В Россию-- вперед! (с многих денег?)

[ulvesang.livejournal.com]

Entirely unrelated to this community, but I find that the members here are quite helpful and knowledgeable, so I'll give it a go:

Looking for travel options from the UK to Russia (Moscow) in September (TO LIVE NOT BE TOURIST), I'm seeing they cost roughly £150-£300. However, I've heard that it's "much cheaper" to just fly to a major Eastern-European hub inside the EU like Warsaw, Riga or Talinn and actually go into Russia by train. Is this bollocks? £200 isn't cheap by my standards, but it seems pretty cheap for a long flight like that. I have no clue how expensive/cheap a Polish long-distance train might be.

Finally, Russians always seem to tell me that "Russia/Moscow is one of the most expensive places in the world". Coming from a place like the UK, them's fightin' words. How bad is it, really? I mean, what kind of budget should I prepare as a student (who's only drunk ~1 night per week)? I don't want to end up on the street/starving/perpetually sober, especially in Moscow.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Last time I checked, you had to show some kind of ID while buying a train ticket and for non-Russian citizen those could cost a lot more... No idea whether this is still true though.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Same price for all since at least 1999.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

While it's so for train tickets in Russia, I'm not aware if it's still in action in Baltic states, but I'm sure that Rusian Railways has no special charge for foreigners. Even China lifted this about ten years ago, when they liquidated foreign exchange yuan. ;)