As a tourist destination I believe that Russia still suffers from a significant hangover from its Soviet days. We still hark back to the days where this place was closed, forbidden, the “evil empire” finger on the nuclear button. Its an image that almost a century of Hollywood media has imprinted upon our subconscious.
One of my days on the trans Siberian I was standing in the corridor of the carriage looking out at the unchanging scenery. A twentysomething Russian girl wearing a tourist T shirt from Brisbane struck up a conversation. She made a very prescient comment. She said that tourists to Russia tend to be those who have already visited a lot of countries. Gobsmacked I told her that Russia was somewhere around my 80th country that I have visited and really what she was saying that Russia doesn’t figure highly on most peoples’ bucket lists.
Myimpressions of this country is that there is a lot to see and the people are friendly. Apart from St Petersburg and Moscow tourism does not rate highly around most of the country. The biggest barrier for the independent tourist is the language both spoken and written. Being unable to even read street signs without taking a crash course in Cyrillic is a real problem.
I have really enjoyed my 6 weeks in this the largest country in the world as I hope you have all enjoyed looking at it through this blog. Back to work and reality in 3 days but before I sign off until next year a couple of pictures from the base of Avachinski volcano that I took this morning on an amazingly clear day yet again.
