Russia

I’m in St. Petersburg – the first time since I studied here in 1992. It’s such a beautiful city. I have fallen in love with it all over again. I spent most of my free afternoon on Sunday visiting my old stomping grounds. I was amused to see that my old dorm is now called “Hotel-type dormitory”. It was sooooo far from anything “hotel-like” when I lived there! I hear that it’s still not so hot, despite very nicely remodeled reception area. Personally, I think it would have been easier to demolish the place and start over, rather than try to renovate that monstrosity.

The biggest frustration by far during this trip has been with internet – I have definitely wasted a significant amount of time and energy trying to find places where I can get online. I’m sitting now in a “Mac Cafe” (McDonald’s answer for the cool cafe crowd), which has free wifi, but it is dolled out in 15 minute increments. Argh! The hotel in Nizhny Novgorod had free wifi, which helped a bit with the ridiculous price of staying the night there. But I’ve got to find a better way to deal with this if I’m going to be traveling this much all the time. It’s just too frustrating.

Anyway, this is my last night of this trip, thank goodness! 4 cities in 9 days. Lots of impressions to write about, but I can’t get it all out in 15 minute increments. Time to head back to my quiet hotel room and read the book I bought yesterday at Dom Knigi – which will deserve a post in and of itself – the visit to Dom Knigi, ie Book House, on Nevsky Prospekt. Actually, the book might deserve a post, too – “Wolves Eat Dogs“, by Martin Cruz Smith. I bought it for the flight home, but looks like I might be leaving it in Russia! So far, a good read.