"Moscow" a Moscow Travel Page by Ujamaflip

"You cannot understand Russia with your mind. You can't measure it with universal dimensions. Russia has something special. In Russia you must simply believe."

This is a small poem written by the 19th century poet Fyodor Tyutchev. And indeed, Russia can be a perplexing place for foreign tourists.

Don`t expect your visit to Russia to be a simple one. Russia is not yet wholly accostomed to tourists wanting to visit its attractions. The statement above "You can`t understand Russia with your mind" can often be applied to situations you may encounter in Russia.

I visited Russia recently, as part of a rail trip. We started from my home town, Karlsruhe, Germany, and travelled to Minsk. We went from there by car to Gomel, Belarus, and then after a short stop on to Moscow. Travelling from Gomel to Moscow by train was very uneventful - Belarus has an agreement with Russia that its borders are not controlled, on a train trip you are not stopped and your passport is not checked or stamped.

After arriving by train we went to check in at the Ukraina hotel. Upon doing so we where asked to surrender our pasports for registration of our visa's (A normal and expected occurance). However, The hotel refused to accept my passport since I had no stamp for entry to Russia, and no migration card. The hotel directed us to a local Milicia office, whom they said could provide us with a stamp and card.

At the Milicia office we where told, "We cannot provide stamps, migration cards, or register your passport. You are not allowed to enter Russia without having your passport stamped, you have broken the rules, its your problem, you have to leave the country within ten days." However, this left a problem, since the hotel would not allow us to check in without the visa being registered.

So, we proceeded back to the hotel, and after much arguing somebody finally popped up and said "Belarus? Oh, no problem then, we can register your passport without a migration card"!!!!

It seems that Russia is not accustomed to visitors entering through Belarus, and that nobody really has any idea, or concern, about what is going on. I`m really glad my girlfriend speaks fluent Russian, otherwise I would never have resolved this situation. The lesson - never give up.

Despite the difficulties Moscow is definately worth a visit. There is a lot here that just has to be seen.

Nevertheless, I hope your journey is an easier one than mine!

From Moscow we travelled by train to Saint Petersburg. This is a wonderful city, with a more friendly, more western European feel to it, but I`ll leave that for my Saint Petersburg pages. After Saint Petersburg we returned to Belarus for a few days, and then finally back home to Germany.