The Amazing Eurasian Odyssey
as told by characters Matthew Garrick and Stephen Williams
Part 11: Old Leningrad

We did not make the same mistake we did in Moscow. This time we made reservations and got a confirmation.

On this first day, Matt and I walked around town with a girl named Uma and checked out a bit of downtown. That night I called my good friend Kaitlyn Pruitt whom I knew was studying Russian for the summer in St. Petersburg. Kaitlyn and I served together on USC's campus activities board, Carolina Productions.

Kaitlyn took us to the Hermitage, an enormous palace- turned- museum. This site suffered the same problem as the State Museum in Moscow - the English translations were tethered to the entrance of each room, so getting into the exhibits was difficult. Each room was beautifully decorated from floor to ceiling by the most recent royal inhabitants.

Kaitlyn had to be back at her host family's apartment for dinner, so we parted ways after agreeing to meet the next day.

That night, we went out to a little pub with two English travelers about our age who were enthralled with our stories. While all of this was going on, we were approached by a young Russian gentlemen who asked in broken English if any of us played chess. I declined but offered Matthew for the challenge.

Matthew's playmate was grossly intoxicated and moved a piece illegally several times and then complain that Matthew was a cheater. Then, he"d clear the board and reset the pieces.

The rest of us left Matthew and the Russian to their game and were amused when the man pulled Matthew outside so he could smoke. Matthew reported the conversation as follows:

"You like Russia?" said the man.

"It's really nice. I had expected it to be really dull after the Soviet...."

"RAHHHH!! SOVIET! America has the KKK! I think that America is...." and then the man spit dramatically on the ground.

They came back inside, but the man began to lose interest and decided to harass some women in the pub. With him thusly distracted, we quietly slipped out and returned to the hostel.

The next day, we met Kaitlyn and went to the Russian Museum, as it is so originally named.

But the highlight of this day was when Kaitlyn invited us to dinner that night. Her host family was out of town but the grandma, the babushka, stayed home.

Naturally we jumped at the chance to have our first home- cooked meal in seven months.

At the appropriate hour, we made our way through the complicated Moscow subway system to the suburbs of St. Petersburg. There we met Kaitlyn, and she said in the Russian culture, it was customary to bring a gift. She led us to a flower stand and a supermarket and told us to purchase some candy. Armed with the presents (that we put so much thought into), we headed to the apartment.

Kaitlyn played translator the whole night because we didn't know any Russian, and the babushka, Tatiana Dmitrievna Popova certainly didn't comprehend English.

Kaitlyn warned us beforehand that Russian meals can be overwhelming, and she wasn't lying. The minute we put our forks down, some plates disappeared, and more plates came out. I was thoroughly stuffed by the time it was all over. I was especially amused when Tatiana Dmitrievna pulled out some vodka and made the three of us take shots.

She talked about history and politics, life and family, and all sorts of other topics. Kaitlyn said the babushka was exhausted by constantly translating back and forth.

The highlight of the meal was the dessert. Tatiana Dmitrievna brought out two varieties of some sort of honey. It wasn't ordinary honey, as its viscosity and color were drastically different. It was like candy and absolutely delicious. I think my sugar intake for that one night was higher than it had been over the previous year.

The next morning we left early for the train station into Helsinki, Finland. We had an entire car to ourselves! I was really quite shocked. We arrived in Helsinki around noon.

Next week: Helsinki