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Published: June 19th 2008
Train Station
Leo and I waiting on the train in Moscow.It has been a week and I still do not have the blog updated from our (Leo's and my) trip to Saint Petersburg Russia and since I was late for volleyball anyways, I decided to just come home, eat a little dinner and get my blog updated. I am not making excuses, but I did come back with a bad cold and tried to go to bed early all week. Yesterday, Wednesday, I felt a little better but met up with the gang so tonight is "blog night.".
All of the Russians think it is funny/weird because I usually refer to Saint Petersburg as "St. Pete" as in Saint Petersburg, FL but if you are going to shorten it here in Russia they call it "Peter" or "Piter". Before we "head" to Peter, I need to update you with a story or two from here in Obninsk a week or so before we left. Last Saturday (7 June), Leo, Freddie and I got together after we all got off work (and yes, I will explain/complain why we all had to work on Saturday in a minute). Freddie wanted to buy a tent so we all met near the Square and
Burning "Flags"
We got them to "flame" but they did not look so Russian. went to the sporting goods store and afterwards headed to Charley's for Pizza. After pizza, I wanted real cheese cake, which the Gothic Coffee house, REAL New York style cheesecake. Well, that ended up being a mistake as Freddie and I decided to try a few of their speciality drinks and we started with the Russian flag (grenadin, cuzasao blue, and of course vodka all in layers in the shot glass so it looks like the colors of the Russian flag). It was actually pretty impressive as they lit the vodka on fire and brought it to us "flaming". We both enjoyed it and somehow decide to try one more but a different kind. I forget who had what, but I think we tried the Lounge, Desert, Crazy Frog, Sweet Dreams, and Medusa. We both did not try each of those, but three was plenty!
I liked the Russian flag well enough and thought it was pretty cool that it "flamed" so I went out and bought the ingredients, so I thought. I forget what day it was, but Freddie came over and we decided to give it a try at home. There should have been a sign at
Good morning sunshine!
Leo loves this picture of me, enjoy! the cafe, "Do NOT try this at Home" or "Parents Supervision Required" as the first one we made looked more like Pakistan's flag without the star and moon. The problem, the grenadin I bought did not have enough sugar in it so the cuzasao blue mixed with it and turned green. I was able to get the vodka to float on top so it was sort of green and white (clear). We did get it to light so as it was burning, we tried to make Freddies and decided we would make his a confused Netherland's flag with the blue on the bottom then the grenadine and finally vodka. His turned out a little better and we got it to lit also. Well critical ingredient I forgot, straws, so we decided to just blow them out and drink them, that was fine for Freddie's whose glass and not burning for a while, but stupid me, put that glass up to my lips to drink it and yes, burnt my lip in to places! Yes, I know, it deserves me right but it burnt it pretty good and no they did not taste as good as the ones at Gothic so
Now good morning
After a cup of coffee and brushing my hair and teeth (not with the same brush, of course), it is time to say good morning! we will leave it to the experts next time.
Now back to why we all had to work. I am sure I have complained about this before, but Thursday (12 June) was Russian's Independence Day so the government decided that everyone should work on Saturday so we all could take Friday (13 June) off and have a four day weekend. Now, if companies individually wanted to do this based on their business, fine, but for the government to make it "official" which of course people only worked about half as much on Saturday as well as Wednesday before so we might as well given everyone Friday off anyways and not even worried about Saturday. And of course it is Russian regulation that you get off an hour before a holiday so Wednesday was a day to leave early anyways. It is crazy! Again, if a company wants to do this, fine, but to make it law, is the silliest thing I have heard of. But that is the reason we were all working on Saturday.
Not because of the drinking on Saturday, but I just did not feel like going biking on Sunday so I stayed at home
Cabin Mates
This couple was from Moscow and going to Peter for the weekend and flying back on Sunday like us, but different airline. and got things done around the house that needed done. I was not lazy, but just not in a biking mood especially when I heard it was further than we went the week before. I will be biking here again soon, but I am going to take it in steps and I think my first step may have been a little too big.
Now on to Peter. Of course, being me, I put an agenda together so we did not miss anything we wanted to do in Peter as this was Leo's first time. He laughed and then joked that I did not put what side of the street we were suppose to be on and when were the bathroom breaks? Now I realize I can be anal, but I really did not think this was even close to being that detailed, but I did tell him, do not laugh because it would not be too far from reality for me to do it and he would not believe me so I called on my friends, Ricky, Jamie and Mark to confirm or deny my claims. In different words, some that I can repeat on the public board, but
Me Mad
I was so mad, the hotel charged me 120 rubles (~$5) to regrister me. It is actually most hotels' policy but I hate it because the law says I do not have to regrister unless I am staying some place new in Russia (different than my flat) for more than three days and weekends do not count. We, no I because I am the only foreigner, had the same thing happen in Sochi. with the same message, all warned Leo not to dare me because I have been known to do things like that...lol
Overall, we had a great time and I did leave the agenda flexible...lol Leo had Thursday off so he went to Moscow early and I met up with him after I got off work (yes, the plant still worked the holiday). We got to the train station a little too early so we had some time to kill before our train left at 12:30 AM. We had some great cabin mates; they were a married couple and I forget their names but we had a good time conversing with them when we were not all sleeping. Although I hate the one picture, Leo thought it was so funny when he took it of me waking up so everyone enjoy!
I was a little worried about the hotel as it was white nights and finding a hotel was difficult. Julia found this one for me when the ones I recommended were already booked. I knew I was going so I told her to go ahead and then Leo and I found some online comments and it did not
Peterholf
Leo in front of the fountains at Peterholf. I was not allowed to talk when buy tickets so he could get me in for the "Russian" price. sound good especially for the price I paid (7000 rubles/night (~$300)), but I decided to take my chances. When we got there, I was pleasantly surprised. No, it was not worth $300/night, but that was cheaped compared to many of the other hotels, but the negative things we read, we did not experience. We had good service at the front desk and they even let us check in at 9 AM. We also got a room near the elevator, which was also one of the major compaints if you were at the end the longggggggg hall and it was a long hall, but again, we were close to the middle. The location was perfect, just south of tourist section but literally 10 steps from the metro entrance/exit and our room looked to the River. We could not quite see the draw bridge, but it was so close we walked out around 2 AM and stood as close as they would let us as it raised.
As for the white nights, the sun did not set until around midnight and came up around 4 AM so it really never got dark, but I would not say it was bright. Cars
needed head lights and you can see in the pictures, it was a constant dawn/dust between midnight and four. There is one more week until the longest day, but it was pretty neat to see the sun setting/rising at 2 AM.
We did all of the normal tourist sights and sounds. We had a good time and the weather was great compared to what they were predicting of rain rain and rain. It was actually cold, I am guessing upper 50's to lower 60's during the day, but the wind coming off the Sea, made it feel a lot colder and at night upper 40's to lower 50's. We did have a little rain on Sunday morning but by the time we got our breakfast and checked out, it has pretty much stopped although the ground was wet.
I am posting pictures that I have not posted from my previous visits so if you want to see more, look back at some of my old blogs.
On the way home, we flew. The price was about the same and I really did not want to ride the train all night and then directly to work the next
Draw Bridge
Me on the draw bridge with the white nights in the background. morning. I would have had it saved money, but it was about the same. The flight was fine until we got to Moscow and circled for an hour because of heavy traffic in the area. I hate to say this, but even with three airports, there is not more air traffic than Fort Wayne IN at its busiest time! I honestly think it was all of the Duma (government people) coming back from their long weekends because the airport we flew into is where they all fly in/out of. After we were on the ground and getting on the buses to the airport, I saw one plane park and one land; this was over a 15 minute time frame. They call that busy, they need to come to LAX, ATL, JFK, or any other major airport in the US where they take off and land every few minutes on four different run ways!
Mishas was there waiting on us. He was plenty early because of course the traffic coming back to Moscow after the Holiday was terrible and he did not know how long it was going to take him to get there. The traffic was terrible coming back
to Moscow, but we flew right along after getting out of the airport as we were leaving Moscow.
So other than getting this cold, I had a great time in Peter. I hope Leo did as well and I did not drive him too crazy.
P.S. On a different note, I now have my multiple entry work visa so now I can leave and reenter the country again. The one thing I do not like about this one is it is not attached to my passport so now I have another piece of paper that is much larger than my passport to carry with me at all time. Of course if I am not stopped, it will not matter, but one never knows so I always have it with me. I did not get that anytime too soon as I leave on Tuesday for Bolonga Italy for a business trip, come back on Thursday then onto my Mediterranean cruise the following Wednesday. Yes, I know, the "travel frog" is back at it again!
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L e o. Well, you know me.
non-member comment
Sleepy head ;)
Days in Piter were just fantastic! Thank you again and again ;)