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I spent a solid month travelling across Russia from Irkutsk to St Petersburg, everyone I met were legendary, friendly people. They seem to love Australia, and plenty of them spoke English.
>decide to use Yandex Taxi (Russian Uber) to travel to an Italian restaurant in downtown Yekaterinburg
>car arrives, already blaring rock music
>driver is the middle aged, muscular ginger guy in a tracksuit
>we introduce each other, his name is Sili.
>tell him I’m Australian and I don’t know a lot of Russian
>he starts talking in passable English, and tells me how he loves Australian bands like AC/DC
>pulls his phone out in the middle of the road while speeding around to play Highway to Hell
>he brings up how his 6 year old son adores AC/DC, and how he can’t wait to go to Australia
>we’re about halfway to the restaurant speeding through downtown, having a good ‘ole chat about how my time in Russia has been, all that, when suddenly police lights flare up
>Sili doesn’t seem phased, but I’m slightly nervous. It’s my third week here, but wasn’t sure about Russian police
>Sili pulls over, and a cop comes around to his side of the door
>just as I worry that I’m about to lose my ride and wind up in a police station, Sili winds the window down and laughs with the cop, and start talking away in the native tongue
>after a quick talk and a few gestures to me, we drive off
>the cop recognised Sili’s car and pulled him over for shits and gigs
>get to the restaurant, give Sili an extra tip of 1000 roubles (about $20 kangaroo dollarydoos)
Can not recommend going to Russia enough. Everyone is wonderful, even airport security. Had an incident with a few toys I bought at a Kalashnikov Store at St Petersburg’s airport which normally would’ve meant getting fingered by a fat American, but was solved with a quick joke and lookover by some security guards with AK’s. Love my Russianons.
