Moscow Local Custom Tips by kris-t

You should drive very aggresive here (all do this way)
for example my husband (who has been driver of trucks and has 21 years expiriensce in Canada) says that Moscow way to
drive is too crazy for him :) Ruls here are mostly the same (turn with red light ia not allowed) - people different. Be ready for suprises...
are u ready for that ? American Driver license works here temporary.

http://www.gibdd.ru/expat/474.gpml

rent car:

http://gertz.ru/contacts.htm

car 1990-1993 cost 35-40 USD a day and they ask deposit 300-600 usd

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Website: http://www.gibdd.ru/expat/474.gpml

One of Russian stereotypes -a Matryoshka doll or a Russian nested doll is a set of dolls of decreasing sizes placed one inside another. Its name is a diminutive form of a Russian female name "Matryona".

A set of Matryoshka dolls consists of a wooden figure which can be pulled apart to reveal another figure of the same sort inside. It has in turn another figure inside, and so on. The number of nested figures is usually six or more. The shape is mostly cylindrical, rounded at the top for the head and tapered towards the bottom, but little else; the dolls have no hands (except those that are painted). The artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be extremely elaborate.

Matryoshka dolls are often designed to follow a particular theme, for instance peasant girls in traditional dress, but the theme can be almost anything, ranging from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders.

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There are several Lenin's doubles in Moscow. They are "working" mostly around the Red sq.

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Although less than a quarter of Russians live in the countryside, many Muscovites, like other urban dwellers, are still attached to the country. Many live in country homes (called dachas) over the weekend and over holidays, and some times retire to the country when they are old.

I call the dacha "bent sanatorium" :)

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Maslenitsa, Shrovetide, the merriest, the revelriest holiday, have been celebrated in Russia everywhere.
Surely, "fair lady Shrovetide" was awaited for with a great excitement. In many provinces the proper meeting & holding of the whole Pancake Week was arranged before long. Pancake (or Cheese) Week - the last of preparatory weeks, after which the austere Lent comes for seven weeks. On the Cheese Week there were allowed eggs, milk & butter (-maslo-, from which the week received its name Maslenitsa). Maslenitsa lasted for 8 days. All 8 days were crammed full with festival business, rites, traditional games & entertainments - almost unceasing feasting.
According to the custom pancakes Russian consider as a symbol of remembrance of the dead. Thus first pancake baked on Pancake Week was meant for the gone ones, it was put on the dormer window pane "for parents- spirits". In some villages first pancake was given to the paupers so that they prayed for all diseased.
In the first day of the Shrovetide children went around the whole village, congratulating with the coming of Maslenitsa & asking for pancakes. After the dinner the festival tobogganing began. On Sunday, also called "forgiven day", people asked each other to forgive them for all done in a year. Pacifying with each other, they kissed thrice & thus cleared their souls preparing them to 49-days Lent which was beginning on Monday.
In Moscow until the end of XVIII Shrovetide festivity was held on Moskva-river & on Neglinnaya from Voskresenskiye to Troitskiye Gates. Only in Moscow was especially celebrated "Cathedral Sunday", first Sunday of the Lent. There were singing birds & dogs trade, & also an exhibition of speaking starlings & smart dogs. After that the merriment faded away, the 7-weeks long period of austerity, piety & abstention was coming, resolving with Great Divine Passover.

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In Russia International Women's Day - Mezhdunarodnui zhenski den' - is marked on 8 March every year.
Started as a political event, the holiday blended in the culture of Russia. Tt's one of most important holidays in Russia. The celebration is similar to a combination between Valentine's Day and Mother's Day in the West but better.
The day remains an official holiday in Russia (and day off) and is observed by men giving the women in their lives - mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc., flowers and small gifts.

At this day all men in Russia traditionally congratulate all women in their lives (mothers, wives, daughters, grandmothers, girl-friends, teachers, colleagues...) with first spring flowers: mimosa, and tulips, candy and cards with self-made short poems. Every woman of any age has present on this day, all women are honored! At this day Russian women are surrounded with flowers, love, and poems and caress . She doesn't aloud to do anything in house at that day: men's do all cooking, cleaning…. The Women Day - 8th of March is the best holyday for Russian women of any age.

you are in Moscow? - Don't forget to congratulate every woman around!

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