Russia Trip report
I thought I would do a report as I have learned much
from others reports.
Plan:
I am in my early 40’s, tall, in good shape, well
educated, been to more than 30 countries, this would
be my second time in Russia. I am looking for a wife,
never married before and like many others here tired
of the AW scene of busy career women who only think
about themselves. I know the pursuit in high risk so I
had many prerequisites to help reduce the eventual
risk, of scammers, visa whores, opportunist etc.
Therefore I focused on only women who parents were
still married, I thought this would make it easier for
them to leave Russia, and they would be more stable
having seen there parents marriage succeed.
I had other requirements, age, since I want to have
1-2 children, no one older than 33, and to keep out
the too young, 28 minimum. I also avoided any
agencies; I paid no translations fees, address fees,
but did join a few fixed fee services like Cherry
Blossoms, Freindfinder for a month or so, and browsed
many free sites like freepersonal.ru and matchdoctor,
etc. I thought if they were on these English sites
they had some English ability. I did not want any
woman who had been divorced, nor had a child. I do
prefer blondes but that wasn’t a set requirement.
Height for me was good if they were at least 170cm, as
I am taller.
Instead of flying and meeting several, I thought it
best to stay in Moscow and fly them in for a few days.
I would also give me a chance to meet the Moscow
women, and see the sites, having never been there
before. I decided on an apartment, just something
basic,
http://www.waytorussia.net/Services/ApartmentsMoscow/2Brestkaya.html soviet style, for $34 day, I could have
rented a western style place for $70-80 day but for 2
weeks that would be expensive, and why? I didn’t want
to overly spoil these women, I want them to make a
decision on me, not what I could afford to provide.
They would only be staying a few days anyway. It was
close to Tverskya Street, maybe 2 blocks from the
metro stop Mayakoskya, very central, you could walk to
Kremlin if you wanted. I needed a1 bedroom, for the
advice was to have them sleep in separate area at
least initially. That turned out to be good advice.
I flew Aeroflot, it was fine, I got exit row seats
both ways, and it was far cheaper than western
airlines, and no connections in Europe to loose my
luggage. Cost about $550.
I got my visa at the local embassy, but went thru
waytorussia.net for the visa. This was a mistake,
avoid these folks, they charged $30 over internet for
invite, and then you had to fax in the payment. They
promised on the website $7 registration if you stayed
in their apartment, but never followed thru with how
you could actually do that. I had to register in a off
the beaten path street, 4 bus stops from a metro, and
pay $20. I think visahouse only charges $35 total for
everything and would be more convenient. Also
Waytorussia
Had several apartments on the site with photo’s and
location to choose from. One month prior to the trip
they wanted a decision which I gave them (no deposit
req. though), but 2 days before my trip they email
saying that apartment is not available. They did give
me abetter place for the same money, but once I
arrived in Moscow they put me in a 3rd place for just
the first night. That really bothered me since the
driver who picked me up at airport ($25) didn’t speak
English to let me know that was the plan. Indecently,
I met another American who booked a apartment thru
them to start 3 days after my trip, and he was told
the day before that his apartment was taken, and he
ended up having to stay in his RW’s apartment in a
ring city of Moscow. I also met another American at
(the American Bar on Tverskya street is a good place
to go to meet others, and Russian English speaking
people, food great) who stayed in the exact same place
I was staying his last visit. He was on this trip only
paying $25/day for nicer place than mine, which was
advertised on the site for $50/day. He just avoided
the website people who are clueless, and just called
Vera the local contact (095) 112-7618 and you can make
a great deal thru her, her English is just passable.
That what I would do in the future. My apartment was
across the street from a very modern, 24/7 grocery
store, which had everything you could want. I used it
often. I took metro everywhere, never had to wait more
than 1-2 minutes for a train, and for .20 a ride a
great deal. Sometime I did auto taxi, stick your arm
out and anyone picks you up and negotiate a price,
never paid more than $1.50 to go anywhere. I know a
little Russian, listened to 4 pimsuler tapes, and took
a Russian language course for 12 weeks. RW’s
I had set up for 3 to fly in, 1 offered to pay her own
way. I also had 3-4 locals as backups, which I was
glad I did. The first night I met one, we went to a
nice dinner, but I felt no chemistry with, she had
little personality. The first visitor showed up the
next day, a well educated woman I had corresponded for
6 months. We had also gone thru a tourist visa
application for her to come to US for a visit during
summer break. This was done thru her university and my
professor cousin’s university as I was told this can
work. Unfortunately the visa delays killed her chance
for this summer and are still pending. She had a lot
riding on this meeting. I felt sick the first day and
it got worse. I never get sick, but a small fever,
sore throat, cold was getting to me, plus the jet lag.
Because of the first day apartment switch, I had
gotten to the real apartment only 1 hour before her
arrival, and did not have chance to get grocery
supplies, and flowers. She appeared looking better
than I expected, but looked very nervous. I made a cup
of tea, we exchanged some small gifts, and she made a
call to her parents to say she arrived. Only 15
minutes later did she stand up and announce she was
leaving to return to the airport and fly home. I
couldn’t believe it, I got no explanation from her,
but I did send her an email but got no response. I did
get one from her mother 2 weeks later, but that will
wait for now. I asked her what about the ballet; I had
tickets for the Bolshoi for Sat night by her request,
and great seats only because she wanted to go, but got
no response. Her English never seem to improve over
the summer even though she was taking lessons. Well at
least I have multiple backups, as I had written her
the longest, but really didn’t know her. Infact I may
of dropped her before my trip, but she had already
gone thru a lot of trouble and I felt committed.
So suddenly I had the weekend free, but I felt really
bad, both physical from getting sick, and the jet lag,
plus emotionally from being left. So off I went to the
American Bar, and met some cool private NY pilots, and
met a local RW, who I was to see the last night of my
trip,a young tall blonde. I still had tickets to the
ballet, and this woman said she would go, I gave her
mine # and she said she would call. The next day by
1;30 I hadn’t heard from her, so I called a backup who
spoke perfect English and she said she will meet me at
a bar at 6pm for the 7pm ballet. Then the one from
last night calls me and I had to say I already had a
date, she was cool about it. At 6pm she was a no show,
I decided if she wasn’t there by 6:30 I would have to
leave because you have to pick up the tickets and you
can’t walk in late, or you wait til intermission..
Well 6;30 comes and no RW, so I jump in auto stop cab.
I got there just in time, to pick up will call ticket,
was more difficult than I imagined, as everything in
Russia seems to be. So I saw the ballet alone, but it
was still great. If you get a chance to go, do it, the
theater itself is worth the $, I paid $25 a ticket,
you can buy and choose your exact seats here on
internet yourself.
http://boxoffice.bolshoi.ru/eng/sales.html So far I am
2 for 2, no shows, not a good start, and I am not
feeling well either. Of course its cold 35 degrees and
raining, which is how the weather was the first 7 days
I was there. At this point I am thinking I should have
gone to Costa Rica where I have been 3 times and it
was warm. I make a few calls to some backups, but I am
too sick to really meet any of them, the next day #2
arrives and I want to be prepared as much as possible.
She arrives at the right time, looks nice, and she
speaks little English, but has always improved over
time. She had an electronic translator, which really
saved the day, it was fast and accurate. I would
usually write down what I would want to say and she
would read, and use the translator.
We exchanged gifts, she had hand made a sweater for
me, and she was in final year of fashion school. The
sweater was awesome, warm, soft, fit great, it was
custom, would have cost $200 in any decent store in
US. She loved her gifts, gold bracelet, Bennie baby
(it was a sloth but she called it a “Mickey”, Russian
monkey, bunch of women lotions, sprays, soaps, and
flowers. Her schedule was sort of open, if we got
along maybe 5 days, if not she had relatives should
could go to earlier. This woman was a chance, since
her English was bad she was only learning for 4
months, I didn’t know how well I could manage dealing
with poor communication, you never know until you try.
I have a lot of patience and am easy going, so I
thought it was worth the risk. Amazingly we got along
great, her optimistic outlook and natural happiness
and joyful outlook on everything was something I
hadn’t experienced with AW in a long time, if ever.
She had many cute saying I am sure you have heard
before, “Just minute”, “What do you want from me”, and
the famous “oi” when ever she was surprised. She made
me laugh more than anyone has in along time, what a
great personality. We went out to see the city and we
double dated with an American guy who I met earlier on
his first date that day with a hot 20 year old he just
met on internet. It was fun; we played card game Uno
at the restaurant, an easy game that needed no
language after dinner. We doubled dated again the next
day at a museum and had dinner again with them as
well. #2, stayed on the couch the first night but
after that no need to be separated. She made me
breakfast in bed, and was a real joy to be with. We
went to the moscow zoo, where don't expect to see many
animal, and when you do you just feel sorry for them.
The best we say we monkeys, and beluga whale show
where they did a few tricks for about 20 people who
were there.Consider it a walk in the park, not much
else. Day 4 we never left the apartment. The trips to
the supermarket were interesting for her, she was from
small town in southern Russia, and I said pick out
whatever you want, and she wanted that fake crab that
comes in sticks, I said it wasn’t real, but she loved
the stuff. She stayed 5 day maximum, since #3 was
arriving the next am. Not to loose anytime, she left
at 6pm and I had a to meet a local rw at 7pm. She
turned out to be a Russian Italian translator, since I
am ½ Italian I thought that would be fun. I took
another list member advice when meeting for first
time, have a newspaper in left hand, since there are
many people meeting by statues. As with many Russian
her teeth are no sure thing, in many photos they don’t
smile, and this turned out to be a bad situation when
she did. We had a couple of beer and then that was it
for me. It was a good diversion for me, since I was
nearly in tears seeing #2 off and needed to try to
forget her to mentally prepare for the next visit by
#3. This trip is physically tiring, but emotionally
impossible to prepare for as you really feel for these
women quickly. In a few days is more interaction than
in a few months with your average AW as they usually
have so many walls built up around them that its
difficult to know them well, if ever.
The next am #3 shows up on time, and looks like she
walked out of a Cosmo magazine, tall, natural blonde,
wearing a leather hat, coat and the black leather
pointy boots with heel that are very popular, #2 had
the same type. I was instantly sold, her English was
the best, and it had been 15 years since she was last
in Moscow. I didn’t know it at the time, but she had
to work all night the previous night so she looked
great on no sleep and after a 3 hour flight. We went
to Red Square saw the sights. We exchanged gifts; she
gave me ½ lb of red caviar, which I love, 4 different
tea boxes, a small painting of her Siberian scene, and
a stone candle holder. I gave the similar things that
#2 got. We went to a very nice Japanese restaurant and
then we were both very tired. The next day we went to
some of the churches (the Savior, newly rebuilt and
impressive, but too cold my taste and hers. The
Pushkin Museum line was 1-2 blocks long so we bypassed
that, I saw later myself as I am an real art buff and
it is well worth seeing. That day we bought ticket to
a Russian musical, Old norst, it was great, and they
actually land a WW2 plane on stage. She held my hand
for the 3 hours show, and I have been in many similar
situations with AW’s in the past but never by a factor
of 3 did anyone ever caress my hand like she did, I
was really swept away. We spent some time that night
with the massage stuff I had given her, and I received
my first foot and facial massage other than by a
professional in my life, these women are very giving I
could not be more impressed. She was very beautiful,
in great shape, this woman is a dream.
The final day I gave her some earrings which I had her
choose from some other jewelry I had brought with me.
We went to a Convent near Sport center, it was very
beautiful. It turned out to be one of the 2 sunny days
out of 15 I spent in Moscow. It was also a holy day
and there were many nuns around. Note, don’t cross
your legs in the churches, or point at any icons, I
came to find out this is not ok. The grounds were
built around 1500, looks like a castle, and near the
river you could walk around and see the convent from a
distance over water. It was nice to be out of the city
for a time, it was the nicest day I spent on my trip.
This woman was just a pleasure to be around, I never
felt prouder, I could not stop looking at her. Her
eyes actually change color based on her mood, from
grey to a blue grey, if I hadn’t seen it myself I
would not of believed it. After dinner we went back to
apartment and had ice cream before she had to leave
for the airport. It was sad to see her go, as we said
goodbye at the metro.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Well
I had 3 days left by myself and I felt great. I called
a few other women on the list and set up some
meetings. One word about the phones, if a woman gives
you her number and it’s a mobile, many have them, it
begins with a ‘8’. First dial the 8 and wait several
seconds, it needs time to connect to the mobile
network, and then dial the other numbers. I was not
doing this and missed connecting, all the land phone
use pulse dialing, not tone dialing. I had nothing to
do so I took some advice and went to the Duck for
ladies night. I arrived about midnight. Now I have
been to a lot of wild places, Colombia, Thailand, etc,
this place was wild, many women and guys dancing ½
naked or more. It was 95% a Russian crowd, infact I
heard no one speak real English. Most of my trip I
only met a few Americans; in fact I met more
Canadians. The show was first men strippers, but they
grabbed a few women from the audience and provided
quite a scene. Next was the women dancers turn and a
lucky guy or 2 participated in a near live sex show. I
left a 4am, the taxis will try to charge you like $15
for a short ride, every time I walked away from
anyone’s first offer they always came back at 50%
less, then later more. They will always get what they
can from you, just go to another cab, or just start
walking. I never felt unsafe there, infect in all my
travels overseas, I have only been mugged in my home
city here in US. I always wore dark clothing and 10
times people would be talking to me in Russian asking
me for directions. I only got stopped once for ID,
that’s when I walked.
Past some police, and then realized I was going in
wrong direction and doubled back and they then asked
me for papers.
The next day I had a 1 & 7 pm meeting, but I got to
sleep so late I couldn’t make the 1pm, but tried
calling to cancel 5 times, but never got thru, plus it
was snowing that morning and she wanted me to go
several metro stops from where I was. I think if I
travel 5000 miles, at least they can go 10 minutes on
a metro to meet you in there hometown.
I did get a couple of calls from #2 during my last
days in Moscow, that was really nice and brought many
great memories, I realized how much her English had
improved from the conversation. . Of course as Russian
fate would have it my 7pm blew me off, I waited ½ hour
in the sleeting rain with my newspaper by the statue.
She emailed me later saying something big came up at
work, these Moscow women are as advertised, too much
like what I want to avoid back home. The last full day
I started to pack up my stuff and moved my cd case and
underneath I discover the earrings I had given to #3,
3 days ago, I was really surprised. After being
stunned, I figured she hid them on purpose, and maybe
that was the end of that, that really shook me up and
I went over her visit again in my head, what went
wrong, or could it have been an honest mistake of
forgetting them on her part. That night I met up with
woman I met first night, she called and wanted me to
carry a package back to US to mail to her recently
married RW to AM. So we met and told her about my trip
and I took the package. I then met another RW that I
met in the American bar almost 2 weeks ago (I would of
met her before but the “8” phone # prevented it) who
worked for an American company an attractive 26 tall
blonde. We had drinks and food at Mexican place La
Catinaia; I recommend it had live entertainment. I
really like her but maybe too young and she like many
women who have it pretty good there had no desire to
leave Russia. So at midnight I had heard from some
others that the place to see is night flight, so I
went there. This is some place, a high class place;
with foreign men and top shelve RW’s. It was $20 to
get in but that at least got you a call drink
included, and all the eye candy any male could take.
Sort of a playboy mansion East, well worth the $20 for
a couple hours of window shopping, but be careful,
they want you to buy em drinks, so you have to keep
dancing, it was some show, constant stream of model
types that make you say if this isn’t heaven I don’t
know what is. Vera arranged an airport driver to pick
me up for $20 to take me to the airport for the long
flight home, I can recommend the service.
Some other things I experienced in Russia is strange
customs and superstitions. #3 would also clean her
boots after returning from outside. One time she saw
my 3 pairs of shoes there by the door in disarray. She
immediately said I must match up the shoes together,
right shoe and right etc, I had them switched, this
was bad luck. Just to mess with them I heard that
whilsting in the house is a no no, but when I did this
they didn’t say anything. Of course when it was time
for her to leave to go home, after everything was
packed and we were dressed in coats to leave, she
insisted we sit on the couch for 2-3 minutes, I took
this opportunity to make out a little before we left
. Another strange thing was I would buy juice,
aplle, pineapple, etc, and I always put in fidge, but
#2 would always leave it out, this went back and forst
for 2 days before we said anything to each other. I
thought she left it out by mistake and it would go bad
if not frigerated. She didn’t like it cold, I turned
the dial on to coldest as always at home.
After I get home I get a strange email from #1 mother.
She explained her daughters “obstanant” behavior,
saying she had tempreture and had not slept the night
before. She was expecting more personal gifts, maybe
flowers, which I wanted to get but due to apartment
switch the day of her arrival made that not possible.
Anyway I had many more gifts but I never gave them all
in the first 5 minutes of meeting. This had a way of
getting some closure for that, though #1 never
responded to my email, turns out we were both sick
when we met, but neither of us knew that about each
other. I am still in contact with #2 & #3 but due to
vacation time being used up it limits my options for a
few months. Overall, this trip has convinced me that a
RW is right for me; it’s a better option than an AW
closer to my age that will have it own risks being
able to start a family. Email me off list if you want
to know more. Total cost about $2500, including their
flights, a great time, may do it again but in a
smaller city, Novosibrisk or Kiev, I have been to St
Pete already. I have to say I did see an unbelievable
high percentage and number of great looking women in
Moscow. On the metro, walking around, I would say 1 or
3 or 4 was a 10, and I didn’t see but a few overweight
women under age 35 the whole time. If you like the
Slavic look, high cheekbones, perfect skin, no moles,
blemishes, and they look young because of the absence
of sun. This is a very attractive group of people, but
many men were drinking, smoking constantly (where else
can you see men have a cigarette hanging out of there
mouth and carry on a entire conversation without
taking the cig from there mouth), everywhere, metro,
sidewalk, unpassways. Overall I was impressed by the
Moscow people and the city.
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