Travel

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Russian Travel

iT is 9.30 p.m. and the Ko-operatzia ' is drifting slowly down the narrow channel which connects Leningrad with the sea. On either side is a thin strip of land with lamps at intervals, before us is the Baltic, and behind us, at the end of a watery boulevard, we can see the lights of the town.

We have been in motion for an hour. At the hotel we were told that we must start at 3.15 and that dinner would be served at 2.30. Dinner was not served before 3.0, and our guide came to hurry us on at half-past. We reached the cus- toms at 4.0, but the boat was not in. By 6.0 we were through the customs, and by 8.0 we were on board. We were identified twice with our passports, and one had been lost by the officials of " Intourist.' It was eventually recovered, but the twenty missing boat tickets were never found again.

It meant that we all feel glad to be really leaving Russia at last, though most of us have only been there 12 days. The general insecurity has undermined us ; should we ever see our passports again ? Would there be room on the boat ? Would the boat start ? and even now that we are actually under way, we ask : " Shall we really get home by the afternoon tide on Sunday ? "

It was not the food, it was not the beds, it was not the fleas. The " tourist " category food was not inedible, except for the meat, and the beds were comfortable and clean.

. The trouble lay with the tiresome mixture of disorganiza- tion and over-organization, and the astonishing exhibition of bad salesmanship on the part of a country which wants to get hold of as much foreign currency as she can.

When we landed at Leningrad, 12 days ago, at 6 o'clock, we were handed our passports which had been kept from us on the boat ; we then declared our money, and the numbers of our cameras, and had our luggage examined. Two people were taken at a time, their names being read out at the door where they received their passports. Our names were written down on innumerable pieces of tissue paper, and the result was that the last person through the customs reached the hotel at 4.30 in the morning.

My particular party were more fortunate, because we were a scientific group travelling under the aegis of Voks, the Russian Society for Cultural Relations, and we got to the October Hotel at half-past nine. Our passports and " tour-vouchers " were taken from us, and we were shown to our rooms. They were large enough for three persons, and had bathrooms attached. We were supposed to be having " second category " accommodation, and the bed rooms were grander than those allotted to the " tourist " category, but we had " tourist " food, except in Moscow, where we fought for our rights, and won.

" Tourist " food consists of breakfast : coarse ham, butter, cheese, and bread ; dinner : vegetable soup, hashed—or as the menu more aptly put it, " hushed "—meat, or fish and an ice ; supper : fish and potatoes. Tea was served with every meal.

The food was, on the whole, rather better than we had expected, but it was served at such odd hours that we were glad of the chocolates and raisins we had brought with us. They arrange a complete programme for every party, which starts at 0.30 and goes on until 4.30 without a break. Then, after dinner at 5, there is something more to be seen, and supper is eaten at 11 or 12.

We were taken about sometimes in 'buses, sometimes in " Lincohis," sometimes in trams. Everywhere was " not far," and took over half an hour to reach.

Taking into consideration the absence of any sense of time, the lack of reliable watches, and the general vagueness about appointments,• the programme worked very well, but the exhaustion, unless one took chocolate or biscuits with one. was extreme. Water could not be trusted outside the hotel., and the weather was very hot. Every tourist to Russia would be well advised to take a water-bottle with him, and, perhaps, some kind of flavouring powder. No provision is made by the authorities for thirst or hunger during the day.

A favourite drink is Narzan, a water from the Caucasus similar to Vichy, but to get it involves a struggle lasting sometimes for an hour.

There are three ways of buying things in Russia. Firstly, one can buy in roubles, but at 6:85 to the pound this is fan- tastically expensive, and provides material for all the extrava- gant prices quoted in anti-Russian papers. Secondly, one can pay in foreign money—pounds or dollars, a method

which is sub-divided into two varieties. In the hotel dining- room a bottle of Narzan is expensive in roubles, but it can be paid for in foreign currency -at an internal rate of exchange— about 30 roubles to the pound ; a bottle costs 1s. or is. 4d. The second sub-variety of payment in foreign currency takes place at special shops, called Torgsin," branch offices of which are to be found in the larger hotels. Here only foreign currency is accepted, and the prices are considerably lower than elsewhere. They are marked up in roubles and kopecks, and Narzan costs 10 kopecks a bottle—about 4d. (the pound valued at 6.85 roubles).

This complexity, however, is not all. When you have your bills for Narzan, cigarettes and picture post-cards, you take them all to the accountant, only to make the ghastly discovery that he cannot add or subtract. He uses pencil and paper, an abacus and a calculating machine, and each amount has to be translated into the currency in which you wish to pay. When he discovers what you owe, and what change you ought to get in English money, he asks the cashier whether he has that sum in the till, and finds out. that he has not. Then he tries to make up the change for your ten shilling note in English money as far as he can, and the rest he gives you in cents, pfennigs or Finnish small change. The result of the whole transaction is that one vows only to buy articles of absolute necessity.

There are, however, certain purchases that have to be made, such as cigarettes and post-cards. The latter are important because they nearly always reach their destination, whereas letters seldom do. Most travellers arrive totally unprepared for the difficulties of commerce, and no one tells them what to do. Everyone should have as much small change-as possible, so as to avoid the change difficulties, and if he has American money so much the better, because the prices in cafés are sometimes marked up in dollars as well as roubles, for the benefit of those who wish to pay " valuta," and Russians recognise American money easily, but many do not know the difference between the two-shilling piece and the half-crown.

Travelling " hard " is not very serious if mattresses and pillows are provided by the authorities. I believe they are supposed to be provided for all tours, but when travelling beyond Moscow it is essential to make as certain as possible that they will- be forthcoming.

The carriages, compartments and seats on through trains in Russia are wider than is the case in England. The backs of the seats lift up and can be held in place by brackets, so that _there are two beds on each side of the compartment. Trains between Leningrad and Moscow run at night, and soon after the train has left the station the conductor brings mattresses, pillows, sheets and blankets and makes the beds up.

One misadventure, however, must be carefully guarded , against. Tourists from Stalingrad to Moscow complained that their boots and bags were stolen by thieves on the train, and one man, who had covered himself with his raincoat - and was settling himself to sleep, became aware of a hand coming in through the window, and in a trice his coat was r whisked away and he never saw it again.

On arrival at Moscow one is met by a new guide, who demands an extra photograph, which one has not got. This involves more expense, but no trouble, because they reproduce the passport photograph on their own.

Photography, too, is not an easy business. One false step and a film may be torn from the camera. Picture post-cards of the Kremlin and the tomb of Lenin can be bought anywhere, but I saw a young man take a photograph of the latter and so did a " militia man." He blew his whistle, which they always do when they detect a crime, and then advanced on the offender. He was quite pleasant about it all, but he took the film out of the camera and exposed the whole length of it then and there.

It all seems so silly, and in the eyes of the tourist this silliness bulks large, and he is made irritable and spiteful. It is just as silly, no doubt, to blame Communism because the Russians have not evolved a satisfactory tourist technique, but cool judgement is.not to be expected from a jaded sightseer, who has been driven from creche to prophylactic clinic ever since 10 a.m. and discovers at 3 that the 'bus has forgotten to - come to take him home to dinner. it is not even comfoiting to be told some stuff about " countries in the making," and "- the need for education and culture."

Everyone who has views on the country ought certainly to -go and look at it, but it is as well that they go prepared for some of the difficulties which will be put in the way of their enjoyment.

W. J. H. Sraorr.