A midnight train
We left St. Petersburg last night. I felt like I could have stayed there much much longer. There's a really amazing vibe in the city. I loved it.
Amanda and I walked around the city for 5 hours on Wednesday, taking photos, taking it all in, getting lost in the side streets and alleys. The weather was finally gorgeous. We also took a boat tour that left at 12:30 a.m. That's right folks, it's White Nights here which means the sun "sets" around 2 a.m. and comes up again around 3:30 a.m., but, quite frankly, it never gets completely dark - it resembles a cool dawn. It was great wandering through the city's many canals heading to the Neva River. All of the bridges rise during the evening to let large cargo ships pass through the river, but this is a huge event here - hundreds of boats swarm the river, thousands of spectators line the sidewalks. Each boat blares music, some people dance, some people drink, some boats shoot off fireworks when each bridge opens up. It was really a beautiful last night in St. Petersburg.
Yesterday (Thursday) the three of us woke up and took long showers - knowing that we would not have access to showers again until... we're hoping late Sunday when we arrive in Siberia. Amanda and I wandered around until we found Dostoevsky's apartment and little museum. The museum wasn't great - mostly because it was just pictures on the walls, with little to no English explanations about the significance. There were, however, original copies of Crime and Punishment and the Brothers K. In fact, there were... sketches of each manuscript with little drawings of characters and settings. Very, very cool.
We accidently ran into an English tour of Dostoevsky's last apartment. It was really, really cool. I don't typically like those cheese-ball guided tours, but I learned so much about him, his relationship to his wife and kids, the significance of various sites in St. Petersburg which coorespond with his novels. It was really cool. It was also really inspiring to be in his study - to learn how he only wrote at night from 11 pm - 5 am, and he only wrote by candlelight. I'm sure that atmosphere contributed to how dark his novels were.
We met up with Ben for our last meal before jumping on an overnight train to Moscow. We assumed that the tickets we bought were all in the same compartment - not the case. So Ben shared a four-person sleeper car with a nice family from Tomsk (where we're headed). Amanda and had the top bunks with two older Russian guys who spoke no English, but offered us Whickey. We declined.
We did, however, inquire about the bar car. I was disappointed in the selection (beer, soda - neither of which I can drink) and vodka. Hmmmm. No mixers. Sounds interesting.
A young guy from Moscow helped us translate that we wanted some orange juice - but we soon found that wasn't available. We (well, I, Amanda said no way) decided could handle Vodka the traditional Russian way. Straight up. This quick jaunt to the bar car to connect with Ben turned into a four-hour crazy evening meeting lots of interesting people from Russia and the Ukraine. And oh my, it involved vodka. Now I have not drank much since January. I went shot for shot with Gleb - a guy who insisted on telling me and Amanda his life history, as well as many, many cultural differences between Russia and America. (You can get married at 14. Women choose at age 16 or 17 if they want to get married or "give into life of sex" and if a woman chooses to go to University, it's very unlikely that she will ever get married because "she will not be able to fix her face and be beautiful enough to attract a man...). Fascinating.
But the night included many, many toasts, some singing, more toasts and a really difficult time climbing up to my bunk bed at 3 a.m.
The train arrived in Moscow at 6 a.m. this morning. Needless to say, the three of us are dragging. We have to wait until 1:30 pm to get on our next train. I don't think there is enough coffee in the world to keep me awake until then. (That, of course, is the reason this blog is a little on the ranty side).
Anyway, we get on the this train (tickets that took Amanda and I 3 days at various train stations, several arguments with crazy Russian woman - I got elbowed in the ribs - Amanda got into a verbal argument with some zit-faced Britney Spears wanna be - and multiple translators - including a really tall Russian kid with a great mullet and a Superstar belt who told off a group of ladies who were yelling at us in Russian. We don't speak Russian, but Amanda and I are quite sure he told them to shut the hell up). But we're on our way to Siberia. Like I said, we leave at 1:30pm this afternoon (6/29) and we arrive in Novobrowick at 9 pm on July 1st. We're then planning on taking at 3 and 1/2 hour cab ride north to a little University city of Tomsk. I'm excited. Actually, I just want to get on the train so I can sleep for a few hours.
This internet cafe doesn't have any photo programs installed, so I'm just going to share some of my last days in St. Petersburg photos with you when I get to Tomsk.
Amanda and I walked around the city for 5 hours on Wednesday, taking photos, taking it all in, getting lost in the side streets and alleys. The weather was finally gorgeous. We also took a boat tour that left at 12:30 a.m. That's right folks, it's White Nights here which means the sun "sets" around 2 a.m. and comes up again around 3:30 a.m., but, quite frankly, it never gets completely dark - it resembles a cool dawn. It was great wandering through the city's many canals heading to the Neva River. All of the bridges rise during the evening to let large cargo ships pass through the river, but this is a huge event here - hundreds of boats swarm the river, thousands of spectators line the sidewalks. Each boat blares music, some people dance, some people drink, some boats shoot off fireworks when each bridge opens up. It was really a beautiful last night in St. Petersburg.
Yesterday (Thursday) the three of us woke up and took long showers - knowing that we would not have access to showers again until... we're hoping late Sunday when we arrive in Siberia. Amanda and I wandered around until we found Dostoevsky's apartment and little museum. The museum wasn't great - mostly because it was just pictures on the walls, with little to no English explanations about the significance. There were, however, original copies of Crime and Punishment and the Brothers K. In fact, there were... sketches of each manuscript with little drawings of characters and settings. Very, very cool.
We accidently ran into an English tour of Dostoevsky's last apartment. It was really, really cool. I don't typically like those cheese-ball guided tours, but I learned so much about him, his relationship to his wife and kids, the significance of various sites in St. Petersburg which coorespond with his novels. It was really cool. It was also really inspiring to be in his study - to learn how he only wrote at night from 11 pm - 5 am, and he only wrote by candlelight. I'm sure that atmosphere contributed to how dark his novels were.
We met up with Ben for our last meal before jumping on an overnight train to Moscow. We assumed that the tickets we bought were all in the same compartment - not the case. So Ben shared a four-person sleeper car with a nice family from Tomsk (where we're headed). Amanda and had the top bunks with two older Russian guys who spoke no English, but offered us Whickey. We declined.
We did, however, inquire about the bar car. I was disappointed in the selection (beer, soda - neither of which I can drink) and vodka. Hmmmm. No mixers. Sounds interesting.
A young guy from Moscow helped us translate that we wanted some orange juice - but we soon found that wasn't available. We (well, I, Amanda said no way) decided could handle Vodka the traditional Russian way. Straight up. This quick jaunt to the bar car to connect with Ben turned into a four-hour crazy evening meeting lots of interesting people from Russia and the Ukraine. And oh my, it involved vodka. Now I have not drank much since January. I went shot for shot with Gleb - a guy who insisted on telling me and Amanda his life history, as well as many, many cultural differences between Russia and America. (You can get married at 14. Women choose at age 16 or 17 if they want to get married or "give into life of sex" and if a woman chooses to go to University, it's very unlikely that she will ever get married because "she will not be able to fix her face and be beautiful enough to attract a man...). Fascinating.
But the night included many, many toasts, some singing, more toasts and a really difficult time climbing up to my bunk bed at 3 a.m.
The train arrived in Moscow at 6 a.m. this morning. Needless to say, the three of us are dragging. We have to wait until 1:30 pm to get on our next train. I don't think there is enough coffee in the world to keep me awake until then. (That, of course, is the reason this blog is a little on the ranty side).
Anyway, we get on the this train (tickets that took Amanda and I 3 days at various train stations, several arguments with crazy Russian woman - I got elbowed in the ribs - Amanda got into a verbal argument with some zit-faced Britney Spears wanna be - and multiple translators - including a really tall Russian kid with a great mullet and a Superstar belt who told off a group of ladies who were yelling at us in Russian. We don't speak Russian, but Amanda and I are quite sure he told them to shut the hell up). But we're on our way to Siberia. Like I said, we leave at 1:30pm this afternoon (6/29) and we arrive in Novobrowick at 9 pm on July 1st. We're then planning on taking at 3 and 1/2 hour cab ride north to a little University city of Tomsk. I'm excited. Actually, I just want to get on the train so I can sleep for a few hours.
This internet cafe doesn't have any photo programs installed, so I'm just going to share some of my last days in St. Petersburg photos with you when I get to Tomsk.
posted by Annette Schiebout at
1:33 AM
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