pretty pictures

Alright everyone. After all my postings about Finland, I'm getting threats about no one wanting to come visit me in Russia anymore. So I decided that I should take this time to put up some more pretty pictures of things Jonathan and I saw this summer. (And if this doesn't sway you, remember, we have a guest room! You'd have to pay for a place to sleep in Finland, and it ain't cheap!)

So, without further ado-

Here is the Suvarov museum. Suvarov is a favorite general of Jonathan's. Never lost a battle, and coined the phrase "Train hard, fight easy." We haven't actually been INSIDE the museum yet, but it's not too far away, we'll go soon.



Next up is the Smolny Convent. This is the Smolny Institute, part of the complex, and home to the original meetings of the Bolsheviks. Notice the statue of Lenin out front.



Here is the main cathedral of the Smolny Convent, from the side and then the front.





Speaking of cathedrals, next is St. Isaac's, the largest cathedral in St. Petersburg. (It was the largest in Russia when it was built; I believe now it's only dwarfed by the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.) The place is huge; it took 40 years to build. During the soviet period in Russia, it was used as a museum about atheism (!). It's now used for services again, for major holidays.

Here's the outside, from the side...



the whole square it faces...



dome close-up.



The outside is pretty plain, but the inside is incredibly ornate.





The dome ceiling- notice the dove in the middle.



The best part of St. Isaac's, really, is climbing up to the top of the dome for a great view of the city. Okay, the climb itself is pretty scary...



Note the enclosed staircase, lower left...



but the view is worth it.







The same day Jonathan and I went to St. Isaac's, we went past the navy's Admiralty building:



where there was some sort of Naval Veterans celebration going on. We met some great WWII vets who were celebrating in the park and even posed for pictures for us.









Last but not least on this photographic journey is the Peter and Paul Fortress, the main original structure of St. Petersburg, built in 1706. Many tsars are buried here. The cathedral was built from 1712-1733. Aside from things like television towers, it's the tallest structure in St. Petersburg.



inside...



Most exciting, from Peter and Paul you can take a helicopter for a tour over the city. We haven't gotten a chance yet- but it's a definite to-do on our list.



Hope everyone's enjoyed this feast of eye candy. Perhaps this will restore your interest in coming to Russia...

finns vs. russians

Last weekend, Jonathan's jealousy of my trip to Finland finally got to him, so we decided to visit the small Finnish border town of Lappeenranta. Little did we know that we were in for a weekend of some of the most extreme contrasts known to man.

There's one narrow highway that leaves St. Petersburg and crosses into Finland. We'd been warned that people drive a little "recklessly," so we should be careful. Considering how most Russians seem to be out until all hours drinking on Friday nights, we thought that getting up really early on Saturday would spare us most traffic. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:30 on Saturday and were on our way out of town by 6:30. Despite the wee hour, the highway still had its shared of major jerks. It was nothing compared to the ride home though, so I'll save that for later. (At least I don't think it was as bad. It was pretty dark out, so maybe I'll never know.)

We pulled into Lappeenranta at around 10:00 AM. We checked into our hotel and I took a brief nap while Jonathan staked out the town. After my nap, stop Number One was Hesburger, which Jonathan has been mentally drooling about since I ate there two weeks ago. We took a slow stroll in the drizzle, past a pristine harbor, through a quaint downtown, past an old cemetary covered in glorious golden leaves, and eventually reached Hesburger. After an incredibly fattening lunch, we reversed our walk back to the hotel, changing the route a little bit to include passing an old church and a WWII memorial.

I'm finding it more and more difficult to put into words how refreshingly crisp and beautiful everything from the sidewalks to the cars to the trees to the air is in Finland. Anyone who's reading this and has been to Scandinavia knows what I'm talking about; the rest of you will have to imagine. Visualize the coziest, sweetest small town you've ever been too. Times a hundred. Or the set of Gilmore Girls. Times a hundred. And every breath of air feels like you're in a chamber of pure oxygen.

After stopping by our hotel to warm up and dry off, we went back out to an adorable museum displaying the artifacts of a multi-generational family, in the house they'd lived in since the 1820s. We were given a tour by a very clean-looking woman with funky glasses and a great sense of humor. She knew everything about every object in the house. This knick-knack? It was built by a Finnish company in the 1930s that specialized in blown glass. It went out of business shortly after when Russia invaded Karelia during the Winter War. You get the idea.

Then we went to the tiny movie theatre and saw "The Devil Wears Prada," since it was the only thing playing.

Then to dinner at a tiny tiny restaurant with amazing food and a perfectly rustic decor. I had reindeer meat, seasoned with rosemary, and a mushroom pie. Drool. We followed this with coffee and dessert at the hotel bar. Even the hotel bar had awesome coffee and Finnish specialty desserts. (Jonathan had some kind of melty cheese concoction with cinammon and arctic cloudberries. Drool.)

The next day we got up to discover that practically everything in the whole town was closed. This place is so low-key, even the Acme-sized grocery stores close on Sundays. Can you imagine? We wandered up the hill at the top of town, which had an amazing view over the harbor, and had little shops built around the foundations of what was once a castle and fortress. We found a coffee shop and a souvenier shop open, and also stumbled upon an outdoor theatre that had been showered in fallen maple leaves. It was so beautiful it hurt.

Then...

the drive back.

Pictures of the town will be posted in the future. I have to wait for the film. The drive back, however, I took digital snapshots out the window. Here is Jonathan driving in Finland. Look how happy he is!



Here's some shots of Finnish countryside...





and look, a REAL "watch out for moose" sign!



Then we crossed the border, and crazy things began to happen. First of all, this is just past customs- this is the line of trucks waiting to go through customs. This went on for MILES. They're just plain STOPPED in the oncoming traffic lane, which means that unless someone wants to spend, say, 9 hours waiting for them, they will pass the trucks, driving INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC, which means oncoming traffic has to essentially pull in the ditch. This is insanity.



After getting by this shining example of planning and engineering, the real fun began. Most of the road back to St. Petersburg is narrow and winding. Lots of blind corners. No shoulder. Very often not much of a ditch. And the entire way, it's only two lanes. I should also preface this with the fact that most Russians who can afford a car think of themselves as above the law; also, Russian police are too busy taking bribes to actually enforce the law.

So, going under 100 kph means you are a road block to be passed. And pass you they will, whenever they feel like it. A Russian in a Mercedes has no fear of death. Nor does he care about the well-being of the person he's passing. Thus, approximately every 3 minutes, for the entire ride back, a BMW would come out of nowhere and whip around us, blind corners and oncoming traffic be damned. Here are some photos of the insanity. Keep in mind that this is all happening at about 70 mph.

This is a guy just pulling out to pass. Notice the headlights coming from the other direction. Not that he cares.



Here is an SUV that just pulled back in after passing someone. Note the oncoming truck.



And my personal favorite, this is a guy who's halfway through passing someone, right in front of an oncoming semi.



After this it started to rain, which also did not deter the insanity. There were many many many examples that were MUCH closer calls than these photos; but when I started seeing my life flash before my eyes, I decided to stop taking pictures.

In addition to this madness, there was also the fact that when there WAS a shoulder, trucks would pull onto it so people could pass them without crossing into oncoming traffic. Observe:



And last but not least, there's the people who set up road-side stands to sell produce. They stand a good chance of dying themselves, or killing others, such as when someone pulls over to buy something, thus blocking the shoulder, thus the truck driving onto the shoulder has to swerve back into his lane, thus sending the person in his lane (trying to pass him) into oncoming traffic.

"Mmm! Come get your fresh veggies in the box on the shoulder! We'll be over here by the trash fire, keeping warm."



Honestly, who would prefer this to the supermarket?

After adding all this up, really it should come as no surprise that the fatality rate for highway accidents alone in Russia is over 12,000 deaths per year. That's about 345 deadly car accidents per day, people. All of which is why we may never see Lappeenranta again, considering that we are never, ever, ever going to drive down that road again. We're looking into taking the train over the border and then catching a bus, but it might not happen. That town is like Eldorado. Watch, no one will believe we've been there. It was only alive during the 24 hours we were there, the one day each century its citizens get to come to life. When I get my film developed it will just be all black.

Anyway, after some miracle or the pity of god allowed us to get home in one piece, and after returning to the land of filthy sidewalks and dying trees, I've been on a Russia-hating kick that I'm trying to get over, lest I be miserable for the next year and a half. I'm having to walk around, saying to myself, "Okay, not ALL Russians are selfish, wreckless, life-sucking jerks... not ALL Russians are selfish, wreckless, life-sucking jerks..." Good thing I met the cute little old Russian scientist on the train the weekend before. The thought of him restores my hope...

Helsinki recap

So today at home there was a near-tragic incident. It began like this- our friend Tom bestowed upon us the incredible gift of nearly every Nintendo/Super Nintendo/N64/Genesis/Apple game EVER in emulator form. I finally got it working yesterday, and today Jonathan sat down to relive his childhood. When he discovered that he could now play Elevator Action for the first time in 20 years, he was so excited that he knocked over his coffee. It narrowly missed splattering all over the laptop itself, and left an impressive puddle around our external hard drive. I unplugged everything immediately but had some MAJOR panic about losing every photo, document, and piece of music from the last, oh, SIX YEARS OF OUR LIVES. After the clean-up, we plugged everything back in, and it all seems to be fine, but it did scare the crap out of me enough to finally back the thing up. So now I'm staying up late, re-loading blank DVDs into the computer every 45 minutes as it lovingly compacts and copies all our precious files.

Along the same lines, while staying up late, I figured I should also give a run-down of my Helsinki trip before something happens to my brain and it's all gone forever. On our old laptop, of course. The new one is busily humming away.

My most faithful readers already know about the amazing meal and wine I had on Wednesday, and the social-mindedness of Finns. But, I'll throw out a basic overlay of the week while I'm at it. It's not like anything interesting has been happening in Russia this week, anyway.

Last Monday I took the train to Helsinki. About a 6-hour ride, or rather, 5 hour ride with an hour of sitting at the border so Russian border control could go through all the cars and make sure no one was stealing any Russian artifacts, followed by Finnish customs agents going through all the cars to make sure that no one was tainting their country with any god-awful Russian artifacts. The train ride overall was bland; as was the food; and the heat was CRANKED, so I rued wearing a turtleneck.

When I arrived, I hauled my massive suitcase to the hotel across the street, which is where I thought I was staying. Turns out I was in the other hotel, owned by the same company, that was a kilometer and a half away. I was too chicken to try to figure out the public transportation just yet, and didn't have enough euros for a cab, so I yanked the suitcase the kilometer and a half uphill to my actual hotel. After sitting in my hotel long enough to stop sweating, I loaded up my camera bag and hit the town. I saw the Sibelius monument, which was in a beautiful park with leaves changing color; as soon as my film is developed (say, in November), I'll post pictures. Then I went to this church that was apparently carved straight into a hill made of granite. When I arrived, however, it was closed. Rats. At this point I was shaking from hunger, so I stopped at a place called Hesburger, which, it turns out, has the most incredibly awesome, fat-laden hamburgers that I've ever had.

After my "snack," I went downtown. Besides work training, the true reason for my trip, my Helsinki sub-plot was finding a dress for an upcoming formal event. St. Petersburg "formal wear" is either black, slutty, or both, so I thought I'd find something more colorful yet subdued in Helsinki. Turns out, they have "colorful yet subdued," but only in specialty shops for around 400 euros and up. Ouch. So half my evenings were spent running into bridal stores hoping I'd find something on the clearance rack. This is how I spent most of my Monday evening, trying out Stockman's, the Macy's of Scandinavia, and then taking side excursions to H&M and Marimekko. I finished my night with dinner out at an Indian place, the first time I've ever eaten at a "real" restaurant All By Myself.

Tuesday- work during the day- boring- at night, more desperate dress searching- boring- then intending to go to an "authentic!" Finnish restaurant, which turned out to be closed for a private party- which was followed by my going to a chain called Carrol's for another hunger-desperation hamburger.

Wednesday- more work- then the world's most fabulous meal at Chez Dominique. If you're ever in Helsinki (and have some major per diem to spare) I HIGHLY recommend it.

Thursday- work- then one final hunt for a dress. Finally found one that didn't make me look like a cheap hooker for around 200 euros, so I figured I'd buy it and get it over with already. By the time I bought it, I was barely able to grab a pastry and hop on the tram to get to the opera in time. I saw a cozy performance of Don Giovanni (with another pastry at intermission). Afterwards met up with an American coworker to go be silly tourists at the "Ice Bar," a bar where the tables and everything are made of ice. You even get a borrowed parka when you go in. Neat. After pretty much no dinner, a cup of coffee, and then a shot of vodka (all they served at the ice bar), I needed some food. I decided I'd introduce my colleague to Hesburger- but lo and behold, despite the hours posted, they weren't open. Ended up going to McDonald's. Desperation hamburger #3.

Friday- final day of training- then off to a great Thai meal with coworkers, then out for a night on the town. Let's just say I got home really late.

Saturday- Ice Bar coworker, who was staying in my hotel, called me at 9:00 AM. We had some free breakfast at the hotel, then putzed around the city a little. Thankfully the air was cold and fresh, so I didn't feel too tired. Wandered around the herring market by the piers and took some more pictures.

At 3:30 PM my train back to St. Pete departed. (This time, I took the tram between the hotel and the station, and a strapping young Finn immediately stepped up to get my suitcase on and off. Such nice people, the Finns.) Once I boarded, I was in major need of a nap. My ticket was for sharing a 6-person cabin. I boarded and saw only an old Russian man in my car. I figured he'd never speak English. I figured he'd find out soon enough that my Russian is terrible, then I'd sleep the whole way home. He said "sdrastvitya," I replied in kind, then he asked me something in Russian. "Izvinitye," I said, gesturing hopelessness.

"Well, do you speak English then?" he asked. !!

"Yes I do," I said.

"Well, why didn't you say so?"

Turns out this guy- who had to be pushing 80- was a scientist and had been giving a lecture at a college in Helsinki. Andre, his name was. He'd worked with the W.H.O., fighting AIDS in Africa, and some kind of epidemic in Cuba in the 70s, all kinds of stuff. He was a genius, and a riot.

"Are you Finnish?" he asked.

"Nooo, I'm American."

"American! What state?"

"Nebraska."

"Nebraska!" He studied me carefully, then stared at my feet. "No cowboy boots??" Then burst out laughing. He also knew some great dirty jokes, had some choice words to say about Michigan, and was quoting Russian poets all over the place. Currently, he's working on studying the effects of pollution on Baltic species of animals and plants. What a great guy.

As we neared the Finnish border, a young Russian couple entered our car. Andre translated for me- apparently they'd been driving to Helsinki when their car broke down. They left it in a repair shop in Finland and decided to take the train back to St. Petersburg. While waiting, they visited a tax-free shop and bought a huge bottle of whiskey and a big bar of Swiss chocolate. They also heard on the radio that it was Putin's birthday, so they insisted we toast to him, and graceously shared the whiskey and chocolate. The woman was named Olga and spoke English; her boyfriend was another Andre (I swear) and didn't, but Olga and old Andre were good translators. Olga was an economist but had wanted to be a travel agent until she'd found out how badly it paid. I told her she should be a flight attendent. She wrinkled her nose at me and proclaimed that she didn't like serving people. Haha. Like most Russian women, if she could get to the US, she could easily make a living as a model.

I arrived back in St. Pete around 9:30 PM, where Jonathan met me and took me out to sushi to catch up, then it was home again. After all the wine, clubbing, and whiskey, I spent the rest of the weekend re-hydrating. :D

So that's the entire log of my happenings in Helsinki. Jonathan is immensely jealous and we're already planning another trip before New Year's. Not to diss on Russia too much though. It was still wonderful to come back to "Peter" and feel like it was home. :)

I plan on leaving my heart in Helsinki.

I am so blissfully hammered right now.

Let me catch everyone up. I'm in Helsinki on business this week. This is the most stunningly beautiful city I've ever been in. Granted, I'd been here before, but I was so messed up on jet lag that I didn't really appreciate the 6 hours that we were here at th time.

This week, instead, I'm getting to soak up the full glory of the ridiculously beautiful city that is Helsinki.

Imagine the city that you always fantasized about as a kid. When I was a kid, I had a mental image of what big cities were like. Busy people swiftly moving through town, lots of trees, clean sidewalks... it turns out that the perfect city of my childhood imagination is Helsinki. First of all, the city is spotless. Most of the sidewalks are cobblestone, and you could eat off of them, they're so clean. The buildings are all also clean, and the architecture is amazing- a wonderful selection of modern, simple, clean Scandinavian design, and a few select historic buildings. Throw some gorgeous blonde people, adorable green and yellow tram cars, fresh air and lots of healthy trees and parks into the mix, and you basically have Helsinki. This place is a fantasy world. I don't care if the sun doesn't come out for 3 weeks in the winter. The rest of the year is worth it.

Anyway, back to being drunk. The day I found out that I would be spending a week in Helsinki also happened to be the day I stumbled upon the list of the Top 50 Restaurants in the World. No. 39 is Chez Dominique in Helsinki, the only Finnish restaurant on the list. So I said to myself, man, I get per diem, I should see if I can get in on that. So I made a reservation, and tonight I went. Besides the utterly mind-bogglingly delicious food, I got wine with every course. It was supposed to be a full glass with every course, but that would have meant 6 glasses (!) of wine, which, I gently explained to the waiter, would have made me pass out in my plate by the 3rd course. He suggested that I get a half a glass of wine with each course, which sounded fabulous to me, but it turned out to still be enough to get me wrecked. Not wrecked enough to be sick, but wrecked enough to be giggly on the tram ride home, not to mention drunk enough to think to myself as I was carefully eating with my knife in my right hand and my fork in my left, tines down of course (which is incredibly hard when you're seeing double), "My God, how did a Nebraskan end up at the 39th best restaurant in the WORLD in Helsinki, Finland? I grew up on Arby's, for cripe's sake!"

Anyway, so I had a wonderful tram ride home and then called up Jonathan, whom I was missing and whose company is the only thing that could have made the meal better.

Oh, and even while sobor, I've noticed an amazing thing about Finns- never in my life have I met a more law-abiding society. After strolling around in Russia for a while, where people will gladly step on you to get ahead (whether it be cutting in front of you in line, pulling out in front of you while driving, etc), it is so refreshing to have people, say, actually STOP when you're in a crosswalk. It's like you can actually hear the mantra of "this is good for society" going through people's heads.

Example- yesterday, while I was taking the tram back to my hotel, it started to POUR down rain. Absolute buckets falling from the sky. The gutters became overflowing rivers, moving fasters than the trams. When I got off the tram, the walk light for the street was red. I had an umbrella, but there was a lady waiting at the corner who was without one. She'd obviously been stranded far from home- she was SOAKED to the bone. When I saw her, I immediately considered offering to share my umbrella, but it looked like she was about to cross the street. And then I saw it- the wheels of social progress spinning in her mind. I could tell that she was cold and wanted to cross the street so badly to get closer to home, but, gasp, the light was red!! Never mind that no one was coming for MILES around. There she stood, teetering on the curb, looking left, looking right, picking up her foot as if she was about to go; then she glanced up at the still-red walk light and her brain started saying, "If I cross the street, AGAINST THE LIGHT, that will be the end of our society as we know it. It will be the start of the slippery slope. This is my own fault, I should have brought an umbrella. Here I stay, for the good of us all." It's amazing how quickly this mindset rubs off on Helsinki's visitors as well. I, too, waited for the light to change, as I have every other time I've been at an intersection while here. I've even missed my tram in the morning because I've been at an intersection and my Scandinavian blood kicks in, telling me to obey laws even when no one's looking. It's incredible.

It's also incredible how I've been rambling. Amazing what the 39TH BEST MEAL on the PLANET will do to you. It's also amazing how disturbingly fortunate I am. Between the food and this beautiful city... man. And honestly, what compelling reason is out there that should prevent everyone on earth from experiencing this glow at least once? If spread around properly, through a people's respect for each other (a la the Finns), there should be enough out there for everyone.

I hope all my readers are in happy places tonight, because I am. :)