RUSSIA!!
The day after. St. Pete round 2. Yesterday explored emotions of frustration, awe, tentativeness, fear, anger, anxiousness, excitement, elation, and exhaustion all in one full 24 hour day. Well, almost 24 hours. I'm not in college anymore AND I was getting some extra dough by helping out our librarian organize and catalogue the books with one of my fellow cast members this morning at 10:00am.
My day in St. Petersburg, Russia began bright and early so I could catch breakfast and catch up on some personal things. There will be no Internet or phone access the 2 days we are here every time. The Russians scramble our satellite connection for personal communications. Oh well. We had lunch on board and went out into port for a day in this Russian city. It started off very frustrating. We were told that we as crew would have to buy a shuttle pass for $10 US payable at HRO that would provide us with scheduled shuttle service to and from the square. We must have walked around this garbage shipyard for an hour and no one could tell us exactly WHERE to catch the shuttle. Tours were leaving for passengers and the gangway was too busy for anyone to even remotely care about crew. We ended up walking a ways before one of the Russian Mafia cabs stopped to pick us up and for $5 US take us into town. We knew it was a Mafia cab because they are the only ones allowed past the immigration/customs gate. They must have paid some deal to get in or have connections as all Mafias do. We get into town and are awestruck by all the sights we were seeing as we are in most ports. 
The temperature was lovely, but hot. Hot for St. Petersburg. I didn't expect it to get so warm even in the summer. We started off at a half circle shaped cathedral called The Kazansky Cathedral. It was fascinatingly vast inside and candles were being lit to pay homage to the Savior. Next was the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood. It was a Cathedral built in homage to one of the Alexanders who was assassinated on this site. It was said that he died there and rose a few days later as did Jesus Christ when he was murdered. We followed a tour group in to avoid the stiff price to see the cathedral and meandered through its ornately decorated walls. It was definitely fascinating and I believe a landmark for the city. It looked as though it were meant to hold candy and ice cream because of its frothy décor on the towers extending above. We traveled over one of the canals winding through the city and made our way to the Hermitage Museum and the square where it was located. This huge square is not to be confused with Moscow's vast Red Square.
It was a sight to see and notice all the Russian heritage in the architecture. We saw the large canal that went through the city while we were in search for the black market. Evidently a place where you could get cheap wares and pirated DVDs for very cheap prices. A good way to keep up on the times with recent movies. Well, we never found this so called black market and it appears that we have to take a taxi to this place that's so far away. Although some swear that it was located right behind the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood. We’ll see at another time. 
Well the Russian Mafia cab we got taking us out of port promised to come back at 6:15 and take us back to port, but there was no such cab. Durrrr. We tentatively waited around wondering if he would actually show up for a few past the meeting time. Problem was we were on a time schedule since one of our girls had dinner reservations at 8pm and another cruise staffer girl with us had to be back by 7:45pm. We would miss dinner if we weren't back by 7pm. It was now 6:30pm and no cab. We started wandering the main busy street pricing different cabs quoting us anywhere in the range of $30-$50 EURO!!!! Whoa!! We already bought this supposed crew shuttle pass which we were all intent on getting refunded, and now a lot to spend on one cab. We settled on a sketchy deal of $30 Euro for a cab that would take 5 people. Evidently the local police had problems with cab cars over 4 people. We though we were going all the way to the ship, but lo and behold this cab were NOT a part of the Mafia connection. It took us only as far as the gates. We started walking frustrated and angry that we didn't know what to do or how to do things here. All of us were new to this port. We weren't sure if we were even at the right port and it looked very shady. Especially since we were told to never walk from the ship to the gates. We walked en masse anyhow. We held everything close to us just in case and stayed in one large group. After seeing the movie "Hostile" everything seemed to have that shady Eastern European desertedness about it. We saw the ship and breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately it was 7:20pm so dinner had long passed. I caught the show on board and some snacks later in our crew bar. A couple of ham and cheese sandwiches and I was good to go. We got all dolled up and started the party on board. A group of us checked out and made our way to explore St. Petersburg's nightlife at a dance club called Metro. Once again we caught a Mafia bus that only charged a group of about 30 of us $5 US a piece to get there. It was great. Then we had the shady dealings of currency exchange happening right outside the bar. Emotions started running high, as people were anxious to get into the club and start partying. They only took the Ruble inside and most of us had up to hundreds of dollars in US currency. The drivers were taking us for 22 Ruble to 1 when the going rate is 26.75 to 1. Whoa! Some commission eh? Especially on those exchanging more than $50 US. The price to get in 360 Ruble ($13.45 US), price of the average drink 180 Ruble ($6.75 US), price of a vodka shot 55 Ruble ($2.00 US), a good evening out… priceless. The entrance fee also included 6 free sodas. Which is good since the bar probably doesn't close until 9am the next day. Oh, another thing. We left the ship roughly 12:30am and the sun was looking like it was about 7pm. It was barely touching the horizon. The scheduled sunset was at 1am. When I left the club at 4:30am the sun was in the same spot practically since it's rising was scheduled for 4am. Totally strange, but cool. I haven't seen anything like that since my trips to Seward, Alaska in 2000. It was also STILL warm. Unlike Alaska. So, the club, Metro, was fascinating. It was 3 huge floors of dancing and bars. A bar or dance floor for everyone. The main floor was grunge music and rock and roll, the second floor was hip-hop, and the third floor was the club/house/techno music floor. High-energy floor was the third floor with male dancers to decorate the upper ring of the dance floor. The second floor also featured a karaoke bar, but there was really no interest in that since most of the singers were singing in Russian and the text was also mostly in Russian. It was an aerobic night of bouncing around and dancing. I haven't had a night like this since my college days. It was totally exhilarating and free spirited. A release for the mind and soul. A break from the confines of the ship's stringent policies. I still had to keep an eye on the time since my next day I had the infamous I.P.M., which started at 6am. I left the club with a group of weary colleagues and headed back to the ship in a non-mafia cab once again. This time we just faced our music and took the additional in port cab to the ship rather than dragging our tired and drunk selves back to the gangway. A day beginning at 9am and ending at 4am the next day. Just a few hours shy of a full 24 hours of alertness. Whew!! What a day.
My day in St. Petersburg, Russia began bright and early so I could catch breakfast and catch up on some personal things. There will be no Internet or phone access the 2 days we are here every time. The Russians scramble our satellite connection for personal communications. Oh well. We had lunch on board and went out into port for a day in this Russian city. It started off very frustrating. We were told that we as crew would have to buy a shuttle pass for $10 US payable at HRO that would provide us with scheduled shuttle service to and from the square. We must have walked around this garbage shipyard for an hour and no one could tell us exactly WHERE to catch the shuttle. Tours were leaving for passengers and the gangway was too busy for anyone to even remotely care about crew. We ended up walking a ways before one of the Russian Mafia cabs stopped to pick us up and for $5 US take us into town. We knew it was a Mafia cab because they are the only ones allowed past the immigration/customs gate. They must have paid some deal to get in or have connections as all Mafias do. We get into town and are awestruck by all the sights we were seeing as we are in most ports. 
The temperature was lovely, but hot. Hot for St. Petersburg. I didn't expect it to get so warm even in the summer. We started off at a half circle shaped cathedral called The Kazansky Cathedral. It was fascinatingly vast inside and candles were being lit to pay homage to the Savior. Next was the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood. It was a Cathedral built in homage to one of the Alexanders who was assassinated on this site. It was said that he died there and rose a few days later as did Jesus Christ when he was murdered. We followed a tour group in to avoid the stiff price to see the cathedral and meandered through its ornately decorated walls. It was definitely fascinating and I believe a landmark for the city. It looked as though it were meant to hold candy and ice cream because of its frothy décor on the towers extending above. We traveled over one of the canals winding through the city and made our way to the Hermitage Museum and the square where it was located. This huge square is not to be confused with Moscow's vast Red Square.
It was a sight to see and notice all the Russian heritage in the architecture. We saw the large canal that went through the city while we were in search for the black market. Evidently a place where you could get cheap wares and pirated DVDs for very cheap prices. A good way to keep up on the times with recent movies. Well, we never found this so called black market and it appears that we have to take a taxi to this place that's so far away. Although some swear that it was located right behind the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood. We’ll see at another time. 
Well the Russian Mafia cab we got taking us out of port promised to come back at 6:15 and take us back to port, but there was no such cab. Durrrr. We tentatively waited around wondering if he would actually show up for a few past the meeting time. Problem was we were on a time schedule since one of our girls had dinner reservations at 8pm and another cruise staffer girl with us had to be back by 7:45pm. We would miss dinner if we weren't back by 7pm. It was now 6:30pm and no cab. We started wandering the main busy street pricing different cabs quoting us anywhere in the range of $30-$50 EURO!!!! Whoa!! We already bought this supposed crew shuttle pass which we were all intent on getting refunded, and now a lot to spend on one cab. We settled on a sketchy deal of $30 Euro for a cab that would take 5 people. Evidently the local police had problems with cab cars over 4 people. We though we were going all the way to the ship, but lo and behold this cab were NOT a part of the Mafia connection. It took us only as far as the gates. We started walking frustrated and angry that we didn't know what to do or how to do things here. All of us were new to this port. We weren't sure if we were even at the right port and it looked very shady. Especially since we were told to never walk from the ship to the gates. We walked en masse anyhow. We held everything close to us just in case and stayed in one large group. After seeing the movie "Hostile" everything seemed to have that shady Eastern European desertedness about it. We saw the ship and breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately it was 7:20pm so dinner had long passed. I caught the show on board and some snacks later in our crew bar. A couple of ham and cheese sandwiches and I was good to go. We got all dolled up and started the party on board. A group of us checked out and made our way to explore St. Petersburg's nightlife at a dance club called Metro. Once again we caught a Mafia bus that only charged a group of about 30 of us $5 US a piece to get there. It was great. Then we had the shady dealings of currency exchange happening right outside the bar. Emotions started running high, as people were anxious to get into the club and start partying. They only took the Ruble inside and most of us had up to hundreds of dollars in US currency. The drivers were taking us for 22 Ruble to 1 when the going rate is 26.75 to 1. Whoa! Some commission eh? Especially on those exchanging more than $50 US. The price to get in 360 Ruble ($13.45 US), price of the average drink 180 Ruble ($6.75 US), price of a vodka shot 55 Ruble ($2.00 US), a good evening out… priceless. The entrance fee also included 6 free sodas. Which is good since the bar probably doesn't close until 9am the next day. Oh, another thing. We left the ship roughly 12:30am and the sun was looking like it was about 7pm. It was barely touching the horizon. The scheduled sunset was at 1am. When I left the club at 4:30am the sun was in the same spot practically since it's rising was scheduled for 4am. Totally strange, but cool. I haven't seen anything like that since my trips to Seward, Alaska in 2000. It was also STILL warm. Unlike Alaska. So, the club, Metro, was fascinating. It was 3 huge floors of dancing and bars. A bar or dance floor for everyone. The main floor was grunge music and rock and roll, the second floor was hip-hop, and the third floor was the club/house/techno music floor. High-energy floor was the third floor with male dancers to decorate the upper ring of the dance floor. The second floor also featured a karaoke bar, but there was really no interest in that since most of the singers were singing in Russian and the text was also mostly in Russian. It was an aerobic night of bouncing around and dancing. I haven't had a night like this since my college days. It was totally exhilarating and free spirited. A release for the mind and soul. A break from the confines of the ship's stringent policies. I still had to keep an eye on the time since my next day I had the infamous I.P.M., which started at 6am. I left the club with a group of weary colleagues and headed back to the ship in a non-mafia cab once again. This time we just faced our music and took the additional in port cab to the ship rather than dragging our tired and drunk selves back to the gangway. A day beginning at 9am and ending at 4am the next day. Just a few hours shy of a full 24 hours of alertness. Whew!! What a day.
posted by Chris | 12:52 PM
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