Thursday, April 8, 2010

Excursion headaches

I shared with one of the Russian teachers about my plan to take public buses to various villages and check out some museums relating to the life of the different ethnic groups in Karelia. She advised me to join an excursion instead because it will be more interesting since the whole package comes with traditional food, performances and great company. A big plus since Karelian meals are limited to one restaurant in Petrozavodsk.
So, I’m trying to find excursions to villages of the Karelians and Veps.

Headache 1
“Где находится Туристичесеское агентство? ” (Where is the tourist agency)
Woman at the hotel cloak room “поидёшь туда”, so I walked there and saw hotel rooms and toilets.
I asked the cleaner nearby, “Где находится Туристичесеское агентство?” (Where is the tourist agency)
She points at a door.
Toilet.
Sigh. . My pronunciation is apparently this bad.

Stop laughing; it’s really not funny when you are the one experiencing this.

Headache 2
They only offer tours to groups of 10.It is not the tourist season.

Tourist Agency
I was enquiring about the tours around Karelia at a tour agency near the university. And when they found out that I was from Singapore, the people from the agency got really excited. I guess it is not everyday where you get a Singaporean walking into the tour agencies in the smaller Russian cities, desperate to join some tour. Before I left, the lady told me that she thought Sentosa is beautiful and she dreams about going there. Well, what can I say?
Well done, Singapore Tourism Board!