Chapter 4: Taking care of business and further exploration of the city

July 17, 2002

The next day, on Thursday, since Olga wasn't available that day, I decided to take care of some business. I had to register my visa and also email people on my situation and ask for advice about Olga. I tried using the hostel computer for email, but it was too slow and AOL's complicated website for checking email was too much for the old computer to handle. After an hour of frustration, I gave up and talked to this Australian guy there who told me that the internet cafes in downtown were faster and cheaper too. He said that he was headed there today and that I could come along. After I got the directions from the hostel staff for the visa registration office, we left.

As we got down the metro station into the subway (thank goodness I didn't have to try to ride this hectic system alone yet!) he, David, explained to me that he had just finished several weeks of volunteering at as a Christian teacher and counselor for a summer camp for kids, and that he was spending his last week in Russia touring St. Petersburg. He definitely was a nice kind-hearted chap for sure! We got off at the same main metro station on Nevsky Prospect that Olga took me to the prior day. The big inexpensive internet cafe we went to was just across the street from it, and it had air conditioning too! Inside, I thanked him and we both sat at our computers. AOL's site was still slow, but it was working at least. I began sending a mass email to everyone on my list who was interested in what was going on with me, updated them and asked them for advice about Olga, saying that I had mixed feelings about her because although she expressed an interest in seeing me again, I didn't feel that we had great chemistry together. But I said that I still wanted to try, because she was as hot as hell, and even looked a little like Britney Spears, and couldn't be any closer to my ideal physical type. I knew I was sounding immature and shallow to tell everyone that, but I was telling it like it is!

As I was finishing up checking my email, my computer was getting slow and taking very long to load every webpage. So I glanced around and noticed a cute girl behind me who was also waiting for a website to load up. Making small talk, I said "It's slow isn't it?" and to my surprise, she fluently answered "Yes, very much so." Glad that she could speak English, I continued making small talk with her, and complimented her on her good English. I learned that her name was Lilia, and that she was assisting a French student next to her by helping him with errands and showing him around the city. As she was finishing up, I was enamoured that she was so friendly and open, so I asked her if she would be interested in getting together sometime to do something, and she said sure, so we exchanged phone numbers and emails. (I gave my hostel number and home number) Then David, the Australian guy, came up and said goodbye to me, and I thanked him for his help. Then I waved goodbye to Lilia as well.

After I was done checking email, I took a long walk to the visa registration office, which was on Ligovsky Prospect, asking directions along the way. As I neared the last block, the street suddenly became filled with rubble, concrete, construction equipment, bulldozers, dangerous holes, etc. I wondered if I was in a restricted area, yet the crowd was continuing to walk through it. I thought "This is unbelievable. In the USA, an area under heavy construction like this would be restricted from the public due to safety laws, yet everyone here just walks right through it like it's a normal sidewalk!" Carefully making my way along the street, I looked for the office by searching the numbers of each building, but I couldn't find it, so I went into a fast food place to ask about it. They pointed me through an archway to a back alley, and I went up to the metal door, thinking "This is crazy. Registering visas here for tourists is the law, and the place to do it at isn't even labeled well, and worst of all, you have to go into an alley off the street to find it. Talk about making things convenient for tourists!" I rang the bell and went up to a smoke filled office to register my visa. I was disappointed to learn that I had to pay another $20 to register my visa, because I had already paid that fee to the travel agency GoToRussia.net, but apparently I found out that it would only apply for the Moscow visa registration office, not the St. Petersburg one. (I was originally going to register my visa at the Moscow airport when I transferred flights to St. Petersburg, but when I switched airlines to Luftansa for the reasons I mentioned in the Preparation, Plan and Strategy chapter, I went to St. Petersburg directly from Frankfurt, Germany instead.) I reluctantly paid them, hoping I could get a refund from GoToRussia.net later (which I did).

On my way back, I stopped at a hip looking Starbucks-like place with a parrot on its signage called "Marko Cafe" to get some dessert because I was hungry. Inside, I was taken aback by all the tall skinny hippish gorgeous girls there were inside. "Wow", I thought, "This place looks so modern and these gorgeous city girls are all stylishly modern dressed. The American media that made Russia look primitive and backward was certainly wrong!" The jello dessert I got was mediocre, but at least it was sweet. Then I walked back to the metro station to head back to my hostel. This would be the first time I would be riding it alone. "Here goes nothing", I thought. I paid the cashier at the window for my metro token and went down the escalator hoping that I wouldn't end up being lost for hours.

As I stood on the long descending escalator, I funnily noticed that some people would be rushing down the escalator passing you on the left side, but on the escalators going up, no one would be running up the long flight of stairs. lol I guess at least gravity was constant here :) I also noticed that many young couples were taking the time on the escalator to hold and kiss a lot. I felt envious and thought "Those guys on the email list that said that Russians were uncomfortable with public displays of affection were sure wrong!" When I got to the bottom of the platform, I realized that I now had to figure out which train on the right and left was going north. I opened up the metro train map that was given to me by the hostel with my hostel station circled, and used it to ask for help from people. I went up to people and pointed to the circled station on the map and asked them which of the two trains to take to go that way. They gladly helped and showed me the right train. Onboard, I did the same and asked people how many more stops to get to the circled station on my map. They understood my question of "How many more stops?" when I signaled 1, 2, 3, and so on with my fingers. I realized that I could just count the stops until my station by just looking on my map and counting the stops between the station I came from to the one at my destination. When we arrived at my station, the people I asked to help me pointed to me that this was my stop. I thanked them by saying "Spashiba" which is "thank you" in Russian and got out. When I got up to the top of the escalator, I was relieved to recognize the interior of my local station :) Whew! I made it through safely on my first metro ride alone! I got something to drink and relaxed and watched the sunset.

Then I walked back to my hostel and relaxed, wondering about the approach I should take with Olga tomorrow. I also ran into David the Australian again and told him about my day. I then went up to the fourth floor of the hostel, where I heard there was a balcony where people there hung out at and drank at night. Up there, I found some Dutch guys hanging out and celebrating their last day here. I talked to them a bit and told them about Olga the day before, showing them video clips from my camcorder of Olga the day before. I explained that although Olga was gorgeous and my ideal looking type, she had no personality or depth to her at all, and that I wasn't sure what to do with her next. One of the guys told me that it didn't matter how a girl looked, because if no chemistry was there and she didn't treat you right, it wasn't worth "sh**". He said that one girl he met in the bar the other night kept holding him and begging him to take her away with him back to Holland, but he brushed her off.