Friday, January 19, 2007

Good Morning From St. Petersburg

Well, we finally made it to Mother Russia and it has been quite spectacular. Right when we got to the station, our friend Marina whom we met through SERVAS was waiting for us. This was a great surprise because I had emailed her the day before with the time that we would be coming in but she didnèt (the keyboard here is messed up) email back so I figured we would be walking to our hostel, which wasnèt terribly far. However, after seeing how crazy the metro was, I am glad she was there. She was accompanied by her friend and I feel terrible because I still canèt figure out how to say his name. He is a really cool guy and told me a hilarious math joke. How do you find Lenin Square. (Again, keyboard messed up, no question marks.) You multiply the height by the length! Hahaha, I thought it was pretty good. They took us all around Nevsky Prospekt and by the Neva River and by the Hermitage Museum, from which our hostel is basically one minute away.

The highlight of my day was when Marina showed us the places where Dostoevsky lived and where his characters are thought to have lived, or rather, where Dostoevksy imagined them to live. We first went to Alyona Ivanovnas supposed home, the area being a little sketchy. Marina did not feel bothered at all so we followed suite. Then, we walked the 730 steps from her place, where he murdered Alyona, to Sonyas flat, and then back to Raskolnikovs flat. I will hopefully post some photos tonight of these areas.

This morning we are going to meet Marina at the Hermitage Museum!

Will

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man you guys are packing a full day. That youtube clip is too much. Thanks for sharing... Those Russians are pretty funny people heh? Sounds like you're getting a real picture of what a Russian is like. We paint a different picture of those Europeans in N.A.. Have you filled another card of pics yet? Are you sending them home?
Stay Well.

Paps

Jack van der Laan said...

Hi Will,

So good to read that you are doing well on your trip. I am making soup at the moment (Dutch Style). Hungry for some ? When you get back I look forward to seeing your pictures / film. Will keep on checking on your adventures.

Safe Journeys,

Uncle Jack van der Laan

Will said...

Hey Dad and Uncle Jack,

The Youtube clip is pretty awesome. The show is called, "Love is Love." It's about as interesting as the name. Yes, we are getting a pretty good idea of what Russia is like, at least as good as we can in a couple weeks. We sent a CD with pictures back home from Poland. I hope those make it home all right.

Some Dutch soup does sound good...We had some home-cooked Borscht which was pretty good in fact, but I don't think it quite rivals a nice soup and bun with Gouda. When I get back I will be sure to send some photo CD's out to you!

Thanks for the comments,
Will