Muse back!
July 23, 2008 / Wednesday
Wow, Look At That Ship I Can't Visit
My big event of the morning was a bust.
I had decided to visit the Cruiser Aurora today. I like big military vessels, and I figured it'd be kind of neat to compare a Russian ship to an American one (Jeremiah O'Brien) that I saw just before I left. I hopped on the subway, did my first Green to Blue line transfer, and got off at Gorkovskaya. I found that today I can read station signs to find my way without slowing down. Huzzah!
Stopped to take a few pictures of the St. Petersburg Mosque, near the station. When it was built, it was the largest mosque in all of Europe. After having been used for storage for a good number of years, it's back to being active now. Thus, I didn't go in. I didn't actually know if I was allowed to, but I figured it'd be disrespectful to walk into an active house of worship and take pictures like a tourist. Oh wait, I *am* a tourist. But not a disrespectful one.
I headed toward the water, and as I neared the Aurora I saw lots of Naval Academy exercises going on. When I reached the Aurora, I saw more naval exercises aboard the ship. Unfortunately, this meant that the ship was closed to visitors. I waited for a while to see if they might finish up and open, but it was not to be. Sigh. I guess I'll have to come back.
On my way back to the subway station, I heard the noon cannons fire from the Peter and Paul Fortress. The guide book was right; they are LOUD! I'm going to try to visit there later this week.
Hopped on the subway for another couple stops to the station near the office. I'd remembered seeing a Mexican place just down the street from the station, and I figured I'd go try to find it so I could blog about Russian burritos. I walked for a good long while and still didn't see the strip of restaurants I'd expected. It seemed close when we passed by in the car. Walking is so slow.
Back to the station I went, where I browsed a bunch of street vendors for something that might suffice for lunch. I ended up buying a couple of savory looking pastry things for 36 rubles (~$1.50) from an old lady with a cart. I'm learning that with a few simple phrases and some numbers, it's not too hard to buy food on the street. Sure, my company is paying for my meals and I could be living it up, but I'd much rather see what the locals eat around here.
The pastry thing turned out to be pork and cabbage (of course, cabbage). It tasted fairly decent. A couple folks from the office came by and we went to lunch, where I had more non-leafy Russian salad and what I'm told was a fairly traditional soup. All quite enjoyable.
And now, an afternoon of work. Tonight, perhaps I'll go on a blini adventure. Let's hope it goes better than my attempt to see the Aurora!
July 23, 2008 02:17 AM | St. Petersburg
Comments
I hope you find russian mexican food. I had a taco salad in the Netherlands. It was...weird. Much closer to Malaysian food...
Posted by: Scully at July 25, 2008 02:53 PM
I've found it, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet! I wanted to in the evenings, but I was so pooped from walking all day and worked that I've just been cooking at the apartment.
Posted by: Viv at July 25, 2008 10:00 PM