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Erica's travels through Eastern Europe and Russia
St. Petersburg, Russia - Had quite a scare with the bank. A wonderful grad student picked me up from the bus (Tallinn- St. Petersburg). Luckily, the busy was safe (no seatbelts) and clean and healthy. The good news - there was a one hour change (ahead), which made the bus trip only 7 hours. The bad news - the child who sat next to me had some sort of whooping cough. The poor kid coughed every minute, on the minute, for 2 hours. And the border patrol made every single passenger get off the bus with luggage, then get back on. Hm? I been to nearly all of Eastern Europe and never once had such a pleasure.
Welcome to Russia! And when I get to my "Student's Hotel", which is really the student's... apartments? dormitories? flats? generally - near the city - there isn't anywhere in about a 1.5 mile radius which excepts credit cards. No - only cash. Well, at least my roomate is nice! She bought me a metro ticket and minibus ticket. This minibus "no. 362", we take from near our "hotel", to the metro, then the metro to the city center.
Well, I believe it will take a few days to get used to such un-Western practices, but the cathedrals are absolutely stunning and I'm sure the vodka is next to nothing...! I've seen numerous people on the street drinking beer - even vodka, but the streets are a bit dirty. There is definitely a *stark* contrast between rich and poor. The cathedrals are so beautiful - grandous and gold covered, but the homeless are *so* poor. It's sometimes really startling. Well, I'm from the USA, I should know something about inequality!
Anyway, I'm off to a meeting with the Head of the St. Petersburg German-Russian Exchange, an NGO which coordinates the exchange of business and information from Germany to Russia (I think). If I can find it...
Tried some really good seaweed salad with vinegar, yummmm!
Pictures soon, I hope?
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