I went to Russia.
I did not know I had it in me, but when the school said we had to choose between Russia or Iceland, without second thoughts I said Russia.
I had some doubts later on, but I ignored my fears and made it.
The trip officially was supposed to take time between 20th to 24th of April 2015
This is how the journey went:
So many people decided to go a day earlier or so, in order to get a rest after arriving, because it was going to be one busy trip.
19th of April:
My flight was at 7 pm I think.. and we had a stop in Latvia. We finally reached Russia, St. Petersburg at 1.30 am.
Airport was almost empty, I think we were the last arrivals for that day. So I went to the passport check.. The lady speaks no English word, and the thing is, I have European ID, but for Russia we had different Visa.
I gave the lady my passport, she stared at me then back to the passport..
In a very rude way she pointed back to where I came from ' GO!!'. I said "this is my European ID" she responds 'GO!!'. mhmm.. okay..
I sat down on the chairs, and I was alone there as everyone else passed the control check..
There were bunch of policemen standing there, laughing and talking..
The control desks all shut down, half the lights in the place were turned off while I'm sitting there alone waiting.. what next?
I approach a policeman, and ask him "so what do I do now?". He can barely speak English and apparently no one was working on my case anyway since the windows were closed. He was however kind enough to ask me where I came from so I told him Amsterdam, he asked for my residence permit, and I gave him.
I started panicking.. Almost was going to cry, then I activated international internet and sent a message in our Whatsapp group, I was too shy to call any of the teachers because it was too late. One of them called me right away and calmed me down.. I didn't cry. I also heard Bryan from the other side where I couldn't see anything screaming "where is my friend? why don't you let her out?" and it made me laugh. so sweet!
After sometime the policeman came with my ID and Passport, and said that I could pass now.
When I passed the control check I realized that I've been waiting in there for over an hour.
The hostel we are supposed to stay in, supposedly should send us a Taxi driver with my name plate on it, apparently he never came to the airport. First, I received an Email from the hostel asking if we're showing up or not, I replied yes but having some issues passing the control check. Then the lady said he left, but she will contact him to come back.
Meanwhile, other taxi drivers in the empty airport are annoying us, we were warned not to take those. it was then 3.30 am, the taxi driver claims to be in the empty airport but we don't see him.. Then he claims hes by the bus stop, and since all the letters are in Russian and there is no sign we didn't know where the bus stop was. Bryan went outside to check for the taxi driver, and now they won't let him inside the airport anymore. So I decided to leave too since there was no point in waiting inside. We called the Hostel, and hes yelling kinda that there is no one to pick us and such.. When suddenly two LARGE men approach us.. one of them grabs the phone (My dear iPhone6) and says two words in Russian.. Then he says "come come i take you". The two men argued who to take us, then one of them said follow me.. He took our bags before we could say anything. So we followed him to a garage... Then he put our bags inside a car which had no sign of TAXI and i looked at Bryan and said " OMG are we really going with him??" but there was no time to argue, and there were no one around us. Bryan tried to take a picture of the plate number but didn't go well as the picture was all blurry. They told us it wook 15 minutes from the airport to the hostel, but this one I'm pretty sure took us more than that. Also, the price later was high.
Finally we reach the hostel at 4 in the morning all exhausted and tired. Met with the others and felt relief. What a first day!
20th of April:
I woke up feeling weird, and mentally exhausted, yet so happy to reach safely to the hostel after what happened the previous night.
Went to the common room, which also had the kitchen where everyone were having their breakfast.. Well, it was a hostel what did I expect?
Sorry, not sorry.. I'm not used to being in a hostel. When I've been raised all my life in a certain way, then seeing this will never be okay for me yet I co-oped with the situation.
We went for a walk around the city, discovering the place. Walking on the Nevsky prospect, it was so beautiful. The weather was cold, which I had no problems with because I love the cold weather.
Took a couple of pictures here and there.
Later on in the evening, somewhere at 18.00 we met with our two lovely teachers who accompanied us in this trip to go to a typical Russian restaurant.
Now, I only eat halal meat, so it was not very convenient because in countries like Russia -unlike Holland for example- finding halal meat is not easy. However, the fish dish that I've order was a mind blowing delicious dish!! The restaurant itself was so welcoming with this typical Russian style, I loved it!
I'm sorry I don't remember the name, but it was so close to the hostel, and on the Novsky prospect as well.
That is all I remember about that night.
21st of April:
At 10 we met at the common room in the hostel, then we walked to the metro station, and took a metro in order to start our first company visit.
All this time I was thinking, God.. If I had to travel around here alone I'd cry, because I don't know the language, and I don't somehow feel safe. So I was happy to travel with my friends.
then later on at 12 I think we had a lunch in a Japanese restaurant which was next to the hostel. I didn't really like their food as much as the Russian cuisine.
Later, we had a walking tour with a woman from 'WOW Russia'. They offer really nice tours, check their website. No this is not marketing, but I liked their ideas honestly.
So we walked around, visited all those amazing monuments..
I love their architecture... It is indeed rich with history. The lady did explain some of the stories that took place in certain monuments, but I was interested more to know about the Tsars, and all the historical events.
The church of our Lady Kazan
Metro station
in front of Lady kazan church
The church of the Savior on Blood
Acting Russian? :P
At night.. I went with some friends to the same restaurant we went the previous day, the one I don't know what is called, but had typical Russian atmosphere and food.
Waking up early, is exhausting. I managed to be on time. Some people were late, this time we didn't wait. Walked with the group to the metro\underground station.
I was thinking in myself 'I'm happy I managed to be in time, I wouldn't know how to reach our destination otherwise, especially using an underground!!'
When we reached the place, we saw the others.. I was impressed how they reached there the same time we did though they were late (the late ones were 3 guys.. no wonder they knew how to reach :P )
We finished our company visit, then went to another typical Russian restaurant. Again, no Halal meat, but man those seafood variety and vegetarian dishes they offered were so delicious. This time it was a buffet.
After that we went to Baskin Robbins and you have no idea how happy I was that there was a Baskin Robbins (Because in Holland, or europe generally there is no Baskin).
Yes, even with the scary letters, I was happy!!
There was a problem however, when ordering the ice cream because they don't speak English, and everything is written in Dutch!! Thank you google trans!
After that we went back to the underground, went to somewhere else for our company visit.
After the company visit, the group split, there were me and other 3 who decided to go to the mall!
Now, when you tell me MALL i get all excited because again in Europe you don't have what we know as Mall, in let's say Oman\Emirates .. I was so excited.
After that we were so exhausted. We went back to the hostel only to find out that people went to different places, so we decided we'd shower then go for dinner and call it a night.
We went to the same restaurant that I went to, twice in a row.
We were extremely exhausted, and because of that we were laughing on everything and anything. At the restaurant we were 6 in total, laughing the whole time.
We finished dinner at midnight, before heading back to the hostel, we decided to go to a shop which was on the opposite street from the restaurant, and from the hostel. While walking and laughing.. I saw an old begger (lady) approach us.. Normally, I'm scared of beggars, imagine a beggar in Russia..
The other didn't hear me, and i laughed at something someone said.. A friend of mine who was face to face with the beggar, got spooked because apparently the lady was too short she almost didn't see her, so she stopped, then ignored and continued walking..
That's when we heard the old lady scream on the top of her lungs, and actually she started running after us, and we screamed and ran too!!
The funny thing is that no one in the street bothered to see what is happening, everyone were minding their own business. The traffic light had red light on, we didn't care we just kept running to the other side of the road, into the shop. We literally were catching our breath, scared to death from that random action. Bought what we wanted but dared not to go out because I think I saw an old lady peeping from the shop window, wasn't sure if it was her, but I was not going to leave the shop if she was waiting outside. Then the guys went out, said she wasn't there, so we left and quickly went back to the hostel.
I had a goodnight sleep, the others claimed they were hearing a scream all night long from the outside.
Now, that would not be the same old woman would it? How can she have the power to shout all night long? Mhmmm..
23rd of April
We met again somewhere at 10 or 11, I don't remember. Then the journey started where we had to walk to the Hermitage.
Before going to the Hermitage, we stopped in another typical Russian restaurant, where they had the most delicious pies I've ever eaten. Now again, I only ate vegetarian and fish, but believe me when I tell you this was no ordinary pie!! They were just so amazing that now when I think about them, I drool!
Then we walked to the Hermitage. My goodness, the Hermitage was so beautiful.
our tour guide then told us the different stories about each room, kings, princes and all.. it was simply magnificent
We went to a Fancy Russian restaurant (I'm sorry I'm bad with remembering the names!) where again they served us some mouth watering super delicious food.
Finally, since it was our last official day in St. Petersburg, we decided to go on a limo tour around the city, celebrating the end of the trip. We went to the monuments that we have already been to, but at night it was a different story...
It was even prettier than what we had seen in the day light.
24th of April:
It was the departure day, I was supposed to go to Scotland to visit my friend and spend 3 more days doing nothing. However, an emergency appeared out of nowhere where I had to go back to Holland. So, I traveled back with some of my friends who were going back too.
So, my fear started once again when we stepped into the airport. We went to the control check, and some friends went ahead and one stayed in case something -again- happened to me.
Once more, I had to wait for 15 minutes this time thank god, and the woman behind the desk could sense my fear so she tried speaking English with me, another officer came asked me some questions then they let me in. Whoa..
That minions, was my journey to Russia.
Unforgettable, lovely, and amazing experience.
But never again!
