The wedding is now only a week away.
I am sitting here in our cosy flat on the 4th floor. Very quiet with double glazing. There is a lock on our inner door and 4 deadlocks on the outer door. Then down 4 flights of stairs and through another locked door to the courtyard, and then through a iron grill locked gate to the road. I actually feel quite safe out on the open street (provided I keep away from the cars) so I am guessing that the high level of security dates back to earlier times.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Go back to last Wednesday, after a very enjoyable few days with Sarita, Chris and his family, we caught the bus to Hamburg airport to catch a Russka airlines flight to St Petersburg. I had some concern following the recent crash of a Russian airlianes flight with the soccer team on board, and my concern was raised a bit further when I saw the age of the Airbus A320. I knew there were no bombs on board - the security at hamburg airport even had me removing glasses, belt, shoes, and even the chewing gum packet out of my pocket!
Onc3e inside the plane though, I felt safe. I was so jammed into the seat with my knees hard against the seat in front that I kknew I wouldn't accidently fall out even if the plane crahed without me having a seatbelt on! I was glad to exit the plane, even though the whole planeload had to get onto a one bus to go to the terminal. The luggage rack was quite an experience. Bags were stacked 2 and 3 high and started to fall off as soon as they reached the first corner of the belt. I had to jump out of the way. I found our bags, a little worse for wear, and headed out.
From that point on, though, things improved. We caught a very comfortable taxi to our accomodation and our driver was very friendly. The weather was nowhere near as cold as I expected.
Russians use the Cyrillic alphabet which is quite a challenge. Once you transpose to our alphabet, though, some of it starts to look familiar. We haven't had too much of a challenge in that regard.
We are getting a good introduction to some parts of Russian history. I say some parts, because there are obvious gaps in the presented history - for example there is no information about the large numbers of peasants in the labour camps who helped build St Petersburg back in the 1700s. But then I suppose that our public museums are light on for information about how the aborigines have been treated.
St Peterburg seems to display a level of affluence that I am sure would not be reflected in the rest of Russia. For the visitor, it is a wonderful place to visit, wandering the canals, and looking at the architecture, churches, museums and gardens. We went to an Orthodox Service last night, The choir was great to listen to.
On the cultural side, we also went to see Swan Lake the other night. Not my usual entertainment, but I really enjoyed it once I worked out what the ballet was about. The music was good, and it was interesting to be in a theatre where many well known Russians had spent some time. The theatre itself was a bit run down, but I couldn't complain at the $30 entrance fee (seats started at $14).
The Hermitage housed some amazing art collections, including Matisse, Renoir, Gauguin, Monet and Picasso just to mention a few.
The weather has been reasonably kind. Rain every day, but then also some blue sky which comes and goes. It has not been as cold as I expected.
Well - the sightseeing won't get done with me sitting here at the computer, so its time to head out a again.
Talk again soon.
