Another entry following so soon after the last? It must be another catch-up entry! And so it is, as I dedicated so much of my last entry to our viewing of Garry Potter, I feel duty-bound to let you know some of the other (fairly exciting) things which have been happening in St. Petersburg recently.
Exciting Thing No. 1: It has snowed!! Yes, that's right, real snow, snow that actually settled on the ground rather than hanging limply in the air for a few seconds before melting on the pavement. Alright, most of it had melted by the time I went for a walk in it mid-afternoon (although there was enough left in the Yusopov Gardens to admire the pretty bird footprints in the snow, and then destroy them with my huge UGG footprints - gotta make your mark!!) and alright it had melted by the next day, but it's a start. Although I may be speaking too soon, as Natasha reliably informs us that next Thursday it will be -6 to -10 degrees!!
Exciting Thing No. 2: Tom and I have been on a day trip. The destination: Pavlovsk. Vera was very pleased, as she's been nagging me to go there for a while, although her reaction when I told her that I was actually going was "It would have been better to go last week." Well, possibly so, the temperature would certainly have been more pleasant, but the fact is, we didn't! And, despite the lightly falling snow (which sounds poetic, but was actually just cold!), and the bare branches of the trees, we enjoyed a very pleasant walk around the gardens (which featured lots of circular things - circular halls, circular ponds, circles of birches - none of which were properly circular) before heading into the palace to warm up. Here we faced some confusion - the English student price was 300 roubles, the Russian student price was 100 roubles, yet when Tom tried to blag his way in, saying "Two hundred roubles, yes?" (obviously in Russian, it would have been overly convincing in English!) the woman shoved the tickets at us saying "Russian students. Free." I think she may have considered taking back the free tickets on seeing our confused faces, but she obviously decided to pity the stupid foreigners and so we were treated to the whole of Pavlovsk palace for free! The guidebooks tell you that Pavlovsk is less impressive than neighbouring Pushkin - they are wrong. The palace is less impressive from the outside than Tsarskoe Selo's blue and gold facade, but inside there is far more to see. Even better, as it was winter, we only had 2 or 3 tour parties to contend with, rather than the usual hundred! Very, very impressive. We then decided to relive our second-week Oranienbaum visit by eating in the station cafe but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the food here was of a slightly higher quality and the setting infinitely more impressive. It also had the added comedic value of tables directly below the train information boards, so we had dinner with an audience - luckily no-one decided to ask us a question!
Exciting Thing No. 3: Last Sunday, Tom and I attempted to do some more sightseeing. Heavy emphasis on the word 'attempted'. We had read in the guidebook (yet another reason not to trust the Lonely Planet!) that Kresty Prison, a working prison near Finland Station, gives guided tours every Saturday and Sunday, and so we went to investigate. After jaywalking (which is illegal in Russia) twice, in order to navigate around the roadworks on the main road (there was no pavement, nor was there a replacement walkway), we arrived outside the prison. Unfortunately, here we hit our stumbling block. There was no door. We walked around all four sides of the prison (a grim-looking red brick affair, with cracked glass in the windows - I would not like to be a prisoner there!) and saw absolutely no way of getting in that was not covered with warning signs. Slightly disillusioned, we trudged back to the Coffee House near Finland Station, where Tom attempted to cheer himself up with some nice hot soup. Again, emphasis on the word 'attempted', for it was not hot soup, it was cold soup (it did say this on the menu). It was also fizzy (it did not say this on the menu)! Luckily we were able to cheer ourselves up by seeing how much sugar you can put in fruit tea before it fails to dissolve. This experiment can be summed up in this quote from Tom: "Tea should not be crunchy!"
Exciting Thing No. 4: This is not so much an exciting thing as an insane thing which Vera did - last night I came out of my room in the early hours to find a curtain pulled over the entrance to the kitchen. I was ever so slightly confused by this, as that curtain has never before been there. However, I was enlightened this evening, when Vera decided to play the "Guess where I slept last night?" game. No prizes for guessing, it was the kitchen. Apparently she couldn't sleep because of a party the neighbours were having, although I couldn't hear anything so it can't have been a particularly loud party! She also said it was the best night's sleep she ever had, so I won't be too surprised if that curtain reappears....
Anyway, before this becomes a very long list of not so exciting things (ie. my recurring nightmare of being fed cold fish - no wait, that's actually happening!), I will sign off. Always quit while you're ahead!
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