I was able to visit the Siberia part of Russia with my son, Tyler. He had recently returned from serving as a missionary in Siberia. We were in Ukraine for a couple of months doing our adoption on 2 of our sons and had a 10 day waiting period with nothing to do and so we took the opportunity to run over to Russia and see some of his friends and the kind of life that one lives in the Motherland. When we arrived into Krasno by night train, we had an experience with the local gypsies. I hadn't had a lot of experience with gypsies in my life but they are still alive and well in Russia. Interestingly the attire they wear is pretty consistent worldwide. The lifestyle seems to be multi-generational and a unique way to live. Gypsies do not like to settle down in one area for long and they do not have a problem with picking your pocket.
We stayed at this hotel and this is a perfect spot for a really quick lesson in Russian. The word on the top of the sign is the name of the city in Russian and the English version is below. This is unusual in Russia as they do not cater to English speaking tourists very often.
So here is a key for reading a little Russian.
The Russian letter that looks like a P sounds like an R.
The Russian letter that looks like a C sounds like an S
The Russian letter that looks like an H sounds like an N
If you can remember those 3 tricks, you can read some words and they may sound familiar once you sound them out. An example of this is the word "Pectopah" that you see a lot in Russian speaking countries. If you sound it out is sounds like "Restorah". Which is really close to restaurant. If you are hungry, look for a Pectopah.
Here are a couple of photos of typical home in Russia. Most people live in apartments, but if you are lucky enough to own your own home, this could all be yours.
See you later for more posts from Russia
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