St. Petersburg - September 25, 2005

Well...I made it to St. Petersburg. Not without some small glitches. Not really in getting here but when I finally got here. This city has changed so much. First, I did not realize that the Finnish train no longer terminates at the Findlandsky Railway station. It terminates at a different station. Still within St. Petersburg it it threw me off at first. Once I figured out where I was with respect to where I had to be for my hotel I was fine. But it too some doing. I had to get a few metro tokens. I am glad that I had the forethought to exchange some money into Rubles while I was in Helsinki. So I had money. After I got into the metro I had to figure out which metro line I needed to be on. I was proud of myself, I did not make one mistake. I chose the correct side of the platfor, the correct train, etc and even had to transfer lines half way to my destination. This is the Metro, after I arrived in St. Petersburg.

So, I finally found my hotel. At first I was a bit freaked out because the address was a really run down door and the door for the rooms inside were not marked. After a person in the building helped me, I found the correct location. However......the woman said that my reservation was for the day before so they cancelled my entire reservation. I THINK NOT ! I took out my paperwork and showed her my visa support papers which have the dates of my stay at the hotel directly on the document. She could not argue with that. After some very struggled Russian conversation, they placed me in another building less than a half a block on the same street. The people are very nice and helpful. The room is VERY clean. Compared to the entrence. Pictures to follow to illustrate what I mean.

I finally got settled, showered and then walked around for a bit. I finally decided to sit down and write in my journal. So I had a couple of beers. Well deserved. Talked to a couple of Americans from Idaho and and then walked around some more. I finally got to the Moscow Terminal for the train to Moscow and with great difficulty purchased my ticket to Moscow for Thursday night.