Thankfully, Henrik was prepared and gave us all rain gear for the boat ride to shore!
We traveled St. Petersburg directly from Finland via train. Interestingly enough, we had no issues crossing the boarder into Russia. I was prepared though. I had my little piece of paper in hand that explained (in Russian!) my purpose in the country as well as the reason my invitation only list Moscow as the singular destination. Thank you Spoonde!
In the afternoon, we arrived at the train station to this....
Калінінградская вобласць з'яўляецца анклавам, і асноўная тэрыторыя Расіі пачынаецца ўсходней, пад 27°17’ у.д., на мяжы Расіі з Эстоніяй, на беразе ракі Педэдзе. Такім чынам, працягласць тэрыторыі Расіі з поўначы на поўдзень перавышае 4 тыс. км, з захаду на ўсход — набліжаецца да 10 тыс. км. Агульная працягласць межаў Расіі — 60 933 км
.....well not exactly but I think you all get the picture. (Yes, Claudio, I know you can decipher a bit of this and yes, it is the wikipedia entry for Russia in Russian. :) Thanks.)
Russian has a completely different alphabet structure. So all of those times in France and Spain when you can deduce the meaning of a word based on a Latin root become completely irrelevant.
Fortunately, Claudio picked up on the language pretty quickly. He was able to find cafes and read menus. Which in our group are two very important skills. Sven, with Claudio's help, was then able to navigate the subway, which enabled us to reach our hostel and ultimately travel around the city! :)
On our second day in St. Petersburg we had the best luck possible. This fabulous little website called Couchsurfing sent us a welcome gift in the form of Dasha Safronova. She is a native of St. Petersburg and speaks German and English sublimely. She gave us one of the best and most comprehensive tours of a city I have ever had. She told us that due to all the water ways in the city, St. Petersburg was known throughout Europe as the Venice of the North. Pretty cool, huh? We ate traditional Russian food and went with her to watch Zenit FC beat some random team from Moscow. She spent 10 hours with us, culminating in a Russian dance party at a local bar! Now that is a way to get to know a city!
Some pictures of the city, the people and the events that transpired:
** Monna and I in front of the Hermitage Museum
** Dasha and Sven at the bar where we watched the football game
* Monna and I on the dance floor in the bar that evening. Dark? I know. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment