A week-end in Saint Petersburg

I discovered another side of Russia when I visited saint Petersburg a couple of weeks ago. Strolling in the streets of Saint Petersburg, it is difficult to fathom that we are in the same country of Novosibirsk. Not just because it is a five hour flight away, but also because the city has so much to offer. Many palaces, museums, canals... all this with 24-hour day light. Definitely a city I recommend to visit.
Highlights of my tour: the walks along the canals, the visit of the cathedral of "the resurrection of Christ", the night tour of the city to go see the rising bridges... See pictures below if you do not believe me.



Also, here is a little movie showing the party mood on the Neva river at 2am, during the cruise to see the rising bridges... a very popular tour that attracts many boats.



I'll have to go back though, because I was not able to visit the Ermitage museum (the queue was too long). Unfortunately, when I mention I was in saint Petersburg to the people around me , the only question I get is: 'did you go to the Ermitage?" and only little interest for the other things that I saw.

Home sweet home...

Aaah... Such a pleasure to come home after having been away for a few weeks to inhospitable foreign countries. There is really no place like a home. Thanks to the local authorities for making sure I was not going to get too emotional when coming back, by placing a sweet welcome note on my door that says "no hot water for the next 13 days" and "no electricity today" (by the way, don't waste your time trying to find the Russian equivalent of "apologies" or "sorry" on the picture below). My attempt at getting any water out of my pipes had me conclude that the term "hot water" was loosely defined and really stands for just "water". Myself, I may have to define more loosely my criterion for 'dirty laundry' and screen again the content of my suitcase for decent smelling clothes for the next few days if I can't get any water soon.

Resourcefulness

I was going to go kayaking today, but it was too cold, too windy, too cloudy, too wet, and the lake had too many waves. It would not have been reasonable, so I just stayed on the shore and watched other people have fun. Good opportunity to realize I was not the coolest kid on the lake. These guys below were cruising along the beach with an engine powered pedalo. A nice demonstration of engineering and resourcefulness. I bet on a nice day they must pick up girls easy...

Ouch!

That's what you get from spending the afternoon on the lake without putting on socks and sun screen. More colors in the living room... A lesson I should have learned by now, after doing the same mistake so many times.

Kayaking on the lake

We felt it was a waste to have the Ob sea next to our place, and not being able to use it for navigation. So Christian and I decided to buy kayaks... You'd think with such a beautiful sea and people being so close to nature, the place would be swarming with kayaks, right? Well, no. People don't have kayaks here. We had to get the kayaks sent from Moscow by the Transsiberian on its way to Ulan Bator. The train arrived on Thursday, and we were very excited and went to the train station ahead of time to make sure we'd get them. A good way for us to learn that all train schedules in Russia are in Moscow time, and also to remind us that there is a 3-hour time difference between Moscow and Novosibirsk. But we got our boats in the end...


You should know that as of today, the pristine water of the Ob has been kayaked by 2 people only: Christian and me. We could have made it 3 if we had let the drunk guy swimming toward us use our boat for 5 minutes as he asked us, but we're jerks and we don't want to jump in the cold water for 5 minutes while the guy figures out how to use the paddles. But let's not get this little story ruin our beautiful day.

So today was the big day: we met at the beach behind the Lada dealership, a primary spot for getting our boats wet. And off we went...



Boy, if the locals only knew what they were missing! If you think there is only dull coast and flat water to explore... there is so much more to see here. A kayak tour on the lake is the opportunity to discover magnificent reefs and architectural gems left by previous generations. No further than 20 minutes after our start, we discovered beautiful cement blocks. How were they brought there and why? Mistery... woooohh... So many questions left unanswered.

Anyway, why travel half way across the Earth to go to places like Tulum or Macchu Picchu, when here you have more recent constructions, in a more advanced state of degradation?

And what a blast to glide between those cement and steel structures! See how Christian just found the perfect spot, protected by blocks of cement and steel, to practice his flipping technique...


And here, a buswreck, probably left there intentionally as a breeding ground for fish...


There are even dark caves to explore, where the fauna includes moth and mosquitoes of the size of actual butterflies. Also, it's amazing how the steel is reminiscent of real stalactites...


Well, that was it for the first day. We got our load of fresh air and nature, and made it back after 5 hours of paddling. Next time, we should try to go paddle in an actual industrial zone to gauge the difference.

It is not that bad on the other side of the Ural

I am posting here some of my pictures of Moscow, in an attempt to convince my local friends that Moscow is not that bad. That's right, it is not in the center of Russia, and you have to walk a long way to go pick mushrooms or to get some birch tree sap. They also don't have the Ob sea to go swimming for the 2-week summer. But it is beautiful, and it is very easy to get real close to people in the subway. Only perks...

No more getting lost on my bike

Today, May 9th, I went for my first bike tour of the year. Snow is 99.5% gone (still, I spotted a few patches), the weather is nice and warm, and I recently had my tickborne encephalitis shot, so I was all prepared to go. Plus now... no more getting lost in the woods or the villages of datchas since I got my little GPS. You can see below that my bike ride was still quite erratic, but God knows where I would have ended up this time without being tracked by satellites. Hopefully not in one of the famous secret cities...