By Linda Thalman & Pierre Nagel |
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Russia
Sunday 28 June 2009
We crossed the border in a fog... no other cars, very few road signs, no GPS... but now and again a sign to St Petersburg. It took two hours driving on very bad roads with pot holes in fog and rain often at less than 40 kilometers an hour. Arriving on the outskirts of town at 5 in the morning the traffic is mercifully absent and we whizzed into town and got to our hotel just off the Nevsky Prospect in the city center at 6 am. We dragged ourselves and bags into our standard room, number 211, end of the hall on the 2nd floor. Pefectly acceptable with double bed, shower, WC, a small TV, view onto the Champse Elysées of St Pete when you leaned out the window... and we slept till noon... wouldn't you after nearly 24 hours without real sleep? Pierre got rubles from one of the zillion bankmats as the ATMs are called... they are every 20 meters it seems in this town. This is a superb city with lots of large impressive buildings along the canals and the Neva. And it's a very lively city with cafes and restaurants everywhere. Much different than when Pierre was there in 1995, he says. Our pleasant lunch was at Open People not too far from the hotel. We find a bookstore and get a cook book to add to the collection of national cuisine cook books There are now five, only in Belarus we didn't find one.
Later that evening we took a splendid midnight river cruise with the bridges opening at midnight on the Neva. It was spectacular and worth every ruble 600 per person, i.e. about 12 euros. Exchange was 43 rubles to the euro. Tip: take the midnight cruise for the most fabulous view of St Petersburg... brillant. Monday 29 June 2009 We walk and walk and walk, take the underground, buses and boats. In the afternoon Pierre visited the Smolny Institute. I nursed my swollen foot. The Hermitage is closed on Monday, but other museums are open. Plan well. We should or could have ordered our tickets on the web for Tuesday, but the web site says vouchers will be sent by email between 1 and 3 days delay. Well, after our 14-hour border crossing, we just sort of figured that three days might be the minimum for email delivery, so planned on doing the queue on Tuesday. We popped over to the Peter and Paul Fortress, had lunch in a nearby park cafe and went shopping for a computer cable. Note the no skiing allowed at the Fortress in the photo.
Tram 5 didn't exist... no wonder, our city map was about 15 years old... couldn't figure out a bus and there wasn't a taxi in sight. My swollen foot didn't enjoy the walk, but we did enjoy the ballet. Next to us in the first floor upper circle was a woman who translated the story of the ballet in perfect English from the Russia brochure. Turns out she was an English teacher at a St. Petersburg university teaching mathematical linguistic students. Small world as I taught English as a Foreign Language and have a degree in Linguistics. We exchanged teaching experiences and techniques during the intervals.
We had a lovely evening at the Marinsky Theater for the Shurale ballet
Following the lovely ballet we had dinner at a restaurant next to Open People. There was nothing remarkable about the food and service was exceptionally slow. Tuesday 30 June 2009
We were in the the museum afer getting tickets and leaving backpacks in the cloakroom by 11:45. Straight as we could make it, i.e. a bit left and right and up to the 3rd floor to see the 800 French painting collection. Sort of odd to go to Russia to see French paintings, but the Hermitage has a fine collection that one never sees in France. We wandered through many more rooms and opulent they were. Unfortunately, many of the collections we wanted to see were closed off. Shopping tip: buy calendars in the museum... beautiful and not at all expensive.
There was a bit of a pit in the stomach moment when we weren't sure we'd be able to catch the craft back to St. Petersburg... no information, no nothing in any language but Russian. Yet we and all the other folks lined up caught the last boat back at 17:30. Round trip: 800 to go and 600 rubles return. Dinner was at a very enjoyable restaurant full of students and young professionals; all very casual and a varied menu, great service and good food to boot. The best news it was only a five minute walk from our hotel... compared to the miles and miles we'd walked looking for reasonably priced eateries that weren't just self-service cafes, this was a great find. Now if only I can remember the name of it! Wednesday 1 July 2009.
We get to the Russian-Finnish border. Only 9 cars in front of us; there's hope.
This time both our French passports were considered fakes. The police officer passed each page many times in the UV machine, tried to determine if the photo was not the original. After 10 minutes of torturing the passport, she called her boss. Same procedure for 5 more minutes. He called the bigger chief - more passport torturing and they asked to see some extra ID with a photo. After many frowns, declared there was insufficient proof that we were DGST French spies or Russian mafia being ex-filtrated.
Baltic Trip By Linda Thalman And Pierre Nagel
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We're in Russia.
We had dinner at a Georgian restaurant in the train station district with good food and unusual tasting Georgian
wine followed by a glass of South African red.
That evening was a ballet at the Marinski theater, which we had reserved a month before leaving Boullay.
We arrived on foot, running, as the third and final bell was ringing.
It's Hermitage day. Up just a bit late, but in the line at the Hermitage Museum at 10 in the morning. The doors open at 10:30.
In the afternoon we took a hydrofoil to Petershof west along the Neva to see beautiful fountains and
enjoy the lovely park on a warm, almost hot afternoon.
Paris
