I just returned from spending a week in Russia then passed by far too quickly.
A close friend from home who now lives in St Petersburg Russia was getting married. So I opted to take full advantage of the opportunity presented and made the trip over. What an incredible experience it was. I truly feel I got as much out of my trip as possible, both on the late night social scene as well as the daily cultural aspects.
All in all there is too much to speak of independently but I have created an outline to help speedily tell the tale of my journey. It goes as follows:
§ Fri July 4:
o Flights from Buffalo to St Petersburg
o (Buffalo to DC 1.5 hours)(DC to Frankfurt 7.5 Hours)(Frankfurt to St Petersburg 3 hours)
§ Sat July 5:
o Arrive in St Pete's
o Luke’s friend/ co employee DAN SELL MET me AT THE AIRPORT.
o We TOOK THE SUBWAY UP TO VLADIMIRSKAYA WHERE I MET the rest of the group.
o WE ATE AT YOLKI-PALKI, a Russian chain restaurant
o Irina and I TOOK ALEK HOME because he was falling asleep at the table AND THEN CAME BACK to meet the group.
o WE WALKED AROUND THE CITY FOR A WHILE, THEN TOOK THEM TO THEIR APARTMENTS AND Luke, Irina and I TOOK OFF to prepare for a night on the town. We went to the newests hippest night club in St Pete’s called “Sand” located right on a dock on the Gulf of Finland. Typical night club, included pool (only one I saw in St Pete’s) Miami like scene.
§ Sun July 6:
o Woke up in bed (futon with Alek) went to meet wochensky’s…. they were 2 hours late, Al and I had to wait in the rain.
o Walked through a RUSSIAN MUSEUM with Wochensky clan,
o Museum contained RUSSIAN ART FROM ICONS TO EARLY SOVIET ART. Luke was our tourguide, I was our pace car.
o Dinner with Ilya and Igor and entire Wochensky Clan - RESTAURANT TARKHUZ
o After dinner we took a Canal cruise as a group, Pierre, Ed and myself enjoyed Pirva
o After the canal cruise, we parted ways with the Wochensky’s and Luke, Al, Aaron and I went to see Luke’s office
o At the office we had some cappuccino, champagne and played table hockey.
o My friend Maya from Swarthmore Met us there with some students and friends of hers and we all headed out to Dacha bar,
o Luke, Al and Irina went home early leaving Aaron and I to hanout longer. We had one drink and Dacha then headed outside to a Baltica Beer Garden.
o I dropped Aaron off at 4am 
and stayed in a Hostile with the Swarthmore clan. The room I stayed in had 10 bunks, with 9 of them being full. I didn’t pay because I showed up so late.
§ Mon July 7:
o In the morning two germans came in to stay at the hostile and were surprised when one of the bunks they paid for was occupied so I had to quickly bolt out of the hostile before being noticed.
o Called luke on Maya’s cell phone and was off trying to find my way back to Lukes apartment.
o Once outside I realized I had no idea where I was, or how to get back to the metro or to find Luke’s apartment.
o Asked several people if they spoke English, no one did. Eventually found the metro by wandering around the city for a while and then managed to make the necessary transfers to get to Luke’s metro stop.
o successfully made it back to Luke's apartment on my own, GOOD WORK!
o Daytime activities, late in the afternoon we headed back into the city to show for shirts and ties for luke. But didn’t buy anything. Stopped at a Sushi restaurant for dinner, then met up with Luke’s family.
o Luke, Ina and I took IRINA TO THE TRAIN STATION where we ran into her cousin who she hadn’t seen in ten years.
o After the train station, we returned to the apartments to drop off Ina, and Luke, Al and I went out to an Irish Pub to meet with his friends from Ohio State.
o We were all going to call it an early night around 1am, but then the guy from Nebraska who had left an hour earlier to catch a train called saying that all trains were cancelled until 6am. So he wanted to go out in the city until it was time for him to catch the train.
o Al and Luke when home to bed, I went out with the other two guys to Marstall, a popular bar in the city.
o Stayed in the city at the Ohio State guys apartment that night. (went to KFC on the way home)
§ Tues July 8:
o Woke up in Ohio State apartment, took my first cold shower.
o Luke and Al met me there with a change of clothes, and we decided that I needed to have a cell phone from now on seeing that I have already created a trend of winding up in random parts of the city on my own.
o We then left to meet the Wochensky clan and TOOK THE METRO TO THE SUBURBAN TRAIN AND TOOK IT OUT TO PETERHOF WHERE WE WALKED AROUND THE PARK WITH THE FOUNTAINS AND SAW THE GULF OF FINLAND.
o WE GOT BACK IN to the city around 6pm AND THEY WENT TO THEIR APARTMENTS, and we picked up Mike Brady who had just flown in.
o Night Time activities, "Bachelor Party". Molly's pub, Marstall, and that other place. Where we went at 4am and haggled on the street for 15 minutes until they allowed us to enter the club and not pay full price.
o Cecala and Brady first real night out in St Pete’s. Dropped Cecala off with his wife at 7am. We got home around 8am.
o KFC on the way home. Delicious everywhere in the world.
§ Wedsneday July 9:
o Woke up early in the afternoon…Hungover as hell
o Al left early in the morning to meet Wochensky clan to visite the Hermitage, we all yelled at him belligerently for no reason in the morning other than the fact we were all still drunk and had just gotten in.
o Went across the street from Luke’s apt to the mall were we had a Business Lunch (Cucumber salad, Soup, Meatloaf, Home fries and tea… saved my life.)
o After lunch, went shopping with Luke, picked out cuff links, ties and went to pick up his suit pants.
o Suit pants were mistakenly given to the wrong person. But they got them back the next morning.
o Wednesday night, Met with Ilya, Dacha and Igor to go to dinner at the restaurant over looking St Pete's. Great view, stayed there to watch the sun set… but it never did. Left around midnight. Lindsay Ehinger met up with us this night for dinner.
o Luke, Al, Brady and I all went back to Luke’s apartment in Kamandanskee for an early night in to recuperate. (Cab driver played Blues in his car, first time I heard any music other than techno being played.)
§ Thursday July 10:
o Goal of the morning was to get everyone’s bags to the train Station
o Luke left early in the morning to meet Wochensky clan at the apartments and start taking cabs filled with bags to the Train Station.
o Brady, Al and I were to take the Metro directly to the train station and meet Luke.
o Leaving the apartment, we realized we didn’t have keys to lock the door so we had to leave Al at the Apartment.
o Brady and I then attempted to go to McDonalds for breakfast. Failed at our attempt, the menu is very different in Russia than it is in the US. Left starving and defeated
o Took the Metro and met Luke at the Transtation. Aaron and Becky met us there.
o Accumulated a tower of bags, the required the assistance of Luke, Axel, Brady, Aaron and Becky all to move to the temporary holding room.
o Waiting in Line for the luggage storage room, the attendant said it was full. Luke finagled with him until he allowed us all to put the bags in there.
o From there, Brady and I left to go to the Hermitage for a speed tour with a private guide. But first stopped at Sbarro pizza, where the employees spoke English. Got food and were happy.
o At hermitage, Saw original works from Monet, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Picasso, etc.
o From the Hermitage met with Luke’s family near the Church of the Spilled blood. Had Brick oven Pizza.
o From there left to go to the Train station via Metro, made it a few minutes early so Brady and I went to the store to buy some beer and vodka.
o Long lines at the cash out so we had to run to the train, and barely made it aboard
o Overnight Train to Cherepovets, drank a few beers which is apparently not allowed on the trains. The police came down and yelled at us. We had 6 people, all foreigners in the room drinking beers. As they were yelling at us, we just all pulled out our tickets thinking they were asking to see them. Luke was laughing at us.
o On the train realized that the vodka I purchased was Smirnoff… I failed to sound out the writing on the bottle before buying it. I was devastated, but turns out we didn’t need it.
o Very hard to sleep in the cabins at night. Each time the train stopped it would get very hot and smelly as the circulation system would turn off. Eventually, Brady, Myself, Cecala and Dan were all just laying in pools of our own sweat stripped down to our boxers. Pretty funny image.
§ Friday July 11:
o Arrive in Cherepovets Train Station around 7am in the morning.
o Take cabs to hotel and check in. The hotel was very much like a college dorm. Each room had one single bed, a desk and a bathroom.
o There were even hall monitors, that you had to hand a card to each time you wanted to go to your room, you would hand them a card, and in return they would give you room key. Then when leaving your room you would turn your key back in and they would give you back your card. The room keys had a hefty keychain so that you could not take it out of the hotel, similar to gas station bathroom keys.
o After napping for the rest of the morning, met up around 1pm with Irina’s brother Sasha and his wife and friends. They then gave us a walking tour of Cherepovets. Sasha spoke a little English, but his wife’s friend Nelly once lived in South Carolina for some time and spoke fluent English. Helped tremendously with the translation and communication.
o Cherepovets is a small city, primarily based around the steel industry, not many exciting sites.
o After walking around the city for a while, looking at some churches and seeing the general sites, we headed to a restarant/bar on the outdoor deck/patio. Alexe and Nelly served as primary interpreters and we ended up having a good time with the help of beer.
o Prompted us to head out to the clubs that night, inspired by Alexe.
o Returned to the hotel for quick PTA and then headed out for the night.
o 1st stop was Dacha night club… weird dude with glass and sharp objects
o 2nd stop was Safari night club, met up with Sasha and his posse and ended up pulling a late night.
o I stayed to the very end, where I was falling asleep in the bar. So Dan taught me how to say a sentence to the cab driver, that would get me home on my own. I rehearsed the sentence over and over until I felt confident enough to try it out. Once I walked outside the club, I flagged down the cab and said the line.
o Luckily he dropped me off where I needed to be, however the hotel was locked so I couldn’t get in.
o I ended up having to call luke at 4am on his wedding day saying that I was locked out of the hotel. Luke being tired and annoyed just told me to knock on the door. Apparently the security guard was asleep as he came promptly as I knocked and let me in.
§ Saturday July 12:
o Woke up dead to the world at 11am, only due to my friend Lindsey knocking on my door. Her train had arrived earlier that morning and was trying to find what was going on.
o I was in an extreme stated of dehydration and substantially hungover, so I couldn’t move or talk.
o From my bed, I pleaded for Linzo to take my wallet and go get me a bottle of water. She returned in about 15 minutes with a magical liter of water and some pastries. I managed chug the water and choke down some of the food. After taking some Ibuprofen I was feeling ok again and back in action.
o While still being in bed however, before my miraculous recovery, Luke and the wedding camera came in to find me. He was hoping to find me in rough shape knowing that I had woken him up at 4am that morning. He got his wish.
o Once I felt a little better, I peeled myself out of bed and crawled into the shower.
o A nice warm shower helped me rejuvenate further and I was good to go.
o From the hotel room, went down to the lobby and met the group to get on our tour bus. The bus was hot and it wasn’t long before I fully sweated through my shirt. But eventually I surpassed the cusp where my shirt was fully soaked through at which point I began to cool down.
o Luckily, everyone was sweaty and smelly. Like camping.
o Took the bus to do some Pre wedding activities, namely performing tricks to win earn the bride from her family. Tricks included getting everyone off the bus (which was pulled over by Alexe dressed as a police officer) and lining up as a big heart in the road.
o Other tricks included dancing and excessive amounts of champagne drinking.
o Then off to the official ceremony for the wedding. Official ceremony was like a glorified court service, followed by dancing gypsies, bears and more champagne. We all gave our flowers to the bride and groom and proceeded back onto the bus.
o Next stop was the big suspension Bridge spanning the river. Here we launched champagne corks off the bridge and the new bride/groom tossed a bottle into the river below which symbolizes something. Can’t remember what. They also placed a lock on the bridge to symbolize their union. It was very sunny and a nice cool breeze on the bridge, I did not want to leave.
o From the bridge we headed to the reception at Club Europa. The reception consisted of many acts performed by dancers and singers, some acts involved audience participation. The cycle was performance, dancing by the wedding invitees, food, performance, dancing, food. It was actually a lot of fun.
o Wedding only had Vodka and Wine. No beer.
o Once the wedding was over a small group of us decided to once again burn the midnight oil and head out the club Diamond for late night festivities. There they had a huge mural of the Philadelphia Skyline which was very exciting. Also I had a mojito which was soo delicious. No drinks in Russia include ice, so having a mixture of ice and mint tasted delicious and refreshing. The night was very fun thanks to Ilya and Dacha’s translation efforts and once again ended late.
§ Sunday July 13:
o Woke up early early early to catch the bus for the religious ceremony. Actually it was 10am, but seemed extremely early.
o Traveled two hours to get to a small quaint church in the hills of Russia. The bus ride was fun as we all seemed to pick up our conversations where we left off the night before.
o We spent the day walking around the country side, by a large river complete with river boats. Even visited an old monastery, very relaxing and pleasant day. No drinking occurred, until lunch…
o Stopped at the only restaurant in town for the final wedding/group meal of the trip. Had traditional soup and pork meals followed by some tea.
o Getting back on the bus, after having walked around all day and now with a full stomach we all crashed for the 2 hour ride back to Cherepovets.
o Once back in Cherepovets we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some snacks for the train ride and headed to the station.
o There we ran into everyone we had met over the past few days and were able to say our good byes one last time. And finally set off back to St Petersburg at 11pm.
o Brady and I shared an compartment with two young Russians. It was hot again, but by now we were exhausted and just wanted to sleep. So that is what we did.
§ Monday July 14:
o Arrived in St Pete's early in the morning.
o Stopped by Ilya and Dacha's apartment, took my last cold shower, went for breakfast at a café
o Then took a cab to the airport.
o Flights home from St Petersburg to Buffalo (very painful) arrived in Buff at 1am
o (St Pete’s to Frankfurt 3 hours)(Frankfurt to Chicago 9.5 hours)(Chicago to Buff 1.5 Hours)
o Lost my luggage, went through Security 3 times in St Pete’s airport, twice in Frankfurt, once in Chicago.
So that there is my trip in a nutshell.
Thanks to Luke and Irina for the hospitality and the great week of parties.
