Good evening all. I’ve been invited to go on holiday with a friend to Russia - yikes! Just wondering if anyone has experience of holidaying in Russia with or without ms? Your thoughts \ insights would be appreciated please.
Hope everyone is as cool as possible. Thanks.
H x
Where are you looking to travel? I lived in Moscow for two years and it is an amazing country. I would say do it - just make sure you are insured. K xx
Thank you for your reply Katy 
Did you have MS when you were living in Moscow? We’re still in the “considering available options” at the moment - my friend is keen on a river cruise between St Petersburg and Moscow (or it might be the other way round - can’t remember at the mo. My head is spinning!!!) We’re also looking at Moscow/St Petersburg trips … 3 or 4 nights in each place, but those hols look ‘full on’ with loads packed in. I wasn’t too sure about the river cruise, but I’m now thinking it would be more laid back and maybe I’d cope better with that one. Who knows! Maybe I’ve just got to say “yes” and ‘go for it’ huh?
I’m a bit nervous about the language issue - my friend is learning Russian (she’s good at languages) - but I was absolutely rubbish at language learning at school, and that was before my brain got damaged by MS!
H x
Hi, all sounds very exciting. Will you have need of a wheelchair at all? I ask cos river cruise ships arent very good with them…ie adaptations, getting on and off. Now if you ask me about cruise ships…they`re quite different, but some mobility is necessary for tender use, when a ship has to moor away from docks.
Did I tell you I am almost a fully fledged wheelchair cruiser now?
pollx
St Petersburg is a stunning city and best appreciated from the river, so don’t hesitate if you decide to pay a visit. It’s also an awful lot easier than walking, which is a nice bonus.
I do fancy the idea of a river cruise.
Must say that Moscow is the only city I have visited that I have no wish to ever return to.
Geoff
Thanks for comments - yes whammel not having toooo much walking would b good.
Poll- it’s exciting \scarey especially as I’ve now stopped procrastinating and said “yes” I’ll go. We’re meeting up next week to go through brochures together and discuss options… and no I’m very fortunate in that I don’t need a wheelchair at the mo. It sounds like you’ve had some good experience of a cruise ship so that’s nice to know and I’m pleased you’ve been able to have a hol in that way.
Dr Geoff… ohhh dear! What’s so awful about Moscow? I might as well know the worst so please do tell it how it is.
H x
OK, H, first the background:
I was going to a conference in Vilnius (Lithuania), at the end of the week when the USSR collapsed.
Change planes at Moscow on the way out, grab a whole night there, a week later, on my way home.
I have done the tourist bit - walked the length of Red Square, through to the inner ring, round to the Arbat, back to Red Square, photos of St Basil’s, back to the hotel (the Rossiya, now pulled down, then the World’s biggest).
Head for one of the restaurants and find that the head waiter has to be bribed to find a seat in a room that is 90% empty.
The next day I had booked a car and driver and he is taking me round the places I want to go to. I point on the map, he says OK and we go. This is off the tourist route. Roads with badly broken surfaces, Crumbling tower blocks. People washing cars beside the river with a length of rope and a bucket (that’s how they got the water). I hope it is better now, but it did not feel a nice place to be. Luckily, the places I wanted to see (the old fortified monasteries) were preserved intact.
On the river you would not see all this, but you would see the countryside, and probably the architecture, change.
My overall advice? Do it while you still can! You do not know how your MS might develop.
Geoff
It’s all changed now Dr Geoff. Fabulous city. It still feels “edgy” but it is a modern city with amazing bars, restaurants, music venues (classical and modern) and shops. The history in incredible - juxtaposition of the Stalin towers, the soviet realism design of street lamps and the metro and then Ivan the Terribles Red Square and Kremlin is amazing. No sight like red square on a summers day - red walls, blue sky, green grass, whites churches and gold onions domes (and Lenins black mausoleum). If you are looking for culture, recommend the Tchaikovsky conservatoire and the ballet at the Bolshoi. As a warning, Moscow is an example endive City as the last few years have seen the explosion of the “elitni” class - so dining out etc isn’t cheap. People watching in one the bars on red square is also excellent.
St Petersburg has a very different feel - in is the city of Peter the Great and was based off of the canal cities of Western Europe (as Peter hated Moscow and the Kremlin due to a hellish childhood - so after touring Europe he decided to make a new capital). Def. go on boat trips there. The Peter and Paul Fortress is very interesting (architecture (Dutch barn style) and history (where political prisoners including Lenin were kept). St Petersburg is tolstoi’s city. Kirov ballet at the Marinskii and the hermitage are probably main cultural sites. If you get chance get a coach to the summer palace which has beautiful gardens (like a mini Versailles).
Let me know if you want the know more (including cities in the garden ring like sis all and Yaroslavl). It’s about 6 years since I lived there but I still have puts of friends over there (and tour guides all my guests). I lived in Moscow abe I worked out there as a city lawyer. My walk to work took me through Red Square. Bonkers.
Realise I have waffles on without a thought to MS context. Apologies - newly diagnosed so new to this overlay. I didn’t have MS whilst I was out there - but they have some excellent hospitals - including a number of “European” and “American” clinical centres. There is a big expat community to these need to be catered for - and my understanding is that a number of the Russian hospitals are quite cutting edge on MS as people travel there for stem cell therapy. Language may be an initial barrier - but they will find you a translator if needed. Lots of people with excellent English out there.
I don’t think either Moscow or St Petersburg would be particularly wheelchair/ mobility issue friendly. In Moscow you have to go down lots of stairs to cross main roads via perehods (subways). St Petersburg is build on canals so there are lots of bridge crossings. However - I can’t imagine they are much worse then any large city.
Hope some of that waffle is vaguely helpful. Do shout if you have specific questions and have a fab time!!!
Apologies for the gazillion typos! Typing on an iPhone whilst walking!
Russia seems to be the ‘favourite’ destination for MS’ers to go for HSCT. So they do know about MS.
Thank you Dr Geoff and Katy for your detailed replies.
Dr Geoff the picture you paint is the sort of thing I had in my mind with regard to Russia in general, but since my friend suggested this trip I’ve been looking online and realise things appear to be rather different now. We would be on an organised tour, so unlikely to see the ‘back streets’ as it were - maybe not ideal; how things really are IS important to me, but I’m not going to have any spare energy for exploring off-grid as it were! And yes, my thinking is “do it while I can”…
Katy - thank you for all the info and advice you’ve given. Your enthusiasm is infectious… and I’m exhausted already! lol It’s clearly a place you loved Good to know that the hospitals have an understanding of MS - hopefully I won’t need them, but it’s a peace of mind issue. Re language - I’ve downloaded Google Translate onto my mobile - and have started to play around with that, which is quite exciting; just hope the wifi is good!
Thanks for your reply Spacejacket - always useful to have that extra reassurance.
The first thing is to get our passports - we’re both ‘new applicants’, so may have to go somewhere for an interview apparently… sighs… oh well, enjoy the journey huh?
H x