Baltic Saga Part 2: The Motherland!

I awoke early to find the ground covered in snow and I could even see my breath in the bus. Figuring that the night shift guards were gone we decided to give the border another shot. Again, denied. Finally one of the guards mentions that they have a guy who could come in and authorize the bus for us however he couldn’t come till noon and it would cost us 200 Euro. Unfortunately we didn’t see any other option and no one really knew how to bribe a scary Russian officer. So we waited some more. The man finally came, took our money and gave us authorization without even looking at the bus. Oh corruption... Finally around 2pm after being at the border for over 12 hours they finally let us pass to the next point… passport check.

So I’ve decided that I’m on a list of some sorts. Perhaps because I’ve been traveling to places like Ukraine, Turkey and Egypt recently. The guy took my passport, flipped through it, stamped it and then scanned it into his computer. He was about to give it back when something popped up on his computer (hence why I think I’m on a list). He immediately picked up his phone and called someone. Two scary officers came over and took my passport and asked me to wait. All the others made it through and were even told to get back on the bus and here I am waiting and getting suspiciously eyed by all these intimidating Russian officers. Almost 20 minutes later they returned my passport and we were on our way. But honestly, I’m really curious what the deal was; I ended up having even more problems trying to leave Russia as well.

Exhausted we stumbled into St. Petersburg and found our sketchy hostel. After freshening up Melanie, Tomek, Julie, Alex, Jack, Brett, Sylvain, and I went to dinner at a restaurant our hostel had recommended nearby. The food was FANTASTIC and the beer was cheap so we all sat around laughing and talking and discussing the day’s events. When it came time to pay the bill Sylvain reached into his jacket for his wallet only to find he’d been pick pocketed! We all felt horrible since we’d been sitting there and nobody could remember anyone coming by our table. Since I’m a pro with credit card situations now I volunteered to go back to the hostel with him. He was able to get everything canceled and we were about to go back out and join the others when Kasia, our leader, walks in. We explained to her what happened and she freaked out! She started yelling at us and called ME irresponsible! After she calmed down Sylvain was upset and went to bed so I decided to turn in as well even though the heater in my room wasn’t working. I fell asleep grumbling about how much I hated Russia…

Russia was definitely on my “bad” list, that is, until Tuesday semi-redeemed it! Tuesday was blue skies and sunny all day long, although still bitterly cold. We took an early morning walking tour and everyone was just in awe of the magnificence of St. Petersburg. The first church we went into was a yellow and black Orthodox church called “Vladimirskaya Church”. I figured it would be like every other church I’ve seen… however when we walked in there was an amazing live choir singing. The music filled the room and lingered, it was so haunting it gave me chills. We found out later they were actually a famous Russian choir who was there singing for the May holiday. We also saw the “Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood,” which is the church with the onion-shaped domes, complicated mosaics, and bright colors similar to St. Basil’s in Moscow. Gorgeous. After meandering our way through little canal streets we finally ended in the big Palace Square with the Winter Palace and the Hermitage (amazing art museum). Inside, the Winter Palace is like Versailles times ten. It was such a contrast to drive through the Russian countryside the day before and see the horrible poverty and decay and then walk into the Winter Palace where every detail was ornate and lavish. The art in the Hermitage section was pretty impressive as well with Michelangelo, DaVinci, Rembrandt and Monet!

Afterwards the groups split up and I went with some of the Frenchies, my lovely Austrian friend, and my American boys to see the famous Bronze Horsemen (statue of Peter the Great) and then we walked up a million stairs to the top of St. Isaac’s Cathedral to see the panorama view of St. Petersburg. Sitting up at the top with the wind in my face and these magnificent structures all around me I decided that maybe Russia wasn’t half bad…

Tuesday ended with a fun dinner at a Russian kitchen in which I had pancakes (crepe style) with sour cream and caviar! Then on the way back to the hostel I ran into some others from our group going out to get a beer. Even though I was exhausted I switched groups and enjoyed a few beers at a Russian bar called “the Fat Loser”. Great name. The four of us tried cow tongue with our beers and then laughed till we cried. Later that night, a bunch of us went out to a Russian club! It was really really small and was full of Russian students. However, we were immediately accepted and received lots of “hellos” and smiles and dance partners. Finally around 4am we dragged ourselves home…

This trip was not just for sightseeing, it was also an educational trip. So Wednesday we had two meetings during the day instead of sightseeing. One was for an NGO development center, the lady representing the organization was clearly excited about us being there and we ended up having some interesting discussions. The second meeting was horrendous, Kasia even apologized afterwards. The man giving the presentation was monotone and boring, he talked about nothing, couldn’t answer questions, and never really told us what his organization was. As one guy put it “I lost two hours of my life I can never get back!” haha. At least the guy gave us free tea and cookies at the end!

Afterwards Brett and I convinced a group of people to take a boat tour on the Neva River. While some people went off to get some food, Brett and I went to go check out the prices. On the way there we were cutting through a park when we heard loud chanting coming from the Palace Square. We go to check it out and discovered a HUGE military demonstration going on in the Palace Square. The huge square was filled with military from every division, all standing strictly in their rows and fancy uniforms. In the middle a giant military band was playing as four soldier’s goose-stepped in front of them carrying the Russian flag. Apparently, they only do this once a year for May Day and we happened to stumble upon it. Two generals then got into convertibles and were driven around to each section at which point they would stop and yell something in Russian and the division would respond. It was rainy and cold outside and the sound of people chanting in angry Russian was almost disturbing. As we walked away Brett shook his head and pointed out how much money they pour into the military. “The uniforms, the band, stunts like that, showing off their “grandeur” and “power”. Who could they really fight, honestly?" Good point Brett.

Back to the boat cruise. It had been raining all day, but when we got on the boat the sun came out! It was so peaceful and so relaxing to see St. Petersburg from the water. We also talked about politics throughout the whole tour. The upcoming French elections, the Iraq war, Polish economy etc. We topped off the end of our day with a ridiculously good dinner, some wine, and a football match on TV at a pub.

The next day we packed up and headed off to Estonia. Now for those of you who haven’t heard there have been riots going on in Tallinn, Estonia for the past few weeks. Estonia has a huge population of ethnic Russians who rioted after the Estonian government took down a Red Army statue that was near the center of town. The statue represented the Soviet’s help in “rescuing” Estonia from Nazi Germany. Under the statue were buried several soldiers as well. The Estonian government saw the statue as a constant reminder of the suffering they experienced under Soviet control and took it down without warning to the public, hence the riots. One man had already died, 153 were injured, and some 800 had been arrested. And the best part is… we were headed straight there!

As we neared the border of Estonia and Russia we saw tents of rioters everywhere, yelling at the cars trying to pass into Estonia. As we waiting in the traffic and chaos it all of a sudden hit me that we are actually going to see all this. BRING IT ON!

Will we survive the DEADLY riots?! Whatever happened to the bus driver Swayze? And will Jenny ever want to go back to Russia?

TO BE CONTINUED…