Novosibirsk: Guida di viaggio, prezzi e alloggi gratuiti · 2026

КСКамиль Сайдашевkamil89 · 31 ott 2010Leggi

July 7, 2010 (9:00 PM) Hi! Haven't written in a while. Still haven't found a job. We're living in a hostel. I'm staying for free—sleeping without paying. If there are empty beds, I take one; if the whole hostel is full, I sleep on the couch in the game room. We mostly eat fast food. I've already eaten at many American diners (McDonald's, Wendy's, Wawa, Burger King, etc.). It's tasty everywhere, but a bit pricey at $5-7. In the morning, we eat cereal with milk. The milk comes in jugs—it doesn't taste like the Russian kind; it's not fatty. We have dinner at home. The fridge in the hostel is shared—sometimes we take someone else's food and drinks; it's cheap and fun. I went with Ilyukha to get an SSN. Leonid drove us (a guy who looks like a mobster, has been in the US for about 10 years). We met them at the hostel. At the SSN office, a guy approached us, claiming he works there but lost his SSN. He drove us to the place where his friend rents a room, and they have 2 rooms for rent for 400 bucks + deposit. We think it's a setup. They take a deposit here in case the tenant breaks something. But you can't check everything. At the end of the term, the landlord will definitely find a scratch and say they won't return the deposit. Apartments are expensive. Still no work. We go into restaurants, but nothing so far. The guys from Novosibirsk, Egor and Sanya, are working in roofing—cleaning up trash after those who do the roofs. It's hard because it's +40°C outside. 100 bucks a day is good compensation, but they are exhausted after the workday. Maybe we'll have to try that—they don't need extra workers yet. No options for now. Maybe we'll find something in another field. That's it. Otherwise, it's okay—we should get settled. #USA #WorkAndTravel

КСКамиль Сайдашевkamil89 · 31 ott 2010Leggi

July 02, 2010 (01:30) Hi. Haven't written in a while because I couldn't get around to it. I was about to fall asleep, but decided to jot down a few lines. I'm already in Philadelphia. It's a very beautiful and cozy city, not far from New York. I'm staying in a hostel, but I'll be sleeping outside tonight – it's cheap. Actually, the hostel is very good. $20 a night, there's internet, a kitchen, and rooms for several people with bunk beds. There are many people of different nationalities in the hostel. We also met two guys from Novosibirsk, Egor and Sanya. They say work is hard to find, and about 10 Russian students from the hostel have already gone home to Russia, having spent all their money and unable to find a job. I got to Philly by bus with a guy named Ilyukha – we're hanging out together here now. He's from Perm. I'm thrilled with the city, the people, everything. Everything is different, everything is beautiful, it's warm, and the people are kind, very kind indeed. Today, a guy named Bob took us into the city in his car, showed us downtown, and fed us at a Mexican restaurant called Burritos – kind of like our shawarma, weighing 1 kg, made of donkey meat – didn't really like it. We met a Jewish woman who treated us to cola and told us about work. In general, there are many examples of good encounters with Americans, even very many. We tried looking for work – no results yet. Lots of interesting things... gotta run to sleep.

EKEkaterina KuznetsovaKuznetsova123 · 31 ott 2010Leggi

We rush to the gate to find out what all this means. Vika is sitting in her seat, suspecting nothing. It's true. The flight is cancelled due to bad weather! Is it really all starting over??? Is it really not meant to be?? Thank God we are now officially under the airline's care, and that the plane is full of people in the same situation as us. We are given food vouchers again, told that the airport hotel is full, and that everyone is free... until tomorrow. Until 12 noon. They said that only at 12 noon will they tell us what happens next. Tired as dogs, we walked back to the waiting area with our bags and now all our bottles too. On the way, we met some other students. The airline provided us with international phone cards and free carts. Without any ceremony, we just spread out like homeless people on the benches; the girls took out towels and laid them on the cold bench. I wrapped myself in a scarf and a raincoat, some guy gave me an airplane pillow, and I fell asleep. We wake up in the middle of the night because it's cold. We went with our bags to another terminal where there are sofas and cafes. We ate and went back to sleep. We didn't really sleep, just lay there. At 12 noon, we went to the airline. There was a line of passengers from our flight. We hate ourselves for not coming earlier, because there might not be enough tickets. The airline puts us on a flight via Paris that leaves the next night, or rather at 4 a.m.! We are already going crazy from this news! Thank God they will provide us with a hotel. When we approached the counter with the operator, the guy said to us: - Since there are no more economy class tickets, we are putting you in business class, okay? Okay??? And he's even asking??? Yes, of course OK!! Flying from Paris to Moscow in business class is the price for our suffering!! We were given food vouchers for the third time, but they refused us the hotel because we weren't supposed to be on this flight originally. We were horrified! Are we really going to sleep in the airport again, which we are already sick of! The operator called the manager, we explained the whole situation again, saying that we hadn't slept or washed for two days, and the girl easily said: - No problem. And she gave us rooms in the hotel, for which we were sincerely grateful. The bus picked us up only at 5 p.m. and took our whole group to the hotel. There we were met, checked in, and informed that dinner would be at 7:30 p.m. in the restaurant. We were just beside ourselves with joy! Our joy knew no bounds, especially when we lay down on a normal bed and went to take a shower! There was still an hour before dinner, I went online, wrote a status on VKontakte, which many read, that instead of Novosibirsk I was still in NY, and then I just passed out. An hour later, the girls got ready for the restaurant, and I thought, "maybe I should stay and sleep," but I decided to keep the girls company. There was a buffet in the restaurant, we piled up what we wanted, and the waiter brought drinks. We sat there for several hours, each of us told how we spent the summer, then we discussed many other topics. It was so great, it felt like I had known Polina and Vika for a hundred years! Then we returned to the room, lay down in bed, turned on the dim light, and chatted, chatted, chatted.

EKEkaterina KuznetsovaKuznetsova123 · 31 ott 2010Leggi

Moscow. Russia. Shock. Rudeness. I bumped into someone's cart and said: - I’m sorry. And the guy replied in familiar Russian: - Miss, we're in Russia now. You can speak Russian. Me: - Sorry, it's a habit. The guy nodded understandingly and walked away. What?? They lost my luggage?? But it was loaded!! I only got my bottles from Duty Free… all my things were apparently somewhere in Paris. I'm already going crazy… Vika is being met by her sister. Polina won't be picked up for a few more hours, and I need to buy a ticket to Novosibirsk. Which I did. Saying goodbye to the girls was hard for me. I grew to love them so much over these days; we always supported each other, and we only got through all this because we were together. Each of us agreed that if we had been alone, we would have panicked. Express train to Vnukovo. Is this an airport?? Our bus station is better than this! I had the impression that I had ended up in the 90s. Everything is shabby, gray, dreary. I'm sitting alone. Waiting for boarding. The plane. Only one thought: Just let us land safely and not crash somewhere in the Ural Mountains. I closed my eyes, just closed them. I open them, everyone has already eaten, but I haven't. Did I really fall asleep? No wonder! I hadn't slept for almost 5 days. The steward saw that I woke up and offered me food, which I didn't refuse. Novosibirsk. God, it's so cold! Mom and my brother are meeting me. Home, the cat, my favorite sofa, and Mom's cooking! :) I slept for 20 hours. The next morning at breakfast, the phone rings. I run to the phone and I already know who is calling: - Hello, is this Ekaterina Kuznetsova? - Yes. - This is Tolmachevo Airport. Your luggage has been found….