First Impressions of Russia> Travels

Based on a 19 hour ride on a Russian crewed train and about 6 hours in Irkutsk, here are my initial impressions of Russia:

The conductors on the train were all robust women who behaved like angry scolding mothers. They didn't speak any English and when you would try to communicate with them they would either ignore you or yell at you. The border crossing took about 5 hours, which seemed like a lot of time to me. During this time you are locked on a stopped train. The air conditioning is turned off and the bathrooms are also locked, making for a pretty rough time. So my first impression, "Get it together Russia!"

There was a Russian guy on our train that was incredibly drunk. By incredible I mean he was fall down drunk, but like for the entire trip without passing out. He would just roam the corridor falling down every once and a while, generally creeping everybody out.

Once I got off the train I met a quick succession of helpful, kind Russians that seemed to be sober. That said, there seem to be lots of people clearly drunk during day light hours. In China I took a series of photos of people sleeping on the job. Here I am going to try to find people drunk on the job.

The store owners here don't trust the shoppers as far as they can throw them, leading me to believe that shoplifting runs rampant. I went into a Supermarket to pick up some snacks and I had to lock my backpack in a locker at the door. Once inside I encountered what could best be described as a very disorganized sting operation. There were employees all over the place, communicating with headsets, eyeing everybody suspiciously.

The fire escapes on the buildings are shoddy at best. There, I've said it.

Either the women here like to wear tight clothing or the top down Soviet style of sizing clothes has gone terribly wrong...with mixed results running the gamut of jaw dropping to uncontrollable spasms of cringing.

I think, and don't hold me to this, they smell worse than Czech people.

If bad haircuts were bees, Russia would be the worlds leading exporter AND importer of honey. Bad economics you say?

So I guess my first impressions are a bit negative, but perhaps this place will grow on me, and I will grow on this place, like a certain aging boxer from the fighting streets of Philadelphia. Hopefully Russia will not crush me. (And if you didn't think I was going to throw in any Rocky 4 references, you don't know me well enough. Right, I am off to bench press some Horses.)