Russia.. vodka, bears, babushkas and nuclear weapons

Russia. Always had pictures in my mind of what its like. Been here twice before, once to moscow in the nineties and another time in 2002 to the old battlefields of WW2. Both times I saw the poor, run down, communist side. Couldn't say that I loved it then. This time I've seen the other side of Russia.

St. Petersburg. Rich, fast, trendy, beautiful... but still a flip side to it all. So much in a city. Have to say that I love it now. Starting out, however, I was having 'I told you so' thoughts: The hostel was hard to find, my shoes were stolen on the first night...

Luckily everything turned out well. I found the hostel, half on accident, since the directions they gave you take you to a point about 200m away. This would be ok if the sign on the door was bigger then a red 5x10cm sticker, but even my eyesight can't pick out a sticker that size in the Russian twilight.

The morning didn't start well either. I got up and started thinking where my shoes were. Searching around I quickly came to the conclusion someone had taken them. The first thing that hit me was 'Welcome to Russia,' the second was 'I told you so.' So I started some detective work. In the dorm there is space for 12. There was only 7 guests, including me. Two occupants and myself were still there, so I had narrowed the suspects down to 4. Two I had seen pack and leave, so that was unlikely. So, narrowed down to two options: the two gentlemen who had been out the whole time I had been in (and conscious), or then an outsider. One of the gentlemen who had left had slept in the bed below me and had left some things, so I started going through them. One thing he had left was a photocopy of his passport. Turns out he was Finnish. Then it was easy to get the rest of his details. So about 30 minutes after wake up I called him, and he admitted to the hideous crime. I gave the Finnish 'gentleman' two options by phone: either return the stolen shoes or pay for new ones. He decided that it would be better that I go shopping and he pays the bills. So to conclude this story, I have new shoes and the people you can trust the least are fellow travelers. And Finns at that.

But St. Petersburg is a spectacular city. All things mentioned in the title have been spotted in the city area, except the last one. I can't say it was a nuclear weapon, although it was a nuclear warhead capable Topol-M.

I'll try to post some new photos from Moscow. Have a ticket for a night train, so I'll be there tomorrow.

And last:

TRAVELING RANDOM FACT GENERATOR:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

• Somewhere between the Finnish border and St. Petersburg
• Orient timer set to time 5 minutes
  
• Started at a random time
• Viewed by one person from a window of a bus

RESULT

• 86 used car tires spotted in the given time