Photo's (from the top)Me (blonde!) dressed as Ukraine for Eurovision
Me and Chris at city day
Rain on city day
next 3 Our bbq
Chilling on our friend's roof
Dinner party for a friend's birthday
Church of Spilled Blood
Pigeons.
So, yes, I have been a bit of a failure with my blog this time, but in Petersburg, I feel like I am just living rather than experiencing new things all the time! So it feels like I have nothing to report! Saying that, I think this may be a long one as I am reporting on the whole of last month!
So at the beginning of May, I went back to London for ten days. Despite being stuck in Munich for a night, I got to London and it was lovely! I got of the tube and the trees were green!! It felt like spring was in the air and I felt like skipping up and down the pavement! I managed to restrain myself though. Tom didn’t actually know the exact dates that I was coming, as I had kept it as a surprise, though at the last minute, I sent him a text which was meant for Mum which said that I was leaving Petersburg! So I spoiled the surprise, but still it didn’t matter! So we had a lovely ten days, Tom still had exams, so I kept myself busy in the day doing a bit of work, seeing friends, going for bike rides, etc. We went to see Les Miserable’s as I had found some cheap(ish) tickets, so we went as an early birthday present for Tom. It was good, a bit cheesy, but Tom enjoyed it and had wanted to go for a long time. Mum and Dad came down for the day, as they had not been able to fly out to Petersburg because of the volcano. It was great to see them, we went on a canal trip, as that was one of the things I had planned to do with them in Pete. Tom then joined us and we had a look around a few photography exhibitions and then went for a superb curry! Then soon as I knew it, it was time to return to mother Russia. I had had such a nice time being back with Tom and being back in London, that it was pretty crap to have to go back! To add insult to injury, when I got to Petersburg, it became clear that my bag had been lost! After filling in a million forms, I was told that I would have to come back the next day to pick it up. Despite my worry and lack of trust in the Russian systems of doing anything, my bag did actually turn up!
But my return was softened by the fact that the weather had seriously improved while I was away. It had become lovely and warm seemed to be getting hotter and hotter! My friend went away for a week to Riga and Estonia and asked me if I wanted to borrow her bike! I was so happy she had asked me! So I spent that week riding about on her bike and finding various new parts to the city which was exciting. It was lovely and sunny and I could just ride about in shorts and a t-shirt and I felt so summery. So that was a brilliant week! My friend Chris invited me to go to an event called Night of the Museums, as one of his students had given him two tickets. The idea is that the majority of the museums in Petersburg stay open from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning. Despite our big plans to stay up and visit loads of museums, we only managed to do one! It was such a lovely evening though, and there were so many people out and about, that we just walked around for hours with a few beers. So it was fun, despite pretty much failing on the museum front!
I decided to be more proactive and do more things in the city, so the last few weeks we have all been doing a lot more things! One of my friends had a spare ticket to the opera, so I took up the offer and went with them to see Aida. It was four hours and 5 mins, but nevertheless, it was good. I actually felt quite tense and really got into it! Another evening, I had booked tickets for eight of us girlies to see Cinderella in ballet form. Everyone really enjoyed it and it was a great girly night. A fortnight ago, I got an e-mail from a friend from Moscow saying that she was going to be in Petersburg that weekend. So I rang her when she got here and invited her round to ours for cocktails. She came round and it was really nice to see her again. We had a few cocktails and then went on to a bar and in the end she ended up staying the night because in summer, the bridges go up and stay up from 1am to 6am, and she was staying with a friend on one of the islands. So she was pretty stranded!
Upon scouring the internet for ballet tickets, I stumbled upon and advert for a garage sale that was happening at the weekend. So we went along, and it was really good, I got myself a dress fro 100 roubles, which is about £2! A bargain indeed. That day, a big group of us went up to one of the islands equipped with a barbeque and lots of meat! So we set up camp and got the barbi going, only to be interrupted 5 mins later by a patrol guard who told us that bbq’s were forbidden and that we had to put it out! Spirits not dampened, we decided to find a more hidden spot and have it there. After about 20 mins of indecisiveness, we found the perfect spot and had a lovely uninterrupted afternoon. A few people even went swimming in the Neva!
Last week my friend from home was here and he managed to bring terrible cold wet weather with him. Up until he came the temperature was hovering at about 26-30 degrees and it was lovely, but this last week has just been awful! Nevertheless, we had a fun week together, not so much doing touristy stuff, but just chilling out together watching films, eating, going out etc. At the weekend though, we took to the city as it was St Petersburg’s birthday. So we walked amongst the throngs of other city dwellers and saw the various festivities on offer. We also went on a boat tour of the canals which run through the city. That was nice, bit nippy though. On Saturday it was Eurovision, so a couple of my friends had a party. We all had to dress up as a country, so of course I went as Ukraine. I dyed my hair blonde the weekend before, and wore a yellow dress with yellow and blue ribbons in my hair. So I looked both Ukrainian and Swedish! Chris went as Russia, he wore this hideous black fake ‘Giorgio Armani’ polyester t-shirt that we had spent hours trying to find in the market, tucked into black jeans with one of my gold necklaces! So he looked a treat!
And that is pretty much it! I have been keeping myself busy planning mine and Tom’s summer trip! It is all very exciting and I can’t wait to actually get on with it!! Ok so, will try to be better at keeping you informed!
Lots of love, miss you all x x x x xx
