@Afterburner Language skills... A friend of mine, in St Petersburg many years ago, was practicing his rudimentary Russian when ordering lunch in a small restaurant. I forget what he thought he was ordering, but he was very surprised when the waitress came back with a small green salad and a cigarette. Cheers Tony
@Bratok_xxl Same here at aptek you need the recipe. Now it almost impossible to recipe from doctor. Something like 30 years ago some farmers got recipe for animal disinfection cleaning but for human disinfection also on that time recipe was very difficult to get. Now I even don't know how it is possible because they have made very strict limitation for doctors to give recipe. At many shops here denatured spirit can be found for alcohol stove and for kerosene stove pre-heating. That alcohol taste is so bad that it is impossible to drink it. Is there denatured spirit at Russia? At Estonia they had this kind of denatured spirit: Do you use isopropyl spirit or something else for stove pre-heating? @Tony Press Maybe waitress was wondering why guy wants to get just a green salad and cigarette.
Language skills: (apologies for the hijack.) When I was in college in San Diego we made frequent forays across the border, mostly for things like groceries. A friend told me of a good restaurant and said I should order a "toro" if I wanted draft beer -- "cerveza" would get me a bottle. "Toro, as in 'bull'?", I asked. "Yeah", he replied, "it sounds weird, but that's how you get draft." Okay, got it. Next trip down, I went to the restaurant with a different friend, and confidently placed our order in Spanish, adding, "y dos toros". The waitress stared at me. "Toros???" A short pause, that seemed very long to me. Then comprehension dawned. "Taros?", she asked, "de cerveza?" "Si", I replied weakly. She cracked up, the laughter quickly spreading to the rest of the staff when she got to the kitchen. "Taro" is the Spanish word for "mug". ....Arch
At Vyborg I found these that looked like meths/fuel for alcohol stove: I was thinking that is ethanol or methanol but it is not. There is almost no smell in them. They work for pre-heating. They burn almost like alcohol but there is some left over after flame goes off. @Bratok_xxl Maybe you can tell what they are? I was guessing that they are fuel for table top hot pot cooker and fondue type of cookers but I think that it is not alcohol.
Dont put it an ANY stove !!! This is starting fire fluid for grill and mangals, barbecue, chimney etc. Contains liquids paraffene mix. Remember - In Russia - you cant legal buy in shop - Denaturated spirit, or meth spirit. Only on black market and from friends, who hand made alcohol at home with distiller apparate =) On some aptecs - you can buy medicine spirit - but you need recipe from doctor to buy it, and price is abnormal high - near 3-5 EUR for 100 ml. Somthere you can find izopropil spirits - but not in standart shops. How it burns in alcohol stove - ? i dont know.
@Bratok_xxl Thank's for the info again! Ok, certainly it is not good for alcohol stove like Trangia. Pre-heating of kerosene stove it burns ok and no soot. Only (small) problem is small amount of 'left over' liquid after burning ends. That will explain... I tried to ask Denaturated spirit from several shops and shoved that above picture of Estonian Denaturated spirit bottle label with Russian text but no luck to find it. Many shops recommenced 'Apotek'. At 'Apotek' they said 'rezept'. I didn't had doctor order for it so no change to buy it from 'Apotek' As @Lennart F says Isoprophyl makes soot when burned so it is not good for pre-heating nor for alcohol stoves like Trangia. @Tony Press Maybe Trangia type stoves are not popular at Russia. Russia is BIG country and they have lot's of oil so like in US gasoline is very commonly used for everything. I think that a most (all?) stoves that are made after WWII are gasoline powered. I am at St. Peterburg and I am staying just one metro stop away from Udelnaya. There is one of the fleamarkets of St. Peterburg. I plan to go to see if they have some stoves for sale there ...
