Here are a few interesting opinions of foreigners about Russia. Some of them are funny and far from being true, but here is how Russia is seen by various people from around the world.

1. Never walk alone at night because you can be killed. Never carry money in your passport because if the police check your passport and money is in your passport, they will take it as a bribe, and this never ends well. Never take the subway around town after 7 pm. There are a lot of homeless people who are sleeping in the wagons of the trains. (Guide Travelnotes, USA)

2. Homeless people in Russia are not like the homeless people in America. In Russia, they are less dangerous and more tragic. (Justin Daymers, USA)

3. No reasonable person would go shopping for sausage at two in the morning, but in Moscow, there are several amounts of services that are open late. For example, you can get a haircut at 11:30 pm, or browse for books at 2 am; these are possible but yet uncommon! (Thomas Video, Germany)

4. The metro is beautiful in Moscow, but in the summer, it is hell. The summer heat and amount of people in the metro make it unbearable to breathe sometimes. The stenches of drunks, homeless people, vodka, and other terrible smells are rampant in the metro. But when you see young men giving up their seats to older women, or the many Russians who continue to read their books and bear the stenches, then it is not so bad you think. (Megan K.Stek, Los Angeles Times)

5. The doors in the Moscow metro close straightforward: if they are closed, then they are really closed. Even if someone is standing between them in the wagon, the doors will close even if they crush you. (Montse Arevalo, Spain)

6. Don’t smile in the metro and beware of the grandmothers. If you smile for no reason in the metro, you are looked upon as an idiot. As you see everyone around you in the metro keep to himself or herself and have a face of moodiness or aggression, copy this style to look normal. The grandmothers in the metro do not mess around, so be careful not to push them or get in their way. (Frank Hanselman, the Netherlands)

7. Russian people are not the same when they leave the metro. Russian people, if you ever have the chance to meet and speak with them, are nice and hospitable people as a whole. The booths that are at the bottom of the escalators in the metro contain an older Russian woman often who is constantly in a bad mood. They are in a bad mood because they probably have one of the most boring jobs in the world: watching people going down an escalator every day for a long, long time. If you break the rules on the escalator, they yell over the loud speaker, but no one ever listens to them. (Edward Adrian-Vallance, UK)

8. In Russia, it is popular to drink beer and eat dried fish together. The sight and smell of the fish is terrible, but once you try it, it is quite good. The bread in Russia is great and people are proud of this. And tea drinking is very, very popular in Russia. You can find people drinking tea anywhere, even in a club at 3 am! (Dick Jansen, the Netherlands)

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• Stereotypes about Russia