• Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    1 month ago

    I’d love to go to Moscow. From all I’ve seen, it’s a beautiful city. I’d also love to go to St. Petersburg and see the Hermitage.

    But not while Putin is in power. Maybe one day when elections are fair and queer people aren’t oppressed, but I won’t be holding my breath for that happening in my lifetime sadly.

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      If I’d outlive the gramps sending us to kill and die, it’d be a pleasure for me to show you and other lemmings around. Russia has many sight to see and adore, to fall in love even, mostly in St. Petes as I’m biased against Moscow. If at any point I’d not be persecuted for printing that comment, I’d gladly do it on the house.

      Peterhoff is one of the most popular tourist destinations there if you want to google some photos. A mansion where every room is designed in it’s own royal-tier style to cringe at. And that complex is surrounded with a huge walking park with old trees, marble statues and beatiful fontains, some of them are made to shoot at random from the ground to confuse visitors, all of that sitting right at the shore.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        1 month ago

        My dad was invited to a conference in St. Petersburg when it was still Leningrad after Glasnost. He was well-traveled, but talked about how the two most beautiful cities he ever saw in his life were Leningrad and Sarajevo. He openly wept when the latter was destroyed during the war in the Balkans.

        • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          I hope we’d fucking stop before he’d cry once more at the ruins of Piter. This town still has historical markings about what side of the street to follow and where to hide from the WW2, and still…

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Maybe one day when elections are fair and queer people aren’t oppressed, but I won’t be holding my breath for that happening in my lifetime sadly.

      Yeah, work wanted to send me, but I’m not white and also not suicidal window-proof.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        1 month ago

        I’d like to go to Kamchatka just so I can tell them that they’re the most useless space in Risk.

        Also, apparently there’s lots of volcanoes and stuff.

    • jqubed@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Oh yes, the avoidance is entirely for governmental reasons. There is so much that would be interesting to see otherwise. Sadly it seems to be a repeating theme in Russian history where some change happens that seems like the ordinary people are finally starting to get some freedom and stability but then some authoritarian gets in power and cracks down on any dissenting views, even minor. I guess outsiders have to catch it during the right window of time.