A journey best forgotten...

So, to carry on from last time; Kiev was lovely, absolutely scorching though! I had a lovely time wandering around and I visited all the churches, went to see The Defender of the Motherland museum and the big statue of ‘tin tits’ as she is known. I also went to some caves which are a pilgrimage site where there are loads of monks buried. It was pretty creepy, as the monks are just in glass coffins with a blanket over their bodies, and loads of women and men were rushing from side to side kissing all the coffins! But I have decided that I am going to go back to Kiev before my exams next year, so I can brush up on some Russian. It is such a lovely city; it had bits of Moscow, an almost Parisian feel to it and had a really friendly vibe. So Kiev I liked a lot! Anyway, so managed to get to Lviv no problem and Tom and I met at the Lviv national opera house, all very romantic!! We upgraded our accommodation and managed to get our own apartment for 35 Euros a night, so not bad! Unfortunately the warm weather didn’t follow me to Lviv, which was pretty cold to be honest! But Lviv was also lovely. The old town was gorgeous, cobbled streets, lovely buildings, outdoor cafes all over the place, markets galore and again just a lovely little place. Our first night we wandered about in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to the train station to buy our train tickets for Budapest. A simple enough task you would have thought... oh no! We were there for probably about 2 hours. We kept waiting in queues only to find that when we got to the front it was the wrong queue. We went to the opera house and then ended up buying tickets to see the opera for that evening. Well well, Ukrainian opera leaves a lot to be desired! It was pretty panto-esque, but it was fun! I enjoyed it, Tom thought it was crap though. We had a great dinner in this underground brewery of sausages and heaps of cabbage.

The following day was spent sat in a park planning our future plans, strolling around a market, drinking cherry vodka (only the one with lunch!!) and then sitting in a big square watching the football. As we couldn’t leave Ukraine without eating vareniki, we went to a restaurant which specialised in these culinary treats! They were nice, but I still rate Bapcha’s as superior.

So, then it was time for our overnight train to Budapest. For what I am about to write, please don’t think badly of me and Tom. We had no choice!! So there were 3 of us in the cabin, tom myself and Misha, a middle aged Ukrainian man. As the train departed, Misha was talking to me a bit, but then went off for a bit. When he returned, he had a friend with him, a younger guy about our age and with them they produced out of a hold all a 1.5 litre bottle of what he claimed to be 99% proof home made vodka. He asked us if we wanted a bit, and we couldn’t really refuse without being rude, so we had one drink. It was like drinking meths, pretty rough stuff. So we were chatting away and I was translating for tom. They kept saying to him that after three drinks, they would be able to understand each other. So we had one more drink and then said no more. But of course they wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I think we had about 4 shots. The rest of the evening I don’t really remember, but lets just say there was a lot of vomit. Oh and tom ended up wrestling the younger guy, Misha kept saying to me that he felt like I was his daughter and well it was a pretty accurate Slavic train journey experience!! So, we got to Budapest feeling pretty rough and got a taxi straight to our couch-surfers house. His girlfriend let us in and we crashed for a couple of hours. The flat is lovely, really high ceilings and a balcony and a lovely kitchen. It is also really close to the centre which is great. He popped round last night and said that he was basically leaving us the flat for the next three nights. So, we have just got this great flat to ourselves, which is amazing!! Budapest is . glorious. Everywhere you look there is something lovely to see. A beautiful building, cobbled old street, river... Absolutely lovely, we are both big fans. So far, it is our favourite place, despite the awful start. The weather at the moment is pretty crap, but were being positive!! x

The begining of my (and soon to be Tom's also) travels

So my journey Kiev, one that should have been so simple, was anything but! So, got on my train, all was swell, made friends with my neighbours, had my dinner, read my book, etc... and then at about 8 in the morning, when the train guy came handing out migration forms for Ukraine, he was asked everyone where they were from. I answered "from England." He gave me a pretty unfriendly look and then asked me whether I had a belorussian transit visa. Dumbfounded, i answered, no! What an idiot, I hadn't checked to see if the train went through Belarus. And we need a visa for Belarus. So he then told me to get all my stuff together and that i had to get off the train! It was awful, it even started moving and i had to run off!! I had a heavy rucsac and a big laudry bag full of stuff, so not what you would call lightweight, easy to handle luggage!! So yeah, then I was at some station and went up to the desk to ask how to get top kiev without a belorussian visa. The lady looked at me with shock and just said "i have no idea!" She then took me downstairs to the administrator lady to whom i explained my palava to! She then told me that i would have to go back to Petersburg. I asked about getting a visa somewhere and she said it was Sunday and wouldn't be open till Monday. I asked if there was anyway of getting to Kiev without a visa, she said no! Only then did I ask where i was, "Am i still in Russia?" "No, you are in Belarus". Oh my! So i was illegally in Belarus with pretty limited options! I then had a little think about what to do. I went back to her with my map and she showed me where we were, I had gone pretty much the whole length of Belarus!! Anyway, she then told me that if i got out of Belarus, i could get a train from a place called Bryansk to Kiev. So i went back to the first lady and she told me that if i hurried, i could catch a bus. So, me with all those bags, trying to hurry to the bus station, not the most appealing idea, though had to be done. That walk very nearly killed me, my poor muscles have never felt so much pain! So made it onto the bus. My next obstacle was crossing the border. I was really nervous that the militia would tell me off/arrest me for not having a belorussian visa!! Anyway, didn't even have to show my passport at the border, so all was swell. 6 and a half hours later, i arrived in Bryansk where i bought a ticket to Kiev and then another 6 hours later, i arrived in Kiev!! But I wasn't the only person to be chucked of a train that day... on the second train to Kiev, i was sat with an Armenian family, and they were all really nervous when they were filling in their migration forms. The Ukrainien soldiars came on and I didn't really understand all of what he said, but basically their address wasn't valid, so they had to get off. There was no fight or argument at all, they just got their stuff together and got off the train. It was as though they knew that they weren't going to be aloud into Ukraine. Anyway, I was so happy when we crossed the border, and many of the people on the train had Ukranien accents and I just felt great! I also felt like i had acheived a grat deal to be honest! I didn't break down into tears, i calmy sorted it all out (in russian no less!) and managed to get to Kiev on the day I was planning to in the first place. I got to see a bit of Belarus and some beautifull Russian countryside on the bus! At one of the bus stops, there was a guy whose engine was on fire... everyone was shouting and running about, i was pretty worried, it was really close and if it had blown up, it would not have been good! So yeah, I was hoping to write on the blog, "train was pretty uneventfull".... oh no!! First impressios of Kiev though... absolutely lovely!! It has some traits of Moscow that I love (like the metro) and some bits are very Parisien (i found a lovely little Montmartre esk area today and it just has this happy, much friendlier vibe to it than Russia. So basically, I like it a lot! Will report back soon!! x x x

catch up

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

A Riga special edition...

So last Tuesday night, equipped with a packed dinner of kasha (Russian dinner-time porridge/gruel??) and some tvorog (translated as curd cheese, but it isn’t, it’s sweet??) juice and a pillow I headed off to Riga on the bus. It was to take 13 hours, and it did indeed take that long, but because of the pillow, I was absolutely fine. The policeman at the Russian border tried to give me hassle, but I talked my way out of it and flashed him a smile! So woke up in Riga the next morning and couldn’t contain my excitement to be out of Russia and into this lovely looking Germanic place with charming cobbled streets and dappled sunlight!

When I got the hostel in the morning, the dorm wasn’t ready yet, so I helped myself to a cup of tea, dropped off my bags and went for a wander. It is just a lovely city, it isn’t big at all, but it is just lovely to walk around and get lost in all the small meandering streets. I had seen in the hostel that Swan Lake was on that evening at the National Opera House, so I checked how much tickets would be, and to my surprise they were only about £4! So I bought myself a ticket for that evening! I was glad to get back to back to the hostel though, Riga was a lot chillier than St Pete and I wasn’t dressed for it! After showering and putting warmer clothes on, I went for lunch in a cafeteria style place and had pretty much a plate full of boiled potatoes and some lovely meaty sauce, I wasn’t complaining, it was cheap and filled me right up! I then went to the central market, which is apparently a must see for any tourist in Riga. (I found this out from my Russian guidebook, which was a bit rubbish, but invaluable in the end as it had a map, I got myself lost all the time!) So, back to the market, I was shocked to find that everyone there was speaking Russian. I just assumed that everyone would be talking Latvian. I will come back to this though. So I then bought my return bus ticket, which was apparently going to be a ‘lux’ version of what I had came on, but in fact was pretty much the same, maybe a bit less lux if anything! But anyway, it was a steal at only about £18, so again, I wasn’t complaining! I then walked through a lovely park to the other side of the city to visit the State Art Museum. I got there a bit too late though, so was told that as it was only open for another 20 mins, it would probably be a better idea to come back the next day. So I left and then went across another park (Riga is big on parks!) and went into a Russian orthodox church, which to be honest was hideous! It had neon lights especially for Easter, and they were especially tacky! After basking in the sun for a wee bit, I went in search of some food and found this amazing pelmeni (small dumplings, quite like ravioli) shop, which was incredibly cheap and you could get all different sorts of pelmeni. Mmm, so good! Then after downing a red bull, as I was pretty knackered, I went to the ballet. It wasn’t a stitch on the Swan Lake I saw in Moscow, but still it was pretty good, and I still got that giddy excited feeling when all the music starts each time. There were just far too many intervals and each time a piece would finish, there would be a pause for applause and it just went on a bit too long.

On Thursday, I made the most of the free breakfast and even made myself a cheeky packed lunch too! It was a lovely crisp morning, and I knew the sun would come out later, so after a wander around town, I visited the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. It was a fantastic museum; I spent about two hours in there. It was all just so interesting, and even though I didn’t know anything about it before, it was still very good and informative. I sat in the sun and ate my packed lunch after the museum and then went up to the top of St Peters Cathedral. It was pretty cool; I only then managed to get my bearings properly though. I saw a nice looking square from the tower and decided to go and sit there with my book. So that is exactly what I did. There were lots of little cafe’s, so I went into one and bought the most delicious little berry muffin and a cup of tea and occupied one of the tables outside for about two hours. It was just so lovely to sit there basking in the sun with my book. I had been handed a flyer in the street about some Latvian fashion event that was happening, so I went back to the internet to check it out, but it was an evening event and didn’t really appeal. So instead, I went to both the film museum and the museum of photography (they were both very small museums!). The film museum though had an exhibition on Eisenstein, one of the great Russian directors, so that was good and then in the photography museum, as I was the only person there I kind of got a little tour which was nice. There were some fantastic photos on exhibition, mainly of Latvian fishermen. In the evening I met up with a Russian girl who is a friend of my new housemate. Anyway, so I met up with this girl and we indulged in some cocktails! I picked her brains about the Latvian Russian divide and she was telling me that the whole city is pretty much divided in two. She is Russian, but has lived her whole life in Latvia and she speaks Russian and has Russian friends and knows Latvian, but is very reluctant to speak it. So there is some hostility there, but they just seem to get on with it. Wherever I went, I would speak in Russian and never experienced anything hostile. When I asked at the station whether they spoke English, she said no, but Russian was fine. Anyway, Daniela and I had a lovely evening, we went for dinner after the cocktails in a very typical Latvian place, which was yummy, and then wandered around town. We went to one of the cinemas to see what was on and managed to stumble into a concert of an American Cajun/country and western band! It was pretty random, and there were even some women at the back line-dancing! Very odd, but fun! After some more bars and drinks, I went back to my hostel to bed.

The next day, I had a leisurely breakfast and snuck out some more packed lunch. I headed back to the State Art Museum, which had this bizarre exhibition of these truly awful paintings, but I had a good time chuckling to myself at how dreadful they were! The rest of the museum was also pretty poor, but there was one room with these great little etchings, which I liked a lot. After leaving there, I retraced mine and Daniela’s steps from the night before as I had seen a few shops that looked really nice. Did a bit of window shopping and then ended up in this lovely little tea shop which was a little wooden gazebo with the seating upstairs all on cushions, so you could lounge to your heart’s content! So I sat with my book and then had to go and get some food and retrieve my stuff from the hostel to get the bus. The bus back was pretty uneventful, I was just so shattered that I was asleep for pretty much the whole journey.

After a long lie in when I got home on Saturday morning, I let everyone know that I was still alive, as contact home in Riga was minimal! I got a bit of work done over the weekend and caught up on my schoolwork. On Tuesday, Claire (our new flatmate) Jess and I went to IKEA and had a good laugh sitting in all the showrooms after a beer and meatballs in the cafe! It was a lot of fun, I had forgotten how much fun girls are, and we were just silly all afternoon! Last night, I cleaned the entire flat and washed the floors, so now no crap sticks to our feet all the time!

But mamma and papa, despite the Volcano in bloody Iceland, are coming tomorrow. So I’m very excited!

Anyway, I will report back soon. Lots of love x x x x x

So, this is going to be a biggie!

So, this is going to be a biggie!
It has been a busy couple of weeks, one of Jess’s friends arrived in the middle of last week and then my friend George came last Friday, so I have truly exhausted myself being tour guide, but I’ve had a great week. Last Friday, we went to one of our friend’s gig. He is in a punk band and was playing in this dingy little bar. It was a lot of fun, not really my kind of music, but still it was good. Afterwards we went to an after-party (yeah, we are living the rock star lifestyle!) This after party was in another bar across town and there were these two Belorussian guys playing. One of then had an accordion and the other a ukulele and they were absolutely incredible. I even bought their cd after the gig! I left shortly after they finished, as I had to go and get George at 6:40 the next morning. So after a very wee sleep I picked up George and we had a nap for a few hours back at home. When we got up, I took her for a walk around town, but it wasn’t a great day and was incredibly foggy! That evening I invited my friend Chris over and made a big pasta bake for everyone and after a box of red wine, we turned out kitchen into a disco and danced until about 4 o’clock. Chris left at about 12 though, I think it had all got a little bit too girly for him!
The next day George and I had planned to go to the Russian museum, but because it was pouring down, I think everyone had the same idea as us. So instead of waiting in a que in the rain, we went to the museum of erotica (George’s idea, not mine!!). Anyway, it was an awful ‘museum’ very distastefully located in an STD clinic, so definitely not recommended! After that we went for lunch in one of my favourite bars and when we emerged a few hours later, we found that the rain had stopped and the sun was even out! We walked home via a lovely little church, where there was a service going on which was nice. The next day we actually succeeded in visiting the Russian museum which was really nice. As I walked in I realised that I had actually been before (during the week that I visited St Pete after Kazan). But I didn’t remember much of it, so it was still very good. We had a great time in the museum, mainly being a bit stupid, taking photos and getting told off by the museum attendants! Afterwards, we enjoyed the sun by walking around town and taking in the Church of Spilled Blood in all its gold, gaudy glory. We met Jess and Hannah in this lovely little cafe which specialises in the most delicious pies, so we all indulged a bit too much. We then went up to the top of St Isaacs to get a view of the whole city. That evening, we treated ourselves with some amaretto and then went to a bar round the corner where a few of our friends were.
On Tuesday, George and I went to the train station to buy tickets to go to Moscow. I still didn’t have my passport (Russian beurocracy, don’t ask!) so our original plan of going to Finland for a few days was no longer an option. So we decided to do a whistle stop tour of Moscow instead! So we bought our tickets for the overnight train on Wednesday evening. We then hopped on the metro and went to Petrograd, one of the many islands of Petersburg. W visited the Museum of Political science, which was a pretty odd little place, but it was located in the actual building used by the communists and where Pravda was written and printed. We walked over to another of the islands, Zayachy, to see the Peter and Paul fortress. After this, we walked off the Trotsky bridge, which in mine and George’s opinion is the coldest place in the city!! So what better way to warm up then with a pot of tea in a bar!
After feeling guilty about not going to school all week, I went in on Wednesday for grammer and left George at the Hermitage. We met up in the afternoon and I took her to have an Uzbek lunch, which was very tasty and then did a spot of shopping! We got home, made ourselves a packed dinner and then walked to the train station to get our train. So complete with dinner and a Gin and Tonic (in a can!) we got on the train to enjoy an 8 hour journey. It wasn’t too bad, we had gone for sitting places, as they are cheaper, so it was a lot more uncomfortable than the sleeper carriages, but we were saving money! Most annoyingly though was that a lady had brought her cat with her and the little thing squeaked and meowed throughout the whole journey. At first George and I though this was cute, though it did get very irritating! So we got to a very sleepy Moscow at about 6 and after buying our return tickets for that evening (sleeper carriage this time!), we headed straight to a 24 hour cafe to get tea. After rejuvenating, we headed off to see the sights. I took her to my two favourite metro stations and then got off in the centre of town, where I took her though some back streets to then suddenly come out and find yourself being smacked in the face by red square and St Basils in all its splendour. She was suitable impressed and I was just so happy to be back in Moscow that both of us were just grinning like Cheshire cats! It was amazing, because it was so early, we had the whole place to ourselves. We then walked up though Alexander Gardens and up to the Lenin Library and then up to the Church of Christ our Saviour where there was a very impressive Easter celebration going on. We then went to the Novodevichy Monastery and walked around the surrounding cemetery. By this point, it was only about 11 and we were both knackered! So by accident, we both fell asleep basking in the sun at a bus stop! We then got the metro to Arbat and had lunch, which was really unimpressive, but did the trick for energising us! We then walked back down to red square and did a bit of window shopping and then ended up in GUM where we managed to fall asleep for an hour! We tried to go into St Basils, and usually students get in for free, so I just showed the women my student card, but these horrible women on the door wouldn’t let me in and shoved me out of the door after telling me that they had no time for idiots! So that was a failure, and George and I were too cross to argue with them, so we wandered up to see Lubyanka. After that, feeling thoroughly exhausted, we went for dinner in another of my favourite hang outs and then went to the train station to get the train home. It was so much nicer to have an actual bed on the way back, George and I fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow!
The next day, we got home at about 6, went back to sleep for a bit and then went to buy George’s bus ticket to Helsinki. For Georges last night, we all went out to this great bar and danced the night away and then the next morning George and I went to the banya and got rid of all the impurities of the last 10 days. It was amazing, again we were told off by banya bitches for not having flip flops, but that is all part of the banya I think! We took lots of goodies with us and had a sugar scrub, moisturising creams and of course some birch twigs to whip ourselves with! We went to this amazing burger place after and majorly overate, but we were very happy and full and sleepy so went home to watch a film!
And that is the end of that. I took George to get her to get her bus this morning and then had a very sad bus journey back to my flat!
Lots of love to you all... x xx x

An eventful week?

I had a lovely day at the beginning of the week; I walked from school down to Alexander Nevsky Monastery and took plenty of photos, one especially nice one of pigeons! (Photos will come soon, but I left my camera at my friends’ house.) It was a lovely crisp sunny day, and I was able to march properly, as the road was almost ice free! I had a wander around the grounds and was followed by a homeless man, but then made my escape into the church! I lit a candle for you all (though only had 5 roubles, so you all had to share one!) I then met up for coffee with Eva, which was really nice as we haven’t been able to catch up properly without living in each other’s pockets. Our friend Janine left to go back home on Thursday, so on Wednesday night we went for cocktails which was really nice. Wednesday was also St Patrick’s Day, which I was pretty much unaware of, though when I turned up to my lessons the next day, I was the only person there! All of the people from my class had gone out to celebrate (despite any of them, being Irish!) and hadn’t come in. So I had a day of private tuition! It was pretty awkward, though it was fine!

I seem to spend my life hurrying down Nevsky at the moment. I think that it will take me half an hour or something to get somewhere, and I just always seem to get my timing wrong! So, I always seem to be marching, against the wind rushing to meet someone! After rushing to meet my friend Chris, who I was studying with in Moscow, and grabbing a pirog (little pie type thing) on the way, we climbed up to the top of St Isaacs Cathedral. It was such a lovely day and you get such an amazing view form up there of the whole city. We could even just make out people walking across the Neva!

On Thursday, Jess and I went to watch our friend Pasha DJ; it was a really good set, though there was no one there, so we didn’t want to dance on our own in the middle of an empty club. We were then introduced to his friend, who was pretty mental, and the four of us went on to another club. My friend, who I studied with Moscow, came up from Yaroslavl on Friday. So on Friday night, my friend Franky had a house party. It was a bit of a disaster really! (House parties in Russia, just never seem to go as planned!) Firstly the light in the kitchen went out and then Chris popped out to get a beer, and as he was walking back with the bottle, he slipped on the ice and the bottle smashed in his hand. He just came back into the flat with blood everywhere! It was awful. We helped him clean it up with what was on hand, vodka obviously! The cuts were really deep, but luckily there was no glass stuck inside and to everyone’s surprise, Franky had a whole first aid kit on hand complete with bandages and all! We wrapped him up pretty well and he went off to get stitches the next day.

Here is an exciting bit of news, a couple of weeks ago, this lady called Lizzie commented on my blog saying that she really liked it and was wondering if I could write something for her website (thirdyearabroad.com), it is aimed at students either going on their year abroad, or already there. So I had a look at the website and she had actually put a link to my blog and said how good it was!! I was pretty embarrassed to be honest, because I never assumed that anyone other than family would ever read it! So I wrote up a bunch of stuff about Moscow and sent it to her. She said she liked ait and would put it up that same day! It is not up at the moment, but hopefully it will be soon!

Jess and I were really excited at the beginning of the week because it looked as if spring had well and truly begun... alas, we were wrong. On Thursday night, it snowed for 24 hours and now, just as a lot of the snow had melted and the pavements were walk-able, Mother Nature just dumps a whole load more snow on us! So depressing, I just want the snow to go and for the sun to shine! I may well have to invest in a pair of wellies! This is quite an exciting prospect in Russia though, as they have every pattern under the sun to choose from! Ankle length, or calf length, with or without felt lining, floral print, animal print, plain, or camouflage... the options are endless! So I’m going to go for the leopard print ones with the felt lining! I found a guy selling them for 450 roubles, which is about £6, so not bad at all! I’m just a bit worried about where all the snow will go when it melts! There are just mountains of the stuff, and the walk to school is especially bad, so I think wellies are a must!

Well, that is pretty much it for this week. My friend George is coming to visit next week, so I will fill you all in on what we get up to! I have written up some stuff to do, though it is nowhere near as rigorous as what I put Mum and Dad through in Moscow! I’m so excited though for her to come!!

Anyway, lots of love to you all. Miss you lots x x x x

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So, hello again! Where to start, well I haven’t really done much in the way of cultural activities, but I have been having a lot of fun! I have mainly been going out a lot and getting in at stupid o’clock, but there is not much to do in the day as the weather is so bleak at the moment! As I said in my last entry, there is still a lot of snow which melts and then freezes again. It was getting a lot better, and yesterday all the snow had been cleared from our road and things were looking good. However, it has snowed all today and last night as well, so everything has been spoiled again!! So this makes walking around and exploring a bit difficult as you have to watch your feet all the time! But saying that, I have been walking as much as possible! I often walk home from school, or walk to go for lunch or coffee somewhere. I navigated myself (albeit with a few errors!) all the way from school to Nevsky without a map, so I was pretty impressed! I have really settled into life here, and it feels a lot less daunting than Moscow because it is so much smaller and you can just walk about. Also, it is really nice because a lot of people here are living in rented apartments rather than in a home-stay. So you can just go round to people’s houses of an evening or after school or something. So it feels a lot more like I am actually living here, which is nice.

I had a lovely day the other day. The weather was gorgeous and sunny, not too cold, but very windy. After school, I was going to meet my friend Chris (who studied in Moscow with me) to go to the state photography museum. Anyway, so I got on the bus to go and meet him, but for some reason here, the rush hour is at about 2-3 o’clock, so I ended up getting off the bus and having to walk very fast (despite walking against what felt like a force 5 gale wind!) down Nevsky prospect! So we went to the museum, which was really nice, good photos, some a lot better than other, but it was free and a good exhibition. We then had some lunch in a cheap little Russian canteen, which was good. Afterward Chris had a class to teach and I had nothing else to do, so went for a wander. It was really nice, I walked up to the hermitage and then crossed the frozen, snow covered river onto one of the islands. I walked around the island for a bit and then made my way back home. But it made me really excited for when the weather will get better and I can walk everywhere!

I have in fact moved up a class, which I am really pleased about. It is a lot more challenging, which can be really hard, but I’m glad I have done it because it makes me work harder. I felt pretty thick after a grammar lesson the other day, so I came home, ordered a grammar book online and spent the rest of the evening revising!!

Today was the day when Eva and her friend Victoria moved out! When Eva brought my stuff back from Moscow, she had no where to stay, so we told her she could stay here for a few days. She and her friend Vicky were planning on living together, but hadn’t had time to get a flat yet. So, Vicky moved in with us as well. Jess and I assumed that it would just be for a couple of days... well a couple of days turned into nearly two weeks! But they have gone now and they paid rent for the time that they were here, so I’m not complaining too much!

So that is it for now, I think tomorrow I am going to watch Alice in Wonderland at the cinema with Jess and our friend Franky, who is also from UCL. There is also a mini festival on at one of the cinema’s tomorrow night. It calls itself “A night of good cinema” and basically it is a whole night from 11pm until about 6 in the morning in which various films are being shown. So I may go to that, the films sound quite good, but I may just end up asleep in the cinema, which wouldn’t be so good!

Anyway, lots of love and miss you all

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