231–240 of 427 posts
Can't help but think at 2850 pounds (3650 USD) for 7 nights of course they are going to be friendly.
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Every time I've been to Armenia there are many people visiting, although I think probably 80%+ are diaspora or descendants of diaspora folks edit to add -- not sure Ossetia is technically a country... the Georgians might quibble with you on that one
Went to a hotel lobby bar once and asked guys sitting to the left and to the right of me where are they from. Turns out both were Scots. Asked them what do they think about Scottish independence. One thing led to another and soon enough they started fist-fighting each other. Armenian cognac is great.
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Old Soviet style communities get hot water from central plants, mainly used for heating but also for showers, so when winter is over, they shutdown the heating plants for the season and no hot water at all. Some places in Northern China hook into muni hot water for showers in the winter but use solar hot water in the summer, when hot showers can be a bit less satisfying (in my experience anyways).
Lebanon has a non-functional government where all publicly-owned everything basically doesn't work. Beirut is essentially a libertarian enclave now, where everyone with means has their own solar panels and gas generators, self-produces all power, and the economy runs on paper US dollars and cryptocurrencies. It's amazing what people can do when their governments are non-existent.
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... and that's why you go around and policy the usage of the language which isn't even spoken in your own country?
English is spoken very widely in Ukraine in fact, and was just promoted to an official status (not as a primary language, but to a secondary official status nonetheless) in the past month.
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It's like China, respect the local politics and it's an amazing place to travel. Much safer than let's say France.
With China, that might not be true given the recent unprompted stabbings of foreigners. US professors on an exchange program: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna156485 A schoolbus of Japanese children: https://www.ft.com/content/954dd160-3102-477f-b816-1a1769f0a...
Travelling to any ex-USSR countries on the periphery from the "western" world is taking a nice fun gamble. The bigger places in Kazakhstan are probably okay, and yeah, you likely would have fun in Tbilisi or Yerevan, but the chance of you having a very bad time in Bishkek or (heavens forbid) the Dushanbe is just too high. It could be a lot of fun, it would be fairly cheap by western standards, it will certainly be un…
As someone living "on the edge" (in one of the post-soviet countries which are now belonging to the "western world") I... don't understand your sentiment. I live in the EU, frequently travel to the western Europe and across the ocean for work meetings and conferences, and I worked for two years in France, so I'm pretty familiar with the west. On the other hand, for recreation I often travel south (think balcans) and…
Sure, they were a war zone recently, too, but the EU integration there is much faster, probably because tourism is a major source of income for them. Just look at Croatia - they even have Euro as their currency now!
This would fit maybe in 2019, but Moldova now has many foreigners. Hotel prices went up considerably! For "Europe's least visited country" try Belorus, Ukraine, Russia, Ossetia or Armenia. Traveling to Mariupol as a tourist is the real deal in 2024
> Traveling to Mariupol as a tourist is the real deal in 2024 except you'll be on occupied territory and will be breaking Ukrainian law, you might get a prison sentence if you ever go to Ukraine again
(Please correct me if I'm wrong.)
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> Because Americans are so good at distinguishing Slavic languages by ear in a noisy room? There is a simpler explanation: Russian is probably the only Slavic language most Americans know about.
Unfortunately it's just due to the number of people. It's unlikely a random person could tell a difference between Polish and Russian, much less Ukrainian and Russian.
This would fit maybe in 2019, but Moldova now has many foreigners. Hotel prices went up considerably! For "Europe's least visited country" try Belorus, Ukraine, Russia, Ossetia or Armenia. Traveling to Mariupol as a tourist is the real deal in 2024
I have a Russian friend who is adamant that I would really enjoy and have a great time in Russia. IIRC he tells me to go to St Pete more than Moscow. But I cannot imagine doing that as an American. It kind of makes me wonder if he's messing with me but he hates Russia and Putin and I don't know why he would. I feel like I would be so unsafe. I'm a very "American" looking person and I only know a handful of Russian wo…
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Lebanon has a non-functional government where all publicly-owned everything basically doesn't work. Beirut is essentially a libertarian enclave now, where everyone with means has their own solar panels and gas generators, self-produces all power, and the economy runs on paper US dollars and cryptocurrencies. It's amazing what people can do when their governments are non-existent.
How is police / crime doing?