I got off the plane and already things had changed. The air didn't bite, instead I was sweating, I got to the immigration line and got my landing card... I was stunned, they had taken to giving you the english translation on the landing card, saving me hours of digging through my shitty russian dictionary.
But some things never change.. We walked out of the airport and there was a man at 10 am just getting a little bit stumbly with his beer, swaying a bit from side to side.Then I looked over and there was a quite slim girl smoking an even slimmer cigarrette and drinking a huge can of beer. AHHH Mother Russia. Sue and I took a small bus into the center of the city, saving approximately 79.50 dollars as the ticket cost us about 50 cents and the taxi's wanted 80 dollars. of course sue is ecstatic, she saw her first passed out person, her first russian prostitute, neither of which would be her last. when we got out at saddovaya square she was bewildered by the bright neon lights of the casino's. I on the otherhand noticed another trashcan fire, I had always thought that was a winter thing, I guess not. We walked to the hotel where we were in for a moment that can only be described by remembering what south africa's dear president said after meeting with mugabe after the election earlier this year. a member of the press asked him about the crisis in zimbabwe and mbeki said "crisis? what crisis?" we walked into the hotel I put my reservation on the desk and the woman said "reservation? what reservation?" perfect. I land in st. petes in the busiest season and this woman has no record of my reservation. Sue is on the verge of panic. however after some work was done they found us a hotel for that night and promised to work something out by morning. So obviously after checking into the new hotel there was only one thing to do, we walked to the nearest kiosk and purchased a couple of warm baltika 7's and some wine and proceeded to forget our troubles. There is no lie when they say that the sun doesn't set in st. petes during the white nights, around 10 it felt like 330 and the only thing resembling night is a bit of dusk round 1.
By morning the hotel situation was resolved thank god and we began our sightseeing, going back to all my old haunts that i have described many a time, i took my mother to palace square where they were gearing up for a huge concert, we went to vasilly island to the street with no cars, we saw nevsky in all it's shopping glory. We went to the opera that evening, where i successfully retrieved my tickets that i had ordered online. Sue was very pleased, i was bored to tears but such is life. The first thing I was really feeling that was different here was that people were nicer, much much nicer and more helpful, not as amazing as SA but still noticeably nicer. The next day we went to the hermitage, and walked about, and later that night i went out on my own. now as i recall in the past i had had trouble really communicating and making friends in st. petes. Not this time, in a matter of moments i was taking shots with a group of men on the street while talking to the militsya, i don't know if i've ever met such friendly russians in my life, then i carried on my way to mars field or the Communist war memorial where unlike in the guide books where they tell you not to go on the grass out of respect for the dead revolutionaries buried there, there were thousands of teenagers and young people on the grass drinking and celebrating the white nights, needless to say i was quickly incorporated and spent a good part of the night with a group of young artists drinking, watching fireworks and watching the bridges rise. It was almost like russia had embraced kindness, they hadn't mastered it yet, but they were trying. The next day was my great triumph, everyone from the old days of st. petes will appreciate this, me, with my shitty russian flawlessly ordered tickets to moscow and back on the train, and the people behind me didn't even seem to want to kill me that badly, i didn't even see a weapon drawn after the first ten minutes.
The drinking hasn't changed here, in no way. you still see the bottle of vodka between two people on the street, you still seee the crazy casual day drinking by men, women, children, executives, taxi drivers, policemen, and anyone and everyone. you still don't hire a taxi, you just stick out your hand and a man stops and bargains a fare, and I still suck at bargaining and russian numbers. Sue was quite freaked out when i hired our first car, but since then she's really taken to it, likening it to her old days hitchhiking. our incidents haven't been to bad so far, except when it comes to ordering, where we are confined to shashlik (skewered meat) and solyanka (a delicious russian soup) because the pressure of trying to order anything else is too great and again my dictionary is so bad that it seems to have left out anything to do with food at all, so occasionally mistakes are made.
Our trip was not made just to st. petersburg we also went to russia, where needless to say mistakes were made. Namely the worst one was impatience, we got to our hotel after the night train from st. petersburg, there was no one there, in fact it was just a communist style building which we happened to have the key code for. we panicked, we had already had hotel trouble, we were tired and afraid of being caught out in the dark with the drunk moscovites. we walked for hours searching for a hotel or an internet cafe in vain (i knew i had the phone number online) screaming at each other as only my mother and i can do. then in a final act of desperation we went back to the building debating the merits of sleeping in the hallway, yeah of course they were there and waiting for us. well we spent 4 comfortable nights in moscow visiting lenin and his waxy complexion watching the russians go Euro 2008 crazy then have their hopes dashed by the spanish, like so many others. I also met up with one of my old friends from saint petersburg, erika, we rehashed our love of russia and how we thought the people were nicer now and more money was flowing through the country and just as much alcohol.
Then there was the return to st. petersburg where I met some guys who were just finishing a month at the same school that i studied at (IMOP!!!!!!!!!) And then something new happened, something that hadn't happened before to me... I got mugged. And not just mugged, mugged by the police (which has the convenience of being able to report the crime at the same time, for a small fee of course) yes I finally got mugged, complete with shoving and threats of use of a billy club. How else could i wrap up 5 and a half months of South Africa and 2 weeks of nightless travel. ellski
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