Wednesday 15th St
Petersburg, Russia (ORANGE Crocs Day)
I heard the wakeup call go off at
0645 and J wasn’t here when I woke up so I guess she must have made it through
immigration and on to El Busso Espagnole. I luxuriated in having nothing urgent
to do (and nobody to direct me (cant believe I said that (and it isn’t true))).
I sauntered up to brekky in my best outfit of black Egypt Tshirt, new black
trackies and ORANGE!! Crocs. With matching ORANGE
watch.
Round about the stage when I
finished the salmon and was reaching out for the twirly cinnamon Danish,
wondering what to do for the next hour when I had a sudden thought . . . ummm I
didn’t reset my watch last night? OMG OMG the trivia started 2 minutes ago. I
dashed down to the Windjammer and burst in during Question 5 – from what bush
do they extract gin? (juniper). Neither of the two teams of two wanted a guest/
mercenary/ roving quiz genius/ add-on in ORANGE!!
Crocs (and who could blame them?) so I formed a team of one and managed
to tie with the Scottish couple for 2 magic signatures on the participation
card.
An hour of lying in the warm
Russian sun (oh for some vodka and that blonde chick from Dr Zhivago (Julie
Christie?)) and it was time for lunch. I was hardly hungry so I pretty much had
a plate full of green leaves and a small serve of spinach (ok and a small
grilled fish). Then it was up to 12th where Brian was playing
shuffleboard with a young South African boy, who looked very good. Another chap
turned up and I beat him (after 6 games neither of us had a point and we needed
a tiebreak to get anything on the board) then I had to play the little Yarpie
in the Grand Final.
By then I had realised that I had
to play left handed because it was impossible to stop the damn thing from
skidding off the back every time. This seemed to work and after a while I
started feeling comfortable with it. It ran to the 6th and final game
and he was leading by 10 overall. He also had a 10 on the grid and I had a 7 so
he was going to win by 13. Then I produced a heroic final shot that ricocheted
off one of mine, knocked his 10 off to the side, and came to rest in the 7. His
final shot took out one of my 7s but his ended up as a minus 10. So I won 17-0
in that game and by 7 overall. Hell he was only about 15 but wooaaaaaaagh hey J
Grrrr at brekky this morning I was
waiting for a male person of African origin to get orange
juice out of the drink machine. He was pressing at the top of the button and
nothing was happening. I was standing at his left elbow and said “lower down”
so he started pushing 3mm lower and still no juice. I said ‘right in the
middle” and he finally managed to get a drink. Its not hard and it is day 5
already but . . hey.
He then put his glass on the plate
and proceeded to shove it along the counter to his left – right in front of me.
There was nobody else in any direction for 5 metres and there is no designated
direction for traffic flow. Being British, I instinctively stood back to let
him get past but, as I did so, I found myself thinking that he was being
extremely rude and I should really be emptying cranberry
cocktail over his head.
This sort of thing tends to happen
quite often in Europe. You get women marching down the centre of corridors expecting
you to step aside for them to pass.
There is plenty of space if you both move slightly off centre. Also, if you are approaching a cleaner’s cart,
some stately galleon coming from the other direction will steam forward
directly at the gap even though you are going to get there first. Clearly, she
is not going to wait for you to get through – she is projecting a God-given
right to pass without interruption. You can either confront her two thirds of
the way through or wait for her.
I know there is a cultural element
of this – for some reason people of British extraction are prone to form
queues, wait their turn, apologise a lot and generally display considerate
behaviour and what used to be called “manners”. Some other cultures, and that absolutely
includes the Latino/Mediterraneans, have no such scruples and will not hesitate
to enter a theatre after the show has started, stand for some time in front of
patrons who are already seated, and then sit down and talk loudly throughout
the show.
It isn’t just me – J fumes over it
as well . . in fact she bumped into a woman the other day who walked out in
front of her, stopped, turned around, looked straight through her and stood
blocking the walkway.
I mention this now because God help
me I was standing at the same drink machine this afternoon watching a young
blonde (in case you thought there was some racist basis for my rant) trying to
get ice out of it, when she proceeded to turn left and push past me in much the
same as the asshole this morning. Does wearing ORANGE
Crocs somehow make me invisible?
Quite by accident, I discovered
that they do Devonshire tea in the afternoons so I took a couple of scones and
the trimmings down to the 10 Minute Murder Mystery. Brian turned up and signed
my card but nobody else arrived so we just had a chat.I enjoyed my final hours
of freedom in the gym and the Jacuzzi.
J got back after 6 and will
doubtless fill in the details. We had a slightly hurried dinner (I ordered
salmon, salmon and salmon but the chef baulked at salmon sorbet so I had to
settle for lemon). Peter Pepper did the trivia and we managed a second place.
The only show was the same percussion man which didn’t appeal so we sat
listening to one of the piano men and then retired early.
J’s adventures in St Petersburg. I was in the tour meeting point before the
8am deadline. Where I joined my Spanish
speaking tour buddies, stood in the immigration queue for an hour, finally
getting onto the bus at 9am. Set off
through the city with the guide babbling away.
Went over a bridge and was bemused as all the couples began kissing each
other and laughing. I can only assume
that the bridge has some kind of legend about kissing the one you love as you
cross over it. City was more modern than
I thought it would be and the people were dressed as in any other European
city. I was expecting it to be
drab. All the parks were well kept and
there were plenty of pretty flowers in park beds, traffic islands and hanging
pots on the street poles. We went past
statues of Lenin, impressive victory gates and some impressive buildings and
churches.
It took an hour to reach Pushkin where there
is an enclave of palaces set in acres of grounds. We went to Catherine II palace (winter
palace) where we stood about an hour in the forecourt waiting our turn to go
inside, use the toilets (another 20 mins) and place funny shoe covers on our
feet. We finally climbed the staircase
into the first palace room about 11.30am.
Immediately it was worth the wait.
Wow. The whole palace did not disappoint,
each room has been meticulously renovated.
The highlight had to be the Amber room and anyone who has been to that
room will know what I mean. The walls
are covered in Amber of all types and colours making the most beautiful
display, a true work of art.
Unfortunately during the German occupation the original walls
disappeared and have never been found but the recreation is stunning. We had glimpses of the gardens and outbuildings
from the windows and our short stroll to and from the bus. There were bridal couples everywhere and we
had to chant at them, in Russian, until they kissed each other and then we
would applaud.
We then drove back to the city past
the Egyptian gates, The Hermitage, Rostral Columns and St Peter and Paul
Fortress to a floating restaurant on the Neva River. Nice lunch and then on to The Hermitage. We spent 2 hours inside this, the summer
palace. Just the building alone was
impressive without all the marvellous, precious artworks. A highlight here was the peacock clock and
the room full of Rubens. It was crowded
and rushed and of course we did not get to see all of the galleries, just what
the guide considers to be the highlights.
Hermitage
Peter and Paul Fortress
This is McDonalds in Russian
An Irish Pub - they seem to be all over the world just like McDonalds
We arrived back at the ship at
about 6pm after a much shorter queuing time in the immigration lines. A really nice day and I made some new Spanish
speaking friends, from Madrid, Buenos Aries and Lisbon.
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