It's been almost a month since I arrived in St-Petersburg, and yet I'm still fascinated by the all the things to discover in this city. It's very much what I expected on many levels - a European-feeling city rich in history and culture. And yet there are times where I am all too aware of how far away I am from home.
The single hardest thing to get used to is the language barrier: having grown up in a multi-cultural city like Montreal, where the majority of people speak at least
two languages, I find it very hard that once I leave the office I cannot communicate easily. I look forward to the day that my spoken Russian will be good enough that I will walk into a store and ask for something, once, and that item turn up on the counter because I was understood. We have been lucky in that we have met some wonderful people who have been nothing but kind and patient with us, but I must admit that I never thought I'd see the day where I couldn't ask for something basic knowing that I speak 4 languages!!
I have to admit that I have grown quite fond of the Russians I have met in St-Petersburg. (I've vowed that I would not have an all-expat circle of friends here. If I wanted that I would have chosen a different country to move to...) They are very kind and welcoming! On the "feels like home" front, there was a day trip to Komarovo, where a BBQ by the lake was planned for the office. I felt like I was in the Laurentians! And I was pleasantly surprised to find myself surrounded by a young, outdoorsy crowd at the office.
I have learned that some things are universal, no matter where you are: BBQ is a national sport (in Russia it's referred to as Shashleek) and there will be debate about the Aussies and South Africans playing each other either in cricket or rugby.
Things I didn't expect to see...
1) A Papa John's pizza chain - or to be more precise Папа Джон'с. Matvei and I have a contest every time we travel to find the most quétaine thing in a foreign country. This place won in Costa Rica, so I nearly fell over laughing when I figured out what the sign of this little restaurant at the end of my street read!
2) drinking on the street. Yes, yes... I've been to New Orleans so
I'm aware of the fact that this is legal in other cities, but it is still a fairly new concept to me. It seems strange to see people walking around drinking beer on their way to the metro at 4pm. What's weirder, is seeing people do that at 8am... The boys felt that they would try this out on our train ride to the lake - after all it was 3am back in Montreal, so we should have still been at the bar partying!
3) Tabasco sauce that costs over $20 CAD. I did the math once the groceries were home and I couldn't believe it! It was the first time at our now-favourite grocery store (I never thought I'd be so happy to find peanut butter and soy sauce on the shelves), and we were so excited about finding all these goodies that we didn't think to do the conversion before throwing it in the shopping cart...
Planes, trains and automobiles
I've already mentioned the St-Petersburg airport in my first blog, so I won't revisit it here. What I do find very interesting is the metro system in the city. I haven't tried the trams or the buses yet, but the metro is an integral part of my daily life.
Most metros are built on the same concept: a single, LONG escalator that transports you from the surface to the metro landing. The escalator moves quickly and yet it is still a 3 minute ride down (and I'm not exaggerating - we timed it!). Some metros are as far as 300 metres below ground! The metro cars remind me of a 1960's diner: yellow walls with frosted glass light fixtures. It makes me laugh that at every stop, just before the metro pulls into the station, the lights in the car flicker off then back on. The first time it happened I was afraid that I would find myself sitting, metres from my destination, in the dark waiting for the power to come back on. But fortunately that didn't happen.
Some of the metro station have ornate murals and others are very simple in decor and yet are still quite beautiful. Cameras are forbidden in the metros - this picture was taken before I noticed that little hyrogliphe on every entrance door. Apparently the metros in Moscow are even more impressive, but I'll have to wait until my first visit before I can comment.
The train ride outside of the city was also a lot of fun. The train ride from St-Petersburg to the lake was about an hour - I'm sure it would haven taken half the time had it not been for the frequent station stops. There are people who walk through the wagons selling various things: from ice cream to mosquito net hats.
There is a strange habit in St-Petersburg that I can only attribute to leftover habits from the communist days: random people will give you a ride home in lieu of a taxi. I'd never hitch-hiked in my life, so the idea of this was quite peculiar... Sketchy? That was my first impression, but it is VERY common in St-Petersburg and about as safe as taking a cab. For those that don't know, St-Petersburg is a collection of islands. At night, the bridges lift to allow larger ships to travel down the Neva River. The first bidge separates at 1h30 every morning - then another one every 15 minutes. They stay open until 4 or 5am. So if you find yourself on the "wrong" side of the bridge, you're going to be there for a while! So here we were on our 2nd Friday night in the city: the last metro had already passed us by and we were finishing supper near Nevsky Prospect. Seeing as the corporate apartment was on one of the other island, we had to get moving before the bridges opened. We make our way to the main strip with one of our Russian colleagues, hoping to catch a cab across town together. We looked for a cab, but instead, a random driver pulled to the curb. Alexi chatted with him for a minute and then indicated that we should get in. I had read about this so I knew what was happening, but I would have never dared to do this without the local sitting in the front seat with us!!
