kiravuo@kampi.hut.fi (Timo Kiravuo) (01/15/89)
In article <6598@pogo.GPID.TEK.COM> curtc@pogo.GPID.TEK.COM (Curtis Charles) writes: >In article <502@solaris.UUCP> wyle@inf.ethz.ch writes: >>My bank accepts rubles, as many as I want to exchange. >>..... Zurich, Switzerland > >VERY INTERESTING! I thought it was a CRIME to carry rubles from the >Soviet Union, which would lead to the interesting question of how one >gets rubles to exchange in the first place. It is a crime according to Soviet laws, but I don't think that the Swiss feel too bad about it. I live in Finland, next to USSR (see your local map :-) and around here it is very popular to take a vacation in Leningrad, becouse of the good exchange rate we can get on the black market: about one mark to one ruble, which is about four rubles to a US$. That means a lot of cheap booze to students :-) As a currency the Soviet ruble is overvalued, becouse there is no free exchange, that is one of the problems the Soviets will have to face, if they open their economy. If you travel to the Soviet Union you have to think about weather to exchange legal or black rubles and how much. One way is to excange legal for all souveniers and stuff that you are going to take out of the country and black for anything that you are going to use in the country. But remember, if you get caught, you can be jailed for quite a long time, so I recommend you to think about what you are going to do. Also one should remember that all things can not be measured in money and material items. That is especially important in relation to the Soviet society. Their wiew of world is different from ours (let us see, who is us; I am a Finn and the Net goes all the way to Australia. Hmm.) They might not have electric can openers, but they might still live their lives quite happy. Leningrad is a very nice city to visit. They have really great museums there, lots of art and history. Also the arcitecture is fine. Just remember to be open minded if you go there. Well, thats today's ramblings. I have directed the follow-up to misc.misc, since we do not receive any rec.travel groups here. Timo Kiravuo 90-451 4328 kiravuo@hut.fi kiravuo@fingate.bitnet opmvax::kiravuo