August 8. Pushkin and the Vegetarian in the box.
Happy birthday Caspar! Saint Petersburg is very pretty. Today, we visit a flea market with many interesting things on display. I remember a Russian magazine with Madonna the popsinger on its cover, lots of old clothes, binoculars, children's toys, old photo cameras, fur coats, vantage prams, records, engine parts. I socially walk on but feel ...
August 7. A Neva ending boatride.
Today we take a beautiful boatride. This is not supposed to be a touristic site but the boatride through the canals of St. Petersburg, passing all the beautiful facades and museums, the rattling Russian voice - don't forget to bring your Russian friends! - explains about the house where Pushkin lived, the tsar's palaces, the ...
August 6. St. Petersburg, Parks, Pancakes.
Bryndis comes, the interesting girl from Iceland. Together we explore this amazing city some more, walk through her parks, feel happy as we breathe the atmosphere of this masterpiece of architecture. It is almost unimaginable that this place has been a swamp only three centuries ago. At home I make pancakes, just to do something ...
August 5.
And so I arrive in Saint Petersburg. The trainride was nice as always. I have been listening to audiobooks and sleeping a little bit. At the station, Olga, my couchsurfing host is waiting for me. I am so grateful to her! We take a metro to Olga's place. Later we walk around her city. Pretty. ...
Working days until Moscow.
The next couple of days are not so interesting for the reader, I guess. I just wrote and wrote. In the morning at the kitchen table, in the afternoon in a cafe, and the last day in a huge bookstore. That is a nice story though. Max helped me to buy a train ticket to ...
St Petersburg #3. Hermitage.
I was in to some culture, and the next day I found some time to realize an old dream of mine: Visiting the Hermitage museum. It is located in seven huge buildings, and its collection is just huge. I concentrated on impressionist paintings, with the side-effect that I didn't feel like an absolute novice in ...
St Petersburg #2. Rock hard.
The next day I rolled in the snow. Why and how remains a little secret here. It caused me to be too late for the Hermitage, and I spent the afternoon writing in a cafe: business as usual. In the evening I met Marikka, the blond one, who took me to a concert of Igor, ...
St. Petersburg #1.
So I arrived in Saint Petersburg in the morning, in a huge train station, and I called Katja, the girl whom I had contacted on the couchsurfing network. It was quite easy to find my way around the city, since there are only four subway lines, neatly intertwined around four large ploshads (squares). So I ...
A 27 Hour Trainride.
In the morning, Alyona brought me to the station with the tram, where a woman sold the tickets on board. The train was already there, but I had to wait to get in. My passport was doublechecked and I entered a clean new waggon (you might be less lucky if you try to take a ...