June 17 7:28 am
the sun sets in St. Petersburg at 1030 pm in summer. I knew it but still you have to see it to really understand it. It is liberation from the usual block of day we have been programmed to follow. The dinner doesn't have to be at 8. The offices can open at 10 in morning. Your night out starts at 12 am. The sun sets at 1030 and is up again at 330 in the morning. So we landed at 5:30, got out by 8 and have only just returned at 2 am. The dawn had already started peeking through as the sun will rise in another hour and half. Yes that's right. I'm dead tired from all the walking and it's just first day. We might have got a bit excited there.
It was a lot of fun to see all the fans walking around, organizing chants for their teams. It finally feels like we are part of the world cup. I saw Egyptian fans the most although it's Russia they are facing soon. One random set of 10 or so Russian fans were trying to start a ru-ssi-aa chant. The other Russians just smiled and moved along. I think the real Russian fans are getting ready to March straight to the stadium tomorrow. On the other hand, the Egyptian fans were assembled in a square singing a song like they have experience with revolutions.
Shaks is a vacationing smoker. That is, she loves to smoke on vacations. We are walking the streets of Europe and in Europe smoking is a way of life. I saw people out in the party areas hanging out with the wine and smoke. So the thought slowly took root into shaks, and was at full force by 10 pm in the night that she needs to buy Russian cigarettes. So off we were on a quest to spot an open shop that sells cigarettes at that hour. That adventure made us step into every potential shop that looked like it might have some packs to sell. It was miles of walking to and fro before a security in a souvenir shop pointed us to a place few blocks away which might have some. This was a spot behind the Nevsky prospect metro if you ever have to find it for yourself. It was a local pub area complete with coyote ugly bar and a strip club to boot. So you got your nice Russian women, your drunk Russians and also a group of Russian teenagers one of whom might have a stupid YouTube channel because he was using his camera and asking girls questions. Shaks caught his attention while she was smoking. So his question first in Russian and then in broken English was "do you like cut or uncut dick?" We both rolled our eyes at that and Shaks said no comment. He didn't ask further and jogged back. For a moment I thought we had an ugly situation at our hands but it was just a teenager being an idiot.
Leaving that unpleasant experience aside, while we were walking we came across a street musician belting very familiar guitar licks. In fact, we kept hearing and walking to actually cross the street before the music made us stop and cross the road back to listen to him. His half burned, disfigured face oozing cool as his hands plucked the strings effortlessly. Shaks and I stood there for a minute, his version of comfortably numb washing over us. It felt a moment for just the two of us. The song is not romantic but there is something about Pink Floyd guitar that plucks the strings of our soul.
I will end this missive with the observation that Russian women are very well put together. They definitely take their appearance seriously, easy on the eyes. It also reminded me of my first visit to Milwaukee. I had a Russian driver who complained about the road construction, the weather and also Milwaukee’s women. His complaint about women? That they are out on streets wearing sweat pants and yoga pants. Imagine a rich Russian accent and the sentence " these women out in the morning in yoga pants. Come on... Try a bit more, this is not your living room. It's a restaurant." I think he might have been from St. Petersburg because I don't think I saw one yoga pant today.
This ended our first proper vacation day. Tomorrow is for museums and winter palace. Going to check out how the tsars lived and died.
the sun sets in St. Petersburg at 1030 pm in summer. I knew it but still you have to see it to really understand it. It is liberation from the usual block of day we have been programmed to follow. The dinner doesn't have to be at 8. The offices can open at 10 in morning. Your night out starts at 12 am. The sun sets at 1030 and is up again at 330 in the morning. So we landed at 5:30, got out by 8 and have only just returned at 2 am. The dawn had already started peeking through as the sun will rise in another hour and half. Yes that's right. I'm dead tired from all the walking and it's just first day. We might have got a bit excited there.
It was a lot of fun to see all the fans walking around, organizing chants for their teams. It finally feels like we are part of the world cup. I saw Egyptian fans the most although it's Russia they are facing soon. One random set of 10 or so Russian fans were trying to start a ru-ssi-aa chant. The other Russians just smiled and moved along. I think the real Russian fans are getting ready to March straight to the stadium tomorrow. On the other hand, the Egyptian fans were assembled in a square singing a song like they have experience with revolutions.
Shaks is a vacationing smoker. That is, she loves to smoke on vacations. We are walking the streets of Europe and in Europe smoking is a way of life. I saw people out in the party areas hanging out with the wine and smoke. So the thought slowly took root into shaks, and was at full force by 10 pm in the night that she needs to buy Russian cigarettes. So off we were on a quest to spot an open shop that sells cigarettes at that hour. That adventure made us step into every potential shop that looked like it might have some packs to sell. It was miles of walking to and fro before a security in a souvenir shop pointed us to a place few blocks away which might have some. This was a spot behind the Nevsky prospect metro if you ever have to find it for yourself. It was a local pub area complete with coyote ugly bar and a strip club to boot. So you got your nice Russian women, your drunk Russians and also a group of Russian teenagers one of whom might have a stupid YouTube channel because he was using his camera and asking girls questions. Shaks caught his attention while she was smoking. So his question first in Russian and then in broken English was "do you like cut or uncut dick?" We both rolled our eyes at that and Shaks said no comment. He didn't ask further and jogged back. For a moment I thought we had an ugly situation at our hands but it was just a teenager being an idiot.
Leaving that unpleasant experience aside, while we were walking we came across a street musician belting very familiar guitar licks. In fact, we kept hearing and walking to actually cross the street before the music made us stop and cross the road back to listen to him. His half burned, disfigured face oozing cool as his hands plucked the strings effortlessly. Shaks and I stood there for a minute, his version of comfortably numb washing over us. It felt a moment for just the two of us. The song is not romantic but there is something about Pink Floyd guitar that plucks the strings of our soul.
I will end this missive with the observation that Russian women are very well put together. They definitely take their appearance seriously, easy on the eyes. It also reminded me of my first visit to Milwaukee. I had a Russian driver who complained about the road construction, the weather and also Milwaukee’s women. His complaint about women? That they are out on streets wearing sweat pants and yoga pants. Imagine a rich Russian accent and the sentence " these women out in the morning in yoga pants. Come on... Try a bit more, this is not your living room. It's a restaurant." I think he might have been from St. Petersburg because I don't think I saw one yoga pant today.
This ended our first proper vacation day. Tomorrow is for museums and winter palace. Going to check out how the tsars lived and died.
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