Привет всем!
I have been in St. Petersburg for the past three days. It has been quite an experience. The city could not contrast with Helsinki more: St Petersburg is huge, loud, and bustling. The cars go everywhere, and the main street, Nevskiy Prospekt, is fulled with people walking up and down. Most of the tourists here are still Russian, so most tourist services are also conducted in Russian. My Russian is pretty awful: I cannot understand most of what is said to me. I walked into a shop run by two nice old ladies selling pastries, and was there long enough to say in broken words that I had no money and that I would be back with money. After a struggle to find an ATM, I went back and bought some Russian pastries and dried fruit mostly by pointing.
Lunch was somewhat of a different experience. Many of the cafes that sell cheap food still carry their habits over from the communist days, I presume. People get into a line, take a tray, and go down the line in front of food cases telling the servers behind the counters what they want. So I kept on pointing, and at one point the waiter was expecting me to do something while saying lots of Russian I had no idea what it meant. Some guy next to me decided to help me by saying a lot of more words I didn't understand. After a while of everyone getting pissed at me, I just pointed randomly and ended up with potatoes, of course.
The city itself has some wonderful sights and buildings. I have also been trying to couchsurf, and one person even contacted me offering to meet up and show me around the city. So I met with her, Stacey, and we walked around the city seeing some sights, while she taught me some Russian words. We had enjoyable conversations and it was really fun hanging out with her. I also met with another person, Alex, who found me on couchsurfing, and ate borsh and piroshky with him while talking and teaching him some English, as he was learning the language.
Russia has been very interesting, but also difficult to travel in. It's an exciting challenge, and I will be in St Petersburg for a few more days.