Tuesday, March 01, 2005
I'm posting a few more pictures that cover the bus ride to Petrozavodsk. Two are of the gas station that belongs to the old Soviet town where all the wall paper in the Soviet Union was made, all of it. The third is a shot of that town, from the bus. We avoided the town which was probably a good thing since every passing car gave us the finger.
When we finally got to our Hotel - Pohjola it was time to wash our faces, unpack and get out on the town. This was when the Russian realization factor reared its ugly head once again. First of all the bathroom was like a sauna, except it was lacking a sauna. The water pipes in the bathroom were scalding hot and they were situated right next to the toilet. We pretty much had to strip down bare in order to use the toilet without passing out. This heat made the room extremely uncomfortable and so we opened the window to the Siberian air. This was not the problem as cold air is nothing new to us. The problem was that our window opened directly out onto the street, at ground level. Now, I don't know about you, but I would rather be a little hot and uncomfortable while sleeping than hot and uncomfortable while dead, so we kept the windows locked during the night. I think that when we saw our beds from the street we realized that if we could get in there, a lot of other people could get in there too. So we were pretty hot while we slept.
Another thing about the bathroom was the water. It was clean and hot and cold when it should have been, but it was smelly when it should not have been. I have never smelt such god awful water in my life. It wasn't sewage smell, more like really bad and old pipes kind of smell. But this raised the question of when washing your face, are you making it cleaner or dirtier? Luckily I have some facial pads and lotion to disguise the smell and we loaded up on bottled water for the morning routine.
But this water thing made eating and drinking in restaurants a little curious. Because sometimes they gave you the bottle and other times they gave you the glass of water that they said was mineral water straight from the bottle. After a scent test we all decided to go for it. It is really comforting to know that if one gets sick, we will all get sick. Power in numbers, I suppose.
The cafes and restaurants all had a very strange, cost-cutting habit. They would offer napkins at the table, but these were no store bought napkins. These were store bought paper towel, whose ply's were pealed apart to create more paper towel. Those ply's were then cut into quarters and sometimes into eighth's so that a napkin at the table was roughly the size of my finger.
I will say this about that, everything that came in a bowl in Russia was excellent. Anywhere we went, if soup was on the menu, then soup was in my belly. The soups and stews were just great. Hearty, certainly unhealthy, filled with cream and oil and other bits of deliciousness. The blintzes were also quite good, but not the blintzes I was expecting. I would rather have a blintz from Texas than from Russia, but they still made for a good breakfast. I've attached a couple of pictures of the cafe, one is from the outside and all of the wires are for the trolley buses and the other is a picture of the dude who was asleep behind us the entire time.
I will try to pick up from where I left off yesterday, but I am not making any promises here. After we left the Ministry of Culture we had what was easily the best meal of the trip. A stew with meat and mushrooms and cream and parsley that was simple but wonderful. The restaurant was an old and classy place, real traditional. The waiters and waitresses were dressed in traditional clothes (serfs) and there were huge dead animals on the walls. The meal was also the most expensive, roughly 7 euros a person and it was only a one course meal. Most other meals got to be 7 euros (250 rubles) when they included vodka, beer, coffee and a couple of courses.
After lunch we went over to the Finnish Consulate and had what was easily the most boring and long and boring and long meeting I have ever had. The city official told us before hand that she would not want us there after we had done our business, but the time never came when we would say good bye and so we had to listen as they spoke business and it was hella boring and did I mention long? And then the coffee came and it made the whole ordeal that much more painful because this was some of the worst coffee I have ever been offered ever. So bitter, so nasty. When we finally escaped, it was time for a disgusting shower and then we were off to the concerts. Which was another story all together, but I don't have enough time to write about it now.
When we finally got to our Hotel - Pohjola it was time to wash our faces, unpack and get out on the town. This was when the Russian realization factor reared its ugly head once again. First of all the bathroom was like a sauna, except it was lacking a sauna. The water pipes in the bathroom were scalding hot and they were situated right next to the toilet. We pretty much had to strip down bare in order to use the toilet without passing out. This heat made the room extremely uncomfortable and so we opened the window to the Siberian air. This was not the problem as cold air is nothing new to us. The problem was that our window opened directly out onto the street, at ground level. Now, I don't know about you, but I would rather be a little hot and uncomfortable while sleeping than hot and uncomfortable while dead, so we kept the windows locked during the night. I think that when we saw our beds from the street we realized that if we could get in there, a lot of other people could get in there too. So we were pretty hot while we slept.
Another thing about the bathroom was the water. It was clean and hot and cold when it should have been, but it was smelly when it should not have been. I have never smelt such god awful water in my life. It wasn't sewage smell, more like really bad and old pipes kind of smell. But this raised the question of when washing your face, are you making it cleaner or dirtier? Luckily I have some facial pads and lotion to disguise the smell and we loaded up on bottled water for the morning routine.
But this water thing made eating and drinking in restaurants a little curious. Because sometimes they gave you the bottle and other times they gave you the glass of water that they said was mineral water straight from the bottle. After a scent test we all decided to go for it. It is really comforting to know that if one gets sick, we will all get sick. Power in numbers, I suppose.
The cafes and restaurants all had a very strange, cost-cutting habit. They would offer napkins at the table, but these were no store bought napkins. These were store bought paper towel, whose ply's were pealed apart to create more paper towel. Those ply's were then cut into quarters and sometimes into eighth's so that a napkin at the table was roughly the size of my finger.
I will say this about that, everything that came in a bowl in Russia was excellent. Anywhere we went, if soup was on the menu, then soup was in my belly. The soups and stews were just great. Hearty, certainly unhealthy, filled with cream and oil and other bits of deliciousness. The blintzes were also quite good, but not the blintzes I was expecting. I would rather have a blintz from Texas than from Russia, but they still made for a good breakfast. I've attached a couple of pictures of the cafe, one is from the outside and all of the wires are for the trolley buses and the other is a picture of the dude who was asleep behind us the entire time.
I will try to pick up from where I left off yesterday, but I am not making any promises here. After we left the Ministry of Culture we had what was easily the best meal of the trip. A stew with meat and mushrooms and cream and parsley that was simple but wonderful. The restaurant was an old and classy place, real traditional. The waiters and waitresses were dressed in traditional clothes (serfs) and there were huge dead animals on the walls. The meal was also the most expensive, roughly 7 euros a person and it was only a one course meal. Most other meals got to be 7 euros (250 rubles) when they included vodka, beer, coffee and a couple of courses.
After lunch we went over to the Finnish Consulate and had what was easily the most boring and long and boring and long meeting I have ever had. The city official told us before hand that she would not want us there after we had done our business, but the time never came when we would say good bye and so we had to listen as they spoke business and it was hella boring and did I mention long? And then the coffee came and it made the whole ordeal that much more painful because this was some of the worst coffee I have ever been offered ever. So bitter, so nasty. When we finally escaped, it was time for a disgusting shower and then we were off to the concerts. Which was another story all together, but I don't have enough time to write about it now.
// posted by Howard @ 12:59 PM 
