2011/09/08

St Petersburg

We had a nice evening in Oslo talking about hiv, hepatitis a-z, Russian blood transfusion and diarrhea to boost my morale. Martin gave me chili tacos and Jakub gave me 55% rum, which together prepared my stomach for China, and the porcelain at Gardermoen for world war 3.

On Monday I managed in three hours what the Germans seventy years ago didn’t manage in 2,5 years: I entered Leningrad. After having some beers in the hot sun at Nevskiy Prospekt with a German I met on the bus, I found my hostel easily. I then went for an evening stroll in the city and enjoyed all the big squares and nice bridges. I stumbled over a couple of English brothers from the hostel and their local guides, and we all went for some beers. We had a blast and my vocabulary was increased with words like ”clungefest” and ”fitties”. Finding out that they were ”out on a rape” was hilarious.

The next day I went to check out the Catherine Palace. Clever as I am, I picked the bus with the most stops so I arrived after 45 minutes of sunbading in a leather seat. Of course I went the one day the doors were closed, but the park around was huge and beautiful so I had plenty to do. In the evening I went out with the English and an American that studied at Tennessees Institute of technology. John lost at Jenga.
Third day I checked out the artillery museum. Outside they were playing nice, Russian military music and firing off a salute now and then just to make sure that the ones with pacemakers won’t return. The etymologic museum was also pretty cool. The Russians have cleverly left out the people they don’t want to have in it. lIn the evening it was aquavitea and vodka rounds at the hostel while we were cracking jokes and having fun. I had to leave because I was meeting my couch surfing contact, Katya. I ended up at bar with 5 girls, so I think I made the right choice. However, the most romantic thing that happened was that the waiter tucked me in with a blanket.

After sleeping on my first Russian couch ever with talking cats and dogs, I went to the Hermitage. A big art museum in the Winter Palace. It was cool. I then went to the ”Siege of Leningrad” museum, which was closed because it was on this day, September 8, 70 years ago that the siege started. There were cars from the war outside, and men and women in old uniforms there. Survivors were walking around and soon a big concert started. It was a cool happening, and I was pretty lucky that I got to see it. In the evening we were sitting at home and I gave them some aquavitae and chocolate. We also had alot of fun with google translate. She was a great host!

Link to photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111895625193387647956/20110908StPetersburg?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWev6n44933Ug




4 comments:

  1. lol, this post got a couple of laughs out of me :-) Laura, Brussels.

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  2. great post! and it suggests that youre alive which is also pretty great. your tracking device is malfunctioning though...

    -Kristian

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  3. Good to read from you and thanks for the entertainment. "Someone had to compensate..." made me laugh out loudly.

    Take care

    Andreas

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  4. Konge!!! Just one thing, where is the geotagging in your pictures???? :)

    Francisco

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