Rentals?

[glock_girl]

One other thing I forgot to check..

I read in a travel guide that they prefer you to bring your own car into Russia. It made NO sense to me. Can someone clarify this?
Are cars available for rental - or more specifically, motorcycles??

Thanks,
Amy

[Daria]

Hey Amy --

When I was in Russia last time (more than a year ago), there was no rent-a-car places. I heard somewhere that now the situation has been improved, and you can find a car to rent. But I suppose that is too expensive.

[glock_girl]

Hiya Daria!

Thanks for replying to me. I was concerned about this.
It's strange, but I can understand it.

By the way - I tried your boiled dinner out at home as a test...
It was GREAT! My relatives loved it!
Thanks for the recipie, I'll be bringing it with me

Amy

[ILay]

To rent a car in Russia:

the easiest way to find the information necessary is to use one of Russian search egines in Internet.

Like:
http://www.yandex.ru
http://www.aport.ru
http://www.list.ru
http://www.yahoo.ru
etc.

with the query

àðåíäà àâòîìîáèëåé

(you can simply copy and paste)

or go to http://www.yellowpages.spb.ru
(this is for St.Petersburg )

I don't know the prices for Moscow though I found one site:
http://www.wtcmo.ru/win/transp/renta_r.htm

In St. Petersburg.
The prices are (if you rent a car for a month):
USD 20 per day for a Russian car (Ladas and Volgas)
USD 35 per day for a foreign car (they have Fords Mondeo, Mercedes 190 etc.)

But I think you can bargain them down a bit.

I checked only one company - Crimson Court
+7.812.2725045
rent_car@fanja.spb.ru

for attention of Mr. Popov.

Hope it could help.

[glock_girl]

Hey Ilay, thanks!!!
That's great info - I will check with them then and see if they have bikes too.

Thanks for all your help guys!!

Amy

[Dr_Woland]

I'm back too, and just to pick-up on one thing you asked earlier... you CAN get red hot-pepper sauce here, in several flavours - with/without garlic, etc. The brands on sale here (mostly seem to be Bulgarian?) are not quite as nice as Encona etc, but really a very acceptable substitute nonetheless :-)

One thing you cannot get in Canada (!) Yes, Russia has at least one thing.... is ADJIKA. It's from the Caucasus, and there are squillions of different recipes for it, but the basic idea is a thick, slightly gritty paste made of ground red chillis, dried tomatoes, garlic, hot spices, khmeli-suneli*, mmmmmmm!! You can... put it into stews and casseroles.... put it on stir-fries... I like it spread thin on buttered toast for lunch... coat meat-cubes with it before BBQ-ing them...

*the Georgian herb-spice-mix - buy it in markets here, delicious :-)

Whilst we are at it, another delicious sauce you should try whilst you are here is also Georgian... TKHEMALI. It's made from sour plums, with spices and herbs. Ideal for grilled meats, but also...

QUICK LOBIO TKHEMALI SALAD (Dr W's special recipe!)
1 x 500g can of cooked red kidney beans, rinsed, drained.
a generous handful of shelled walnuts (or pecans)
3-4 spring onions
a handful of fresh coriander
a handful of fresh parsley (ideally flat-leaf)
250g of tkhemali sauce*
* you can substitute 4 generous tablespoons of plum jam (ideally as un-sweet as possible) + juice of half a lemon, mixed well together + salt and fresh black pepper + half tsp dried cumin + 4-5 drops of hot pepper sauce.

chop onions, coriander, parsley roughly and throw in a food processor, add the walnuts, and give it a quick whizz, until the nuts are around breadcrumb-size. (you can put 1-2 cloves of garlic in if you like it :-) Mix with the beans, pour the sauce over, decorate with chopped coriander and lemon-slices. To make this into a more substantial dish you can add half-inch cubes of suluguni cheese (you can substitute halloumi, or at a pinch, fetta) - even better if you grill the cheese first :-)

Dr W.