Russians

Traveling about the world we run into a hoard of Russians on vacation.

Flying from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls we had the Russians who could not speak English and were seated in the exit rows. You are required to be able to speak english in those rows. They refused to move and threatened the flight attendant with harm. One of them did speak a bit of english. It was not until the pilot came out and told them the plane was not moving until they did; that they moved.

The same two Russian couples were sitting by the pool at 930 the next morning bathing in their g strings (I am not sure any weighed less than 300 pounds) doing shots of vodka. One of the ladies decided to try to take a close up picture of a zebra grazing nearby. She totally ignored the warning signs about how dangerous it is to get close to a wild animal. I immediately got my telephoto lens out.

In Tanzania our tents were equipped with a canister horn to blow in case we were threatened by any roaming animals. Blowing the horn would summon the guards and staff. The Russians, these were different Russians, used the horn in the middle of the night to refill their bloody mary glasses.

In Aspen, the Russians are now buying 40 million dollars homes.

We were told by the locals in Croatia that the Russians were flocking in and buying the ocean front homes. They were redoing them, but completely ignored local codes and ordinances. I guess the locals needed the money.

Russians from my perspective are not much different from Americans from another perspective.

I met a Russian immigrant the other night. He came to this country in 1990 with 10 dollars in his pocket with his wife and children. He could not find a job so he went to a local business and volunteered to work for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks the employer could let him go without pay, or if he did a good job he could hire him. He was hired and today has a nice house, two cars, kids in college . He just brought his father to the states. They are now all citizens.

Maybe Russians are a bit different from Americans.