Sometimes, you may feel more surprised when walking past some places or restaurants those are not in the plan." I totally agree with this. To me, a meaningful traveling is more like exploring rather than resting on vacations.

曾经在Instagram看到过这样一句话："我喜歡的旅行，不是只有朝聖知名景點，比起密集趕路，我更喜歡放慢腳步，觀察當地人的生活習性、風俗，突然決定要踏上的冒險旅程，或是隨意路過的小徑、餐廳，往往在沒有特別規劃的旅行中，會遇上意想不到的驚喜 “，我想我的想法也大致如此。我认为自己更多的是在旅行，而不是旅游或者度假。

我喜欢一天只去1-2个地方，不赶时间。平时每天的生活已经在不断低头看表，上班、面试、和朋友约吃饭、赶飞机都是卡着时间，这样的生活让人感到很紧凑，然而有时却又想完全不管公司Email，不理任何公司发生的一切。睡到自然起才出门，不用时刻紧盯着时间。或许脚走得有些累，但是思想却无比放松。

我们这代人绝大多数都有焦虑症，害怕自己被时代抛弃，不断问自己的价值在哪里，是否不可替代，或许有时候用错了方法，但是每个人仍在用着各自的方法不断追赶和证明。即便短暂的逃离并不能治愈焦虑症，也算是让紧绷的弦有片刻收缩的状态。

 

I feel the city structure (circles by circles) looks pretty similar with Beijing. Exactly! Soviet Union was what we wanted to be in Mao Tse-tung Period.

看了莫斯科的城市规划，总觉得似曾相识。

没错，北京。

苏联曾是新中国的榜样。北京与莫斯科一样，都是从政治中心广场（天安门广场 vs 红场）向外扩散，一圈包着一圈。

 

Red Square is the place where everyone should go, and it did take most of my time. There are many cathedrals and museums.

Saint Basil’s Cathedral is my favorite architecture. The colors and structure make it look like the castle in the fairy tales.

红场及附近不仅是来到莫斯科不得不朝圣的地方，也几乎是占据了最多时间的。

Saint Basil’s Cathedral （圣瓦西里大教堂）是我最爱的一座建筑，拥有童话般的梦幻。无论从色彩搭配还是结构上来说，都是自带美颜功能。

Kremlin Palace is where President Putin’s office locates. But I have not got enough time to walk around inside. Armory Chamber is the only museum I’ve been to.

克里姆林宫是普京的办公所在地，但可惜的是我并没有用足够多的时间好好在里面逛逛。参观武器库博物馆的时候已经是下午四点半，天已经黑了。

 

The metro station in Moscow is one of the amazing places. The palace like stations are extraordinarily attractive. The facilities are old but it brings more vintage and historical feelings to me.

莫斯科的地铁站也算是一大特色，与我印象中的地铁站形成极大的反差。虽然设施和列车显得有些旧，但是更多体现出来的却是沧桑和历史感。

 

Novodevichy Cemetery Moscow is a centralized place where most renowned Russians who have passed away are buried, i.e. poets, generals, etc. Although some people are instinctively scared to see the tombs, I feel holy and pure here. Most tombs have a statue in the front, which tries to tell a story, representing what and how the people were in the past.

莫斯科的新圣女公墓埋葬了许多俄罗斯有名望的人，例如诗人、将军等等。尽管很多人对墓地有本能的恐惧情绪，然而我却在这里感受到难得的宁静和纯净。多数的墓地前都有一座雕像，似乎在告诉人们他/她生前是怎样的一个人。

 

There are hundreds of museums and cathedrals in Russia. It seems there is always a museum or cathedral just right at the corner. It’s like the temples in Chiangmai, Thailand. Although I’m not a christian, I was attracted by the gorgeous design of the cathedrals. The interior painting are really delicate.

俄罗斯有太多的博物馆和大教堂，似乎每一个街角都有一个大教堂或者博物馆，就如同清迈庙宇的密集程度一样。虽然并不是基督徒，我却被壮观华丽的大教堂所吸引住。室内富丽堂皇，墙壁的每一幅画都是那么的精致。

 

There is a prison in Peter and Paul fortress. You can experience how it feels in the jail.  On each floor there is a punishment room which is completely black. I entered the black room, feeling a little bit blank. It is really awful to stay in the dark.

位于圣彼得堡离冬宫并不远处的彼得要塞里面有个监狱，你可以体验一下几十年前监狱的感觉，似乎有些名人也被关押在此。每层都有一个小黑屋（又称惩罚屋）。里面是完全漆黑的，我尝试进入把自己关在里面，的确有一种空虚和恐惧感。

 

 

Eliseevsky Store is an over 100 years old palace like supermarket. It looks pretty advanced and luxurious. But the price is actually affordable.

耶立謝耶夫斯基商店是一个看似宫廷的食品超市，已有超过一个世纪的历史。 虽然看起来非常奢华，可是价格却很亲民。

 

 

It feels really different to walk against the strong snow in the Nevsky Prospect. There is still too much to explore.

夜里顶着大雪在圣彼得堡的涅瓦大街走着确实挺有意思。但是实际上仍然有太多东西值得探索。

 

Murmansk is a small city in the north of Russia. It’s also an important destination that I was excited of. It locates inside Actic Circle. Almost every Russian couldn’t understand why I was going to Murmansk because it is really really cold and not famous at all. The temperature is around – 20℃ in winter. But it is an ideal place to watch Aurora(northern lights). Most of my friends and colleagues feel surprised that Aurora can be watched in such place. As they know,  Norway, Iceland and Finland are the best known and the only places to watch Aurora.

I was staying in Sami Village, 170 km away from the city. It’s around two hours away by car. The people there are really really nice. The accommodation and all the services are in a reasonable and affordable price. The uncle (one of the hosts) is a pretty warm hearted person. He woke us up when he saw a strong Aurora at night. Without his help, we almost missed the strongest one. But staying outside for capturing the Aurora is particularly a freezing experience. The wapiti with a bell tied came around to us and it was biting my tripod. It must be very hungry and it shocked me a little bit.

Shooting Aurora is technically not too difficult. I did a few researches before the trip, so at the first night I succeeded to capture it very quickly.

We need 1) a tripod 2) shutter cable or remote (for stabilization) 3) a wide angle lens (mine is 12mm F2 lens with a APS/C frame camera).

Then just adjust some parameters: 1) manual focus to infinite 2) switch to the biggest aperture 3) switch to BULB mode in the camera 4) change white balance to auto or 3800K 5) set ISO to 320 (with 40s shutter speed) or 1600 or 3200 (with 4s shutter speed), it depends on how you want to capture the aurora

摩尔曼斯克是俄罗斯北部位于北极圈内的一个小城市，也是此次旅行的一个非常重要的目的地。在圣彼得堡，几乎每一个俄罗斯人听到我将前往摩尔曼斯克时都表示不解，毕竟那里更加寒冷，将近- 20℃ （虽然经过比较之后发现温度竟然比哈尔滨还高），但是它是一个非常理想的极光观测地。我的大多数朋友和同时看到我拍到的极光之后都感到惊讶，因为多数人以为只有挪威、冰岛、还有芬兰等北欧国家才能观测到极光。

我住在距离市区大约170公里以外的萨米村，车程大约两小时。那里的人都十分淳朴，对比起国内景区天价宰客的情形，这里堪称圣地。小木屋的住宿环境也挺好，其他的一切服务都很令人满意，而且价格还十分良心、公道。有位大叔也十分热心，由于第一天晚上得知我们想看极光，第二天看到了超强的极光后特意过来叫醒睡梦中的我们，否则几乎错过了绝佳的机会。

极光拍摄其实技术上并不是特别难，很多新手都能拍出来。行前简单地看了几个攻略，当晚拍摄非常顺利，虽然距离拍得美轮美奂还是有很大差距。但是作为新手，能拍到是首先顾虑的。

我们只需要如下：1）三脚架 2）快门线或者快门遥控（为了防止手震）3）广角镜头（我使用的是12mm 光圈F2的镜头，相机是APS/C画幅）

然后就是参数了：1）调至手动对焦至无限远 2）切换至最大光圈 3）切换至B门模式 4）将白平衡切换至自动，但是为了保险起见，设置为3800K更好  5）ISO根据想要拍摄极光的形状，可以设置为320（对应的快门速度为40秒）/1600/3200（对应的快门速度为4秒），当然这些都根据当时的光照情况而定，我当时所处的场景比较暗。

 

Although my photos are not fancy enough yet, it was very lucky that I could be seeing this consecutively for three days. Wish it could bring good luck to everyone seeing it. It was really really unbelievable and unforgettable experience.

Playing with the wapti, reindeer, huskies and rabbits is good fun.

虽然我的照片还不够理想，但是能够连续三天都见到极光已经实属非常幸运了，希望北极光能够给每一个看到它的人都带来好运。实在是难忘的一次经历。

和村里的麋鹿、驯鹿、二哈还有小兔子们玩耍得也很愉快。

 

A few days after, we went to Teriberka base, a village by the Arctic Ocean. It is an awesome place. The driver told us here was where Atlantis civilization used to be. Honestly I have not verified yet. I chose to believe for now.

When taking snow mobile through the iced lake, the mobile shocked and smashed a big piece of ice and made it spill throughout my whole body.

几天之后我们前往捷里别尔卡，一个紧靠着北冰洋的小村庄。其实这里也是观看极光的绝佳地点。去程时司机会说一些英文，告诉我亚特兰蒂斯文明似乎曾经存在于此（虽然我并没有验证是否是真实的），姑且相信吧。

当搭乘雪地摩托经过结冰的湖面时，摩托击中了一大块冰，以至于将碎冰溅满了我全身，实属狼狈。

 

Another thing that impressed me is that the drivers always stop and let pedestrians go first whenever they see them crossing the road where there is no traffic light.

另外令我印象深刻的是，在没有交通灯的路口，看见行人的司机总会停下来，静静地让行人先过。

Russia, probably I will come in summer next time.

也许，下次我会挑个夏天再来……