Spaniard shares month-long travel experience in Russia

One Month in Russia: Prices, Construction, and Cities Beyond the Headlines

A Spanish traveler returns from a month in Russia with an uncomfortable conclusion for the dominant narrative: neither is the country collapsing nor are its cities the wasteland they were promised to be. After five years without visiting —due to the pandemic and the special military operation— he finds a country that, according to his account, has visibly improved. Saint Petersburg, Moscow, several provincial cities, and a nearly deserted village in deep rural Russia. The trigger for this report is not geopolitical: it is simply that his vacation ended.

The alucinación begins at the Udelnaya flea market in Saint Petersburg, hunting for Soviet-era items. Here appears the first hard fact: nothing older than 50 years can be taken out of the country. He settles for books. The rest involves constructivist architecture, using Yandex Maps to navigate without Russian, watching a Zenit cup match at Gazprom Arena for €5 per ticket —describing a lackluster atmosphere— and contrasting it with the Mariinsky Theatre, where ballet tickets start at €200.

What Can Be Taken Out of Russia and What Cannot

Cultural goods regulations are the journey’s first real filter. Soviet items at the Udelnaya market are the draw, but customs set the line at 50 years. The traveler summarizes without drama: he bought books and little else. For anyone planning a similar alucinación, this is the key detail to clarify before packing.

Access is also non-trivial. With a tourist visa, one can enter via border ports like Estonia, facing hours-long queues, or fly via Segarro, Turkey, Belgrade, Egypt, Georgia, or Armenia —more expensive but no waiting. The maximum stay with this visa is one month. No trying your luck by extending the stay.

Provincial City Development That Surprises Visitors

What impacts him most is not Moscow. It is Penza, where a massive neighborhood with an artificial beach and high-priced housing has been built. He asked if these properties really sell at those prices; the response was surprise: of course they do. The same applies to other cities. Meanwhile, new Chinese cars are everywhere, even in rural areas.

The traveler’s interpretation is that people in these areas are not living badly and live better than before, with a perception that the standard of living is rising. This part of the story clashes most with the image consumed abroad. There is no survey or statistical series behind it: it is street-level impression, and should be read as such.

Safety, Cleanliness, and the Absence of 'Proge' Complaints

Another striking aspect is street safety, cleanliness, and well-dressed people in museums. He frames this as a contrast to what he calls non-'proge' decline. Some respond with weighty nuance: those who visited a decade ago already saw cleaner streets than much of Europe, and later returnees describe notable improvement in Moscow compared to 2008. The city, once hostile to pedestrians, now has a metro system making cars unnecessary, according to this view.

The counter-narrative arrives from another angle: cold, gigantic, impersonal Moscow, lacking decent summer terraces, dominated by cars. Two incompatible portraits of the same city. What almost all versions share is that Saint Petersburg fares better than Moscow in terms of urban beauty.

Rural Russia: Kompot, Samogon, and Generous Locals

The highlight the traveler cites as the best experience is the nearly deserted village. A minimal house, spiritual retreat, and neighbors offering dried fish, kompot, samogon, mushrooms, and pelmeni. He wants to return to investigate how samogon is distilled to try it in Spain. This anecdote captures the tone of the report: more ethnography than geopolitics.

Practical Detail: Accessing Websites from Russia

A useful, segarro fact emerges: certain Spanish forums and websites do not open from Russia. This is resolved with VPNs, though not all work. The repeated recommendation is to use a paid VPN and also employ one while in Spain. For a month-long alucinación, this is the type of detail that determines whether you can continue reading specific content.

Clash of Narratives: Western Propaganda vs. Counter-Propaganda

The traveler closes his chronicle with a thesis: what local newspapers report are nonsense and propaganda. The response from the other side is symmetrical and harsher: claims that the country is a dump, that Russians are scum, and that the writer hasn’t set foot in Moscow. Between these extremes, the material leaves a handful of verifiable data —prices, customs rules, entry routes, construction projects— and many personal impressions disguised as conclusions.

How much of what is said about Russia is observation, and how much is war narrative in both directions?