From Russia with a cold
After Pennsylvania, my next journey abroad was a school
trip to Russia & Estonia in March/April '98. This was a mandatory part of my
Social Science studies. The group consisted of about 30
education students, mostly from the Social Science class,
but also a handful of Natural Science students and 3
professors. In addition, most of the way we were
accompanied by a bus of nursing students from the same
college.
The means of travelling, and the destinations were
really a bit beneath my usual standards, but it was
mandatory…*sigh* I would much have preferred a plane to
being stuck on a bus for over a week with a bunch of
students and a teacher with an accordion...
*slamming head against wall* Ah, the sound, the sound… It
will remain with me until my dying day… and there were
times on this trip when I did not think the day could come
soon enough… Especially since I developed the mother of all
colds the very day we left Oslo. (I have a talent for such
things.)
The bus took us from Oslo to Stockholm, then we went
by ferry to Helsinki and then by bus to St.Petersburg. We
spent a couple of extremely early hours in a freezing
Stockholm. Personally, I spent most of them at McDonalds…
BUT I also managed to get in an hour or two at the
National Art Museum so I wasn't a complete barbarian. The
high point of this visit was the painting where Swedish
soldiers are dragging their dead king Carl XII home from
a failed attack on Norway in 1718. We also spent about
five minutes in the museum of modern art. You can tell
it's modern when you don't understand shit but the tickets
cost double the usual price (the same principle applies to
theatre plays and orchestral music). Now, Stockholm is
actually a very nice place, but I recommend you see it in
the summer, and preferably later than 7 am. Also, if you
go there, please be sure to mention the war of 1718 often
and in a loud voice. Thank you.
Finland is a strange place. The Finns are actually
ahead of the US in cell phones pr. capita, and they are
among the top nations in the world in terms of internet &
e-mail use, software development, etc, etc. And yet…and
yet… in many ways their culture is semi-Russian… It's not
a myth… absolutely NO ONE can get as hideously drunk as
the Finns, and they will drink at the slightest
provocation. I've been told that Helsinki is a nice place,
but I'm unable to confirm this… Again, maybe it was the
early morning/late March setting and all… but I must admit
to a slight claustrophobic feeling every time I'm in that
country. It's GLOOMY.
Now, they say the cold war is over, but apparently they
forgot to tell the Russian Border Patrol. These guys take
their job seriously. We stayed at the border for several
hours upon entering, and we stayed for hours upon leaving a
few days later. And of course we had to depart with some
cigarettes and soft drinks before the control was over.
Perestroika my ass. (Not literally!)
Unfortunately, most of the pics from St.Petersburg,
including all I took at the Winter Palace were SLIDES, and
until I get my ass in gear and have them converted into
scanable pics, you'll have to do without. Sucks to be you,
eh? St.Petersburg is a beauty and a beast, and it is a
showcase for the failures of communism (as if we need more
of THOSE). Most of this enormous city (5.5 million +) is
made up of ugly, dirty concrete slabs that are falling
apart. Many places you will see half finished houses,
abandoned because of a lack of money or planning or maybe
just poor construction. The "new" city is a study of
incompetence. And this is considered the #1 city in
Russia… Makes you wonder what inner Siberia looks like.
The only thing that seems to work pretty well is the
subway, which is the only reasonable way to travel long
distances in St. Petersburg.
The old city, in the center of town is great. Lots of
wonderful old buildings and incredible art to loot, I mean
LOOK at. It's all a bit grimy and worn down, but the city
has potential if it wasn't for the fact that it's
inhabited mainly by Russians.
I don't know if it's the result of communism, or some
deeper, dark streak in the Russian psyche (probably both),
but the Russians simply don't know the first thing about
business. Even in such a touristy place, almost nobody
speaks English and customers are still usually treated as
a burden. In the old days you could understand the bad
service, because as state employees they had their jobs
and salaries no matter what. But even now, when most of
the shops are privately owned and the people behind the
counter are dependent upon customers, they still treat you
like dirt. This is all the more strange, because when you
meet Russians OUTSIDE their professional domain, they are
usually very friendly and helpful. They will go to extreme
lengths to try to communicate and aid you in every
possible way, EXCEPT when it is their job to do it, and
you are willing to pay for their services.
A final word on the Winter Palace… this famous site
was a royal castle that Katarina the Great turned into a
private museum for herself and her friends, spending the
better part of Russia's gross domestic product on the
finest in European art along the way. I suppose you need
a place to relax when you've been busy all day trying to
wipe out Poland or some other small country having the bad
fortune of sharing a border with you. Anyway, the palace
is great, a wonderful piece of art in itself - hundreds of
rooms, all beautifully decorated with paintings,
sculptures, historical artifacts and such. It's well worth
a visit - you can spend days in there. Sadly, but
typically, almost no information is given in any other
language than Russian.
One of the numerous palaces in St.Petersburg.
I lost count after the first few hours…
The view
across the Narva River. It's probably so dirty you
could walk across even without the ice.
Some
statue of some king outside some church. I wish I had
taken notes, I really do!
The
subway. This pic is lousy, but with a certain Andy
Warholesque quality to it, if I may dare use such a word
as quality about any of these pics… The ticket lady almost
went ballistic when I took this pic. Apparently, either
the fact that they have a subway, that the subways have
escalators or that the escalators have people on them, is
considered a state secret in Russia. Possibly all three.
Ready to move on to
Estonia?
I sure was.
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