Trips :: St. Petersburg
July 30, 2008 / Wednesday
St. Petersburg Pictures!
I finally culled, processed, tagged, annotated, uploaded, and geolocated all my pictures from the trip. You can find the full set here.
There are 337 pictures and videos, which I don't expect you to flip your way through. Here's a list of some of the larger subsets, by tag.
- Hermitage Museum
- Petrodvorets
- St. Isaac's Cathedral
- Kazan Cathedral
- Catherine Palace
- Pavlovsk Palace
- Church of Our Savior On Spilled Blood
- St. Petersburg Mosque
- Summer Garden
- Cruiser Aurora
- Navy Day Preparations
- Peter and Paul Fortress
- Russian Museum
I've also updated posts from the trip to link to relevant pictures. Schwew!
11:19 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (1)
July 28, 2008 / Monday
The Numbers
1 week of not being able to eat very much due to jetlag plus lingering altitude sickness
1 week of walking several miles a day while schlepping a heavy backpack
2 weeks of muscle loss from not doing any real exercise
4 pounds lost
Four pounds lost is not a good thing. I'm pretty sure that was mostly useful weight. Bah.
I really need to get back into hockey and mountain biking shape. I want to just jump back into it, but really, what I need to do right now is stretch. So today, stretch and eat. Tomorrow, more stretching and eating, and maybe some weight training. I'm itching to get back on dirt, but perhaps I should start off with something less hilly on the road bike.
Must fight nap. Must go stretch. Fight nap. Go stretch. Nap. Stretch. Zzz...
05:32 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
LED -> FRA -> SFO
Saturday night, I could not sleep. I was not one bit tired. My body was just buzzing with night before a big trip energy. (Yup, I was quite ready to go home.) I haven't really felt that since I was a kid; I remember I used to lie awake until the wee hours on nights before ski trips.
So, instead of sleeping, I picked up my phone every half hour to check the time. Between phone checks, my mind raced with all the non-English interactions I've had with various people while out and about these last two weeks. I could remember all of them in great detail. I guess it really was a great effort for me to try to communicate in Russian.
I'd set my alarm for 3:30 AM. I checked the time at 3:00, then at 3:10, and one last time at 3:20. Enough of this waste of rest. I got up, showered, ate, packed up the final few pieces, and met the driver downstairs a little after 4:00.
St. Petersburg Does Not Sleep
I was surprised to see a decent number of cars and pedestrians out and about at 4:15 AM. There were a good number of restaurants open, most of them with people inside. St. Petersburg at that hour is about as busy as San Francisco at 10:30 PM. How sad, San Francisco.
Pulkovo Airport
Pulkovo Airport, land of lines. I walked in, stood in a security line, got frisked, and proceeded to stand in a long check-in line. While in the long check-in line, I noticed that the airport is home to quite a few mosquitoes, some of them scarily large. I also noticed a lot of people getting their bags heavy duty saran wrapped. What's up with that?
There was a woman there with a money belt on... outside of all her clothing. Valuables protection fail!
I checked in and went to go wait in the passport control line. After that, another security line to get into the boarding area, which involved more scanning and frisking. The boarding area had less room than we had people, and there was much standing until we all stood in yet another long line to board the flight.
Picked up a USA Today on my way to the plane (Lufthansa provides a really nice assortment of international newspapers) and smiled when I stepped into the cabin. Home, soon! Yay!
We pushed off from the gate before our scheduled departure time. That's a first for me.
Hallo, Frankfurt!
Rolled into Frankfurt, stopped somewhere far from the terminal, and waited a while for the buses to come pick us up. The cabin smelled like body odor. That's one thing I'm not going to miss. Deodorant may not be natural, but it's great when you're in a small space with lots of people.
I'm not fond of this whole bus to and from the terminal thing at Frankfurt. German civil engineering fail. I'm surprised. Germans are supposed to engineer good stuff!
I remembered that there was a security checkpoint between terminals, and that they had ultra sensitive metal detectors. Getting through the checkpoint was a big pain on the trip out, so this time I emptied my pockets, took my mostly non-metallic watch off (to my surprise, it tripped the metal detector last time), and made it through beep-free. The security guy looked surprised and pleased that they could actually let someone through without frisking them.
I found myself wandering around Terminal A while waiting for my flight this time. It's much nicer than Terminal B (which was a dump, IMO), but has fewer food options. Good thing I'd eaten on the plane prior to my arrival.
I saw my first grossly overweight person in two weeks, a lady at the gate for the flight to San Francisco. She complained loudly in her American accent that she could not stand in the (five person long) line at the gate counter. Yup, it was starting to feel like home already.
They cleared out the boarding area to do passport and boarding pass pre-checks. I stood in a giant line, then had to stand in another line because I was coming in from Russia. One more line later, they scanned my passport and let me through. I wonder what that was all about.
When it was time to board, they announced that boarding would be by seat row, but because there was no one to check boarding passes (that had already been done), 90% of the passengers got up and pushed their way onto the plane. Awesome.
The Flight Home
The first thing I noticed once I settled on the plane: this Lufthansa 747 was outfitted with Recaro seats. It's a performance flying machine! The other thing I noticed were little cupholder things you could flip down instead of the entire tray table. Brilliant.
On my flight out, I had a seat with a wall in front. This time, I had a seat with a wall in back. I could still recline my seat, and there was no one behind me to bump or kick or otherwise disturb me. Nice.
They served us lunch. Beef stroganoff. That made me chuckle. It tasted tough, like leather gloves. Maybe it was!
Thanks to a guy who was nice enough to trade seats, I ended up sitting next to two girls who (1) could not sit still and (2) gabbed with each other the entire flight. I think I got up about 10 times during the flight to let them out. (And 10 more times to let them back in.) I always get an aisle seat because I drink a lot of water and need to get up a lot; before this flight, I'd never encountered anyone who's had to get up more than I do. Gee, thanks a lot, nice guy.
I finally gave in and bought an inflatable neck pillow. That was really nice. Hooray, happy neck! Well, except when I fell asleep and my head dropped forward. Still, better than a crick in the side of my neck.
A good number of hours into the flight, they showed a computer animated video of in-seat exercises we could do. The problem was, the video showed a single seat with lots of room on all sides. If we'd actually tried those moves in our seats, we'd have bumped our heads and smacked our neighbor's heads. Maybe I should have followed along so I'd have an excuse to smack my gabby neighbor's head.
They started playing cartoons after they ran out of movies, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers came on! It was the episode with the Boobie bird mom who needed to rescue her stolen baby Boobie egg. I love that one. So cute. :)
With about an hour to go, I started smiling. When I looked at the flight map and saw that we were over California, I started grinning. I should have been pretty tired at that point, but I was too excited to notice.
HelpAlliance
Toward the end of the flight, they showed us a video about HelpAlliance, a charity organization started by Lufthansa employees. They have little envelopes available on international flights to collect spare change left over in foreign currencies. I thought it was a brilliant idea, and promptly emptied my pockets into an envelope. Too bad it was rubles and not euros, but still, it was something.
The flight attendant was excited to get an envelope from me. That made me sad, because it meant that other people weren't donating also. Come on, people, it's spare change in a currency you no longer need. It'll just take up room in your house. You could be vaccinating kids, providing them with blankets. All for almost no effort.
Right after I handed the envelope over, I realized that I should have saved some rubles for Aaron. I'd saved myself a set, but had forgotten that he collects coins too. (Sort of, we both have a pile of coins in a little corner somewhere.) I felt bad, so I gave him my coins. I'll have to find an excuse to go back so I can get another set.
Hello, SFO!
As the plane turned north and descended for its final approach into San Francisco, the outside temperature dropped. I thought this was funny, because usually when you descend the temperature goes up, but then, that's San Francisco for you.
I'd been worried that I'd get home after all this travel just to have to stand in a bunch of lines, but there wasn't a single line anywhere. I walked right up to passport control and was through in less than a minute. After I picked up my bag, I zipped through customs with no wait either. Then it was up to the parking shuttle waiting area, where a long term parking bus pulled up as I arrived. There was no wait to pay for my ticket, and no wait to exit the parking lot. I guess I'd accumulated a goodly amount of queue karma at Pulkovo.
Home Sweet Home
The first thing I did when I got home was shower. Something about air travel makes me feel dirty. I found a parting mosquito bite on my left arm, number 48. I didn't break 50. I can't believe it. One final cheer for Mosquitall: Hooray!
Aaron came over, and we had lunch at Yiasoo, where I still can't manage to get a falafel salad. The last time I went, I ordered a falafel salad and got a steak salad. When I went to try to clear it up, the guy nodded and said, "salad". Um, okay. Yesterday, I ordered a falafel salad from a woman who I thought understood me, but then I got my dish and it was a falafel sandwich. WTF, Yiasoo? I give up on you.
Got home and fought sleep, but gave in to a half hour nap at 6:30. I dragged myself out of bed and made myself stay awake for another two hours, then gave up at 9 and slept for 12 hours. I could have slept more, but it's a workday. I think I'll give myself another 12 hours tonight.
12:09 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
July 27, 2008 / Sunday
St. Petersburg Wrap-Up
Some notes from my final day in St. Petersburg.
That Language Thing
Toward the end of last week, I learned how to ask how much something costs. That's great and all, except that I don't know Russian numbers beyond 6 (7 on a good day), so I could never understand the response. Fortunately, most vendors have either a calculator or a notepad and pen handy, so it wasn't too big a deal.
When I first arrived, I set myself a goal: to learn what all the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet sounded like before I left. I finally managed to do it with a couple days to go. All 33 letters. That made things a heck of a lot easier. I'm still puzzled by inflection, though.
Penguini
I brought Penguini all the way to Russia with me and forgot to take a picture of him! I realized this as I was packing on Saturday. Not to worry, I posed him with a photo magnet on top of my fake Soviet winter hat, so it looks like he's larger than life at the church of Tetris after a giant fuzzy snowstorm. I took the picture while I was still in St. Petersburg, so it counts, right?
PDAs
The younger generation here is not shy about showing their feelings for one another in public. I think about once or twice a day, I'll be walking down the street, and I'll see a young woman (half the time in stilettos, it seems) grab her man's face and attach hers to it for a good half minute while the rest of the world diverts their paths around them. We all just walk on by.
Matryoshkas
Aaron kept asking what I was going to buy him, and I kept telling him I was going to bring him a babushka. Not the Russian ladys who sit at the bottom of the Metro escalators to keep an eye on you, but those nesting dolls. Well, I somehow managed to visit and leave without buying a single set of nesting dolls. I didn't think that was allowed.
Mosquitoes
I survived the final few days without a single mosquito bite. I really wish I'd figured out the Mosquitall plug-in earlier!
Saturday, around 10:30, I went to take a picture of the clouds at sunset. I pulled aside the blinds and found a bunch of dead mosquitoes on the window sill. I guess they had headed for the window to try to escape, and died there trying. Serves 'em right! Ruthless bloodsuckers!
Hey, I've Heard This Before
Back before the giant upheaval that resulted in people being laid off and my having to drive an hour to work every day, I shared an office with a lady from the Ukraine. I haven't seen her since last year, but I was reminded of her several times when talking to people in Russia. There's a lady at the office who uses a certain kind of voice when she mimics people while telling stories. It's the exact voice that my former officemate used for the same thing. And at the restaurant yesterday, when the server couldn't think of how to say something in English, she made this funny spoken sound with her tongue. I'd heard that before too, in the same context. So those sounds are regional, not individual. Neat.
More Awesome REI Pants
Remember how I bought special convertible hiking pants from REI for the Whitney trip and loved them? Well, I bought special traveling pants there for this trip and loved them also. They're comfy, water resistant, breathable, block the sun (so says the UPF 50+ tag), and have enough secure pockets to hold everything I need: passport, money, camera, phone, notes, etc. They also roll up to capri length, but St. Petersburg wasn't hot enough to warrant rolling.
And Last, But Certainly Not Least
A couple hours after our tour on Saturday, Sergey returned with his dog. I'd heard a lot about her, and it was nice to get to meet her. She's very well behaved and quite gentle, and doesn't need a leash even in such an urban area. Pretty amazing. Imagine walking your dog in your urban city of choice, amidst all the hustle and bustle, without a leash.
I met Sergey downstairs and he took me to a nearby candy store, where he helped me buy a couple bags of random Russian candies: one bag of chocolatey items and one bag of caramel and fruit-based items. Eating them will be a flavor adventure, unless I eat them with a Russian dictionary by my side.
Sergey bought a bag of candies also, and his dog carried them home in her mouth. Now that's discipline! If it were me, I'd have gulped them down immediately. She carries bread home for him, too; I imagine she must be pretty careful with her teeth to be able to do that. Amazing again!
To continue with the amazingness, Sergey gave me a parting gift that had me saying wow every few minutes for a good long while: a fragment of pottery from the 5th century B.C.. (I believe I heard that right, although the shock of it all might have jarred my brain by a century or two.) It has a symbol for good luck on it, intact, which I'm told is fairly rare. If you ask me, an artifact from 2,500 years ago is quite rare to begin with. This, to me, is priceless.
And, um, wow.
And then, they were off. What an extraordinary man. I feel lucky to have met him, and to have learned so much from him these last two weeks. Perhaps I'll get to see him again if I return. Perhaps if one of you go to St. Petersburg someday and want to hear the stories behind all the magnificent structures and pieces before you, you'll get to meet him too. Here's his card. You can tell him I sent you. :)
03:49 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
July 26, 2008 / Saturday
I Finally Found Some Pelmeni
Tonight was my last chance to eat some pelmeni (пельмени) before leaving Russia. I had no idea where to go, but I figured since I was in Russia I should be able to just walk in a straight line and find some. So I started walking up my street. I purposely walked away from the busy area because I was sick of the whole tourist atmosphere. I read every menu I could find posted, and after a few blocks, I found one with pelmeni on it.
I walked in, and asked (in Russian) if they had an English menu. Nope. Not a big deal. I confirmed that they had pelmeni and got a table.
I looked at the menu for a good long while, trying to figure out exactly what kind of pelmeni I was about to have. I never quite succeeded because I didn't find the food dictionary part of my Russian phrasebook until after I ordered. My server came, and I asked if she spoke English. She did... about as much as I spoke Russian. :) That's okay, we made it work. She tried really hard to think of the right words, and even though she didn't always succeed, I appreciated the effort. Plus, she was smiley and nice, which was a really refreshing contrast from the demeanor of most people I've encountered here. (It's a culture thing, methinks.)
I ordered pelmeni, cold borsh (борщ), mors, and water. I figured I might as well have a really Russian final dinner here. (Well, except for the water, but I have to have my water!)
As I waited for my food, I heard loud singing coming in from the next room. A rowdy Russian party? When they stopped, I noticed the music playing in the restaurant: outdated (or bad, depending on your point of view) American songs. What's with restaurants that don't have anything in English playing songs in English? Then I looked up at the TV. Jackie Chan was on. Awesome. Later, Sinead came on the radio with the hiccup song. Awesome++.
The borsh arrived. It was red. Really red. Beet red. Literally! It came with a side of sour cream, the universal Russian condiment. I stirred some in and had some soup. It was brothy, with strips of beet, ham, and cucumber. There were slices of egg, and it was sprinkled with dill. (I think I'll add dill to the list of things Russians like. Dill, mushrooms, sour cream, etc.) It was definitely not what I had expected, but it was tasty nonetheless. With the sour cream mixed in, the soup turned hot pink. Is that the color of my intestines now?
ZOMG, will it exit that color too???
Next came the pelmeni. They were little! And served with a side of sour cream, of course. The pelmeni looked like fat baby tortellini and were sprinkled with dill also. I'm not sure what kind of meat was inside, but I'd guess it was some sort of beef and pork combo. Not bad. They were surprisingly filling for something so little!
I was getting pretty full, but I still hadn't had real ice cream yet (the pre-packaged stuff from the carts don't count), so I asked (in Russian, as I've finally learned the word for ice cream: мороженое) if they had any. And they did! I got a scoop each of chocolate, strawberry, and green tea. I'm not generally a fan of green tea, but I was so surprised to see it at a Russian restaurant that I had to get it.
My ice cream came. The scoops here are considerably smaller than the ones in the US. That's definitely a good thing. I tasted the green tea. What on earth was that? It did not taste like any green tea ice cream I've had. Next, the strawberry. It tasted (and looked) artificial. Finally, the chocolate. Mmm, rich and dark. I saved the chocolate scoop for last.
I paid my bill, and when the server came back with the change, I did my best to say in Russian that she was very kind, and thank her. I think she understood, because her face lit up and she thanked me in English. I left her a big tip and headed back to the apartment.
So there you have it. I found pelmeni and managed to get fed with my ten (okay, a few more than that, but not by much) words of Russian. Tomorrow, home! I'm looking forward to not having to eat dinner by myself, and to hearing American English (the Al Jazeera English channel just doesn't cut it) again. :)
09:26 AM | Food:St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
This Place Really Comes Alive With Stories Behind Everything
Today, my last full day in St. Petersburg, brought me a final outing with Sergey for this trip.
Transfiguration Cathedral
We met at 10 and started with a visit to the Transfiguration Cathedral, close to where I'm staying. They were holding service when we arrived, and so I got to experience more beautiful singing. Sergey explained some of the icons at the church, and why there were so many of them. I looked curiously at a line of people on one side of the church, and he explained that they were there for confession with the priest at the front, as there is no confession box in Russian Orthodox churches.
As with all the other cathedrals I've visited, this one was beautiful. And, as with all the other active cathedrals I visited, I took no pictures. You'll just have to take my word that it was shiny and grand on the inside.
Joseph Brodsky
Next, we passed by an apartment where the poet Joseph Brodsky once lived. In the 1960's, he was declared a parasite of society for being unemployed (as a poet can't really prove his profession) and sent into exile. Later, he was allowed to leave (or more like kicked out of) the country, and he went to the US. A number of years later, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Woops! Maybe they shouldn't have expelled him after all.
St. Petersburg's First Building
I can't believe I didn't take a picture of this!
Several blocks from the Peter and Paul Fortress is a modest one story structure, made of wood. (It's painted to look like brick, ha!) This was the first building that Peter the Great had built, when he decided to build a city here. It was barely tall enough for Peter himself, as it is a small building and he was a tall man. I really wish I'd taken a picture of this; what a contrast between this building and the grand palaces we've been seeing on this trip!
To make up for not taking a picture, here is a page with a picture, and here is a closeup of the fake brick paint.
After walking past it for the good part of a week, I finally got to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress. It's basically a little island with a wall around it, and while it was built to be a defendable fortress in a strategic location for St. Petersburg, it was never used for that purpose. It was later used to hold political prisoners, though.
Some neat facts about this place. The city's first wooden bridge brings you onto the island, and there is an active mint for coins and medals here. The spire of the cathedral here used to be the highest structure in the city... until they built a TV antenna. Now it's the second highest. D'oh.
We went inside the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and I discovered that it was the resting place for the royal family. All those czars and emperors I'd heard about these last two weeks, their remains could be found here. (Well, except for ones who got murdered and then didn't get found, but they're working on that.) Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Paul I, Alexander II, all of them, here. I totally hadn't expected that.
Coat of Arms
I've been seeing double headed birds all over the place, and when I saw one over a gate at the Fortress I asked Sergey what it was. It's the Russian coat of arms. It originated in the 15th century after the marriage of Ivan III to a Byzantine princess. Under Communist rule, it was replaced by the hammer and sickle, but it returned (with slightly different details, but still with two heads) after the fall of the USSR. Sergey finished by saying, "Do you know what we call it now? Chernobyl chicken." LOL!
We finished the tour with a visit to the Russian Museum, which, as the name implies, is home to lots and lots of Russian art. The museum is housed in the Mikhailovsky Palace and started with just over 400 pieces of art, and now houses over 400,000 pieces. Sergey used to work here, and he knows quite a bit about pretty much everything in this place. I heard many stories about specific artists, and also about specific pieces. It's much more than I can recount here, but perhaps when I post pictures of these pieces I will include some of those stores in the description.
At a more general level, it was a really great lesson on how Russian art has grown over the centuries. We started off with 14th century works, mostly paintings done as icons for churches. Back in those days, the art was simple, and the artist did not really matter; he was simply a tool for God to use to create these icons as channels of communication for worshipers. Later, as the paintings became more complex, the artists themselves started recognizing themselves as people of standing and value also. As we progressed through the centuries, some of the paintings were just downright amazing. I hadn't originally planned to come here, but it turned out to be quite a good visit.
Lacquer Boxes
We stopped by a souvenir shop on the way back. This was a nice shop, and they had much better items than those found with vendors on the street. They had an entire section of lacquer boxes, each painstakingly crafted by hand. The detail and quality of these boxes was amazing. So were their price tags; some of them cost several thousand dollars. Yikes.
What's Next?
Next, I pack up and hop on the plane first thing tomorrow morning. I have a short list of things I want to do the next time I come back: visit the Aurora, the Artillery Museum (I didn't know this existed until today), and the Ethnography Museum (the name is misleading; it's something of a collection of curiosities). I'm sure there are more items for the list, but that's what I have to start with for next time. If there is a next time. And if not, well, I've had one heck of a trip.
[ Update: Also need to visit the Kresty Prison Museum. They give tours! ]
04:08 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
July 25, 2008 / Friday
Are They Speedy 'Cause They're Well Fed?
My inability to kill the mosquitoes here really hurts my pride. Currently in the kitchen there are two mosquitoes on the wall, one giant one on the ceiling, one on the window, two in the curtains, at least a couple flying around, and I can't kill a single one.
I guess I should just be glad that they're in the kitchen (I left the window open but the door shut) and not the bedroom.
12:08 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
Friday Night In St. Petersburg
Last Friday night, I was occupied with tour and dinner with boss and big boss. This week, however, I am free to wander on my own. And what do I see? People walking around swilling beer from bottles noticeably larger than the ones we have in the US. I went to the store downstairs for some juice just now and over half the customers in the store were crowded around the booze counter. They like to drink here, yes they do.
I, on the other hand, had a pre-packaged pineapple coconut cone from one of the very many ice cream carts around town. It tasted artificial and wasn't creamy enough. I think I'm spoiled by Zambeedo, Häagen-Dazs, Mitchell's, etc. That, and I miss mango. Ooh, guess what I'm having for dinner when I get back? :)
10:19 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
I May Be On To Something Here
I just made the fluffiest scrambled eggs ever. (Ever for me, not ever for everyone.) I didn't do anything different from what I usually do, so what made them so magically light? I used brown eggs with deep orange yolks and 2.5% milk. Should I be scrambling with darker eggs and fattier milk from now on? If that's the case, I'm using heavy cream for my next batch!
09:56 AM | Food:St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
I Haven't Been Telling You Everything
Even with all the blogging I've been doing, I have a whole set of notes on things I haven't written about yet. This is going to be a looong post.
Mosquito Saga
Slept like a rock last night. Now that I've figured out the Mosquitall, I've been keeping it loaded around the clock. I put a new one in right before I went to bed. No buzz all night, I had my arms and legs out from under the covers left and right, and I haven't found any new bites yet this morning. :)
I did find three on my right wrist yesterday afternoon. That brings the count to 47. I'm currently avoiding the kitchen, since I opened the window when I cooked. I found a couple mosquitoes hanging out on the wall in there last night. I tried to smack them, but as usual they escaped. I approach the closed door with trepidation when I need to go in for something.
That said, I think I managed to grab a yogurt from the fridge just now without being bitten. Mango pineapple, yum.
The Office
Today will be my last day at the office. I've tried hard to make my team feel more comfortable with me. I'd heard that they were nervous about my visit, but things have been going pretty well. I brought them chocolate covered cherries from CJ Olsen. I figured it'd be a nice gesture to bring them something from so close to where I live.
Working with the folks here has gotten easier. The developer I work with most doesn't speak much English, but he can read without too much trouble. We went from needing an interpreter the first couple days to being able to work on our own with spoken keywords from me, notepad for longer ideas, and just showing what I'm trying to explain on the computer. This week, he spoke a full sentence to me in English. He'd been fairly quiet (in person and over e-mail) up until then; I nearly fell out of my seat.
Other folks at the office whom I don't work much with have made various impressions on me too. On the first day, my boss introduced me to a good number of folks. I met one of them at his desk, and when I looked down and saw his mousepad I almost laughed out loud. It had a picture of a girl on it, and a two-bump gel wrist rest depicting a pair of boobies. Then there was the guy who sat across from me at dinner. We got to talking, and it turns out he drives a red MkIV Golf. :) At that same dinner, I got to play with a cell phone belonging to the guy sitting next to me. It's a sleek little Motorola with touch screen, and it runs Linux. (I think we have something similar here, but it's not sleek. The US is a sucky place for gadget lovers.) There are also folks who ride their bicycles to work every day. I was talking to one of them, and I asked how he rode in the winter. The answer? Studded mountain bike tires. Hardcore!
The building where the office resides is kind of a pain for visitors. It's single-use card key controlled. There's a cafeteria downstairs, but it's outside of the card key area. So, if I want to go eat, I need to find someone at the office to go with me. Not very convenient. Speaking of the cafeteria, when I left around 8 last night, there was a full on dance party going in there. I guess they rent it out for events, too.
The Metro
A few things I've noticed: The stations are grand, and the trains run frequently and on time. Every time I descend (and descend, and descend) into a station, I wonder how they could have built something so large and so deep. At some of the stations, the platform is separated from the tracks by a thick wall. When the trains pull in, they line up the big metal doors and both sets open for people to pass through. The stations have clocks at the end of the platforms, and at some stations there are timers that count exactly how many seconds have passed since the last train. For the times that I've looked, the wait has been between 1.5 and 2.5 minutes. Waaay better than BART's schedule.
Here's the thing that really gets me. Cell phones work perfectly in their deep deep system. The last time I was on BART, my phone *still* did not work. I thought the Bay Area was supposed to be all technologically advanced and stuff? Guess not.
The tunnels that bring riders to and from the platform from street level have anywhere from 3 to 4 parallel escalators. Escalators are turned on and off, or their directions reversed, to accommodate flow. At the transfer station I use, a short tunnel runs four parallel escalators from one platform to another, and a separate tunnel allows transfers in the other direction. Despite the crowds, it all seems to work pretty efficiently.
Motorcycle Safety
In general, the people on scooters here don't wear much gear (and some of them don't bother with general vehicular traffic rules), but the sportbike riders tend to be better about it... except for the guy I saw yesterday riding around with his helmet on his tank instead of his head. The light changed before I had a chance to take a picture.
The Crazy Intersection Near My Apartment
My apartment is located on Utilisa Vosstaniya, one block away from Vosstaniya Square (Uprising Square), where Vosstaniya meets Nevsky Prospekt and also a big rotary (roundabout, traffic circle, etc.). Traffic there is crazy enough with just cars, but the hoards of pedestrians make it even more interesting. The red light for crossing Nevsky is long, and people get impatient. Decent sized chunks of the crowd will try to dash across several times per light cycle during the wait, and what usually happens is that cars will come barreling in with horns blaring and people will end up stranded on this pavement in the middle of the intersection between a couple of solid white lines. It's kind of amusing to watch, but I've taken to walking a different route from the Metro station back to the apartment. I try to avoid massive crowds whenever I can.
Speaking Russian
At first, I thought that Russian was by far the most difficult language I've tried to learn. That's only because I've been spoiled by the Latin alphabets of French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Cyrillic was a hurdle at first, but now that I can figure out the sounds, I'm finding that there are a lot of words that exist in both English and Russian. So, figuring out the meaning of what's around me is easier now. I'm still having a heck of a time with proper inflection, though; it's a total mystery to me. That, and the letter 'o' confuses me. Sometimes it's pronounced 'o', sometimes pronounced like an 'a'. I have no idea what determines which way I should pronounce it.
Fuzzy Dead Animal Wear
Furs (меха, pronounced "mekha", where the "kh" is more of a hissing sound than a hard sound) are available all over the place here. Every couple blocks, I'll see a fur shop. I wonder if it's due more to the fact that this is a tourist area, or that it gets really freakin' cold here in the winter. I think at some point Sergey asked about Greenpeace, and said something about how they should come to St. Petersburg. I don't know whether he meant that they should come save the animals, or experience the cold for themselves so they could see the usefulness of furs in a cold Russian winter. The second thought made me laugh.
Backpacks
Backpacks are useful, but not stylish, and people tend to go for style over utility here. Thus, there aren't many backpacks out on the street, and when you do see one, it's usually on a foreigner (like myself). Speaking of style over utility, there are a heck of a lot of stiletto wearers here, and the tiny little point at the end of a four inch stick they call a heel doesn't seem to bother them much. I see them in the Metro, even. How do they not get their heel stuck in the escalators?
While we're on the topic of backpacks, I've long been bothered by the fact that my backpack shoulder straps aren't pulled to equal lengths when I try to balance the pack. I've had this problem on every pack I've had. Yesterday, while strolling through the Summer Garden, I had an epiphany. It's not the pack, it's me. My right shoulder is slightly lower than my left. Duh.
IKEA
In my Russian phrasebook, there's a translation for something like, "How do I get to IKEA?" I thought it was a joke, but as I read the labels on the furniture at my apartment I realized that they really do have IKEAs here. It's a little Russian palace of Swedish picture guide self-assembly.
Receipt Ripping
Every receipt I've gotten so far here has been ripped before being handed to me. I found this to be a little curious (and inconvenient for doing expenses, as if reading Russian and converting currencies wasn't going to be hard enough), so I asked the great internet what it was all about. Looks like it's a holdover from the days of Soviet Russia (I finally found a way to sneak that term into a post!), when people paid first, then brought their receipt to get the goods. The receipt was then torn to indicate that the goods had been received.
Caviar
I have not had any caviar since I came here, and I don't really intend to. (Especially not in a blin.) I did, however, see an older Russian couple having a picnic lunch by the water. They opened a can of red roe and spread it on a slice of bread. Ah, so people DO eat caviar here! Just not always the really good stuff.
Produce
I can buy fruits and vegetables at the store like we do in the US, or I can buy fruits (and some vegetables) at a fruit stand on the street, or I can buy certain items from old ladies (generally) in random places with high foot traffic. This includes mushrooms, which I'm told Russians like to gather in the forest. There's a guy at the Metro station near the office who sells mushrooms in the evenings. I wonder if he picks them himself?
Superstitions
Big boss likes to whistle. (And hum. And sing. I guess he likes music?) He does it indoors sometimes, which is a big no-no in Russia. They say it will make you poor. I guess it's similar to shaking your leg while seated in China. That'll make you poor also, as you're shaking all your wealth away.
You're also not supposed to shake hands over a threshold here. I don't *think* I've accidentally done that. I suppose if I tried, someone would have refused, or moved us away from the threshold before doing so. Hrm, don't remember.
I'm sure there are plenty more, but that's all I've encountered so far.
Speaking of superstitions, I almost forgot a key Chinese one and was about to buy someone a Fabergé egg with a clock in it. Good thing I remembered before I paid!
Starbucks
I was reading something about their new Vivanno frosty things and thinking about how I should try one when I get back to the US. That's when I realized that I haven't seen a Starbucks since I left. The big chain here is Coffee House (Кофе Хауз). They're everywhere; sometimes I'll see one, walk a block, and see another. They serve coffee, wine, pastries, desserts, ice cream... way more variety than a Starbucks.
Still, it's weird not seeing a Starbucks for so long.
02:58 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (6)
St. Petersburg From Above
My trip into work this morning took me back to St. Isaac's Cathedral, where I went up to the Colonnade to see the city from above. I walked alllll the way down Nevsky Prospekt, bought my ticket, and walked up the 200+ step circular stone staircase.
The view, it was nice. But St. Petersburg doesn't have much of a skyline, so it wasn't much to wow at. It was neat, though, seeing all the buildings in the city. The from-above analog to all the scaffolding seen at street level are the giant cranes in every direction. Lots of construction, yes there is.
I wasn't anywhere near a Metro station from St. Isaac's, so I decided to walk along the Neva toward Gorkovskaya station. It's another long walk, but it ended up being pretty cool because there were 5 Navy ships anchored just off the shore. I took lots of pictures. I was a little confused by the flags they flew, as I didn't see the Russian flag on any of the ships, but the internet tells me they were flying the Russian Navy Jack up front and the Russian naval ensign in the back.
At noon, the cannon at Peter and Paul Fortress went off. I think it's pointed across the Neva toward where I was at the time. It was, by far, the loudest I've heard it all week. Made my ears ring a little. Made some tourists scream. That was kind of funny.
As I neared the bridge toward Gorkovskaya, one of the ships started to fire its cannon. (I guess it was a cannon? It boomed.) I was close by for the first few shots, and they were loud, and rumbled like thunder. I watched the last few shots from the bridge, and I could see the ship fire a couple seconds before hearing the boom. There were 20 shots in all. Not sure what that was all about, but it was neat.
[ Update: I was talking to someone at the office just now and found out that Navy Day is this coming Sunday. Too bad I will have just left. The internet tells me there will be music everywhere, a submarine, and access to board and visit the ships. Darnit darnit darnit! ]
[ Update to update: Darnit darnit! ]
I was quite hungry by the time I got to the other end of the bridge. I had originally planned to check out Petrogradskaya, but I wanted to be at the office soon and I needed food and liquid. I came across a babushka with a food cart. I read the menu: Пирожки. "Pee-ro-sh-k-eee." Ah! Piroshki! There were two kinds, and I had no idea what the difference was, so I just shrugged and repeated one of the words the babushka said. I think I got potato. Potato piroshki and Powerade. :)
Afterward, I wondered what the difference was between a piroshki and a pierogi. Wikipedia says they pretty much refer to the same thing, except that a Russian piroshki is much different from a Polish pierogi. The "Russian pierogi" picture on that page is a pretty accurate depiction of what I got, except that mine didn't have meat.
Now, to find pelmeni!
02:25 AM | Food:St. Petersburg| Comments (3)
July 24, 2008 / Thursday
Maybe I Should Just Talk To Myself
I turned the TV on just now to a guy ringing a bell and then yelling something in Italian. There are phone numbers and credit card signs displayed on the screen, along with his name: Shamir. I think he's some sort of magical soothsayer man. On satellite TV.
Darn, all the on screen tuner menus are in Russian.
I was looking for CNN or some other American station so I could feel a little like I was home, but all I could find was Obama's speech in Berlin on France 24. Good enough!
If I spoke Arabic, Italian, or wanted TV sex, this satellite box would be perfect for me. I've come across two stations with American accents (not counting Obama's speech, which is over now) so far: GOD TV and The Word Network. Nonstop evangelical preaching. It's kind of soothing. The accent, that is. Even if it is black American English, and not the Ohio non-accent.
How many TV stations are there in the world? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I have 500+ channels of not much more than what I described above.
Okay, now I'm watching some weird cartoon with Hitler. It's in German with subtitles in a language I can't recognize. I'm grokking bits of it from the German. Hitler's watching a green ogre man compete in a poop hurling contest.
And now there are tiny space aliens walking around earth with "Hello" signs trying to meet humans.
And now cartoon Hitler is back. Okay, time to turn the TV off.
Oh look, if I turn just the satellite box off I can watch local TV. That would have been nice a few days ago, but right now I'm pretty Russian'ed out. These channels taunt me; they show American programs completely dubbed over in Russian. Sigh.
I think I'll go to bed early tonight.
10:30 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (1)
Summer Garden, And That Ship I'm Not Going To Get To Visit
This morning, I decided to pay a visit to the Summer Garden. I threw on my comfy red shoes, strapped my backpack on nice and snug around my waist (hooray for a thick waist band; with the laptop and all my pack here is heavier than the one I carried up Whitney) and headed out.
I'm learning to take side streets here now. They're still pretty busy, but much more pleasant than the main drag.
I got to the Summer Garden and walked down the center path toward the statues. When I reached the statues, I found that the entire area had been taped off. What is up, St. Petersburg? Why do you like to close tourist attractions in the middle of tourist season?
I headed for a parallel path, which, fortunately, was also lined with statues. I took pictures as I made up silly captions for the various figures and poses. I hope I remember them when I post the pictures next week.
[ Update: I remembered them. :-) ]
When I reached the other end, I swung by the Summer Palace, in the corner of the garden (it's more like a park) along the Fontanka River. Unlike all the other palaces we've seen, which have been giant, the Summer Palace is the size of a house.
In all the Summer Garden was quite pleasant. The tree cover was very nice, as it's warm and sunny out today.
Back into the sun I went, for my second try at seeing the Cruiser Aurora. I noticed as I crossed the Neva that there were a lot of large Russian navy vessels in the river, four in all. As I got closer to the Aurora I saw groups of sailors everywhere, in various types of uniforms. I wonder what's going on here right now? I held out hope that perhaps they'd be busy with the other ships and not the Aurora, but when I arrived at the ship I found it was not to be. The Aurora was closed yet again. I guess I'm not going to get to see it on this trip.
Headed for the office and stopped for lunch at the outdoor Teremok stand (it's a round thing you walk up to) near the Metro station. I managed to order without too much trouble, except that I knew only how to say juice, and was handed an apple juice even though I wanted orange juice. A "please" (пожалуйста) and a bit of pointing fixed that. "Orange" (or probably some juicy adjective derived from orange) is a difficult word in Russian; I can sound out the letters but it's so long that until I learn to say it naturally, it's hard to read and pronounce to a server. Here, you try: апельсиновый.
Okay, I just made myself learn it: a-pel-sin-o-veey. Short 'o' not long 'o', I think.
The gentleman in line behind me tried to talk to me while we were at the stand-as-you-eat table by the stand. (The table has little hooks underneath for hanging your bag. Neat.) I pretty naturally managed to say, "I'm sorry, I don't understand Russian. Do you speak English?" He didn't, but he tried to ask me something along the lines of whether I liked my blin. (I heard some word in what he said that I've heard before, and from context I'm starting to gather that it means something along the lines of liking something.) I gave a nod, a smile, and a thumbs up. My mushroom and cheese blin was quite tasty. I'm still not going to try it with fish roe, but at least now I've tried a savory blin here in Russia.
When I left, the gentleman mustered a very well enunciated "goodbye". I reciprocated with what I hope was a well enunciated "dasvidanya" (до свидания).
02:32 AM | Food:St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
July 23, 2008 / Wednesday
Mosquitall Is King!
I took a look at the plug-in mosquito repellent device last night and realized that the "cartridge" I'd put in was spent. I'd looked at it a few times during the week, but for some reason I kept thinking that the cartridge would disappear on its own, and since I saw something in there, I didn't change it. Last night's inspection revealed that it had changed from yellow to white. Woops.
I put a new cartridge in and plugged the device into the socket about a foot away from my pillow. A couple hours later, I went to sleep. At first, I was antsy. I kept expecting to get buzzed and dive bombed. But then, nothing. My mind wandered and soon I was asleep.
I slept soundly the entire night. Not a single buzz. Toward morning, I woke up and heard a buzz a few feet away (but still not really close). I checked the cartridge, and it was over half spent. Ah, I see. I'll have to remember to put a new one in before I go to bed tonight.
I have three new bites on my right leg and foot. I think I stuck my leg out from under the covers last night. No biggie.
As I was falling asleep last night, I thought, you know, I wouldn't mind mosquitoes so much if their bites didn't itch. And if they didn't buzz in my ear. And if they didn't carry diseases in some parts of the world. Hrm, okay, maybe they really should die.
Bite count: 44.
10:02 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
Band-Aids and Blini
Now that I'm doing the solo-sightseeing Metro thing, I've been doing a lot of walking. I really hadn't planned on this much walking, and brought only one pair of walk-friendly shoes. Those shoes, however, are bright red, and I thought perhaps I shouldn't wear them to the office. Since I've been visiting sites on my way there, I've been doing a lot of walking in my sandals. Today, I wore a little hole in my foot from the sandal strap. Ouch.
I remembered that there was a drugstore (аптека, they're everywhere, and you can figure out what they are by the square cross on the sign) on the way from the office to the subway station, so I decided to see if I could pick up some Band-Aids there. This drugstore, however, was a dinky little shop, and the only way to get something was to ask the woman behind the little hole in the product display wall.
I didn't see any Band-Aids (or plastic bandages, now that I remember the generic term for them) on display, so I was going to have to make this work without anything to point at.
I opened with my usual question. "Excuse me, do you speak English?" I'm getting really good at saying that in Russian now. The answer, as usual, was no. I asked in Russian if they had Band-Aids, and got a blank stare over the term "Band-Aids". So I resorted to charades. I peeled an imaginary Band-Aid and stuck it on my hand. She immediately returned with a box of plastic bandages. Score one for charades. :)
I hopped on the Metro and headed home. Next stop: Teremok. It's a fast food blini (блины) joint found all over the place here. They have both sit-down stores and little round huts out in the open. Check out their savory blini. Red roe blini? Caviar crepes! Aaron says I should try it, but given that I'm not a fan of savory crepes to begin with, I might make myself sick if I try to eat one stuffed with fish roe.
I was in a sweets mood, so I ordered a chocolate banana blin (singular of blini). See how the banana is cut up into nice little chunks in the picture? They don't serve it that way in real life. I got a whole banana covered in chocolate and wrapped in what can be pretty accurately described as a crepe shell. Interesting visual, eh? It tasted pretty much like a crepe.
I also had some mors (морс), which I've had quite a bit of since arriving here. It's a common cranberry-based juice drink. I much prefer it to kvas (квас), another common drink made from fermented bread. Sergey and my boss had kvas everywhere we went; I think it tastes like beer without the buzz. Beer, blech!
10:42 AM | Food:St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
Sunny St. Petersburg
I'm told that in St. Petersburg, it's more often rainy in the summer than clear, so I just wanted to document the fact that I really lucked out with my final few days here. Check out the forecast:
I hope it's accurate. And no, it's not the forecast for St. Petersburg, FL. That one looks like this:
Bwahahahaha.
08:08 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
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!
02:17 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
July 22, 2008 / Tuesday
Mosquito Wars
Last night was so ridiculous it's almost comical.
The mosquitoes know that I want them dead, and they're taking it personally.
Before going to bed last night, I saw a mosquito hanging out on the wall and tried to kill it. I missed. They're fast. I decided to hunt it down and try to kill it, as I didn't want it buzzing by my head in the middle of the night. Over the next 20 minutes, I found it, whacked at it, missed, repeat, repeat, repeat. And then, imagine my surprise when I looked up at the ceiling (which is way too high for me to reach) to find TWO mosquitoes.
I tried for another 15 minutes to kill them both. Again, they proved too speedy and stealthy to successfully track and kill. Finally, I gave up, turned off the lights, threw a towel over my head, and tried to sleep.
Almost immediately, they went into attack mode. They buzzed and dive bombed my head in unison, over and over and over. I knew they couldn't get to me, but the buzzing was so loud (in stereo!) that I couldn't sleep. I turned the light on and tried to kill them for another 5 minutes. It was getting late. I fetched my earplugs, put them in, threw the towel over my head again, and went to sleep.
I knew they were there. I could hear them just a wee bit through the earplugs, but it was quiet enough that I could sleep. They tried the entire night to bite me. Today, I have four really tiny bites on my neck and shoulder. It's hard not to fidget a little during the night, and that's where blanket meets towel. They pounce the moment anything is exposed; I mindlessly left my hand out for just a moment and almost immediately felt a mosquito land on it.
New total: 41.
I woke up this morning to peace and quiet. They go into hiding when there's light. I'm thinking maybe tonight I'll try to sleep with the light on. Will it help? We'll find out.
09:54 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
Russian Sushi
I was debating between picking up some food at the store and being a hermit or venturing out to a restaurant, and honestly, I have to say that I was leaning toward the former. But since I'm not going to be here forever, I figured I might as well go on as many (manageable) adventures as I can. Besides, I promised all of you that I'd find out about Russian Sushi and report back. That gave me the extra bump that I needed to get out there and try it.
I have found three sushi places within one block of my apartment. I passed on the trendy looking one; I don't like trendy places unless it's for a special occasion. (Think Santana Row. Gag!) That left the place I pass by on my way to and from the Metro, which I always see people in, and the place on the corner that I passed by this morning before it opened. I opted for the one I'd seen people eating in.
First, a Russian lesson. The word for sushi in Russian is суши. It's pronounced "sushi". :)
I grabbed my umbrella and Russian phrasebook and headed for the restaurant. I walked in, was greeted, and asked in Russian if they had an English menu. They did not. I paused, then asked if their menu had pictures. (фото?) Yes. Okay then, sushi me! I got the last table.
I spent a few minutes sounding out all the familiar looking fish on the menu. Whaddaya know, they serve sake, hamachi, maguro, ebi, saba, unagi, etc. here too, just written differently. Very differently. But in the end, no matter what language it's written in, the sounds come out about the same. Genmaicha was the same, too.
The server came, and I asked if he spoke English. No, not a word. No matter. I ordered some nigiri (you can get them in ones here, not pairs like we have to in the US), some tea, and some water. At the office today, I compared bottles of water and learned how they distinguish between carbonated and still: gaz, nye gaz. Easy enough.
I realized shortly after ordering that I had forgotten to tell them I didn't want wasabi on my sushi. Darn. I even knew how to say it. Fortunately, their norm is not to put wasabi in the nigiri. (As it should be; a lot of sushi places in the US get it totally wrong.) Phew.
I took tons of notes (for this post) while I waited for my food. I noticed that they have a website, and figured out from my placemat that they're a chain. Now, here's the screwy thing. There is an English version of the website available, but no English menus at the restaurant. How silly.
The music was interesting. They had on some Russian radio station that played what I thought were obscure American songs. Later, some British rap came on, so I guess it's a Russian radio station playing British songs. In any case, English songs in a place where there was not a lick of English to be found otherwise.
I was sitting cross-legged on my (Western style, not Japanese style) bench. I like to sit cross-legged, and do it at home, at the office, etc., so I wasn't doing it for the Japanese theme or anything. Still, I wonder if anyone there though I was doing it out of Japanese-ness. I definitely get some "Whoa, an Asian person," stares here.
When I ran out of notes to take, I opened my Russian phrasebook to learn how to ask for the check later. I took that opportunity to also learn how to say receipt and ice cream. I promptly forgot how to say all three after I got back to the apartment. Still, I love my little Lonely Planet Russian phrasebook. I'm sooo glad I stumbled upon it at Sports Basement. (I guess I should also be glad that I practically live at Sports Basement.) Not all the phrases are exactly what I hear, but I attribute that to colloquial usage. So far, it's been a big help.
My food came, and I found myself looking at a very familar setup: sushi, tea, water, soy sauce, and chopsticks. It was comforting, actually, especially the genmaicha.
When I started in on the food, however, I stopped feeling comforted. The hamachi tasted kind of hard and rubbery. What the heck? Was this even hamachi? It should be soft and creamy! At least the sake was soft, although it was a little *too* soft, and not very creamy. The unagi was softer than expected, too, but at least it had decent (though not great) flavor. The rice and seaweed salad were okay, although it's kind of hard to mess those up.
I suspect their fish is frozen at some point before it's served. Or maybe it's on par with chain restaurant quality. I wouldn't know; I don't go to sushi chain restaurants.
Maybe I'm just spoiled by all the good sushi in California. All I know is, I'm done with Russian sushi for the rest of this trip. I've got much more Russian things I need to hunt down and try. Blini and pelmeni, here I come!
10:27 AM | Food:St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
This morning, I walked from the apartment to the Church of Our Savior On Spilled Blood. It's not BIG like the other churches I've been to, but I was drawn to it by its Tetris-like exterior. I took some pictures outside, bought a ticket (in Russian!), and went in.
The interior did not dazzle me as much as those of St. Isaac's and Kazan, but it is notable in that it's one of the largest church mosaics in the world. Pretty much every surface that wasn't a window was part of the mosaic. I took a few pictures as I dodged a photo sticker checking babushka.
A couple historical facts about this church: It was built on top of the site where Alexander II was assassinated (I told you, assassinations abound!) as a memorial to him. It was heavily damaged in World War II (there was even an unexploded shell lodged in its main dome), and was under scaffolding for over three decades before being reopened in 1997. It's pretty amazing, how much restoration has been done in this city since that war.
Afterward, I did a little souvenir shopping. At one of the shops, I tried to communicate with the shopkeeper, but my Russian was too poor and their English was too. Finally, they said, "Parlez-vous Français?" "Un peu," I replied. A little, yes, but enough to conduct the transaction. I honestly did not think that I would be speaking any French on this trip. German, yes, at Frankfurt airport, but French in Russia? Too funny.
Took the subway to office, where I am now. It helped a LOT to be able to read Cyrillic. I really don't think I'd be sitting here right now if I couldn't. Words are coming more naturally to me now; I can sound things out a lot faster than I could just a couple days ago.
To follow up on yesterday's longest escalator ride of my life, I timed the ride from the tunnel back to the surface at чёрная Речка (Chyornaya Rechka) station: 2 minutes, 53 seconds. Schwew!
02:05 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (5)
July 21, 2008 / Monday
Stupid Skeeters!
I got buzzed and dive bombed by a really persistent (and really BIG, like everything else here) mosquito all freakin' night. I don't know how many times I smacked at my head when it landed on me, but I missed every single time. I think it was just taunting me. It wasn't until early morning that I got hot and figured out that I could use the lighter sheet and pull it over my head. I still heard it buzzing, but since I knew it couldn't get to me, I slept soundly. I wish I'd thought of that earlier.
Yawwwn.
Four more bites, three on my elbows and one on my foot, for a total of 37. I kept telling myself not to stick my limbs out from under the blanket, but I do it in my sleep when I start to get too warm.
10:15 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
Holy Cow, They Understood Me!
Boss and big boss left town this afternoon. That leaves me here, all by my lonesome.
I decided last week that once they left, I would start taking the subway to and from work. It would give me more independence and flexibility in my schedule, and besides, I wanted to see what the Metro looked like anyhow. It's the deepest subway system in the world, partly to get below the soggy soil and partly so its stations could double as bomb shelters.
When I told the folks at the office, they seemed worried. They wanted me to stick with a driver in the morning and to take a taxi home in the evening. I insisted, and so they found someone at the office who was headed my way after work to go with me. That was really nice of them, and Alexei definitely helped make my first subway experience go a lot smoother.
I did buy my tokens on my own, though. (Alexei kindly offered to help, but I told him I wanted to try it myself because I needed to learn.) Granted, all I really had to say was "Five, please," in Russian, but still, there was a chance that she wouldn't understand me! It actually all went quite smoothly.
Next came the escalator ride down. This was, by far, the longest. escalator. ride. of. my. life. I swear, this thing was so long that I couldn't see the end. Next time I take it, I'm timing it.
The Metro: Deep? YES. Foreigner friendly? No. It's hustling and bustling and almost all in Russian. It's cheap, though (17 rubles per token, less than one dollar), and the trains come quite frequently. A much better deal than BART. It's faster and much better decorated, to boot. Too bad I'm not allowed to take pictures; I'm tempted to try, but I really don't want to get in trouble with teh law.
Tomorrow, I do this in the other direction, on my own.
When it was time for dinner, I decided to cook, as I was tired of eating out. I bought some dried tortellini from the store downstairs, and then walked down half a block to an old lady on the street selling home grown vegetables. Through a combination of pointing and short phrases, I got a big bag of tomatoes and some garlic. One week ago, I wouldn't have dared try to communicate with someone that I knew for sure didn't speak English. Progress!
I had a bit of an amusing moment while preparing the tortellini. There were many languages on the bag, and while searching for the English section I simply started reading whatever I could naturally understand. After getting the information I needed, I took another look and realized that I'd just read the French section. Hah! That'll do. Nice to see that I'm getting to use a variety of languages on this trip.
Cooking dinner was really pleasant. It made me feel normal. Originally, I had lamented the fact that I didn't get to stay at a hotel in the middle of everything, but now I'm glad to have an apartment with a kitchen. Plus, it's not really that far out of the way; I'm one subway stop away from "everything", one block from the station, and only 20 minutes away by foot.
Mosquito bite++ on my back. That brings the tally to 33.
11:32 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
Palaces In The Rain
I wisened up on Sunday and took an Aleve for my back before embarking on our tour. The weather had reverted to the St. Petersburg norm: rain. Fortunately, the schedule called for visits to a couple palaces, which involved van transport and mostly indoor tours.
I met Sergey and the van downstairs at 10 and we headed for the town of Pushkin (now re-renamed to Czar's Village), home to Catherine Palace. Catherine, as in Catherine the Great. Like many buildings, palaces, and churches here, most of this was destroyed by the Germans in World War II, but it was painstakingly reconstructed. As with the Hermitage, I was surprised to see art from all corners of the world represented. I was dazzled and amazed, and was saddened by all the historical photos of the destroyed palace after the Germans set fire to it. Even before they did that, they mistreated the magnificent property; I'm told they rode motorcycles inside one of the grand golden ballrooms.
I could not imagine destroying something so beautiful. War or not.
I did learn, however, that many of the statues in the St. Petersburg area were buried in the ground during the war to protect them, and that this did indeed save many of them. Hooray for that.
Next, we headed for Pavlovsk to visit the palace of Paul, Catherine's son. Unlike Catherine Palace, with its overly grand baroque style, Pavlovsk's neoclassical style makes it grand in a much more subtle way. We're told that Paul did this on purpose because he hated his mother, and didn't want his residence to look anything like hers.
Pavlovsk was almost completely destroyed in World War II also. Again, I find this unfathomably sad. Splitting Germany in two after the war now does not seem so harsh. Well, except for all the people that were impacted. Getting separated from your family by a giant wall is pretty harsh.
One of the rooms in the palace was full of giant green columns. Surprisingly, the columns are completely for show, and are actually hollow and hung from the ceiling. They sure did LOOK sturdy.
My favorite painting in the palace was one of a cupid pointing an arrow out at the viewer. No matter where I stood, it looked as if the arrow was pointing at me. I walked left, I walked right, I ducked, I dodged, and still cupid was pointing that arrow in my direction. I made a video. I hope it comes out.
After so many tours, my brain was starting to suffer from overload. Sergey is amazing; he has stories not only about specific sites, but specific objects within those sites. If you ever find yourself in St. Petersburg and truly want to learn about the city and its history, you should try to see if he's free for a tour. He really makes the city come alive. Here's his card.
Puddles had formed from all the rain, and while it's nice to have water shoes in when it's wet because they dry quickly, they don't exactly keep your feet dry... especially when they have holes in the soles for drainage! My feet were pretty soaked by the time we left Pavlovsk, but it was warm out so it didn't matter. I rinsed off the shoes after I got back and they dried the next day.
Podvorye
After Pavlovsk, we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Podvorye, a large wooden cabin restaurant serving traditional Russian food. I'm particularly pleased with the fact that I can link you to its website because I had to decipher the English spelling of its name from a picture of its Russian name (Подворье) on the menu. See that bear with the vodka? We toasted with him. I wonder if Putin and other heads of state did too when they came here.
I had a traditional Russian fish soup with giant chunks of different kinds of fish in it, and we as a group shared a dish of several different meats. The real animal pelts on the wall made it all feel extra authentic. My boss went over to pet a few of them on our way out. :)
Rasputin's Grave
On our way back, we made a quick stop near a bunch of old ruined buildings, St. Theodore town. We slogged through mud and smacked at mosquitoes, but at the end we came to the site where Rasputin was buried before his body was dug up and burned. A decade ago, I knew the name only as the record store I went to when I didn't feel like going to math class, and here I found myself standing at the man's former grave. Imagine that.
Russian Brown Bread
Got back to the apartment nice and early, around 7, if I remember correctly. Sergey had told me about a certain brown bread that's eaten here, and how one of his American friends wishes he could get it in the US. I didn't know which brown loaf he meant, so he went with me to the bakery downstairs from the apartment and helped me get half a loaf. It's pretty good, and tastes hearty. I think I'll go have a slice now...
09:24 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
July 20, 2008 / Sunday
I've Been Taking Notes
Day seven of my stay here in St. Petersburg. Really, though, it's more like day six, since I arrived in the evening on Monday. Anyhow, I'm about halfway through my visit. This is the first time I've been in a place where it's hard for me to communicate, and boy is it tiring. This may be the first time I've found myself missing home. Usually, I think nothing of being away, as I figure I'll get back to it all when I return, but being by myself in a place so foreign just wears me out.
Next week will be the big test. Boss and big boss go home Monday afternoon, and I'm on my own for the rest of the week. I've decided to forgo a driver from Tuesday on and take the Metro to work. It'll give me more flexibility in my schedule, and more freedom to explore. I'm a little apprehensive about it, but I'm sure it'll be fine once I figure it out.
I've been taking notes since my last post on various things about this place. Here's an update.
The mosquitoes continue to sneak up on me at night. I discovered three more on Saturday night, two more on Sunday morning, and three more on Sunday afternoon. One of them is on the giant scar I have on my knee. A mosquito bite on a scar? Totally weird. Weird like the two I have on my nose. The running total is something like 24.
[ Update: Three more on my shoulders and back, plus another four on my right leg. Total is now 31. Actually, I think it's 32 because I didn't include my other nose bite. Will I have over 60 by the time I leave next Sunday? Maybe I should just stop counting; it's getting hard to keep track. Oh, but counting, it's what I do. ]
The other night, I woke up in the middle of the night with no blanket on me. I was sure I'd wake up covered in mosquito bites. And then I didn't. Or did I? Maybe I did after all.
Later that night, I was kept awake by a loud buzzing sound that would approach my head and then buzz away. It kept me awake because I thought it was a mosquito, but in retrospect, it buzzed too loud to be one. I definitely heard a mosquito trying to eat me last night, though, and after its third attempted landing, I finally got it. It only took about five whacks on my head.
I finally figured out how to adjust the water in the shower so that it doesn't make the hot water heater turn on and off and the water temperature go up and down. I almost boiled myself alive only once before figuring this out, too.
I also finally figured out how to use the washer in the kitchen. I sat for a really long time the other night trying to sound out all the words on the front, and only "synthetic" and "delicate" made sense. I realized today that one of them must say "cotton", so I looked it up, matched the letters, and washed some clothes.
This morning (that would be Sunday morning), I went to the store for some milk and cereal. I had considered going to the cafe instead, but if I'm staying here for two weeks I should try to eat food that's good for me. I haven't had a chance to look at all the brands, but I saw 1.8%, 2.5%, 3.5%, and 5% milk. Are the percentages used by a country picked arbitrarily? The milk here tastes sweeter. I think it's pasteurized at a higher temperature than the milk back in the US.
The yogurt and ice cream, however, taste less sweet. Or maybe my taste buds are screwed up. I picked up a mango and pineapple yogurt today; looking forward to trying it. I also saw mango Fanta, which is intriguing, but since I only like creamy mango things I decided to pass. Speaking of Fanta, orange Fanta is available everywhere.
I really like all the 24 hour shops they have here. People are out at all hours of the night. It's kind of neat to be someplace that doesn't ever totally shut down.
I don't ever want to drive here, though. There are mean-looking traffic police all over the place, but drivers seem not to care much about rules if there isn't one in sight. Lanes appear out of nowhere when someone decides they want to pass. And just because a street is one way, don't forget to look both ways before crossing!
Today, I saw a guy riding a scooter with no helmet, talking on a cell phone, in the rain.
I see a decent number of bicyclists here, and given how the drivers behave, I think they're brave. There are also a decent number of people on rollerblades, and they're somehow able to navigate patches of cobblestoney pavement without falling on their face. I'm impressed.
Construction is everywhere, but it's all hidden behind scaffolding and facades. They like to cover the scaffolding with a print of what the building will look like when they're done. I think it's a waste of money, but somewhat amusing. I'm a tad bummed that a lot of this scaffolding is covering popular sites undergoing restoration, though. Parts of Kazan are covered, along with an entire face of the Winter Palace.
I can read more Cyrillic now than I could the last time I wrote about it. I only have the following letters left: Ё, Й, Ь, Ъ, and Э. (Two of those aren't really sounds on their own, which makes it a little harder.) Granted, that's when my brain's not tired. Sometimes it just wigs out and refuses to transliterate. There is one word that I could read without transliterating, though, even before I started to try to do it: ИНТЕРНЕТ. Internet. Go figure.
On Friday, I asked my boss to help me navigate a Russian ATM. I was all ready for an adventure, and then the thing spit English at me. What a letdown! Not that I want an ATM adventure now that boss is leaving town, but it was funny because neither of us had expected the ATM to be bilingual.
Saturday night, I turned on the TV in search of the culture channel, which Sergey had said would show this super cool clock from the Hermitage that had this whole scene with golden roosters and such flapping their wings and making sounds and what-not. We saw the clock, but they no longer run it. Anyhow, the first thing I saw on the screen was a couple girls in lingerie sitting there making silly faces with international phone numbers at the bottom. I pushed the up channel button. "Sexy-Arab TV" came on with more girls. I pushed the up channel button again. The screen filled with naked girl boobies. I get three "eurotic TV" channels and about five Arab sex channels. And that's all between channels 5-13! There were more as I continued to surf to the higher channels.
I *think* that my apartment here gets satellite channels for a really broad region that's not specific to Russia. I get only a few Russian channels, about as many as I do of English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, and any other languages I haven't yet identified. Really, though, I'd hoped for local Russian TV.
Two posts down, one to go. I'll finish catching up tomorrow.
10:42 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
They Build Things Big Here
Saturday brought us another outing with Sergey, this time by foot and hydrofoil. The weather was absolutely beautiful for it. Sergey lives only a few blocks from my apartment, so he met me downstairs at 10 and we headed off to meet up with my boss at the Hermitage. Along the way, we ran into one of his dog walking friends and got to talking about his dog. His current dog is his fourth, and each one has been a rescued stray. He got Dulci (short for Dulcinea) as a wee little puppy in really bad shape (fleas, fights, hair falling out) and she now walks all over the place with him and carries his stuff. Sounds cute! I hope to meet her later this week, if I happen to be at the apartment when they pass by on one of their walks. I also learned that he does professional photography, sometimes at archaeological digs, now that he no longer digs himself. Our guide gets more interesting every day.
Finally, after a pleasant walk that bypassed most of Nevsky Prospekt (that's a good thing, as it's the only street I really know and it's big and busy), we arrived at the Hermitage. There was a huge line on one side and a huge line on the other. Sergey, however, knows people, and we walked right to the front, where we met a lady who talked to a guard who promptly let us in. She walked off and returned quickly with tickets, and after a short stint in the security line we were good to go. Awesome!
The Hermitage (pronounced "her-mi-tij" here, not "her-mi-tahj" as I hear in the US) is big. No, I mean, BIG, as it's actually several large buildings interconnected. And it's beautifully decorated. They say that only 7-10% of its collection is displayed at any one time, and even if you were to spend only a minute in front of each piece, you'd have to be there for weeks to see everything. The variety was astounding. I had expected European art, but they have Egyptian and Oriental collections also. Since we didn't have several weeks, Sergey took us to the more notable pieces there.
We saw paintings galore, from more artists than I could keep track of, but I did write down names for the ones I could recognize: Monet, Cezanne, van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Degas, Renoir, da Vinci, Raphael, and Rembrandt. I was fascinated by the works of Monet (impressionism) and Signac (pointillism); it's crazy how those strokes and dots don't resemble anything up close. We heard about this painting by Raphael, and how they discovered the reason behind why she is holding her book so awkwardly when they peeled back the layers behind the painting: the original object in her hand was a pomegranate! We also got to see the Rembrandt that was damaged in an acid and knife attack back in 1985. It truly is an amazing piece. My favorite? Picasso. That stuff is screwed up.
The Hermitage was amazing, but that didn't keep my back from KILLING ME. Apparently, I don't do well when I have to stand or walk slowly. Walking at a normal pace is fine, but walking at crowded tourist pace and stopping all the time was not. I blame it on lack of exercise. I'm kind of bummed about that; I haven't been able to do anything since Whitney, and while I want to just jump back into being super active when I get home, that'll probably result in instant injury. Sigh.
Petrodvorets (Peterhof)
After the Hermitage, we met up with big boss and headed to Peterhof on a hydrofoil. Yes, that's right, a hydrofoil! Zip zip, zoom!
Peterhof, located on the Gulf of Finland, is home to some amazing palaces, fountains, and parks from the time of Peter the Great. Most amazing, however, are the fountains, which all run without the aid of a pump. Water is collected uphill and each day the fountains are turned on between 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM. There were even fountains with rotating features, also driven by gravity/water power. Tourists came for the sights, but there were a good number of locals there just to play in the water. Sergey says that Russia's first potato was planted here.
We took a hydrofoil back to St. Petersburg. This one, however, was super cushy. We had individual reclining/swiveling leather seats with tray tables, arranged so that groups of four could gather and talk around a center table. Yes, we travel in style.
Back in St. Petersburg, we paid a visit to St. Isaac's Cathedral. St. Isaac's Cathedral, HUGE. I just stood in the center of the church looking at everything in awe. I also figured out that the only way to document what I was seeing was to make a short video, as my panorama stitching program would surely crash trying to piece together all the pictures I'd have to take to capture everything.
They were holding mass while we were there in a corner of the church. It sounded absolutely beautiful. I wanted to make a video (mostly to capture the sound), but a lot of people really were there for mass, and it felt disrespectful to do so. So, no video for you. Sorry!
Tickets were also available to visit the colonnade, but both boss and big boss had been up there, so I passed. I'll do it next week, when I explore on my own.
Kazan Cathedral
Next, we walked to Kazan Cathedral. This one is still fully active, and doesn't cost any money to go inside. They were holding mass also. It didn't sound as upliftingly beautiful as St. Isaac's did, though; the service was dominated by deep chanting sounds that kind of creeped me out. People lit candles and kissed paintings. (Gross, everyone else kissed there too!) They didn't allow pictures, so I spent more time taking things in instead of trying to figure out what I needed to take pictures of. So many robes. So much ceremony. I settled a bit and just watched and listened. It was all very... moving. I guess I can understand this whole idea of religious experience. I attribute it all to chemicals in the body and brain, though, not to some supernatural being.
Feed Me, Please!
Good news: My stomach is back! Bad news: Needing to eat every three hours is really inconvenient when you're out and about. I was quite hungry before we even reached Kazan, and ravenous by the time we left. The first restaurant we tried had a nearly nonexistent non-smoking section (I had mentioned in an earlier post that they don't smoke much in restaurants. I was wrong.), so we went to a place a few blocks away that served pie. It was 8:30 by the time we got there, and since they close at 9:00, all they had left was cabbage pie. (Russians like cabbage almost as much as mushrooms.) Okay, then, cabbage pie me! I inhaled the pie, walked with boss and big boss back to their hotel, then headed back to the apartment.
I got back before 10. This was the earliest night I've had all week, and boy was I glad! I went to sleep well before midnight. Huzzah!
08:29 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
July 18, 2008 / Friday
Neva Tour!
Same boat, same guide, but we spent most of our time out on the Neva today, so I'll give it a different title. The big boss was in town today, and since he'd never been on a boat here, we all went out on a boat again. Got more interesting history and stories on a different set of buildings, since we spent only a nominal amount of time on the Neva on Wednesday. Some of the stuff I'd heard before from the previous days, but it's so much information it doesn't hurt to hear it twice. For example, I forgot to mention that the Stroganoff Palace (which is pink, by the way), was built on top of a graveyard. Or was it a cemetery? On top of human bones, how's that?
As with last time, the boat dropped us off at our restaurant. That's one cool thing about a city with so many rivers and canals: you can use boats to get places. That said, I don't think that water taxis are very common there. We just happened to have our private tours arranged that way.
Tonight, at the big boss's request, another Georgian restaurant, Bagrationi. This one was nicer than the last one, and they delivered us a huge feast. I counted 9 appetizer courses plus bread, followed by a giant platter of kabob meats and some potatoes. All super tasty, and I managed to pace myself and not feel ill by the end of dinner.
Speaking of ill, my stomach is not ill anymore. It feels great, and is back to constantly wanting food. Welcome back, stomach! :-D
I wanted to write about how many bridges St. Petersburg has, but I really have no idea. Our guide says 432, some websites say 539, and Wikipedia says 342. Or maybe I heard wrong and our guide said 342 also. In any case, it suffices to say that there are a LOT of bridges here.
In news unrelated to sightseeing and dinner, I found three more mosquito bites on the back of my left arm today. The count is now at 16.
And of course, I just got back from dinner and it's already 1:00 AM. Goodnight, everyone!
01:30 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
Van Tour!
Thursday evening brought us another visit with Sergey, the guide from the boat tour who knows everything about the history of the city. The company sent a van to pick us up, then meet Sergey and pick him up. We went from palace to statue to church to palace to statue to... well, you get the idea. I took pictures (I'll post them later) while Sergey told us stories about the people and history behind the various sites we visited.
As we walked by Stroganoff Palace, we heard about how Beef Stroganoff was born. Granted, there are various versions of the story, but this one was particularly captivating. I don't remember it word for word, but I'll try to capture the gist of it here.
One evening, Count Stroganoff was hosting a bunch of other rich guests, and they were each claiming that they had the best chef. Stroganoff stated that his was definitely the best, and that he could prove it. A bet was made. He called for his chef, and told him that he had bet that he was the best chef in the world. "Of course," said the chef. "Cook us something to prove it," the count replied. "What have you got?" "I have only these gloves." And with that, the count handed the chef his gloves.
They chatted and ate, and after a few hours, Count Stroganoff called for the chef again. "Do you remember my bet?" "Yes." "When will we see the dish?" "You've already had it." The chef had managed to serve a pair of leather gloves without anyone noticing.
As the story goes, he did this by slicing the glove leather into very thin slices. And today, that is the secret to good Stroganoff: thinly sliced beef.
There are other stories about how the dish came to be, but this sure was a good one!
We also heard more stories about assassinations and assassination attempts. We saw where Tchaikovsky delivered his final symphony before succumbing to cholera, and the apartment where Dostoevsky lived when he died. Lots of death, eh? That's history for you.
We didn't end up going to dinner until around 10, and by then I was starving. I'd been reading every sign I could the entire evening with increasing success, right up until my brain started running out of fuel. Transliteration stopped, and Cyrillic became completely incomprehensible to me. I guess I really am focusing hard to learn all these letters!
Dinner was at trendy Terrassa, in the heart of Nevsky Prospekt. It's located at the top of Ginza Project, a posh shopping center, and offers a mostly-from-above view of Kazan Cathedral next door. They serve various types of cuisine, and even have Asian cooks to match the dim sum and sushi sections of the menu. I had chicken schnitzel, along with a super tasty goat cheese and pear salad. Dessert was mango-passion fruit mousse. Really, it felt and tasted like going to a trendy restaurant back in California. Well, except that there was a professional photographer and cigarette girls roaming around.
Speaking of cigarettes, I'm finding that a lot of restaurants here have cigarettes and cigars on their menus. The Demidoff menu actually had pagefuls of cigar pictures. Oh, and of course, almost everybody smokes. Fortunately, they tend to go outside to do it, so I haven't been inhaling too much of the stuff since my arrival here.
Got back to the apartment after midnight again. At least we got to start an hour later the next morning. Oh, sweet sleep.
04:54 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
July 17, 2008 / Thursday
Good News, I Haven't Fallen Into A Hole In The Ground Yet!
Day three of my stay here in St. Petersburg. I'm learning a lot about the city. First, let me address a few things I read about the city before I arrived. I mentioned them in my Mt. Whitney post.
Tap water - My first day here, I boiled the water before drinking it. They have handy little super fast electric boiler teapot things, which made it super easy. Even so, water at the apartment tastes kind of funny. Aaron was right; you can't fix the taste with heat. I've been drinking bottled water ever since. I did ask my boss if the water was drinkable here, and she said, "Sure, I've been drinking it." Then, after a pause, she said, "But I drank the tap water in Egypt, too." Brave woman.
Mosquitoes - It's not anywhere near bad enough to need 98% DEET, but I definitely have a small army of mosquitoes at the apartment. I caught a few of the stupid ones when I first arrived, but the rest are smart and stealthy. I'd hoped that I could deny them food and they'd die off, but I'm losing the battle and they're feasting on me at night. I think they're ganging up on me. Last night, I spent half an hour smacking at a buzzing sound near my head (this involves smacking my head, which all the other stealthy mosquitoes are probably watching and laughing at), and when I got up I found three adjacent mosquito bites on my hip. Wasn't that under the blanket? I am confused. In any case, I also have a bump on my nose today that looks like a pimple but doesn't behave like one. I suspect it's a mosquito bite. Score another one for them.
[ Update: I just noticed I have two bites on my stomach and four on my back. How did it get under the blanket? I am totally confused. Mosquito bite count now at 11: 1 on each arm, 3 on my hip, 2 front, 4 back. Phoo. ]
[ Update to update: Survived Thursday night without any new bites. I spent my time on the computer out in the living room, then went into the bedroom and shut the door. I hope that'll do the trick. ]
[ Update to update to update: I spoke too soon. They got me on my hands Thursday night. One left, one right. Phoo. ]
Random uncovered holes in the ground - I've been looking, but still haven't found any holes to fall into, and it's not for a lack of walking. I did come across a weird little cover thing that had a one inch wide hole (for drainage?), but it was pretty obvious that I wasn't going to fall through it into the depths of the city. Sorry, people who asked for pictures from above and below.
[ Update: I found some non-random uncovered holes in the ground a few days later. ]
Another thing I'd read about (but didn't mention here previously) was that the city goes through month-long spells of no hot water (it's municipally controlled). The good news for me is my apartment has its own hot water heater next to the bathtub. It's a little hard to control, but better than nothing. As for the hot water shutdown, it's true, although it's by neighborhood, not the entire city. One of the folks at the office said they just lost theirs this week. If they're lucky, it'll be back in three weeks. If not, they'll have to wait two months.
One thing I hadn't read about is the fact that deodorant use is not as prevalent here as it is back home. My temporary office is the large conference room, and today they needed it for a seminar. I hung around during the seminar, and was soon feeling ill from the smell of body odor. No one else seemed bothered. I guess they're used to it.
Finally, I'm making progress on reading Cyrillic. It has a lot more letters than we have in English, and the letters that look like English letters often map to a different English letter. Confusing? Yes. But I started with some easy words (СТОП - STOP, КАФЕ - CAFE), recognized those letters, and used those to piece together slightly longer words with one or two new letters (РЕСТОРАН - RESTAURANT, БИСТРО - BISTRO). I'm learning several letters a day now, and today figured out КАППУЧИНО - CAPPUCCINO and РУССКИЙ МУЗЕЙ - RUSSIAN MUSEUM. My goal is to be able to pronounce anything by the time I leave. The difficult letters with no English letter mappings are left: Ж, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, etc.
The jet lag has subsided a bit. I still get sleepy in the afternoon, but at least it's tolerable. I'm not so tired that I can't eat, and I'm able to sleep soundly at night as long as the mosquitoes aren't dive bombing my head. A vast improvement over day one. :)
01:43 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
Boat Tour!
After work on Wednesday, we went on a private boat tour down the various rivers and canals of St. Petersburg. It was just me, my boss, and a "bodyguard" (they always send someone from the office) on a boat with a captain and an English-speaking tour guide.
We motored out toward the Neva, passing by Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and Winter Palace almost right away. Out on the Neva, we went by a giant fountain (in the river) and Peter and Paul Fortress. After that, smaller rivers and canals. Our tour guide knew so much about every single building. We passed by Stravinsky's birthplace (next to Mariinsky Theater, where his father was a singer), one of Tchaikovsky's apartments, Pushkin's old workplace before he became a great poet. There was Dostoevsky's neighborhood, where you can still match buildings and features with those of Raskolnikov's in Crime and Punishment. There was also the big yellow building where Rasputin was killed, killed, and killed again (he refused to die) before he was stuffed into the frozen river to be killed for good. Speaking of killing, there's lots of that in St. Petersburg history. A czar killing here, a czar killing there, a duel to the death over there, wives killing husbands, children killing parents, etc. Really interesting stuff.
After the tour, we had dinner at a Georgian restaurant called Kavkaz Bar. (That's Georgia the country, not the state, just like I'm in St. Petersburg, Russia, not Florida.) There were differently flavorful dishes (less heavy) from everything I'd had thus far, and while I still couldn't put too much of a dent in them, I felt a lot better than I did at dinner the night before. I even had a bit of room in my dessert stomach, and we polished off three different desserts before leaving.
Again, we walked about a mile to my apartment in twilight. The streets were bustling, and the sushi bar half a block from my apartment was packed. I was shocked when I got in and realized it was after midnight. I love the endless light, but it seriously messes with my internal clock. As if that wasn't messed up enough over here already!
06:13 AM | St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
July 15, 2008 / Tuesday
Russian Food O'Rama
My stomach was definitely not ready for a Russian food fest on Tuesday, but it got one anyway. I don't think I managed to finish anything, but I did try a little of everything.
Lunch at the cafeteria downstairs from the office.
Fish meatballs - I don't want to call them fishballs because they were the size of modest American meatballs, not little fishballs like you find at Chinese restaurants for hot pot. They were pretty good. Soft and flavorful.
Buckwheat - I actually got rice as my side, but I was told that buckwheat was the Russian staple, so I tried some. It's good, and good for you. I chuckled to myself a bit that the Russians got buckwheat and I got rice. What can I say? When I'm not feeling well I want rice. It's comfort food for me. ^.^
Veggie salad mix things - "Salad" here has no lettuce. It's more along the lines of prepared stuff like what we have in terms of potato salad, or pasta salad. Except that it's veggies. Cucumber, mushroom, bell pepper, cabbage, maybe? Sour and kind of creamy.
Marinated mushrooms - Various kinds I'd never seen before. I was told that Russians really like mushrooms and they will go into the forest to pick them. They're all marinated a bit differently, but the theme was sour and salted.
Dried fruit compote - This was my beverage. They take dried fruit and boil it. It's sweet and fruity, but not like juice.
Dinner at Restaurant Demidoff.
Russian food and singing gypsies. This place felt a little touristy, especially when the giant Japanese group came in.
No matter, it didn't change the fact that the restaurant was full of food I've never had before. They started with bread, but not regular sourdough and French bread like we get in the states. There was a cabbage-filled puff pastry, a cheesy looking roll, and some other roll that tasted onion-plus-somethingey.
Next, the appetizers: Potato pancake with sour cream, dill, and caviar. Creamy shrimp thing. Meat jelly. And, of course, mushrooms.
After the appetizers, an additional dish that was like super thick cream of mushroom soup with a French onion soup-like layer of cheese on top. It was so rich (and my stomach was so unhappy) that I could only have a couple spoonfuls.
I was pretty full by then, but we still had our main courses. I had ordered quail, hoping that it would be light and meatless enough for me to put a dent into, but it came in yet another rich creamy sauce and I was able to eat only half of one of the two birds. I did eat the veggie garnish that came with it, though.
I also had kvas to drink. It was described to me as "Russian root beer". It looked like uncarbonated cola and tasted like a combination of beer, root beer, and fermented bread. Interesting.
I think I would have eaten a lot more of my hearty dinner if my stomach was feeling okay. I felt bad for leaving so much food uneaten.
After dinner, we walked back to my apartment, about half a mile away. It was still light out when we arrived, and I was surprised when I looked at the clock and saw that it was well after 11 PM. Hooray, super-Northern city summer!
• • •
So what do I think of Russian food after day one?
- It's heavy. Lots of cream and flavor.
- Mushrooms. Lots of mushrooms.
- Fish. Lots of fish.
I went to the store across the street (the one that doesn't take credit cards) after dinner and was surprised to learn that they charge for plastic bags. In retrospect, it's not really that surprising. Perhaps we should start doing that in the U.S. to encourage people to reuse their bags.
I returned to the apartment with water, juice, fruit, and yogurt. As much as I like trying new foods, I do enjoy some amount of food normalcy in my day. I'm looking forward to juice and yogurt tomorrow morning.
12:59 PM | Food:St. Petersburg| Comments (0)
July 14, 2008 / Monday
I Sure Hope This Gets Easier
Rough night.
Went to bed around 10:00 PM (Monday night in St. Petersburg), but had trouble sleeping. At first I kept waking up to the sound of a bug (mosquito?!) buzzing, but after smacking at it a couple times I plugged some mosquito fighting thing in the wall and the buzzing stopped. Then there was an out of nowhere violent thunderstorm that had people (tourists, I reckon) screaming and running for shelter outside. After that, hunger. I got up around midnight and made myself eat a bit before going back to bed. I was so tired, I was shaking. My arms felt weak and the muscles were burning a bit.
I woke up every hour for the rest of the night. (Dead tired, but unable to sleep. Is that jetlag?) I used those opportunities to sip Powerade, as I figured I needed the calories. I finally got up at 7:30.
I needed food, so around 8:30 I went to the mini-mart across the street to see if they accepted credit cards. I'd forgotten my phrasebook, so we engaged in a series of "I don't understand"-style back and forths. Amusingly, the thing I understood the most was when the lady at the store said "I don't understand" in Russian.
Finally, I determined that they didn't accept credit cards, so I headed for the bank across the street. It was closed. It had an ATM, but it was broken. So I walked toward the tourist area. Soon, I saw signs for several 24 hour currency exchange places. Oh, but the signs, they lie. None of them were open yet.
Returned to the apartment and made myself eat more snacks. I needed food but wasn't hungry. I'm so sick of that feeling.
Did a little work, packed up, and headed downstairs for my ride to the office.
11:18 PM | St. Petersburg| Comments (2)
SFO -> FRA -> LED
Woke up and had a tasty pancake breakfast with Aaron. He did all the cooking and cleaning up and helped me clear the fridge of perishables while I got ready to leave. It made for a very pleasant morning, right up until I had to say goodbye to him. Two weeks is a long time! Waah.
Got to the airport on schedule and found my way to the Lufthansa ticket counter. There was no one in line. Hooray! Unfortunately, even though it was a codeshare flight, I was told I needed to check in with United. I made my way over there and found a giant line. No matter, I had planned a check-in wait into my schedule anyhow. A lot of the other people in line, however, hadn't, and as their departure time approached they were expedited to the front of the line so they wouldn't miss their flight.
Let me pause here and scream.
People. Travelers. You are adults. Why are you unable to arrive at the airport for an international flight on time? And why does the airline tolerate this? They not only tolerate it, they actually reward it by shortening the wait for people who show up late. If I ruled the world, those people would be either sleeping at the airport or swimming to freakin' London. I hope their luggage is waterproof.
Next up: Security Theater. Makes my blood boil every time. But let it be said here that I am always very nice to the TSA agents. They don't make the ridiculous rules, and their job is shitty enough as it is.
Bought some water, ate some food, and boarded the plane. The company travel agent lady scored me a sweet bulkhead-ish aisle seat. Lots of leg room. I was pleased.
On the plane, I gave my St. Petersburg guide an end-to-end read. Whaddaya know, they have Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins there. That, and a lot of sushi and Indian restaurants. Sounds like home. Made a mental list of places to visit and got a better feel for city layout.
5:45 PM PDT - Got to borrow Aaron's MP3 player (Danke! Spasibo!) so I put some music on and nodded off a wee bit.
6:45 PM PDT - Commotion across the aisle. Water was dripping from the baggage compartment above. A bunch of flight attendants came by and soaked it up with piles of paper towels. They claimed it was condensation but couldn't figure out why there was so much. It dripped a bit on the guy at the front end of the compartment, which was in business class. He was displeased. The economy cabin folks, who had a small stream of water coming down on them, helped clean up and laughed about it.
7:00 PM PDT - Hungry. Time for pancakes! :-)
7:02 PM PDT - Mmm, pancakes were good! Thanks Aaron for packing them for me!
[ Oh boy. Typing this during my layover in Frankfurt. Really slowing down. Need sleep! ]
I put the St. Petersburg guide away and started in on my Russian phrasebook. I have "hello", "goodbye", "excuse me", "thank you", and "please/you're welcome" down, but I wanted to be able to ask questions along the lines of "Where... ?", "Do you have... ?", and "How much?" I also learned important words like "water", "milk", and "hockey".
9:30 PM PDT - The map on the monitor showed us flying by Iceland.
10:45 PM PDT - Breakfast arrived in the form of little paper boxes dropped on our tray tables. Its contents: a fruit cup (hoorays) and a semi-frozen turkey and cheese sandwich wrapped like a baked potato that tasted like nothing I'd ever like to taste again.
11:00 PM PDT - Watched as trayfuls of tastiness were delivered to the business class passengers one row in front of me.
Our flight arrived at Frankfurt early, around midnight PDT, or 9:00 AM local time. I was pretty stoked when our plane touched down. I've never been to Europe before, so even though I wouldn't be leaving the airport, this was something of a first for me.
I was tired, but I looked forward to wandering the airport. Then I entered the airport and looked forward to leaving. FRA is a dump! The women's restrooms are small and smelly. The men's restroom looks larger, but I only know that because the door was propped open. There I was, walking down the hall, when I looked up and saw a guy peeing. *blink blink*
Security here was less theaterish. I got to keep my shoes on, but I had to empty my pockets. Something on me made the big metal detector beep, which resulted in the most thorough frisking in my life... by a wand-wielding German woman barking orders I didn't understand. Whoa, lady, are you supposed to touch me there?!
Made it to the "food court", where I saw tuna pizza on one of the menus. I decided I didn't need to try it.
The coolest thing about this airport was the Johnny Walker "Winners Always Stay in Control" booth, which played off an F1 theme and had a BATAK machine for people to try. I took a turn and scored 25 hits in 18.8 seconds, about a second higher than their top 10 list, which had times ranging from ~12 seconds to ~17 seconds. I watched a bunch of other people (all guys) try and they were all scoring in the 20's. The ones who went after me were sad because they couldn't beat a girl and their friends made fun of them. Bwahahahaha.
[ Coffee isn't kicking in. All it did was make me feel nauseated. Blech. ]
[ Okay, now I'm writing from St. Petersburg. ]
After the coffee, I successfully ordered a meal in German. I was ridiculously proud of myself. Granted, it was only McDonald's, but the server found my attempt at German good enough that he spoke back in German. Even more amazing was that I understood what he was saying and could reply. My first real German conversation. McDonald's, uniting the world one wannabe German speaker at a time.
Despite my being ridiculously proud of myself, I ate only a small portion of my meal because I was dead tired, and my stomach had decided to shut down. No more anything, it said. Damn you, stomach, we're not on a mountaintop anymore!
Gathered in the jankiest lower lower level gate, got bussed out to a faraway location on the tarmac, and boarded the plane up the rear flight of stairs. Even though it was only a 2 hour 20 minute flight, Lufthansa served us lunch. Compared to the domestic airplane food I'm used to, this was pretty tasty and healthy. Too bad I couldn't eat more than a few bites.
I tried hard to nap, but I am totally unable to sleep on planes. By the time we got to Pulkovo (the airport in St. Petersburg), I was feeling really weak. And then, just my luck, the passport lines shut down for some unknown reason for 45 minutes. Finally, they reopened, I got my bag, and met the company driver. He zipped through and around traffic to the company apartment.
The building looks run down from the outside, but the apartment itself is fairly nice. It's a big one bedroom with faux leopard print couches located about a block from Nevsky Prospekt. There's a 24 hour pharmacy and a 24 hour (I think) mini-mart across the street. I'll have to check that out tomorrow morning.