Strange Breakfasts and Sovetskoe Champagne - Passing the Three Week Mark

This weekend was less eventful that the previous two - we're finally bored of imperial palaces and parks, so we decided to stay in the city. I'd read on the internet about a 'Day of Europe' which meant that embassies were opening up all over the city and giving away free stuff. Unfortunately when we went to have a look the only things they were giving away were brochures - in Russian - advertising their various countries. But it was a lovely sunny day and we got to wander around the city in the sunshine - making the most of it while it's still here!! Then in the evening Rachel and I indulged in an Italian meal (our second meal out in as many days - several of us went for a Chinese on Friday night which meant venturing into *gasp* the suburbs). We briefly debated whether 500 rouble (about £10) 'champagne' would be drinkable, before deciding to bite the bullet and go for it. And whether it's two years of Castle 'champagne' receptions or whether I just have really bad taste, I thought it was pretty good!! Afterwards we went to the Кофе Хаус for dessert and cocktails - all of the big coffee shops on and around Nevsky Prospekt are open 24 hours so this may become a regular occurance. So even if the day disappointed slightly, the evening certainly didn't!

On Sunday I had another interesting conversation with Vera. As I was getting my breakfast I realised that the milk was off - not soon enough as I'd already poured it all over my cornflakes. After asking me if I still wanted breakfast (no, of course not, the fact that there's no milk has completely killed my appetite) she told me to put kefir (sort of plain drinking yoghurt) on my cornflakes, and went to throw the first bowl away. After a few minutes she returned, laughing. "I threw the cornflakes down the toilet and now they are floating!" (If you don't find this funny, try saying it in a Russian accent. Trust me, it works every time.) This took my mind off the fact that kefir on cornflakes is possibly the worst combination of foods I have ever eaten. I was very grateful when Vera went out later to buy more milk...

I have also completed a couple of personal challenges in the past few days. On Sunday, I went somewhere entirely on my own. It was the Museum of Political History, and although it was only two stops away on the metro and I ended up misreading the signs and going round it backwards, it was very satisfying to do something by myself (and even more satisfying to be able to report it to the teachers in my lessons this week). I enjoyed the museum too, there was an amazing array of random things which people had kept purely because they thought that commemorating events is important - for instance, a bullet from the assassination of a politician in the 1800s. As anyone who's seen my bedroom will know, I never throw anything away, so this definitely appealed to me! Entrance is free to anyone with a Russian student card, so I'll definitely be going back - maybe next time I'll make it from Lenin to Gorbachev in the right order!! But my biggest achievement was today, after far too many experiences of leaving the supermarket trying to balance my purchases on my stack of textbooks, today I actually managed to ask for and receive a plastic bag! Result!

In other news, I have succumbed to evil Russian freshers' flu (others may call it a cold but I prefer to be melodramatic). This is not great news, especially I have to do a presentation on my home town in front of dozens of unsuspecting Russian students tomorrow!! Those lucky, lucky students!!

Canals and Calories - A Day of Extravagance

As we've now seen a large amount of the city from the streets (many of these streets perhaps not being the ones which we intended to walk down, but even so...) we decided to gain a new perspective today - St. Petersburg from the water. One of St. Petersburg's nicknames is 'The Venice of the North', and so it's rather unsurprising that it has a lot of canals. Our watery adventure started on one of these (the Grybodaev), where it's difficult to move without tripping over someone trying to sell you a boat trip. Sure enough, we found one, and although the commentary was, once again, all in Russian, we spent a very enjoyable hour floating around the city, seeing some of the famous sights such as the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress.  Excellent picture opportunities, when someone else's head isn't in the way, that is!!

After that, we were all a little chilly (all the more reason to do the boat trip now before it gets really cold) so we went to the nearest Кофе Хайс to eat....ice-cream. Perfectly sensible decision of course! I did feel the need for a hot drink though, so I opted for what the menu described as a 'chocolate fondue'. I should not, therefore, have been surprised to be presented with what was essentially a glass of melted chocolate (the two pieces of banana and half a strawberry drowning in it were their concession to the fondue). A straw was provided, but for what purpose I'm not entirely sure, because I certainly wasn't going to be able to suck my drink up through it! 189 roubles thoroughly well spent I'd say - now to spend the rest of the trip budgeting to pay for today!!

Palaces, Parks and Преподавать - Week 2

For the non-Russian speakers among you, the last word of the title is pronounced 'prepodavat', and it means 'to teach', which is how I spent the first hour and a half of Tuesday morning. I can't say that I was especially delighted to be getting up at 7.30 to teach English to a class of unknown Russian students, but despite their English being, in Vera's words "very bad, like your Russian", they were lovely, and really willing to learn. They weren't that impressed with my description of my town though, when I tried to tell them about Reading Fest, they said that "it's not interesting for us, we only like R'n'B". So much for being down with the kids...

I've had quite a few Russian lessons now, and I'm definitely improving, if very gradually... For one thing, Vera only has to repeat herself once to get me to understand her, not seven times!! There are some nightmares though, I came out of a lesson on Monday, which had focused entirely on listening (never my best skill in any language) nearly in tears and convinced that the teacher was out to get me. Actually, she was really lovely, and in our lesson on Thursday went out of her way to help me with listening!! We're getting lots of homework too, if one thing's improving, it's my knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet from the number of times I've flicked through the dictionary!!

Marianna (one of the Russian lecturers) came to check up on us on Friday, and became possibly the millionth person to be concerned as to how I was getting on with Vera. Apparently she tried to teach one of her previous house-guests to speak better English! Mind you, given my experience earlier this week, I'm not entirely surprised.
         "So, if there are four brothers, this one will be elder, yes?"
         "Well, probably eldest...."
         "Elder!"*scribbles it down*"And this one will be middle?"
         "No, if you have four, there isn't really a middle..."
         "Middle!"
OK Vera, have it your way, you usually do... Seriously, if they all know that the woman's crazy, why do they let her take students? Tonight, when I got home, Vera wanted to know what I'd told Marianna, and when I said I was happy here she seemed very surprised. Maybe she's never not been complained about before... Still, she's been being really nice to me ever since, so clearly going with the crazy pays off!

We've done a couple more day trips this week, to Peterhof on Wednesday and Pushkin on Saturday (two more Ps, in keeping with the theme). Peterhof was something we really had to do in September, because they'll be switching the fountains off soon, and we definitely didn't want to miss them. The first view of the palace from the hydrofoil dock, with the Grand Cascade and  Marine Canal in front of you, is definitely one of the most breathtaking I've seen here (and after two weeks in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, that's saying something!). The palace has over 150 fountains, and 4 cascades, and apart from the Grand Cascade, our favourite had to be a fountain featuring a dog chasing some duck in an endless circle, complete with sound effects and water jets spouting from their mouths! The autumn colour was just coming to the trees (while some remained stubbornly green) and fallen leaves were everywhere. Autumn is short in St. Petersburg, and we're told it will soon be grey and gloomy, so we're enjoying the beauty while it lasts. We took a wander in the park, contemplated paddling in the Baltic (and then decided against it due to mud), and ate pizza in a "preventive" restaurant (quite what how the restaurant should really be described we'll never know). Then (and this is a first!) we managed to catch a bus back to St. Petrsburg with barely a hitch!

After that stroke of good luck, something was bound to go wrong on Saturday, and so it did. We were sat happily in our marshutka (not matrushka as I told Vera and was nearly laughed out of the kitchen - that's a Russian doll, folks!) driving into Pushkin, when we realised that we hadn't the faintest idea where we were meant to be getting off. Ah, there it was, that stop that was now a good kilometre behind us. But no worries, it was a nice day, we'd just get off with this lady. Or not, as the bus was already driving away! By the time we managed to get off the bus, a sign gleefully informed us that we were 2,6 kilometres away from the palaces - and this was definitely a case of 2,6 kilometres plus or minus 66% (apologies non-DUSAGGers for the blatant in-joke!). But, after walking round what felt like (and indeed, probably was) the whole of Pushkin, we arrived at the Catherine Palace, better known as Tsarskoe Selo. As the palace was closed between 2 and 4pm we took the opportunity to briefly collapse, enjoy our packed lunches, and then wander around the lake (nearly tripping over the omnipresent newlyweds - wedding photos are definitely a bigger deal in Russia than in England!). Inside the palace (which is beautiful, blue on the outside and lots and lots of gold on the inside), we were treated to a guided tour entirely in Russian - until Tom found a Spanish tour guide behind us and helpfully offered to translate! My favourite room was the Amber Room, which featured a sign stating that it had been restoring with help from some German fuel company, which did a lot for German-Russian relations. What it failed to mention was that German-Russian relations were in need of some restoration work themselves, after the Nazis ransacked the room and made off with the priceless paintings and amber frames within!! Perhaps the fuel company weren't so selfless after all....

We've seen an awful lot of palaces and parks now, so we're looking for something a bit different for next weekend. Who knows where we'll end up -  knowing us, probably not where we intended to go!!

Trains and Theme Parks - A Weekend Of Day Trips

So I've now survived a week in St. Petersburg, and I definitely feel like I've settled in. Vera is still insane, but I'm no longer scared by her, I'm just learning to go with it. Her favourite word at the moment is "Why?". Why didn't you buy tickets to the Marinsky Theatre? (Because we couldn't get seats together). Why isn't your key on the hook? (Because I forgot and left it in my bag). Why did you go to Oranienbaum? (Well, it wasn't exactly a conscious decision - more on that later...)

But, despite her rather forthright manner we're getting on well. We watch TV together after dinner - a Russian show called 'Let's get married'. It's a bit like Blind Date but (you've guessed it) they get married at the end! Apparently it's perfectly OK to be obsessed with this but not with soaps - only people with no job watch soaps! Mind you, having seen the last ten minutes of a Russian one, in which the main storyline seemed to be an escaped python, I might be inclined to agree.....

I'm also being fed well, with lots of Russian textbook classics, such as kotleti (sort of like meatballs), piroshki (little pies) and blini (pancakes with a variety of fillings from chocolate to meat and smetana, the sour cream that is a staple here). In fact, sometimes I'm fed a little too well! Last night I arrived home to be asked "Do you eat melon?". Yes, I do indeed eat melon, and it's agreed that I will have some after dinner. When the plates are cleared away, Vera gestures to half a melon. I cut myself a slice. Once I've finished, she gestures again. I eat another. She fixes me with a stern gaze. "I vant you to feeneesh it!!" Now I know how Bruce Bogtrotter felt in Matilda - I will not be eating melon again for a very very long time!!

Yesterday, Rachel, Tom and I decided to get out of the city and, in Rachel's guidebook, we found a park called Gatchina 40 kilometres out of the city. After a mild mix-up with stations, we ended up at Baltiskaya, from which the Lonely Planet reliably informed us, we could get a train to Gatchina. Any train to Oranienbaum should do and there was one in the station - excellent! It was only when we'd been on the train half an hour that we realised we were going in entirely the wrong direction - stupid Lonely Planet!! Luckily, Oranienbaum is also home to a nice park with lots of palaces nestled within the greenery and only a 70 rouble entrance fee (that would be about £1.50!!). However, you pull into the station to a view of industrial towns along the Gulf of Finland and a large market. "At least we're not in Siberia." Rachel said, but for a moment we weren't sure. But a very good day was had by all, despite the best efforts of rain and trains to ruin it!!

Today we decided to get the metro out to one of the further-away islands on Petrograd side to see this early music festival which Rachel had read about. We arrived on a different island and the first thing we saw was a mini theme park - it was trying to be Disneyland (it had even stolen the font) but it was definitely not like Disneyland!! Health and safety did not appear to exist - one of the rides looked like those kiddie chairoplanes and indeed the chairs were similarly secure, and attached to the ride with similar lengths of chain, but it was a good 50m off the ground!! Tom and I risked one of the rollercoasters, and we were slightly concerned that we were going to die, but it was good fun and the relief at not being dead only added to the excitement. We also managed to find the festival, which was a bit random. There were just groups of people playing music and dancing dotted all over Yelagin Park, which is also full of gorgeous buildings - they're everywhere in St Petersburg! But the best bit was when, walking along a path, we came across a military brass band. They were playing a waltz and there were lots of old people dancing! Then, as we watch, they started playing the Birdie Song, and all the oldies were dancing to that instead! Made our day!!

Anyway, I'm going to stop writing now, as you're probably all asleep at your computers! Will try to update again soon!

Suitcases, Sim Cards, and Shower Curtains

Well, I've arrived safely in St. Petersburg now, despite being unsure if I'd get into the country due to the inordinate amount of time Russian passport control spent looking at my passport (I think it has too many interesting stamps!). I was met at the airport by Vera, who seemed very concerned by the fact that I had two large suitcases rather than one small one. I'm living here for nearly four months, give me a break!!

The first evening was not exactly fabulous, I was exhausted and couldn't make sense of most of the fast Russian which Vera insisted on babbling at me. But Sunday was much better, although it started with a lesson on opening the door. There are four different doors and five different locks with four different keys, two of which are identical!! Probability of me getting locked out = high!!

Vera took me around the nearby streets on Sunday and showed me various sights, ranging from the cultural (Dom Knigi and the Church of our Lady of Kazan) to the practical (free toilets in McDonalds) to the bizarre (a cat in a haberdasher's). In the Church of our Lady of Kazan, I saw a Russian Orthodox wedding, where the bride and groom were wearing crowns (which is apparently typical) and the bride was in green (which isn't). But my favourite place was Dom Knigi, the House of Books, it was literally full of books in all sorts of languages, and apparently you can take a book and just sit and read, so I think I'll be spending a lot of time there!! On the way back we stopped in the supermarket so that Vera could buy me cornflakes, she was horrified that I had only eaten bread and jam for breakfast that morning!

Today I went to the university for the first time and got my timetable. I have Wednesdays off and very few morning lectures, but I have a horrible day on Tuesday - 9am start and 5 hours of lectures (pity the poor arts student). After meeting lots and lots of Russian lecturers and being shuttled between many different rooms to sign various documents, Rachel, Tom and I went for some 'English time'. We had блыни (pancakes) in a little cafe that Vera recommended - only 100 roubles (like £2) for that and a pot of tea!! Then Rachel helped Tom and I buy Russian sim cards, I haven't quite worked out how much anything costs but still....

Bit of a disaster this evening, I fell over in the shower and brought the shower curtain down with me!! I was really freaked out, but Vera was really nice, I just have to pay to replace it. And then I helped her uninstall some things from her computer as penance!!

Have my first lessons tomorrow, so we'll see how those go...

T-11 hours!!

And so the countdown begins. In 11 hours I will (fingers crossed) be arriving in St. Petersburg, in 9 hours I will be on the plane, and in 5 hours I will be leaving home! Perhaps I should be in bed.......

I've already had my first panic, when I thought I'd lost my new credit card, but that's all sorted - my brother unearthed it down the side of the bed! So bags are packed, visa organised, roubles ordered (to be picked up at the airport tomorrow), hopefully everything will run smoothly in the morning!! I'm a bit nervous about arriving in Russia, as four months is quite a long time to be away from home, and I've only been learning Russian for a year. Luckily my landlady, Vera, speaks perfect English, but hopefully we'll be able to get by in Russian, after all, that's the point!!

I'll try to keep this regularly updated while I'm in Russia, Vera has wifi so it shouldn't be too difficult!! Next entry will probably be tomorrow or Sunday once I'm settled in....