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Published: October 30th 2010
I've heard from quite a few people that they enjoyed my blog, which is gratifying. So I've decided to continue to post sporadically until I manage to make it back home to Canada.
Today is Saturday, 30 Oct. My friends on the tour, Robert and Judy, are back home after flying out of Dublin yesterday. The plane was supposed to stop in Gander for refueling and customs, then proceed to Toronto, but there was a change en route. Was it related to the terrorist scare in the US? Anyway, refueling was in Iceland and for first landing and customs the plane was diverted to ... Ottawa! So we would have been home much earlier than anticipated.
I mostly spend my time helping with Violet's care as best I can and entertaining her. She is of course in bed virtually all the time with her leg propped up, so it's very boring and uncomfortable for her. Luckily the drugs make her sleepy. She is gradually improving but progress is very slow. The doctor feels we made the situation worse by not getting Violet to the hospital as soon as we suspected cellulitis and by taking the plane and continuing to use the leg. However, I'm glad she's in a hospital here rather than in Turkey.
I've been keeping from going stir crazy by taking long walks in St. Petersburg. The hospital is on Marata St., just off Nevsky Prospect, the city's main street. Thursday I walked all the way to the western end of Nevsky, the main tourist area on the banks of the Neva, where the Hermitage and many other famous buildings are. That's about a 45 minute walk. I very much enjoyed looking at these beautiful buildings again and at other no-so-famous buildings at my leisure. As I've said before, there is a wonderful unity to St. Petersburg's buildings; most are like variations on a theme. Among my discoveries was a pretty park behind the Admiralty building called the Alexandrovsky Gardens. It has statues to several Russian writers and composers scattered through it. I enjoyed finding that of Lermontov, my favorite Russian poet. The imposing St. Issac's Cathedral adjoins the park. I then wandered up along the south bank of the Neva, past and around the Hermitage, where I found a souvenir shop and bought a few items suggested by Violet, then headed home. Total time about 3 hours.
Yesterday I headed the opposite direction down Nevsky. On the way is the massive Moskovsky train station, which I remembered from our previous visit in 1981. We had taken the express train from Moscow to Leningrad. I walked all the way done to the extreme eastern end of Nevsky, which once again meets the Neva River, which has made a giant half circle. The river is much wider at his point, necessitating a big bridge. Right where Nevsky ends, on the banks of the Neva, is a complex of buildings, I assume a former monastery, called St. Nicholas. To enter you pass through an imposing gate and over a small bridge. I wandered around the grounds for some time, enjoying the relative calm and tranquility. The buildings here are every bit as beautiful as those in the main tourist area, but they are showing their age quite a bit more through crumbling masonry and peeling paint. But I rather liked this atmosphere because it exuded more of a smell of history. There were a couple of cemeteries and I wandered around trying to decipher the weathered inscriptions. Some were quite old, from 1800s, and one was from last year. There was also a columnar monument in the middle that had been erected in 2000 to commemorate two thousand years since Christ's birth. On my way back, I visited a shopping mall that included a supermarket. I find the prices quite reasonable after conversion, especially for food. The supermarket had everything, including an impressive collection of alcohol with an entire rack of vodka. Many of the bottles, including some of Russian origin, had English labels.
Today, Saturday, I went in search of a Russian record store that Violet's doctor had mentioned to me. I found it and had a great time. After getting an idea of what interested me, the sales clerk (who I think was the owner) brought out CD after CD for me to audition, including his personal favourites, explaining each time why he had picked it. His English was ok and we communicated by him speaking English and me speaking Russian. I ended up buying 8 CDs of various genres.
I'm glad I loaded my iPad up with books before I came. On this trip I've already (re)read the complete Sherlock Holmes, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Riders of the Purple Sage, and I am halfway through Robinson Crusoe. In case my boss is reading the blog, I've also been reading lots of IT PDFs as well. I've got some translations to work on as well.
The weather has been similar to Ottawa's, I think, with highs between 7 and 10° C. Mostly overcast with occasional drizzle, which is typical for St. Petersburg.
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Heidi
non-member comment
very interesting
Hallo Violet and David. I just came back from my Russia trip and all the places you talk about are so familiar to me now . I really enjoy the blog from St. Petersburg. I hope Violet is getting better soon