Word: intourist
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...first visit to Moscow, in August, Rademaekers was assigned by Intourist to a spacious room in the Rossia Hotel. The view included St. Basil's Cathedral and the famed chime bells of the Spasskaya clock tower in the Kremlin Wall. "Like other Americans there," he recalls, "I did not complain, and I spent money, which is highly regarded by Intourist." Less than two months later, Rademaekers, while in Paris, applied for another Soviet visa and bought his Intourist coupons through a French travel agency. Thus began an amusing case of confused identity...
...arrival in Kiev, capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Rademaekers was greeted in French by an Intourist guide. Although he speaks German, Hungarian, and some Italian and Spanish, Rademaekers has no facility in French. He asked the guide if she spoke English or any of the other languages. "No," she informed him coldly. "You are French." The correspondent produced his passport and tried to explain why the visa came from Paris, not New York. But since the guide could speak no English and he no French, the conversation ended with a surly driver delivering the "Frantsuzsky tourist" downtown...
...English, you speak?" "American, I am," said Rademaekers. That brought an Intourist guide who announced in fluent American: "You will be given a bigger room. We thought you were French...
Ultimately, Rademaekers tried to get everything straight with an Intourist official. "You are French," he was told, "because our Intourist office in Kiev said that a French tourist with your name is arriving here. That is why you are French...
...luxe is not the only way to see Russia during July and August. Those who travel in Europe by purchasing or renting a car may be interested to know that camping is available through Intourist for about $17 a day per couple...