Mother Russia: Day 1

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So it's been nearly 4 weeks since I left England and now that I have some time to breathe after the trans-Siberian trip I thought I'd take the opportunity to write down some of the stuff that I've done, mainly for my benefit but also so that people at home who are interested can get up to date on what I've been doing for so long! However, I won't be so self-indulgent as to think this is of any more than a marginal interest to anyone other than myself so I'm going to treat this as a travel journal which you are more than welcome to read - I've realised that although I chose a rather charming journally-book to bring with me to allow me to write a literary masterpiece, I actually much prefer typing so I've tried to save as many memories as possible for now when I have the opportunity to think into my fingers.

And so to the beginning. Saint-Petersburg.

Honestly, I wasn't too keen on leaving after a whirlwind week of work and shopping and packing so after a minorly tearful goodbye to the nearest and dearest at LHR I wondered like the proverbial cloud onto the plane. So far, so uneventful. The breakfast was nothing if not funny looking, and although I had been promised a viewing of the Lego movie, I was super disappointed to learn there was not even a TV - we are hoping that the plane home from Japan will not be like this! Was very brave on the plane through some very scary turbulence. Once I got to Russia, everything was very Russian. This is really the only adjective that can be used for this country. Everyone wears a uniform. The customs officers' hats are absolutely GIGANTIC. To the point of hilarity, but as I had been warned that respect and seriousness are the only things that will get you into or out of the country I had to stifle my giggles.

Following the instructions to get to my hostel I staggered out of the airport and miraculously onto the correct bus, but in the excitement of it managed to shove a babushka in the face with my rucksack in a somewhat violent manner. I subsequently had a discussion with some Russian people about the difference between a babushka (the Russian word for grandmother/matriarch) and an old lady, and they believe that an old lady is cuddly and sweet and would definitely give you a Werther's Original if they had them in Russia, but a babushka is NOT to be crossed. This lady was a babushka. She proceeded to shout at me very loudly in Russian, at which point I realised I still didn't know any more Russian than spasiba (thank you) and definitely did not know the word for sorry. So I put on my most submissive body language (or as much as is possible when carrying a large rucksack on your back and front while standing in the middle of a crowded public minibus) and waved in her face while essentially shouting THANK YOU THANK YOU. It was not a good start.

The instructions then required me to take the underground, so I found a machine that would speak to me in English and instead of purchasing one ticket I thought I'd be clever and buy what I presumed was a Russian version of the Oyster card. This was not clever. I tried to make the barriers open, which didn't work so I waddled over to the ticket attendant. At this point I waved whatever it was that I'd bought in front of his face and he made some unintelligible actions. This continued for longer than socially acceptable, with both of us getting more and more frustrated/giggly. Eventually the poor guy took pity on me/himself and just let me in for free. This is all very well and good and I send my psychic thanks to the ticket attendant but I was now within the underground system with no promise of being able to get out again, which was more than a little stressful as I had no understanding of how I had got in, let alone the Russian language skills to explain this to someone else. Thankfully they don't really care about who leaves, so it was ok.

Then was the long walk from the underground station on Nevskiy Prospekt (one of the main streets of Saint Petersburg), and up the 4 flights of stairs (!) to the hostel, which was lovely, safe and clean. So I slept for a very long time.

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