Russia and Elbrus

[ReptilianKittenEater]

Was in Russia last month. Climb Mt Elbrus in the Caucasus, also did some hiking there, then stopped in Moscow and Vienna for a bit. Basically the Canadian Gov't assigns the same warning to the Caucasus as it does Syria or CAR. But going there there are about 20,000 people attempting Elbrus each year plus thousands of Russian families vacationing like its the Rockies. Not saying its safe, just one of those places that are safe until it isn't. The militant activity seems to occur in the republic around Nalchik.

Moscow is pretty neat to see but expect plenty of tourists. Just a few photos, have to find something better than photobucket.

[rickshaw92]

And the vodka?

[Kurt]

That's awesome but man, Photobucket really sucks now huh?

What about food in the Caucuses? I really do not hear much about that. Any decent beer? Brandy?

[sparrow]

That's quite the watermark. Use this:

https://postimages.org/

[ReptilianKittenEater]

Ok attempted it a second time.

Rickshaw, sorry no vodka but the beer is pretty good there and cheap.

Kurt, Elbrus is in the Balkar area - they are Turkic so they do really good kabobs over bonfires. Russians are carnivores so meat with every meal, like blinys for breakfast. Had Elbrus beer and another one that started with R that was better. I stopped in Vienna for a couple of days coming back and Bambi aint safe there either.

In Moscow if you want Stalinist overload go to the war museum or the VDNH Exhibition park.

[Kurt]

Turkish food is decent enough. Is Elbrus beer a "Heineken Copy" or is there some distinction to it. I do not mind the Heineken clone beers but after a while they tend to get old.

[ReptilianKittenEater]

I kinda liked it, maybe cause it was only 100 roubles, but I guess it was a typical lager. The other better beer's name I cannot remember because cryllic letters screw me up.

[Kurt]

Here is my method for learning Cyrillic:

paper and pencil are needed first.

Then get a cyrillic guide like how the B = V etc. and just start writing out names of everyone you know in cyrillic. then when you fill up a paper do it again and repeat until you do not need the guide to write everyone's name.

Then start copying regular English sentences but in Cyrillic like from a news article (I used a newspaper way back in the day) and copy the whole article and keep doing it until you do not need the guide. You should be able to do this in a few hours (I did it during a Special Olympics swim meet when I took some people from the group home I worked at there).

The next day, wake up and copy articles again. You might need to reference the guide a few times. Keep doing this until you no longer need the guide and then call it a day. This too should take less than 2 hours.

Repeat the next day and keep on repeating until you do not need a guide for three days in a row.

So probably the total time will be 2 hours a day for a week.

Nothing worse than not being able to read a road sign while driving.