OldManFriday.com
Your Business & Personal Assistant in
Moscow & Tver
Russian travel resources
Unlike in www.unclepasha.com/resources.htm, where I aimed to include as all sites worthy of attention, here I will be listing resources that I use and regularly send my clients to. The Old Man Friday concept is designed for people who value their time, thus "one of each kind" is the main idea of this page.
Before-the-trip reading
Spend some time at www.waytorussia.com before embarking upon your Russian adventure. An excellent review of the Moscow accommodation market, from a discourse of how things work to specific accommodation offers. Their general Russian travel advice is, unlike in most resources and guidebooks, quite fresh and relevant. Note their cultural interest pages, such as this Review of Russian Literature. Of course the more reading you do from a variety of sources the better but if you have time for one, this is my pick.
Visa Support & Registration
Visa support is a shifting market. As of the moment of writing this I'm using the services of Master Travel, Sadovnicheskaya 5, tel. +7-916-167-0504. The recommended course of actions is to send a scan of your passport to me (please watch the size as I spend a lot of time in the countryside!!) and let me take it from there. My involvement will mean an extra $25 "small errand" fee on top of the actual cost. For visa registration my business clients will be better off speaking to me too. Leisure travellers with some extra time can easily do registration on their own. Contact me about visa support, registration, or problem situations if your situation warrants hiring me to do the calling, prodding, reminding, or footwork on your behalf.
Accommodation
I cannot recommend one single "best" source. For the moment I can only refer you to my old but still sporadically upgraded www.cheap-moscow.com. My former colleague Oesya (www.russiangirlfriday.com) is good at doing customized accommodation searches.
Airplane Tickets
The people at Jet Travel have been very helpful in planning in helping plan trips and procuring tickets at very reasonable prices. Their sites are jettrav@com2com.ru and www.jettravel.ru
Train Tickets
Nothing to recommend at the moment but I'm keeping my eyes open for an agency with English-speaking staff, phones that answer, and couriers that deliver within a few hours.
Automobile
If you want rent a car, I recommend www.rolf.ru as the easiest company to deal with. (Link to their English pages coming up.)
The best source of information to buy a vehicle remains www.izrukvruki.ru but it is Russian only.
Housekeeping help
You'll find a few ads on www.expat.ru. The site's habitués will be happy to share hints and information. Lots of ads in the Domestic Services section of www.izrukvruki.ru but it is Russian only.
Dating
Of international dating sites, it is www.elenasmodels.ru.
If you are already in Moscow and want to meet women who are NOT specifically looking for foreigners, I recommend "Svetlana" at Prospekt Mira 56, 5th entrance, room 41, Tel. 775-0822 or 688-6165. They office staff do not speak English but can call an interpreter, or I can take you there myself.
Teaching English in Russia
http://www.eslcafe.com/ (Oops, no more ESL teaching in Russia it seems. I'll be keeping my eyes open for the "ultimate" resource on the subject on which I regularly receive questions.)
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