Haven’t got one, really. As soon as I speak, they know I’m a foreigner. I can pass as a Russian on looks alone, but not once I speak.

My proudest achievement is probably being wholly accepted into a group of Russian men and not considered to be an outsider in any way, a mere month after arriving in Russia.

No need to apologise for Saturday. One thing that was always guaranteed after a match at Murrayfield or Landsdowne between the Scots and the Irish is good craic! My Irish friends in Kiev are still celebrating and must be killed.

Tim/Andy – in fairness I know Russian museums need the money and are well worth it but I wasnt being tight! I just got away with it. I like to think that for one sweet moment I actually fooled a local into thinking I was Russian. The wife says he was either tone deaf or hungover or couldnt care less if I was foreign.
Obviously thats an argument I refuse to accept)
Tim, I’m waiting for the equaliser from you!
Speaking of museums, there’s a freaky waxworks at the top of Tverskaya street. I’m not into that type of museum generally but this is one with a difference. It has several Russian/Soviet villains, including Ivan Groznii, Stalin and Beria but creepiest are the statues of Hitler, Napolean and Genghis Khan all sitting around a map of Russia, seemingly plotting deviously togther a carve-up of the country. There’s only one big room but with dark, brooding lighting. Well worth a visit.

My parents are Glaswegian, no it’s not all that far away. Saturday was hard, inasmuch as I thought the Scots might pull out another thoroughly unexpected win. At least they only gifted ONE try this time!

Blair

In general, though, I don’t usually mind paying the foreigner prices. Most Russian museums are strapped for cash and, even with the surcharge, most museums are far, far cheaper than their Western European / US equivalents.

I think you know the type of lads I’m talking about though. I dunno if you’ve got em on Sakhalin, but we’ve got loads here. A lot of them are frankly an embarrassment to the western nations.
But you wont beat this claim of western Russia-ness
-oh no.

I actually paid the Russian price into a museum once. On my own. No local help. YES. It did happen.
I went to the Polytechnical Museum one fine May day in 2002(its just down from Lubyanka, the other way, not towards Detskiy Mir, but to Kitai Gorod and Propaganda).

I said to the old lad behind the counter ‘billet, pazhaluista”.

There was no wait a minute. There was no cautious look.
He said ”desyat rublei”. Like nothing was wrong.
I handed him a Krasnoyarsk. He took it and gave me my ticket.
Yes – it happened -a foreigner paid Russian price unaided into a Russian state museum. And there was double pricing there at the time. And dont forget I’m Irish with a massive southern Irish accent so I get bonus points.

Beat that one Mr Newman!!))

Now readers, genuine claims only. That one actually really 100% happened.

Though admittedly it never happened again. Ever.

For what it’s worth, I spoke Russian to a conversational level before I came to work in Russia, and I am considerably better now. I’d been there 3 times on holiday before I came here to live, 2 times alone, plus a trip to Yalta, and have been to more Russian towns than most Russians. I’ve clocked up a few thousand miles on the Russian trains, I know their food inside out, and I can sing along to an awful lot of Russian songs ranging from DDT to Nadezha Kruduscheva to Pioneer ditties. I can spot a Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Buryat, or Uzbek at a hundred metres, tell you the difference, and talk about their capital cities. Russian women I generally avoid, with the exception of my wife, but I have an awful lot of Russian male friends, most of whom can’t speak English, and I’m a dab hand at Russian billiards. I’ve read a mass of history books on Russia (I read little else) hence I probably know more about Russian history than most Russians, and a thousand times more than most westerners.

In fact, my obsession with Russia has got to the point that a few of the locals on Sakhalin jokingly tell people I am not a foreigner, but a Russian pretending to be a Brit. Hell, I even look like a Russian if I wear the right clothes.

Blair -thats a fine Scottish name you have!! I knew a Blair once from Dunfermline. Sorry about saturday. It wasnt pretty for either of us. You realise its now down to you to sort out France in Paris. Should be no problem at all!) Is Tim Welsh? Gosh, that was a shocker in Rome. I’d be keeping the head down too after that one! And thanks Rebecca for beating France for us!