St. Petersburg, Russia

People in St. Petersburg seem to be a lot happier than people in Moscow. Some of them are nicer, but not all. I bought a ticket to go to Helsinki tomorrow. I accomplished this like so: the ticket office had a window saying, in English, "Foreign Visitors." The lady at this window didn't speak English, but she was nice. I said "bilyet Helsinki zaftra utram pazhalsta" - "ticket Helsinki tomorrow morning please." She asked me something in Russia, the only word of which I recognized was "ruble," so I figured she was asking me how I would pay so I responded "da, ruble." Then she said something else and held up two fingers, so I figured she was asking if I wanted second class, so I said "da" again. Then she said something else and pointed in one direction with her finger, so I figured she was asking if I wanted one-way or return, so I said "da" and pointed in one direction with my finger. Then she checked my passport to enter my name into the computer, had me sign something, punched in the fare total on her calculator to show me, and I got my ticket! Great success! You have to carry your passport at all times in Russia because the police do random checks. This goes for everybody, not just foreigners, so even Russians have to carry their passports with them wherever they go. A few summers ago Alec and I took two Russian girls who were visiting to the beach. One of them got worried when she thought she had lost her purse because it had her passport in it. We were like "why the hell would you bring your passport to the beach?" and she said "in case the police ask for it!" We explained to her that that was not an issue in the US. Anyways, everybody told me that I was guaranteed to be stopped at least once while in Russia. This morning right after getting off the metro and going into the train station there were a few cops standing around looking bored. They came towards me and started talking to me in Russian. I listened for the word "passport" but I didn't hear it, and I wasn't going to take it out unless I thought it was absolutely necessary. I just played dumb and said "I'm sorry, I don't speak Russian." One asked "where are you from?" "USA." Then they just walked away. Later when getting back on the metro I saw them randomly stopping people but I had no problems. So tomorrow if everything goes as planned I should be getting my Finland on. I wonder if you can eat reindeer. I'm considering buying another hour of internet at this cafe, because the Svetlana at the counter is adorable and her name is, get this, Anastasia.

One month ago I was in Muscat.
Two months ago I was in Alexandria.