The Wanderer

Phunny phrasebook saying of the day: "The scientists and sages are teaching that 'To know one language is like to add one eye'"

When I first arrived in St. Petersburg, I was sharing a room with 7 Europeans who had just popped over from a youth conference in Estonia. They were all quite young, between 17 and 22, I would guess, with the exception of the adult advisor, who was in his forties. They all spoke English and we had a good time, although I didn't get much sleep at night, since they were usually up until 3 or 4 in the morning. But all in all, I enjoyed their company and may even go to visit some of them in the coming weeks.

Yesterday, however, the cheerful, English-speaking Europeans went back to Talinn, and I was left with a new roommate, a strange, talkative, salt-of-the-earth Russian guy. The room now smells like smoke and sardines, and the guy won't stop talking to me, despite the fact that he speaks no English, and I have told him several times that I don't speak Russian. He seems like a reasonably nice guy, but I'm not sure he's all there upstairs. He seems to keep trying to get me to go out with him, come eat in the room, or watch television, despite our lack of a common language. He also pantomined an odd story to me the other day (complete with Russian commentary), which consisted of him holding his hand up about eye level, and then doing several hip thrusts with his fists out in front of him, and pointing off in the distance. I interpreted this to mean that he missed having sex with his wife, because she was far away (and apparently she is short), and he was here in this big dorm room. Of course, I have no idea what he actually said, but that's the nearest I could figure out. He kept talking, though. Luckily, after I left the room for a little while, he passed out on the bed and I had a few moments of quiet. Unfortunately, I can't go to the common room or the hall for peace and quiet, because there is a Russian school group here that wants to run up and down the hall screaming my name and shaking my hand.
I am hoping that when I return to the hostel tonight that he is fast asleep again, as he was last night. Last night, after failing to persuade me to join him for a drink, he sat in our room and drank straight from the bottle, eventually falling into a deep sleep sprawled across his bed, completely clothed, with his feet dangling off the side, completely oblivious to everything around him. I just hope this guy isn't suicidal or anything. He does have a friend (or maybe two, it's hard to tell), who comes in unannounced, but I have no idea what they get up to all day. I think he might be a lawyer, and he doesn't seem to be here for vacation, so I'm not really sure what the story is. I'll let you know if I find out anything else.

I spent all yesterday and today wandering the endless halls of the Hermitage here by the banks of the Neva River. In fact, I am in the Hermitage as I write this, since the internet cafe inside the museum is for some reason cheaper than the places outside on Nevsky Prospect. This seems rather strange, since everything else in the museum is triple or quadruple the price of what it would be outside. I have seen very few foreigners using these computers, which leads me to believe that the pricing system I mentioned a couple of days ago in regards to tourism in Russia also applies here: if foreigners use it, it will be expensive, but if only Russians use something, then it will be cheap. Either way, it is convenient and has a good connection.
This museum is so big that I am constantly getting lost among the interconnected halls and passageways. It doesn't make it any easier that no floor plans are provided. I discovered today that you could print out route maps from the computerized guide in the main lobby, so I have a handful of papers detailing my path to several different collections. The odd thing about the guide is that it won't let you print out a general floor plan, and instead you have to print out a separate map and directions for each collection you want to visit. This doesn't make much sense to me, but it's better than no information at all. It would seem much easier and more cost effective to just provide a general floor plan, rather than have people printing out ten different maps to go to all the things they want to see. Especially since probably everyone prints out the directions to the Michaelangelo exhibit, which is only one statue in one room of the entire museum. But I don't think there is any planning, just a vague idea that they want more tourists. Build it, and they will come. Hmmm...well, people will still come to the Hermitage regardless, but why not make things easy?
I will probably return for at least a part of the day tomorrow, since I still have a handful of maps to go through, and I haven't tired of this fantastic art extravaganza yet. I think the amazing variety of works is what enables me to keep coming back and not get jaded or have my eyes glaze over at more and more art. That usually seems to happen in museums and churches after awhile, and you don't want to see any more. But every time I enter a new room here, there is an entirely different exhibition, which keeps things fresh and new. I usually don't take pictures inside of museums, but there have been quite a few pieces of art here that have piqued my interest and spurred me to take out the camera, so there when I get back I will have some samples to put up on my website for you.

As a sequel to my Russian bureaucracy message, I will relate to you the events that transpired recently in Novosibirsk when I stayed at the train station hotel. When I checked in, I was asked by the clerk how long I planned to stay. I told her that I would probably stay two nights, but I wasn’t sure. She asked me to pay the two nights ahead of time, and I did, not thinking that I would leave before then. As I learned later, however, not only should you not pay for more than one night at a time in Russia, you also have to ask whether it will be a problem to stay longer.
Later that day, when I went to arrange my onward ticket, I discovered that I would not be able to get a ticket for the date I desired. As a result, I had to leave a day earlier than I had originally planned. So, having discovered this the same day that I checked into the hotel, and well before I entered my second night, I returned to the hotel for a refund on my second night, which I would not use. The clerk just looked at me and said, “No”. “What do you mean, no?” I asked. “I will not be staying a second night, so I would like my money back.” The clerk then told me some BS about the money having already left, and not having the money. I told her that someone else must have checked in, and that there was certainly money to pay me, to which she replied that no refund was possible. So I asked her who I needed to talk to in order to get a refund. Blank stare. “Can I see the manager? Can she give me a refund?” Maybe.
So I take my train ticket and my hotel receipt up to the manager’s office on the next floor. Neither the receptionist nor the manager speak English, but I point out the dates on my receipt and the date on my ticket, and the manager quickly grasps the situation and tells the receptionist to give me my money back. Easy as that. So we go back downstairs again and tell the desk clerk that I need a refund, which she seems miffed about. I am told to wait and they pull out the register and change a few things. I realized as I was sitting there that the only real reason that the desk clerk wouldn’t give me my money back is because she was lazy and didn’t want to make the changes in the book and fill out the appropriate papers. The easy answer was just “No”. And she was the only one in the hotel that spoke English, so I guess she figured I could never complain. In the end, I got my money back and had to sign some hand-written confession in Russian, completely unaware what it was for, but I assume it was for their records.
I find that this happens a lot in countries all over the world, including my own country. If someone doesn’t know how to do something, or just doesn’t want to for some reason, they just say no, or that it isn’t possible, even if it is obvious that that is not the truth. Just remember that in these situations, no is never final, especially if you have patience and think of solutions for yourself (don’t count on them to think of them for you, because it won’t happen).

St. Petersburg is definitely more laid-back and enjoyable than Moscow, and so far I like it a lot. There are not so many "must-see" sights here as in Moscow, with the exception of the Hermitage, but it is a nice place to wander around, people-watch, and just soak up the atmosphere. The canals and water-ways criss-crossing the city definitely add to its charm and beauty, and I have enjoyed ambling down the various promenades and over the bridges. One of the best parts of St. Petersburg is that the Hermitage, one of the world's best art museums, is free for those with a student card, so I plan to visit there at least two or three days. It has such an expansive collection that you could spend weeks there. I think there was some crazy fact like if you spent an hour perusing each painting in the Hermitage's collection, you would be there for about 14 years! I'll have to check on the exact number of artworks in the collection, but I think it is in the several millions. And it's free! What a change from Moscow.
I visited the Naval Museum today, and also wandered through the Aurora, the ship that fired the shot that started the October Revolution of 1917. As with pretty much all of the museums I have been to in Russia, there is very little or no information in English, so I didn't gain a whole lot of knowledge about the Revolution, but there was an interesting display of revolutionary paraphenalia and flags.
Tomorrow I plan to make my first visit to the Hermitage, so I'll give you a report when I emerge. I'll also send out another Russia e-mail. I'm trying to space them out so that I don't just flood your inboxes all at once.

Well, I arrived in St. Petersburg early this morning, and found my way to a decent hostel, a little off the beaten track. This hostel wasn't mentioned in the guidebooks, for some reason, but it is the best value hostel I have found in Moscow or St. Petersburg. After a full day of museums yesterday (see below), I put off going to the Hermitage today, and instead just wandered around downtown and did a little writing. I also typed up all of those messages that I should have sent out before, so you will probably get a flurry of communication from me in the next few days. I will send a few "back issues" about India that I had promised, and one or two more on Russia as well.
Despite my two days of recharging in tiny Suzdal, I was still a fed up with the outrageous prices and the generally unpleasant attitude of Moscow, and I was ready to leave. So I decided to make one long day of visiting museums, and then jump on the train to St. Petersburg. I had the chance to see some marvelous pieces of art, but I also had the opportunity to reflect on just what was bugging me about Moscow and Russia, and why there was not more tourism in such a fascinating country. I think the ticket lady at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts summed it up well when I asked her for a museum plan: “You can buy it in the gift shop. No information is bezplatno (free). Everything you pay.” That seems to exemplify the prevailing attitude in Russia, at least as far as foreigners are concerned. In every museum and attraction in Russia, foreigners pay not just a little more, but five to ten times more than the locals, not just for the admission, but for any tours (including audio guides and theatre programs) or other services. For your extra money, you get nothing more, and in most cases substantially less. There is no free information available in English or any other language, and very few of the exhibits are marked in anything other than Russian. And very few people in the ticket offices speak even a few words of English, so you’re lucky if you even get a ticket. If this were simply an issue of tax-paying citizens getting a break and foreigners having to make up the difference, it would be one thing, but it goes far beyond that. Indeed, I think it has very little to do with that reason, since the few museums and attractions that would presumably not appeal to foreigners, such as the Cosmonaut Museum, do not have a dual-pricing system.
In the paper the other day, I saw an article about Moscow wanting to increase their hotel capacity by three times, in order to accommodate more tourists. Apparently, they think that if they build more hotels, the people will come. Yet, the city is not granting any concessions to hoteliers, no price breaks on prime real estate or incentives for building these new expensive buildings. Instead, the city proposes to offer leases on sub-par real estate locations that few investors would be interested in. The Russian government seems to be stuck in the planned development mindset, and assumes that everyone will just accept these terms. I suppose that a few minor Russian hotels might take them up on their offer, but it seems unlikely that any major foreign firms would be interested. Aside from a few leases (which they could up the price on at any moment) Moscow city hall doesn’t seem to have a plan, other than that they want more beds. They also seem to be ignoring the fact that a lack of hotel rooms is not the reason that foreigners are not coming to Russia. More likely, many potential tourists and travelers scratch Russia off their list when they discover the difficulty and cost of arranging a visa. The immigration regulations and requirements are so convoluted and xenophobic that many people become disgusted and give up. The antiquated regulations combine with low wages for police, immigration, and customs officials to practically assure corruption. Most of the foreigners I have seen who were actually motivated enough to get through all of this just decided to pay a travel agent to organize it for them, rather than attempt to untangle the web themselves. As it stands now, I imagine 90% or more of the people who visit Russia do so on an organized tour, which invariably cost much more and limit your ability to personalize your visit.
What do you think? Would any of you visit Moscow if they had 200,000 beds by 2010 (their goal)?