Hot Water and Herring
Granted, a hotel can be an experience in and of itself, but most of the frequent travelers we asked said they’d rather stay with the locals or rent an apartment. Maria Rudnev, based in USA, commented: “Instead of going to Rome, I went to Torino. I rented AirBnB for three weeks away from downtown. Although it’s a famous city, most people don’t speak English. I went to a local supermarket, spoke to locals, walked the city by foot. The whole reason I did it was to feel local.”
In Russia, it's fun to live with local hosts because they’ll walk you through the peculiarities of taking a shower (ever tried igniting a gas water heater?), give a primer on the usual breakfast foods (dumplings? herring?) and get you going on the local language essentials ("bugger off"). They also probably won’t let you out without a hat and gloves. And will point you to a coffee joint by metro. But living in close quarters gets old soon, so yes, your own place might just be the trick.
A Moose from Space
At the new exchange student orientation years ago, one of the things they told us was not to pack a lot of clothes. “When you get there, you’ll see how people dress and will be able to make an education decision about your fashion choices,” they said.
That holds true in Russia, where people like to dress up for all sorts of occasions, or even without. Last summer I bought four shirts in Saint Petersburg to wear to the office because the ones I had made me look like “a moose from space”. Granted, I still paired them with shorts – because blending in too much would be boring – but at least I looked presentable when sitting at a desk.
A friend of mine bought a pair of “nice” pants especially to go to the Philharmonic concert. They were light green, but he did make an effort.
Oftentimes locals do know best what to wear in cold weather, or what’s appropriate. It’s up to you to make it your own.
Do You See What I See?
Whether that means leafing through a newspaper or turning on the news, there’s nothing like seeing the place through the locals’ eyes. It doesn’t matter if you know the language – you’ll get the gist of what’s important and what’s being marketed. I had no idea that Egyptian women, normally covered head to toe, wore brightly colored tank-tops underneath until I saw a commercial on the local TV. Or that pressure cookers were highly popular in Estonia – I didn’t even know that device existed.
In Saint Petersburg, I always leaf through the magazines at checkout stands because you get a crash course on local celebrities and catch up on gossip in two minutes flat.
Emma Ponomareva, based in Moscow, takes local shopping a step further: “[When exploring a new city] we travel away from the historic downtown to the suburbs and check out local hardware stores. Tourists rarely go there.”
Anna Sadovnikova, based in London, taps into the local perspective: “I love speaking to taxi drivers. They know the area, almost always are willing to talk and well, you both have time to spare. When we purchase an asset, I always ask a taxi driver what they think of it and often get a candid but quite a precise answer.”
