At Berlin, I went straight to the next plane, boarded, and I was off to Russia. It sounds so simple, and then it got so much more intimidating.
Everything worked out fine with my visa and papers, but when I got into the city I realized that I was completely lost. I hadn't bought a map beforehand because I didn't want it to be in German; I figured I would just go to tourist information in the airport and get a map there, then find my way to my hostel. No such luck. After passport control, there was just a concrete room and then the street with taxis and buses.
So I'm standing in the middle of St. Petersburg, lost, speaking no Russian, in the rain. I knew the address of my hostel--"3rd Sovetskaya ul. 28". However, all the streets signs (and the map I bought) were all in the Russian alphabet. No one spoke any English, either.
I admit I was poorly prepared, and kind of on purpose. I like to dive into a city and try to find my bearings as I go--however, this time it took two hours. I finally found a bookstore with an English map and got the clerk to point out where we were. Then I found 3rd Sovetskaya ul. and made my way there, still in the rain.
It looks like there was snow here earlier, but it's warmed up and is muddy and rainy. However, the canal I went over was still frozen.
So here we go. The internet infrastructure is much less well developed here, so I'm not sure what or how frequent my updates will be, but they'll come, and there will be pictures, and there will be vodka.
--Kraqton Skott Vhofedic
*Update*
I met a German firefighter named Sebastian and we went out for, what else...
1 comment:
If you guys looked, I don't think you would have to go far back to find a common ancestry.
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