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I'm afraid that the delay between posts may mean that the details from this time may be fuzzy but I'm trying my best to recall everything. If only I were more like Adrian Mole. Curses.
The third day of my travels was also the day on which I met the Vodkatrain group, i.e. my travel companions for the next three weeks. So I woke up late (again) and moved to the hostel that the tour company had chosen, namely Red House (Jimi Hendrix themed because Russia). This was just the other end of Nevskiy Prospekt and was not much further than walking to the bus stop and I couldn't deal with the bus again so I made the decision to walk there. This, I think, was not a good decision. A fact to which the perfectly circular and symmetrical scars on each of my bottom cheeks will attest. It seems that the distance was actually quite far, and my bag was very very heavy and not quite balanced right and so by the time I got to the hostel I had lost most of the skin on the parts of my bum where the bag was sitting. BAD START. This
is what happens when your rear end is the most protruding area of your body.
So I went for a cup of coffee and some lunch, and started to have a solid look through my Lonely Planet guide for some inspiration for my China trip, as I had some time to kill but not enough to do anything properly, then headed back to the hostel. There, I met two friendly Germans: Henrik and Niklas, one friendly Irish girl: Suzanne and one friendly Australian: Fairlie (her mum thinks this name is Irish. Suzanne says it is not. This is an awkward moment). The final member of the group is an Indian girl called Pallavi who didn't turn up until the next day. I have attached rather fetching pictures of the gang to this post - we were experimenting with the fishbowl setting on my camera and unfortunately these are the only pictures I have of everyone. I'd like to point out at this stage that none of them actually looks like this.
We were met in the foyer by our honcho (basically a slightly more chill version of a tour guide) Vladimir (who also went by something along the
lines of Vova/Vulva/something very rude so we stuck with Vladimir). He scooped us up and plopped us in a bar and gave us beer so everyone was happy. We then did lots of boring admin stuff, discussed how the trip was going to work (at which point it sunk in for Suzanne and me that we were going to be completely unsupervised on the trains which was more than a tad completely terrifying) and talked about what we fancied doing with our time in St Petersburg. Then onto more important topics: dinner.
We went out to a lovely dumpling place and it became apparent that the Germans were here for mainly the vodka, so dinner became quite boozy. But it was a great chance to get to know eachother a little better. I think it might be a good idea at this point to give a quick rundown of my travel companions (including Pallavi, although she wasn't there that night), so here goes. I hope I am not insulting anyone with the below information!
Suzanne:
From Doneghal, works for the police force as a detective, taking 2 months unpaid leave to visit her younger sister who lives
in Australia, concerned that she might get demoted when she gets back for taking so much time off. Fiercely patriotic and very well informed about the troubles which made me feel like a truly useless member of society! Has a cat which she rescued after someone threw it out of their car into her garden. Quite girly, very emotionally perceptive. OWNS HER OWN HOUSE AT 29, and bought the trip for herself as a 30th birthday present.
Fairlie:
Returning from spending 2 years in England on the youth visa thing from Australia, working for various pubs and a travel magazine. Before she left Australia, she was working as a radio DJ on a local station and did fantastic links between songs that we were playing on the train. Very funny, VERY leggy. Got ill a lot, so probably didn't have as great a time as she could have. When she got to Beijing I think she bought 20 handbags from the Pearl Market - not an exaggeration. I was concerned that she was going to get arrested for smuggling when she went home! Does absolutely terrible impressions, particularly of the Germans.
Niklas:
Very silly hair. Mechanical
Engineering student from Hanover. Lives in a frat house with Henrik and other boys who believe in the three principles of Christianity, Science and Friendship. Very little patience for lateness - after a while we had to explain to him that elsewhere in Europe 5 o'clock means between 5 to and 10 past. After this was explained he was less visibly fuming when we were a few minutes behind schedule (on the first day he tried to organise when we were all going to have a shower which was met with some hilarity). Has a lovely girlfriend. Attaches a great deal of pride to the German capacity to handle alchohol, and needs no excuse for a shot of vodka. Kind, funny. Starts most sentences with 'So!..' and a clap of the hands. Does the 'making it rain' action a lot more than necessary.
Henrik:
Also a Mechanical Engineering student from Hanover. Niklas was his fraternity 'father'. Generally adorable, but was patient 0 for the hellfire illness of death and horror that was then passed around the group so gets minus points for this. Used to play the violin (but let me blather on about the suzuki method for
ages without piping up - v awks). Keeps his cards very close to his chest! Drank so much on the train that he had to be put to bed. He informed us that Bieber means Beaver in German and showed us his fantastic Justin Beaver impression (see photographic proof).
Pallavi:
Grew up in India but has lived all over the shop. Currently lives in NYC working as a financial consultant. Says sorry a lot, mainly because she is uber clumsy. Always on the phone to various family members, friends and her SO who lives in London. Had just been to Turkey with him which is why she started the trip a day late. Absolutely religious journal writer (so jel), and super duper yoga fanatic. Generally super chill but we did spend a lot of time waiting for her to get sim cards/phone repairs! The one downside of speaking to your family every day is that if you then stop doing so (because you need a different sim card) they think you've died, which is generally something to be avoided...
After dinner we - in a vodka-and-dumpling-induced fit of tourist excitement - rolled onto a boat
tour along the many canals of St Petersburg. Sadly, we no speaky the language. This first made purchasing tickets difficult. The main issue however was that the whole commentary of the beautiful buildings floating past us was in Russian. Eventually we came up with the novel idea of working out where we were on the tourist map from the hostel, noting what we might be looking at, then cross referring with guide books. Very ad hoc. And probably generally incorrect. Great value for money. No photographs of note, except one of absolutely amazing accidental side-eye from Suzanne which I thought was worth publishing for all to see.
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