Transit to St. Petersburg

First Impressions of Russia

After all of the trouble it took to get a Visa to even undertake the trip to Russia, I was prepared for the worst as we approached the customs and immigration officials in St. Petersburg.  I remembered my experiences with Soviet era east European border controls – guards who seemed to go out of their way to make you feel insecure, even though you knew everything was in order.  That’s what I expected.

At the Air Berlin check-in counter they had reinforced those fears when they made us get out of line to print up a copy of our return flight itinerary for our eventual departure from Moscow.  Russian Border control would need proof we were leaving Russia before they let us in, or so Air Berlin told us.

So we arrive in St Petersburg, armed with our itinerary (which at the airport only cost us 9£ to print)  We were ready for the third degree.

We didn’t even get the first degree! Just a smile, a look-over and a stamp.  The German pass control was worse in Dusseldorf and all we did there was change planes!  Customs was even easier.  We had heard stories of people having trouble taking their expensive electronics out of Russia on departure, so we were warned to declare everything. 

At the exit you choose your line: Declare, or Nothing to Declare.  We chose the Declare line and went forward.  There was nobody there.  No one between us and the exit.  We stopped, waited, turned around, waited and finally someone noticed and came over.  He said something in Russian, I answered “Goods to Declare” in English and he responded in very nice English, “What do you have to declare?”  “A computer” I said.  “That’s nothing” he replied, “You go in the other line”.  So we did.  We passed that gate and again, no one was there. 

We were in Russia and it was about as easy as crossing the Canadian border at Derby Line, Vermont used to be before 9/11.  In those days all you would get is a wave and “have a nice trip!”.  That had been my easiest border crossing - until St Petersburg.  (Of course we have not left with our computers, stay tuned)

Who is that?

So I decided to challenge you all to a little game.  Each place we visit, I will take a picture of an obscure person’s monument.  You will guess who it is.

Some rules:  I won’t include anyone I have never heard of.  They won’t be THAT obscure.  You cannot use picture recognition software (that’s too easy – I hear)  We are on the honor system and the prize for winning is not that great anyway. 

Yes, there is a prize.  The person with the most points gets dinner at their choice of restaurant (Russian, German, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Japanese or Cuban – our expected destinations) whenever we are in the same city.  If you are in first place when we meet up in Turkey (etc), dinner’s on us.  If not the contest ends May 2011 and dinner will be in the Bay Area. 

Points will be awarded as follows.  First correct guess (as logged in the comments for the Contest Photo) 10 pts.  5 pt bonus if you get it the first day it is up.  Every day** after the first there will clues & more pictures. 

** Every day we have an internet connection.

Beer Blog: St Petersburg

St Petersburg: Sibersky Corona?  An interesting brew.  Not much of a taste of hops with an almost citrus flavor.  Light, almost tart.  Kind of refreshing.

Bochkarev?  It’s been a long time since I last had a Budweiser, but this is kind of how I remember it.  Cold, bubbly, not much else.  BTW, they do sell Bud here along with most of the major Europeans (Heineken, Carlsberg, etc)  Not sure what is most popular.

Beer Blog: London

Beer Blog

As some of you may know, I have a thing for beer.  This trip is a great opportunity to try a few new ones.

London: Two pub ales from the tap, so forgettable that I have actually forgotten their names.  (OK, I looked and found one - Doombar Bitter) Both about the same – lacking bubbles, warm and bland (and the second was an IPA!  How do you make a bland IPA?).  I am not sure I have ever had a British Ale I would order twice.  They reminded me why I started drinking ciders when we were in London in 2006.

MC’s St. Petersburg Odds and Ends

These are some things that I have noticed in the last few days in St Petersburg, I don’t know if they are true everywhere but they are around here!

Something else they soon can't do

Russian women love to wear short skirts and very high heels…..  (Scott: “I noticed, too!)  Many of the younger generation seem to wear skirts, certainly many more than at home and it seems the shorter the better.  Is it because the weather is still nice and maybe this is not something they can do in winter??  

The heels, now that is a challenge!   There are many brick roads and the sidewalks are in an incredible state of disrepair, how they do not trip, or get their heels caught in the gaps is beyond me because the higher the heel the better it seems.  As in most cities in Europe people tend to walk much more than we do so I can only imagine how much their feet must hurt.  Mine sure do!

Smoking is alive and well in Russia.  They smoke in restaurants and certainly on the streets.  Young and old, male and female.  Yesterday I saw a policeman writing someone a ticket with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.  That seemed a little unusual.

Fast food in Russia is everywhere.  We have encountered McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Subway and KFC.  KFC doesn’t seem like anything at home.  Once again (like In England) they have dropped my favorite item from the menu, biscuits!!  McDonald’s is just like at home except here you pay for ketchup and the Russians like to dip their fries in something that looks like a cheesy mayo?  We did eat at a real Russian fast food place called TEREMKO.  Their specialty is a crepe with different fillings.  Although I did not try the one with red caviar, the ones I had (ham and cheese and one with some kind of berry) were quite good.

MC's Debut

MC’s Blog

We have been traveling for a week now and so I will put down some thoughts, going back to London, where our great adventure started.

Let me start first by saying that London is truly one of my favorite spots.  It was great being back!  We spent most of our time revisiting some of our old haunts.  Went to Hammersmith to see our old house and neighborhood.  Walked along the Thames to the beautiful Hammersmith Bridge.   Visited Camden, Regency Park, Covent Garden, the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery (where they do not allow their patrons to sleep!).  We rode the tube, rode the tube  and walked and walked, in fact one day we walked 10 miles. I was sad to leave London and to leave Kate, who is now happily settled in Glasgow.  She is on her own adventure.

We arrived in St-Petersburg on Monday and were met at the airport  by Tatiana, who organized our home stay in Moscow.  She drove us to our hotel in the heart of old St Petersburg,  very close to the Winter Palace. 

Having never been to Russia or the former Soviet Union but only to the old Eastern Bloc, I am surprised at how “europified” Russia seems to be.  We are in a very large city with many tourists and they seem to try to cater to them,  Many English menus and signs throughout this part of the city.  We will see if Moscow is the same.

Day 2 in St Petersburg was dedicated to walking around the city or at least part of it.   The Winter Palace and surrounding buildings are truly amazing.  The architecture reminds me of France, almost like the town is done in the Versailles style, if that makes any sense…  We also visited the Church of Spilled Blood, the one behind me in the two versions of pics on facebook. And walked to the Mariinsky  (old Kirov) theater, famous for it’s operas and ballet. 
People here do speak English, we were told that they start learning in 3rd grade.  Tatiana who drove us to our hotel has a daughter who went to school in Knoxville for 3 years while her husband worked there. Upon their return to Russia, her daughter’s English was very good but the teachers here complained about her lack of knowledge of grammar and conjugation as well as her being far behind the Russian students overall academically!
Last night we watched a movie (Russian Ark) about the Hermitage in preparation of our adventure today.  It has over 3 million pieces of art and over 300 rooms.  Quite daunting!  We did our best to hit the high spots.  It is really an amazing place even compared to Versailles, my only other point of reference in terms of “Royal Residences”.   It is amazing that they have continued to collect art over all these years (many acquired in 1948, hmm I wonder how?).  The views from the Hermitage are breathtaking and I loved looking up and down.  The floors and ceilings are works of art in themselves.

This is quite long so I will end here.  More adventures to come.  Moscow is apparently not quite as friendly and more daunting than St Petersburg.   I hope to pick up there if internet is available at our home stay….  Should be interesting!

Radio Silence

Ok, so we have been on the road for a week, you would think there might be a blog post.  Well there might be, except that I don't type (willingly).  The way this blog comes into being is in several steps.  Step one, I write it out long hand.  Step two, I read what I have written to my Ipod and it transcribes the text, using Dragon Dictation.  Step three, I edit and post.  All very quick and easy.  Only one problem.  Dragon Dictation requires a good, stable wireless internet connection and I need to have that in a quiet place where I can dictate.  I have not had those conditions since I left London three days ago.  Here in St. Petersburg we have an ethernet connection, but that does me no good for the posts.  I have quite a back log stacking up.  I keep writing them long hand everyday and I keep hoping somehow I will get a chance to dictate.  Today I thought I found a spot.  The program seemed to be working.  I got 2/3 of the way through the post when it crashed and I lost the whole thing.  I will keep at it, though, post some short ‘wazzup’ posts and save the more boring academic stuff for later.  Stay tuned.