Monday: I notice more signs and banners going up about the upcoming Victory Day holiday. Not certain, but Iâ€m also seeing more soldiers and sailors in uniform walking through the city streets. The 62nd anniversary of the end of World War II is still clearly an important holiday (huge sacrifices were made and ~25 million Russians died – this compared to less than one million for US and Great Britain combined). Most of the museums are closed today, so a day to wander though the city. It is also warmer today and finally feels a bit more like spring than winter.

Lessons were more straightforward again. Iâ€m remembering more, though still feel like Iâ€m held back some by not knowing enough vocabulary. I still try to review after school, before bed, in the morning and again before school.

I found an interesting great circle program. For my likely route, following are some “as the crow flies” distances from St Petersburg:

• Yaroslav – 612km
• Nizhniy Novgorod – 905km
• Kazan – 1201km
• Ufa – 1634km
• Chelyabinsk – 1914km
• Omsk – 2582km
• Novosibirsk – 3117km
• Krasnoyarsk – 3586km
• Irkutsk – 4427km
• Chita – 4912km
• Khabarovsk – 6214km
• Vladivostok – 6556km

The actual distances will of course be longer. For example, I expect road distance around 6200km to Irkutsk and 11000km to Vladivostok. As a comparison, I am 8150km from home, so not that much further than to Vladivostok.

Tuesday: My bicycle isnâ€t ready yet. I walked to the bicycle shop after school and they said it wouldnâ€t be ready until end of the day tomorrow. Not quite sure why. They said they called, though I donâ€t know how to access phone messages and donâ€t see any indication of missed calls. Tomorrow is a holiday, though they told me they work until 7pm. I will stop by tomorrow evening, but will feel less worried when I have my bike back. What they need to do is simple and theyâ€ve had nine days so far. [Footnote added later: The bike was done the next day!]

Today we started lessons an hour later. We went through some new topic material including imperative forms of verbs. After a few weeks of intensive classes, Iâ€ll be ready to have some of this soak in further and just work on learning more vocabulary. Not quite sure what I can after that to keep learning some more language. I had some additional vocabulary at the bicycle shop – though it took some time to make sure to clarify when I asked “what time” and they said 7pm, whether they were indicating when the shop closed or when the bicycle would be ready. It was actually both, though then they indicated to stop by at 6:45pm.

The photo at right shows, that regardless of the box, the bananas I see here come from Ecuador.

Thursday: Working through my grammar today, I seem to get myself confused at times. It works better if I stop and carefully think through things and then I get them right. We’re touched on another case (instrumental) today. It is nice to know when the blini vendor asks “с собои” that they are asking if I want to take it with me. Sort of fun how I have grammar lessons and then immediate on street applications. Today I understood the question and answered affirmatively. The blini vendor smiled.

Some overall thoughts about the school and the home stay (1) the school is quite well structured and organized, it is clear they have done this many times before and have developed and fine tuned a set of systems, teaching materials and procedures to work with many new students (2) I am impressed with the patience shown by the staff – so many different little interactions where opportunities for misunderstanding abound and yet the staff was extremely patient with us students (3) immersion home stay has been good, I struggled a bit at times though would definitely prefer this to other alternatives. For someone who wants a more rigorous introduction to Russia, this seems like a good start to the country; though I would also recommend having taken some language lessons before. I also like the different perspective I think I have on living in St Petersburg than a classic tourist view. It has also been nice to work through simple transactions such as having a bicycle serviced.

By now I am also getting excited to be on the road again. Mickey and I met up to walk through town and for dinner. That also helps some of the excitement to actually be getting on the road soon.

Friday: Last day of school today. We worked through comparisons, superlatives and just barely touched on several additional prefix forms added to the verbs of motion. My mind wasn’t concentrating quite as hard today and struggled occasionally. However, I do feel like I’ve built up more Russian in these past weeks, particularly a solid review of some of the grammar and picking up some more vocabulary. At the same time, learning this language is tough and feel at least as much of how much more I need to keep learning.

Towards end of the day, the Liden Denz school came and presented me with a completion certificate. On the language level scale, my speaking/listening was listed at A2 level and my reading writing at A1+ level. I think they were generous, but I had my own final exam in mind. As a bicyclist, I had extra gear including school books and some clothes that I wanted to send away. Hence, the immediate goal was to find a post office and see if I could mail them away.

As I walked to Nevsky Prospect, I saw a post office on the right. I stopped in and showed my bag of what I wanted to send. The official told me “not at this post office” and showed me on the map where to find the correct post office. I walked to the next post office, here there was a long line but as I got close I asked. The first word was “private” and then there was some reference to registering. I wasn’t quite sure if this meant registering of the visa (my copy was at home) or registering the mail. The line was long enough that I decided to find the private post office instead.

I walked down Nevsky Prospect to where I had seen an Express Post, first door on the right sign. I went to the door, but the lady told me Westpost was now elsewhere. Fortunately, a second person helped me find their door. At Westpost, they looked at my bag of things and told me I needed to go to the regular post office and sent me to yet a third post office. I walked to the third post office. Once again, long lines. Finally, I gave up and walked to where I had seen a “DHL” sign. At the DHL office, I asked how much to send just my school book. It was a bit expensive but probably the critical thing to send away. The extra clothes and school notes are probably more expensive to send than they are worth, so I’ll carry the clothes some more and copy over the notes. So much for the final. As far as the Russian Post office goes, I probably am somewhere around A1+ or almost A2.

I noticed that Herman Veldhuizen has a tough issue on his bicycle trip to Tibet.

I am not sure where we’ll next see an internet connection. From here we’ll first take off eastbound and on our way across Russia. I’ve enjoyed my time in St Petersburg, but also excited to almost be on the road again.

Today a holiday to celebrate the end of the “Great Patriotic War” (World War II, in Europe). Despite a cold wet rain, today had much more of a holiday feel to it than May 1st (today felt like a combination of 4th of July, Veterans Day and Memorial Day; May 1st felt like Columbus Day). The celebration is still a big deal in this city that survived a blockade of 872 days and where about a million died in that blockade. Today was a huge celebration for the veterans and current soldiers and sailors: banners had been strung up for days. Many people wore commemorative orange and black banners or carried red carnations. Soldiers in full dress uniform were everywhere.

The day started with a visit to Двортсовая Плошад (Palace Square) in front of the Hermitage. A large crowd was watching troops marching in formation around the square in front of the reviewing stand. Bands played military marches as the crowd watched. Despite being a large square, it was difficult to see over all the umbrellas.

After this the streets were busy. Red carnations and orange/black ribbons were everywhere as were soldiers in uniform. The second photo shows a memorial where people were placing flowers. I wandered through town stopping at an internet café and got email that Mickey had cycled into town. I also wandered through some of the shops to stay out of the rain. The third photo shows a military band playing in front of the large Gostiny Dvor shopping center.

At 5pm, the large parade started down Nevsky Prospect. This was a soldierâ€s parade with a few additional groups marching as well. The fourth photo shows a group of soldiers and sailors marching past.

What I found particularly moving were the veterans and survivors groups. If the war ended 62 years ago, most of these soldiers would have to be in their 80s (or 90s) now. Some walked such as in the fifth photo. Others were driven in old military jeeps. People clapped and cheered as they went past. The sixth photo shows a group marching under a banner “children of the blockade – 900 days”. The city then known as Leningrad was surrounded by the German armies in fall of 1941. Rather than attack the city, the Nazi plan was to starve the city and otherwise bombard and shell the city. The Soviets brought some supplies over the frozen ice of Lake Lagoda but at times rations were down to 175g of bread a day and up to 30,000 died per day.

Following the main groups in the parade were several others. The seventh photo was part of a collection of military vehicles. It is a US military jeep with soldiers in US uniforms and a large Soviet flag. Iâ€m not 100% certain if this commemorates the large amounts of “lend lease” aid sent from US factories to Russia or the US troops in World War II themselves. The last photo was part of the communist party group that followed the main parade. The women in center are carrying some of the few photos of Stalin you see here (statues of Lenin are seen frequently).

Once the parade was past, the people filled the streets to join the end of the parade in walking to Palace Square. Despite the rain, many more people turned out for these parades than on May 1st. It also felt like a more emotional commemorative day. I found the sharp contrast between how the Russians view the war [Победа] and how the Latvians view the war [lumped together with Soviet times as part of “The Occupation of Latvia 1940-1991”] particularly striking and also a way of describing some of the emotions surrounding the current war memorial controversy in Tallinn, Estonia.

After the parade, I walked to the bicycle shop and my bike was ready! I then cycled a little further to the youth hostel and met up with Mickey. Nice to see she has arrived and we can now figure out how to go further from here on Saturday. In the evening, the windows rattle slightly from the fireworks.

Weekend was time to be a tourist again, this time with a visit to the palaces at Petrodvorets (known as Peterhof before 1944, and often referred to by that name now). Petrodvorets was a large country estate about 30km from St Petersburg. Started with just a simple villa by Peter the great, several large palaces were added by Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. The area was destroyed during the Second World War and reconstructed in the 1950s.

One of the biggest attractions is a series of 140 gravity fed fountains that are turned on during weekends during the summer. I didnâ€t see them today, since they are not yet on for the season.

I did take the tour of the large Grand Palace shown above left. They seemed to want all tourists as part of some tour group, so I tagged along with a Russian speaking tour group. The guide spoke quickly enough that I missed a bunch, but I could follow when she pointed and ooh and aah with the rest. The palace reminded me of the Catherine Palace I saw last week. Not a big surprise as Rastrelli designed both. Each room seemed to have a theme. One had large paintings of the destruction of the Turkish fleet in 1770. Another had entire walls filled with these small portrait paintings. There was of course an abundance of gilded ornamentation and statues.

After rain early this morning, it was a nice sunny day, so the grounds were also nice to walk around. The fountains empty into a canal that goes down to the Baltic Sea. Hopefully the next salt water sea I photograph will be associated with the Pacific Ocean.

Today was also an interesting exercise in using Russian public transit. Transit is excellent in this city with a metro (4 lines, 6 transfer stations and trains coming every two minutes or so), buses, electric trains, trams, suburban trains and “Marshrutka”. Marshrutka are these little van buses that operate on fixed routes. I took the metro to Baltisky train station. From here it was easy to find a Marshrutka 404 that my guidebook indicated went to Petrodvorets.

I had more difficulty knowing when to get off the Marshrutka. Several people got off at what I thought might be the stop, but I stayed on to the next stop. Turns out, I had missed the stop, so walked back about two kilometers. Getting back was a little easier, as I found multiple Marshrutka marked and took the next one that came along and was heading to a metro stop. I also had some fun knowing how much to pay (you pass your money to get forwarded to the driver), but I watched others and figured out 30 rubles.

Wednesday: There is a lot to remember. Each day, five hours of lessons brings more to learn. Today wasnâ€t particularly difficult though mostly a case of trying to remember the perfective and imperfective forms of many verbs. I try to review them several times a day: when I get home, before going to sleep, when I wake up and before class but still tough to remember them all. Today it was also nice to figure out that when my host asks: вам понравилось? That this translates into “do you like it?” – I didnâ€t quite get all the syllables worked through and hence difficult to look up in the dictionary, so now I tell her I like these various foods. My dictionary does get a good workout each day.

This afternoon I made a slow walk in the rain from school to Sennaya Ploshad and then a visit to the Russian museum. The museum has a good collection of Russian authored paintings though probably good to have a guidebook or guide to point out the highlights (or be more of an art historian than I).

Photo at right, shows I get lots of opportunities to learn additional Russian language; even occasionally stopping to figure out posters such as this one of a lost Pekinese dog. Iâ€m sure the natives find it strange to have tourists with Russian/English dictionaries reading their “lost dog” posters and figuring out the vocabulary and grammatical structure. (Moral of the story: if your spelling or grammar is poor, do not lose your dog near a language school?).

Thursday: St Petersburg has its share of familiar fast food restaurants catering to tourists. However, I found I prefer the smaller cafes instead. The Subway goes so far as to spell its name in Cyrillic letters (сабвэй) and has familiar menu items spelled in Cyrillic. I visited Subway and tried to use my Russian as much as possible. However they quickly figure out Iâ€m English speaking and switch to being helpful in English. Note: if you click on the photo, youâ€ll see an additional reason I took the photo: while rare, I do occasionally see bicycles on streets such as Nevsky Prospect.

The photo at right shows a nearby McDonalds with the pedestrian equivalent of the drive through.

In contrast, today I had lunch at a small café whose owner was from Uzbekistan. He also figured out I wasnâ€t Russian but we had the conversation in Russian about where I was from and what I was doing in Russia. At the same time, I learned a little more about the (warm) weather year round in Tashkent. These small café owners are providing a good service in not only food but also Russian language practice.

Today the grammar lesson was more straightforward. I found I am more limited by vocabulary than grammar. There are still many different words to keep learning and picking up each day. I find Iâ€m remembering more words though also forgetting and re-remember some of the same words. There was an excursion scheduled this afternoon to wander through Dostoevsky neighborhoods though it was cancelled since we didnâ€t have the minimum number of participants (4). So I read Dostoevsky instead.

Friday: Now time for a weekend! We found our way to the last case today (dative), and still more perfective and imperfective verbs. Iâ€ll have plenty to keep studying on my way across Russia, though will mostly miss the corrections to my grammar. We seem to be alternating nice weather with rain/snow so today time for good weather and another walk through the city. My regular haunts are becoming more familiar as I learn a lot of the center of the city. The Saturday excursion to Pavlovsk was cancelled due to lack of interest so perhaps time to explore nearby areas on my own during my last weekend in St Petersburg.

I seem to be getting interesting SMS spam on my mobile telephone. One message says: “Знакомства в Хамелеоне дла получения инфо отправьте на номер 0025 SMS со словом инфо (бесплатно).” As best I can translate, “Acquaintances of the Chameleon, obtain information by sending to number 0025 the message ‘info’ (free of charge)”. I donâ€t know any chameleons, so best ignore these.

No school on May 1st for the International Labor Day holiday. I took the opportunity to wander through town and see how the city celebrated the holiday. A large part of the plaza was blocked off in front of the Hermitage and all of Nevsky Prospect was closed with soldiers posted about every ten feet. I wandered along the parade route before seeing and hearing the groups marching down the street with small bands in front. My perception was of a large parade group followed by a small gap and then demonstration march. The parade consisted almost entirely of people walking (as opposed to US parades with many vehicles and floats).

The parade group was mostly different groups of people marching along with banners and flags such as in the first and second photos. The flags and signs seemed to be either political organizations or for different regions (or schools) around the city. I didnâ€t notice many strong political messages other than one group (third photo from left) with their “Estonia disgrace of Europe” banners presumably referring to recent situation in Tallinn where the government, after much unrest, has decided to relocate a memorial commemorating Soviet army sacrifice/victories in the Second World War.

After the main parade group was a gap. It felt tenser as I noticed a few police in riot gear and decided to walk away from the immediate area and down the street. The second group was primarily the Communist Party and different nationalistic or ethnic “Russian for Slavs” right wing groups. Many red hammer and sickle banners but also a small Che Guevara contingent and groups carrying photos of Lenin or the leader of Belarus. There was more of a political demonstration feel to this latter march group with chants, banners and people handing out leaflets, as well as soldiers marching along to prevent conflicts from erupting between protesters and counter-protesters. The fourth photo has initials Communist Party Russian Federation (КПРФ) and banners promoting a Russia/Byelorussia communist federation.

After the parade, lunch and then time to wander through town. The Russian Museum was closed on Tuesdays and the lines at the Hermitage were long so wandered mostly through town and took opportunity to visit nearby St Isaacâ€s Cathedral including climbing up the staircases to view over the city. The massive church was built between 1818 and 1858. From above, I had some nice views of the city. Otherwise, many people out and about enjoying the sunshine which was a nice change from yesterdayâ€s snowfall.

This morning I dropped off my bicycle at бивак велоцентр for service. Some things weren’t too hard to explain, such as showing worn brake pads and asking for new ones. Others were harder to explain such as “preventative maintenance” of my chain even though it wasn’t worn out yet (although to think of it, I also had that conversation at Bike Mart so perhaps the problem is just me :-)). Fortunately, we got a little assistance from another customer. I’m (over)protective of my bicycle on a trip like this, so slightly nervous to leave bike until May 8th, but will see how it goes.

There are fewer cars out on a Sunday morning in St Petersburg, so good day to ride the bike to the shop. Nevertheless did see an auto/pedestrian accident on my way back so useful to be vigilant in this big city. I also noticed more beggars out today than before, not sure if I am just walking past more of them or something different about the Sunday crowds vs weekday crowds.

Today is my brother Tom’s birthday. I too am a year older today, though I get to celebrate 14 hours before Tom does.  I had given my cell phone number to the bicycle shop.  Hence, it was interesting to receive my first SMS message.  On translation, understood it to be the automatic birthday wishes from the cell phone company.

The school organized a trip to Tsarskoe Selo (Царское село) in town of Pushkin, 25km south of St Petersburg, and site of the huge Catherine Palace created under direction of Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. This was a summer estate of the Tsars. The palace was surprisingly large and ornate with rooms designed and completed in different periods. The entire palace had been gutted at end of World War Two and most rooms restored hence including the famous “amber room” with walls all covered in amber stone. Each of the rooms were almost museum exhibits amongst themselves with large tile fireplaces in one, paintings in others and dining areas in yet others. Tourists were required to put on shoe covers. Mine barely fit which the guide somehow found surprisingly funny. It was packed with tourists. We went with guide from school who knows a lot about all these places and does the tour in English but then weâ€ll have side conversations in Russian.

We met at the Moskovskaya Metro station and took a small bus round trip to Pushkin. Afterwards I got lunch around Moskovskaya Ploshad and then took the metro back to the center of the city. Still had enough time for another museum and hence found my way to the Museum of Ethnography. This museum had displays about different ethnic groups who lived in the former Soviet Union with many traditional costumes, farm implements and other tools and many photographs. It was interesting to see of the areas I would cycle through what different groups might be found (seems like still mostly Russian but occasional other groups e.g. Tatar areas or Buryat areas. One area chart had a list of oblasts and in each oblast the ethnic mix. It was an interesting mix to see the different peoples.

Sunday: My home stay location is wonderfully central in the city. I went out for a walk along the main shopping street: Nevsky Prospect (Невскии проспект). Iâ€m surprised at how many people are out and about on a Sunday afternoon. I can spot many tourists with their guide books and maps, though the majority is not tourists. A group of hari krishnas is chanting at the main square. Tourist prices also here with a soft drink costing 2.5x as much as in Gatchina. Quite a few stores are open and I find a nice internet café that allows me to upload photos.

I donâ€t know if the host family expected the bicycle, though the school did realize that I was “bicycling to school” (only from Amsterdam and not every day. My bicycle is stored away in the apartment).

Monday: First day of school, wow overwhelming! There is a lot to learn. Little bits and pieces come back to me such as Russian grammar but Iâ€m also missing a lot of the little connecting words such as “if”, “then”, “only”, “other”, “thatâ€s all” so conversations are halting at best. My host drives me to school to help me find things and because the assessment test is at 8:45am. On other days I will walk (~40 minutes) through the city. After an assessment test where I miss most questions and realize how rusty my Russian grammar really is, I am on to my lessons. Four one hour lessons with a short break in between. Wow, my head hurts trying to remember everything. However we write things down for later study.

I make a leisurely walk back with stops for lunch, internet and window shopping. I also have a few simple things on the list: (1) get a mobile telephone number – done (2) find bicycle shops – several good candidates including Trial Sport nearby (3) see if I can spot an inexpensive second set of non-bicycling pants – nothing yet in my size and (4) take the subway – will wait to tomorrow. After that time to concentrate on my Russian study.

Tuesday: Making slow baby steps and I start feeling a bit more at home in St Petersburg. Other than school, I wanted to (1) take the subway and (2) find a laundry. I found a laundry, and though havenâ€t yet figured out whether to ask to use washing machine of the host family or go to laundry. The school sponsored a walking excursion after class and I and ~10 classmates took the subway to Nevsky Ploshad (Невскии плошаль) and then make a walk from there. The architecture around this city is amazing mixture of baroque and classical. Iâ€m very close to the Hermitage and hence good place for further visits (one of my goals is to get a student id card so as to get reduced discount on admission to museums).

The host family is ~45 minute walk from school so this morning I made the walk along some of the main streets. During work days it is a busy city with lots of traffic and many pedestrians. I had another four lessons in a row. Iâ€ve picked up a few more of the little words. There is more to learn about verb conjugations (e.g. the different types of verbs of motion) but this is more memorization and regular practice, so those drills are a bit more straightforward. Still a bunch to learn but feel like Iâ€m making some baby steps of progress.

Wednesday: One goal for the day was to see if I could get a student id. I found a place to have my photos taken. I dropped off the photos at the desk at school – I think they get the id for me. It is sometimes a little unclear but I usually go with the flow and figure things out from there.

Lessons were again a little more straightforward. Most of my fellow students are younger and have more Russian language but there are a few older students. I am left with a little less definite list of things to learn next, but probably can also re-review the previous things again. As I walk back, I see plenty of high heel shoes and a corresponding number of shoe repair places.

Thursday: We visited the Hermitage this afternoon. Impressive from several aspects: the building and its various halls and galleries are huge with many ornate features both inside and out. It is also surprising how much variety between adjacent rooms as if each were set up in a different style. Within the Hermitage is an impressive collection of art (e.g. largest collection of Spanish art outside Spain or largest collection of Rembrandts outside Amsterdam) so one can make a good study of art history just within the Hermitage, as well as a large unique collection of Russian art itself. The school organized a guided expedition to the museum. A quick whirlwind introduction but definitely gives a flavor of why one could spend days in the museum.

Some good solid lessons today, Iâ€ve got some more concrete things to learn. I feel like Iâ€m actually picking up little bits and pieces each day, so that is also nice to have a more intense class. Four hours per day is a good block of time and I also find myself working through things going and coming to school, especially going to school. Iâ€ll recommend this combination of language school and tourism together as a different way to see St Petersburg.

Friday: I have an International Student ID Card and I got my laundry done. Small steps but nevertheless nice to keep progressing with these small steps along the way. It was raining, so took the subway to school. At rush hour it seems like the trains come every minute or two but are still packed. After school sun was shining brightly so nice time to walk through the city including this stop at the internet cafe.

Still working though more Russian grammar. Lots of complexities of the genitive plural case though mostly a case of getting some more practice. I sometimes practice my Russian with my host family but then also nice at school to work through the same types of conversations. For example, a different verb is used to wash clothes than to wash a floor, though my pocket dictionary wouldn’t immediately tell me which one to use.

Nice to have a weekend. Tomorrow I’ve signed up for an excursion organized by the school to the village of Pushkin south of town. This is site of one of Catherine’s palaces.