Russians on their own. She shared the details on her Yandex.Zen blog.
According to the traveler, in these European countries, despite the Russophobic statements of politicians and newspapers inflating them, she saw that the locals clearly separate ordinary tourists from politicians and therefore, as before February 2022, and before the coronavirus pandemic, they treat Russians wonderfully.< /p>
“There is no division that you are bad or good. We do not hide the fact that we are from Russia and, as a rule, people first of all remember the capitals – Moscow, St. Petersburg, then vodka and Putin. Everything!” she wrote.
The tourist stayed in Helsinki (Finland) for several days and during this time she met many Russians, but she did not notice any demonstrative and aggressive dislike and hatred towards her and our fellow citizens. “It does not matter. Yes, there are customs rules not to display expensive goods, and therefore in some stores they will refuse to issue you a tax free (VAT refund system: the amount is returned for purchases made by foreign citizens when leaving the country). But this does not mean that Russians are treated badly,” the author added.
Residents of Italy, like Finland, during the blogger’s stay in the country, spoke about a deep and close connection with Russia. As the traveler noted, in Italy almost everyone has some kind of connection with St. Petersburg, and a personal one at that. “When people hear that we are from Russia, it is in Italy that they immediately say – oh, St. Petersburg!” – she shared and noted that she also did not see the general anger and denseness of views.
The Russian woman did not meet a negative attitude in France either, with the exception of a single case: “The only time a negative sounded was that we once got into a conversation on the Seine embankment with a grandfather from Canada. And so he said that Putin would drive our country into the Stone Age. This was the only case, while the grandfather remained positive and we parted quite smiling at each other. The rest, both tourists and locals, are quite friendly and are interested in how we are.”
Besides, there was practically no brief summary and yellow-blue flags anywhere. During the entire long and eventful trip, the tourist saw only three demonstrations of the Ukrainian flag. “Ordinary residents did not treat the Russians worse. Everything, as in 2018-2019, nothing has changed in relation!” – the tourist assured her compatriots optimistically.
Earlier, Turprom wrote that “Idiots abroad: the five worst acts of tourists were revealed.”
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