As we prepare for England,Grahame is pickpocketed

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Wednesday 27th May
As we prepare for England,Grahame is pickpocketed!!
Another beautifully fine day dawned and we prepared for the flights to Stanstead ,London via Dusseldorf with Air Berlin with a departure just before 1pm.We thought we should give ourselves 4 hours to walk to the station to pick up the #13 bus to the airport and then do the checkin etc at the airport.
We planned on three quarters of an hour to walk to the station which was a straightforward flat pavement all the way.
Our stay at the Acme Hotel has been a very good one with excellent facilities in contrast to the hostel in Moscow,although to be fair,the experience of living amongst the locals in Moscow was certainly worth it all.
The local people we have interacted with in St Petersburg,particularly the hotel reception staff,have all spoken very good English compared to those in Moscow.This clearly reflects that despite the need to get a visa to enter Russia on holiday which can be a lengthy process,the city is far better geared to tourism from foreign visitors and will be ready for a burst in tourists if the Russian Government ever drop the need for a visa.
With backpacks in place and suitcases ready to be trollied we rode one last time in the scariest lift in the world.It hasn’t only been the tiny size of it,just room for one person and a suitcase or two people snuggled up to each other,but also the noises it makes as it travels.These noises varied from banging and clanging as if the lift was hitting the liftwell to a noise that sounded like the wires fraying,a sort of pinging noise.All in all though just another experience in travel and getting to and from your destination.And more of this was just about to happen!!!
At 9am the wide pavements of Nevsky Prospect(main street) were only moderately busy and we made good progress at a steady pace towards the railway station to make the bus connection to the airport.
We took rests every 10 minutes or so as the sun was quite warm even for this hour of the morning and it was easy to get a sweat up even though the path was flat.
The pavement is at least 6 or 7 metres wide meaning you can keep to a straight line without having to avoid people coming the other way.
At least that was until we came across a van parked on the pavement and the pedestrians slowing down as they approached and sqeezing through the gap between the van and the building.We were only about 5 minutes away from the station and all had gone so well for us and our processions,money and cards and security up until now............................................
Gretchen moved ahead of me as she found gaps to move through without stopping while I lagged behind perhaps being too careful and ready to give way to other people realising I was pulling a suitcase while they were just trying to get to work.
With the crowd slowing and jamming up a man in front of me stopped to pick something up which turned out to be a jacket.I thought perhaps Gretchen had dropped her jacket which she had taken off because of the warm temperature.I had to stop to avoid falling over the guy and that was where it happened.!!
It was all over in a flash!!The guy turned to me said something in Russian and brushed past me and was gone!!I turned to realise he was disappearing the other way through the crowd with I think 2 others.
I had the sensation something on my person was missing and I felt my back pocket for my wallet.It was gone!!
Too late.....so was the thief!!
Now Gretchen had warned me while we were in Cairo,after we had felt quite safe in Turkey and Greece,to remove everything from my wallet to the waistband and I had diligently followed her advice.Not that I had had any cards or money,other than loose change, low value notes and my driving licence, in the wallet.I had removed my driving licence but kept the small change and notes for ease of making small on the spot purchases.Digging into the waistband money belt means raising your t- shirt or unbuttoning ones shirt and then finding the right currency from the two or three that were in safekeeping in it.
It turned out to be good advice....AS ALWAYS!!
This time I had a couple of roubles in coins and R70 in notes which were to pay for the bus trip to the airport.
So the bast_____ had got the grand sum of NZ3.50 equivalent,a couple of credit card receipts and my wallet.!!!
I emerged from the crowd and caught up with Gretchen who was waiting for me about 5 metres up the pavement.
I told her that I had fallen for the oldest pickpocket scam in the world,the person in front stopping to pick something up and so blocking your path while someone empties you pocket.
While I stopped to compose myself and look after the suitcases, Gretchen went back to see if she could at least recover the wallet which the thieves might have tossed away after removing their ill gotten gains.She came back shortly after emptyhanded.Shea said people had looked at her a bit weirdly as she peered into rubbish bins trying to see if the wallet had been thrown away.One person who had been handing out subway information looked rather guiltily towards her and she reckons they saw the pickpocket incident and perhaps were part of it.
We wouldn’t have had time to do anything about the pickpocket incident with the police as we had a plane to catch and time was running away on us making the connection.So it was on to the railway station to find the number 13 bus that would take us cheaply to the airport.
We then realised that we had made a mistake the other day in not actually checking where the bus left from.The station roundabout was full of traffic and people.
I left Gretchen minding the suitcases while I went off to try and find the departure bus stop.I looked both sides of the station with no luck so then decided to go inside and seek out the information office.They were useless and although they replied in English that they didn’t know where the bus left from they clammed up when I pressed them a bit more.
After asking at 5 or 6 different counters and getting the same negative response I gave up and went back to Gretchen with the suggestion that we would have to take a cab.I had been gone about 20 minutes and she was starting to think something had happened to me and was ready to ask the help of a policeman.
We decided to use the story that I had been pickpocketed,which I had,to get a bargain price to the airportand we thought R600 would be a top price for us to pay.The first guy wantedR1000 or about NZ$50 for a 15km ride.He wasn’t interested in the pickpocket story.The next wanted R2000 which we laughed at and so we went on and the third we bargained down to R800.Time was really starting to run out now so we took it and climbed into a stationwagon where the driver stored his own petrol supply somewhere in the back because the smell of petrol was very strong.
In the end we made it in plenty of time and got ourselves checked in and through border control relatively quickly.They weren’t even interested in the scappy piece of paper we had paid R700 each for to have ourselves registered by the hotel as foreign guests.It was as we had thought just another money making scheme for the hotel.Mind you our room had only been one third the price it should have been so paying it didn’t sting that much.The Lonely Planet says you should register or you can face problems leaving and pay a large fine for not being registered.Although it also says many people don’t register and have no problems leaving.We could have two of those people!!
We spent the last of our roubles buying chocolate rather than getting ripped off by paying a commission at the airport to exchange the roubles for Euros and there were only a few dollars involved.
The flight to Dusseldorf was uneventful and we transited through the airport by entering the country and leaving again all within 2 hours.The German border control guy asked how long we had spent in Germany and laughed with us when we told him less than 2 hours.Who said the Germans don’t have a sense of humour!!!
The flight to Stanstead on a new Q400(stretched version of what we have into Tauranga)was delayed and we arrived an hour late to be greeted by temperatures of 12c!!!!We both put on more clothes and went out to catch the local bus to Chelmsford where we had accommodation at the Travelodge.
The bus wandered through the countryside southeast of Stanstead passing through lovely little villages with quaint names like Great Dunmow and Bishops Green.All had original pubs and we would have liked to have got off to slate our thirst.
On arriving in Chelmsford we discovered the instructions to get to the hotel appeared to be wrong.Luckily there was a map and we worked out the way to the hotel address and set off.
After checking in we were ready for something to eat.It had been a long day and although we had had snacks served by the flight attendants on the Air Berlin flights we were still hungry.
We walked back towards the bus station and called in to a couple of the little pubs only to find they didn’t do dinners.
We ended up at “The Ship”an authentic pub with a wide range of beers on tap.We opted for a couple of Carling pints(nice and cold too)and I had Bangers and Mash(what else would one have for their first English pub meal) all served with 3 veges plus onions.A HUGE meal that I struggled on towards the finish.Gretchen had fish and chips which I had to help her with.
A great introduction to England and a relief to be in a country where English is the first language.
We had really enjoyed the Russian experience right up to the last few hours in St Petersburg and we must not let those incidents of the camera going missing and the pickpocket destroy what had been a great time and one with many enjoyable times sightseeing and living amongst the locals.

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Comments

[Rin]

Poor old Dad aye....scammed by the dodgy old Russians. Very glad to hear that you had followed Ma's advice though and the joke was *almost* on the pickpocketers :-) And the dude at the airport in Dusseldorf MUST have been Belgian or something coz I *swear* German's with a sense of humour are an urban myth!! If you find one, knock it on the head and have it stuffed to donate to a museum!!

[Helen Fenwick]

Bangers & Mash
Glad to here you are safely in the UK - I am presently trying to convince Brian that the five of us should go there next year!! The photos are lovely to see, glad to hear you are both ok - shaken not stirred as 007 would say - blasted pickpocket ;-( onward on the adventure...

[diny]

jah,jah.
Yes this pickpocket thing happens everywhere. remember the first time that Cormac and Leigh came to Netherlands. Cormac had the same experience on New Years Eve in Amsterdam with simular trick. After it happens you know exactly how it happened.