09-08-2002, 05:26 PM
Chris,
You are absolutely right about the border guards at Narva, they are not the friendliest guys in the world. I had no items for my collection when I left Russia, but they found my copy of the thin booklet "Orders and Medals of the USSR", full of my notes about what items I was looking for and what I had. When they saw this, they went crazy and accused me of having medals and tore my bag apart looking for things. I had nothing to find, so they did not find anything, but I would recommend leaving anything that would make them excited in Estonia.
However, they did not have an xray machine, and our cabin on the train was fairly large, it would have been really easy to smuggle anything, even large items, out of the country. Not that I recommend this.
Also, I learned the hard way that you have to declare all of your foreign cash when you enter Russia, otherwise you have to give them ten percent of it when you leave. I am sure they pocketed this money, and maybe they would have found another way to steal from me, but anyone traveling to Russia should know this.
Keith
You are absolutely right about the border guards at Narva, they are not the friendliest guys in the world. I had no items for my collection when I left Russia, but they found my copy of the thin booklet "Orders and Medals of the USSR", full of my notes about what items I was looking for and what I had. When they saw this, they went crazy and accused me of having medals and tore my bag apart looking for things. I had nothing to find, so they did not find anything, but I would recommend leaving anything that would make them excited in Estonia.
However, they did not have an xray machine, and our cabin on the train was fairly large, it would have been really easy to smuggle anything, even large items, out of the country. Not that I recommend this.
Also, I learned the hard way that you have to declare all of your foreign cash when you enter Russia, otherwise you have to give them ten percent of it when you leave. I am sure they pocketed this money, and maybe they would have found another way to steal from me, but anyone traveling to Russia should know this.
Keith
