The very first time I came to Russia
Was on a trip with my university. Now, when you enter the country, you need to surrender your passport for a number of hours to be registered in to the city by the hotel.

Bearing in mind that we were at this time a sprightly group of 18 - 21 year old university studes, we were anxious to sample some of the amazing Russian booze we'd heard so much about.

After handing over passports, and not having any documents or ID at all in some cases due to the ineptitude of the hotel staff/idiocy of some students not to ask for copies, we split up into two groups and made our way into the Moscow night in search of booze.

A great time was had by my group, and although breakfast the next morning was a little subdued, we were nothing in comparison to the other group, none of whom were saying a thing. Neither was our usually-chatty lecturer.

Turns out that they'd got absolutely wankered and decided that, at 3am, it would be an absolutely excellent idea to stumble to Red Square and look at St Basil's cathedral (you know, that's the big brightly coloured swirly thing that everyone thinks is part of the Kremlin but isn't). So, they get there, they look, and then unfortunately disaster strikes. One of the company decides that she's had more than too much booze, and now the only course of action is for her to empty her guts. She decides to do this directly against the wall of St Basil's Cathedral. She vomits all over the facade of one of the most famous churches in the entire world. As if that wasn't enough, her mate comes over all queasy and voms on the steps next to her. So, picture the scene. 6 drunk British students, two covered in vomit, which is also liberally spread over and around the most well-known symbol of Russia and her Orthodox Christian heritage.

This is the scene that greets the small group of patrolling policemen who suddenly round the bend. Here's a simple equation:

Foreign + drunk + sacrilegious vomiting + no documents = A trip to the police station.

This is from where the girls called our lecturer at about 4am, dragging him out of his bed to come down to the militsia den and pay for their release.

Those girls didn't drink again for the entire trip.

Length? The still-visible streaks in the snow the next day were longer.
(judeski walked on water and ran through fire, Sat 21 Mar 2009, 23:36, 1 reply)

Christ
having gone to Moscow not so long ago and been utterly terrified of pissing off the sour faced locals, this sounds utterly horrible.

Magnificient place, mind.
( Paedosmile service with a grin., Sun 22 Mar 2009, 18:32, closed)