Russia Trip Diary - Part 2

Russia Trip Diary - Part 2

Day Five – 13th October 2009

We had to wake up a little earlier than usual today because this was our last day in St. Petersburg. After getting ready and breakfast I took my stuff to Mie’s room by 9am and then joined the others in the lobby and chatted until 10am. At 10am my group (and a few stowaways) walked to the Metro and got to the centre where we met a Russian contemporary writer, Alexander Skidan, who took us on a walk talking about the works of Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky is most famous for his book Crime and Punishment, a novel which I have been inspired to read as a result of the tour. The story, based in St. Petersburg, basically revolves around a murder by a young man who justified it by using the money he gained for good. The tour itself was interesting and I really enjoyed looking at the different parts of the city we found ourselves in.

After the tour Mie took us to a cafe that she regularly went to when she lived in St. Petersburg on exchange. The cafe was very modern in style and I was surprised that the people working in it spoke English to some extent. We happily chatted whilst eating and then planned what to do for the last afternoon in St. Petersburg. I had two priorities for the afternoon, a canal tour and a museum that had some weird and weirder things in it which we were told about by Mie and Anna. I was ready to get out there and explore but some of the others were still eating so me and E decided to go by ourselves and walked towards Nevsky Prospekt (the main street of St. Petersburg). It took us to where I thought the canal tours took place and was glad to find it. We had to watch our balance on the wooden planks in getting to the canal tour’s platform next to the river but once we got there we asked for a tour in English and we were told that the next tour would be in an hour and that it would be 400 roubles (about £8) so we bought our tickets then and decided to walk to the museum.

The museum that we were walking to was established by Peter the Great who wanted to bring the enlightenment seen around Europe in his time to Russia. He decided to do this by setting up this museum, among other things, but no one wanted to go so in order to attract people he gave people a free shot of Vodka for entering. Bringing the Enlightenment to Russia through VODKA! Sounds like a good idea to me. Anyway the name of the museum is Kunstkamera which is located on the banks of the River Neva in the centre of St. Petersburg and has a number of strange exhibits. When alive Peter the Great, an emperor of Russia, collected abnormal human foetuses and these are now found in the museum. It was quite bizarre walking into a room full of foetuses that had two heads, no arms or legs, or were cyclops. It was hard to understand at the time that these exhibits were real and not plastic or fake in one way or another. One particular exhibit was a baby’s head with its eyes open which to this day remains a haunting image with me. So the prize of ‘best place to be traumatised in St. Petersburg’ goes to this museum.

After being traumatised at the museum and shouted at by an old lady who worked in the museum we walked to the canal tour. On the way another old woman noticed the Soviet symbol on my hat and started smiling at me. I politely smiled back and she suddenly said with a wider smile in a thick Russian accent, “You look like Soviet soldier!!!” She seemed very happy about this fact, so happy in fact that she said it a second. I responded by saying “Yeah but I’m about two decades late”. Anyway after street banter with the old women we got to the canal tour which was a great way of seeing the City. During the tour we were told about the history of St. Petersburg and some interesting facts about the people that lived there. We spent most of the tour on the top deck facing the elements but by halfway into the tour the cold was too harsh to bear and we decided to go below decks for the rest of the tour. I found it a great opportunity to take photos and learn more about the city and the canal tour remains one of my main highlights of the trip.

After the canal tour was finished it was about 5pm so we had time to do something else before we all met to go to the train station bound for Moscow. After the canal tour we were still feeling the cold so we decided to find a cafe to warm up and decide what was next. After another green tea and a meal of meat and rice I felt ready for anything. The cafe itself was quite weird in style kind of Turkish or Egyptian and it was on Nevsky Prospekt – I can’t remember the name of it. Anyway after being warmed up E insisted that we walked home and I had the job of navigating us back to the Hotel. This task was relatively straight forward as I found a main road on the map that would take us straight to the canal and from there I should be able to work out where to go next.

So we walked down the street and found a market which was way larger than the one we saw on the tour with Paulina. We walked around the stalls and found ourselves at a stall that sells various types of tea. Unfortunately for me and E the stall owner could not speak a word of English so when it came to my turn to buy boxes of Russian tea as presents there was some difficulty in communication. I basically wanted to purchase three boxes of tea. The thing that the lady could not understand is why I don’t want to purchase a larger box which is cheaper. This stalemate between me and the stall owner lasted for about five minutes until another lady that could speak English came and offered her assistance. I said my thanks and bought the three boxes I wanted. The stall owner even gave me an additional box of tea for free due to my large purchase which I thought was really nice of her.

On the way out we saw another pickled vegetable stall and got free samples. E insulted one of the stall owners by not accepting the free pickled vegetable. In E’s defence she did not understand the situation and would have happily taken free stuff if she knew what was going on.

After the market with tea in hand we continued with our walk back to the hotel. It was getting darker at this point so I didn’t want to walk around more than we had to. We found ourselves at the canal as I thought we would on the map and continued up the street to a coffee shop. We went in to make sure that we were going in the right direction. When we got inside I decided I needed a hot chocolate like you get in England. There were two types of hot chocolate on the menu, cocoa or a hot chocolate, so on E’s advice I decided to go with the latter. Big mistake! The cup was filled with molten thick chocolate. Nothing like the drinkable hot beverage I had envisioned. This was quite a disappointment and I haven’t forgiven E to this day although she did pay for half of it due to the omission and the fact that she drank most of it so no grudges.

When we finally got back to the hotel we collected our things from Mie’s room and waited in the lobby for an hour until 10pm, the time when the coach arrived to pick everyone up for the train station. As soon as 10pm came we handed in our cardkeys and said our goodbyes to the hotel and St. Petersburg.

When we arrived at the train station we had about an hour before we were moved to our train and to what became one of the longest nights of my life. In this time I realised that my padlock from my bag was missing and that I should buy another memory card for my camera so that I don’t miss out on anything. Two simple tasks that took me an hour to do. First the train station was designed in a way that had seats in the middle of the hall where people could wait and there were shops all around these seats. I went into a camera shop and queued. When I was first in line I asked the shop assistant if he could speak English. He responded with an unsmiling ‘No’. I then pointed to the memory card behind him trying to tell him that I wanted to buy it. I got no response until a woman behind me started telling him what I needed in Russian and then asking me if this was OK. I thanked her for her help. She responded by telling me that schools aren’t as good as back in her day, which I found interesting. After this I walked into another shop to try and get another padlock. This first shop had no one in it that could speak English again. At this point I wished that I had a translator that would just follow me around for the whole trip! After some frustration the guy in the queue behind me uttered one word, “Zamoch”. I then went to another store nearby which was more a souvenir stand and asked for a Zamoch in which she pointed at the padlock and this my job was done. I was ready for Moscow.

Before entering the train we had to show our tickets and passports to an unsmiling face and then we were left to find our ‘rooms’ for the night which I would more liken to a communal coffin. The conditions in the train bedrooms (or couchettes) were cramped with a small path in the middle of them and bunk beds on both sides. My experience in these cramped conditions will never be forgotten due to the frustration that was felt and my fear of cramped spaces. I shared my couchette with R who was a nice guy to talk to and two Australian girls that were more like two squawking hens than people you could reason with.

After a philosophical discussion with R and E the two squawkers (as I would aptly call them) squawked in and demanded their territory which consisted of the lower bunks. E then left feeling her presence was only wanted by 50% of the room – I would call it a lucky escape rather than being kicked out. The thing I hate the most about girls like these is that they are so in love with themselves that they actually believe they are the centre of the Universe. One asked us at a ridiculously early time to turn off the lights so that she could go to bed. Whilst in communal living spaces people must tolerate those around them. So in the spirit of toleration we turned the main lights off but I kept my small reading light on. In a fake smile that only this type of fake girl can do so well one of them squawked that they could still see the light. I reject this argument on two grounds: 1) the light was on the other side from her and I was covering the majority of the light and 2) she was facing the other way whilst sleeping and started to complain the second the main light was turned off. Now I’m not the type of guy that looks for or promotes conflict but this girl was annoying to the extreme so much so that I rejected her request and only left when I had the realisation that there was a cafe on the train.

Upon this realisation I took my book and pen and left for the train’s cafe. The cafe was a full carriage of the train and reflected the Russian stereotype in my mind – something that had passed its time but still in working order. I had a can of Red Bull from before with me so I drank that and wrote some notes about the trip. When the waitress came towards me I asked for an omelette, which turned out to be two fried eggs with bacon and ketchup covering one side. Despite the weird mixture it was nice and so I was happy to stay there until we got to Moscow. Later three Russian men sat on the table next to mine. One asked if I smoked and I replied “No” with a smile and the Russian replied “Your mother taught you well” and began laughing. I found the comment quite hysterical as well and I began chatting with them about their trip and then later mine. By 5am the Russian who was taking the orders for food before told us that the train cafe was going to close. At this point I left for my room and had a two hour nap.

Day Six – 14th October 2009

When I woke up to find myself in these cramped conditions it was 9am. I checked the programme which said that the train would arrive in Moscow by 9:52am. I took the remaining time to read over what I wrote the night before and add to it where necessary. I abstained from the breakfast of crackers and jam but I kept the water bottle for later.

We finally made it to Moscow! A city that I’ve heard so much about and seen in the news countless times. The programme at this point had changed from what was stated originally. The Kremlin was brought forward a day because the Russian authorities decided to close it a day earlier than what they told us before. So as soon as we got off the train we were told that the coach that was going to take us to the Kremlin was just across the road. We walked to the coach and in this time a short man with a leather jacket bumped into me which I later realised to be a pick pocketer. Luckily for me I had all my belongings either in my luggage which was padlocked or in my small man-bag so nothing was taken. However when we got on the coach about to take us to the Kremlin there was some delay and so I asked what was going on. The message came through that a French girl (from now on called V) on the tour had her camera stolen by a homeless person on the way to the coach. Another member of the tour (R) saw this and then chased after the homeless person. This got the attention of the Russian police who caught the homeless person and was talking to V, R and Anna. After a while they were taken to the police station and we were taken to the Kremlin.

The story of the stolen camera had nothing to do with me but it is an interesting story that will be remembered as part of the trip so I will write what happened. After the incident and the capture of the homeless suspect, R, V and Anna were taken to the police station for questioning. They were there for twelve hours being interviewed, then re-interviewed and it was only when they called the French embassy something was sorted. By the time the French consul was on the way to the station the police handed over the camera and allowed the three members of the tour to leave. The whole story was full of frustration at the bureaucracy of the Russian police and their ineptitude in performing what would be in other countries a simple task.

So whilst those three were enduring this, the rest of us went on a tour of the Kremlin which was way different from what I envisioned. Our guide showed us around and told us about the history of the fortress. We saw the presidential offices, the Tsar canon that never was fired in battle, the Tsar bell which had never been rung and the numerous cathedrals. The guide joked that the canon and the bell were named after the Tsars because they never worked well, which historically is true.

At 12pm the tour had finished and we were given half an hour to wander around the Kremlin ourselves before we had to meet outside the Kremlin walls. During this time I went into one of the numerous cathedrals and heard a Russian Orthodox choir which sang beautifully so much so that I bought a copy of their music before I left.

At 12:30pm we all met at the entrance of the Kremlin and walked through the park to get to the Red Square. The Red Square was larger than I imagined. Around it you could see Lenin’s Mausoleum, Rym which was a large shopping centre nicknamed the Russian equivalent of Harrods in London and St Basil’s Cathedral. After a few minutes we walked to the other side of the Red Square and made our way to the coach which then took us to the hotel.

The hotel in Moscow was beyond belief and not in a good way! The place made it feel like we were in the 1970s and there were paintings of Christian symbols everywhere. To make it worse we were told that it would be three to a room and that there would only be one key to share. The receptionist wanted to do one room at a time but the list of names who we shared the room with was lost. Another logistical nightmare due to the large number of people on the trip! At this point I decided to take the initiative and quickly asked E if she and K would want to share a room together with me. They accepted so I asked them for their passports which I took to the desk in a hurry. We were the first room to be organised and I was more relieved than anything else because I knew if I didn’t do anything we would be stuck there for an hour and even worse I could be potentially stuck with Australian squawkers, which I would avoid at all costs!

After we received our weighted key to our room we took the elevator to the third floor. The corridor looked like it hadn’t been redecorated at least since the 1980s and the rooms were the same. In the rooms there were three beds in different corners of the room and a few tables dotted around. To my surprise there was also a picture of Jesus in the corner watching our every move. I somehow found the picture creepier than the head I saw in the museum in St. Petersburg. After a few minutes to adapt to our new surroundings – a standard far below the one we got used to in St. Petersburg – we unpacked and dared ourselves to try the food in the cafe on the ground floor.

The cafe itself was decorated in the religious style that we saw everywhere else in the hotel. The far wall had a large map of Israel painted on it which pin pointed religious sites. We sat down and waited for the Russian waitress to take our order. After a few minutes she came and we pointed to what we wanted on the menu. I ordered ‘meat in a pot’ which turned out to be surprisingly good when compared to our surroundings so much so that we had pancakes for dessert and a tea that i didn’t order but drank and paid for anyway. Whilst we ate others from the group nervously looked at the menu and considered whether they would dare to try the food for themselves. A group of Australians came in and asked us whilst we ate if it was nice and whether they should eat there. I think we only spoke to one of them at the beginning of the trip and so it was obvious that they were only trying to use us a guinea pigs to see if the food was to their standards. To be completely honest even if the food was awful I would have probably told them that it was good but in any case the food was delicious and authentically Russian so I couldn’t say anything to the contrary.

By this time my money supply was running low. I had about 310 roubles left (about £6). I didn’t want to use my card without calling my bank because they would freeze it for security reasons. After realising that I didn’t bring all the information I required in order to make the necessary changes with my bank I did what any independent 20 year old does in a time when he has no means to get money – I called my parents. My dad found a different UK phone number to try to get hold of another human being at the bank and I was saved. He definitely deserves his presents from Russia after this! So I had to wait twenty-four hours before I could get money out which was hard for me to do especially when we walked around the souvenir stands the next day.

In the evening, myself and K decided to go back to the centre of Moscow to do different errands. For her it was to try and mend her camera and for me it was to try and change my Danish kroner into roubles so that I had some money for the next day. The Moscow Metro system worked a little differently from its St. Petersburg counterpart. For one thing the fairground-like coins had disappeared and instead used a card with a magnetic strip. The price however remained the same so out of my remaining 310 roubles I spent 200 on a card that gave me access to the metro ten times. Seven stops on the red line later we were in the centre and immediately went to Rym then went our separate ways after agreeing to meet back at the information desk for 7pm. We both failed in our tasks. I went to three different exchange places and then a bank. None of them would change anything but Euros and US Dollars.

After the failure we decided to go back to the hotel in a time bubble and call it an early night.