As we stepped off the plane we got our first insight into life here, it was freezing. As we walked through customs and met our taxi driver we got our second insight; everyone was down-right miserable.
Our first hostel was the Nord Hostel. It was clean and warm with reassuringly Soviet wallpaper. Within no time at all we were meeting our local guide who was going to give us a tour. Our guide was Mary, or Fruit loop Mary as we now affectionately refer to her. (on the right):
Mary was very interested in us and our lives in London, and asked us lots of prying questions. In return we discovered she was not very comfortable in the company of people, and instead preferred rats. I smiled a lot and nodded while she talked (manners cost nothing Christian!) while Christian managed to give her the impression he was "conservative" and "a cockney!" She showed us the key sights of the city including the Winter Palace or Hermitage (see below). This was the winter home of Catherine the Great who wanted to emanate the elegance of europe in the architecture of her home, and took elegance to the extreme by never wearing the same dress twice. Christian and I were not going to get such luxury, it was so cold we were going to need to wear very piece of clothing we had very day!
After a very long goodbye with Mary (after which we realised we should have tipped her) we were on our own in this cold dark city. It soon became apparent neither of us had a clue how to get back to the hostel. Using only our own wits, a helpful bunch of Dutch people, another hostel and an iPhone, we found our way home.
Over the next couple of days we really immersed ourselves in Russian culture. We took the Metro into the deepest layers of the earth (see people queuing for this opportunity).
We conducted whole conversations in Russian (with lots of pointing) and Christian even took on a swarthy miserable expression. To test the true misery of the people I began smiling at everyone. I found that people either maintained their state of melancholy or gave me a condescending slight up-turn of the mouth (these people were few and far between, and clearly thought there was something wrong with me). Christian seemed to be testing the people of St Petersburg also, just about every interaction he has had seems to involve gruff words, tufting and even the odd shove.
In the next few days we aim to get a smile out of a Russian, wish us luck! But for now, from Russia with love,
Christian and Fiona
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Location:St Petersburg, Russia
