Pretty Ugly

I know why so many St. Petersburg natives smoke: they’re going to die of lung cancer anyway from all the exhaust fumes. Russia has to do something about its emissions policies. They're a health issue for humans and the city itself. Though St. Petersburg is beautiful, it's also grimy and ugly. That holds true of individual buildings as well. They’re beautiful but dirty or broken down. In today's post I've included some photos of the street my hotel is on. If you click on the pictures to enlarge them, you’ll see why I was bit concerned that first night. The architecture is lovely, but if you look closely, many building have glass missing from their windows or peeling paint, or worse. The last picture is my hotel. Although it has rained almost everyday here, today it was nice and bright, a beautiful breezy fall day. I think that's shown in these pictures.

Speaking of beauty: The women here really like to dress up. But sateen pants before 5 pm? What are they thinking?! My editor (he's here for the conference too) noticed something else that I've been able to corroborate on my own. If two girls are walking together, usually one has on high heels and the other flats, with the be-heeled one leaning against the flat-footed one. I guess they take turns every other day or week.

You know, I haven't seen that skirt again. I wasn't exactly sure where it was. But I know what street it's on and I've been up and down it several times in the past few days. I would've looked harder for it today, but my feet are killing me! I got caught in a downpour last night, my shoes got soaked, and that just completely ruined any chance I had of my blisters getting better. So I had to hobble along the street to my hotel. And I spilled my cappuccino all over the table at the cafe where I had lunch/dinner. Figures. Even in Russia, I spill my coffee.

Adding insult to injury, this café didn’t take credit cards, even though the menu said they took international credit cards. I thought MasterCard was included in that group. Luckily I still had some rubles on me.

Hardly any place takes credit cards around here! I thought I'd have enough cash to last me until I left the country (using the corporate card for most meals), but that hasn't been the case. So, even though I'm nearly lame, I had to go in search of an ATM, because I still have to eat for the next two days.

Luckily I remembered seeing CitiBank locations when I first arrived. But, of course, I was pretty disoriented then and I couldn't recall exactly where I'd seen the bank. I took an educated guess and after about a mile of walking, I found a CitiBank on Ligovsky Prospekt. I still can't find any grocery/convenience stores though. Maybe they're what Ipresume to be liquor stores. I'm not altogether brave enough to wander into a store if I don't know what’s being sold inside.

I didn’t get to the Hermitage today but I did a little shopping. I bought a beautiful amber necklace. It wasn't a steal, but I love it. It was way too expensive, but it was only one of two or three that I really liked. I tried on dozens of necklaces. Even the guy that rang up my purchase remarked about me taking a long time to decide. He wasn't being snide though. He said something along the lines of "Well, these things take time; that's what we're here for." There was an amazing chunky deep yellow royal amber bracelet, but it was crazy expensive: about $1,500. Maybe next time I'm in Petersburg (ha!).

I also bought some matryoshka dolls, which I've wanted ever since I was a little girl. They sell them everywhere. Unfortunately, the young guy that was waiting on me had a hard time opening one of the dolls. While I wasn’t looking, he tried opening it up with a pair of scissors and wound up opening up a finger instead. It eventually stopped bleeding. I bought the doll, and not entirely out of pity. It's quite pretty.

A note on my limited photography skills: All over St. Petersburg there are stunning monuments and beautiful landmarks. But, somehow, I seem to be the only person taking pictures. I thought there’d be more tourists. Most of the pictures I’ve been taking, I’ve been “sneaking” them (i.e., taking them as quickly as possible) because I feel as if I’m not allowed to take pictures. PLUS, there’s not much memory on my camera's memory card so I can’t take lots of pictures and just sort through them later. So if you think the picture quality leave something to be desired, it's because they're taken under duress.