Hand sanitizer. Somewhat freaked out about traveling on the metro with people sneezing into their hands and grabbing the railings, I walked into a neighborhood drug store a few days ago and asked for a large bottle of hand sanitizer. The pharmacist in a white coat looked at me like I was from Mars. A large bottle? Of hand sanitizer? Nope, she’d never heard of it. The best she had was something that looked like it came out of the minibar but didn’t smell of alcohol. I rubbed it onto my hands and had an irresistible urge to wash them afterwards. Maybe that was the idea.
Foreign cheese. A few years ago, foreign cheese fell under sanctions imposed by the Russian government on a multitude of foreign products, including various kinds of dairy. This in turn has spurred local production and while some cheeses that originally were made in Russia are pretty good, if you’re craving real cheddar, you’re out of luck. The good news is that you can bring cheese, along with other sanctioned groceries, with you from a trip abroad as long as it’s “for personal consumption.”
Jeans that fit. For a person who wears jeans just about everywhere, forgetting to pack the second pair is pretty devastating. Imagine my joy when I spent three hours scouting the Galleria mall in hopes of finding a basic pair of jeans that didn’t cost like a Cadillac and fit my not so skinny, somewhat curvy bum. Mass retailers like H&M stock jeans for matchstick legs, and even though I’m admittedly jealous of their owners, it didn’t solve my problem of nothing to wear. I almost splurged on a pair of drastically overpriced Levi’s but then thought better of it and just stuck the ones I had in the washing machine.
It’s worth noting that oftentimes Russian and American sizes differ, sometimes quite a bit. If you’re used to being size S and all of sudden you can’t squeeze into anything less than L, it’s not you, it’s the apparel industry… But if over time you start fitting into local sizes, going back sure feels good.
Looking for what you can buy only in Russia? We have some ideas.
