The Joys of Traveling

Clearly, we've been bitten by the travel bug and lately, ever since Pesach Project ended, we've tried to travel even more than before. Part of it was wishful thinking -- it's springtime, so the weather is bound to be warmer, right? (Wrong. Very wrong.) And part of it was parting panic -- ohmigoodness, we only have 3 months left! Maybe it's the beginning of the influx of tourists here in St. Petersburg and, as we hear English spoken on the main streets again, the travel bug is contagious. Unfortunately, it leaves a little something to be desired, namely: convenience.

So in the last three weeks, we've taken three mini-trips: to Gatchina (which was ghetto-fabulous, as Matt wrote about previously), Novgorod, and Helsinki. Each posed a slightly unique travel-related challenge. Take for example, the little kid sitting next to Matt on the bus who puked just outside of the town of Gatchina. (Sadly, it was the second such incident for Matt that week. I was worried he might actually refuse to take public buses, but fortunately, he proved more resilient than I would have been in the same situation.)

Or, on the way to Novgorod, when I noticed that the trip was taking a little longer (4 hours, as opposed to the 3.5 hours) than we had expected. Good thing I piped up, because as it turned out, the bus driver decided to "skip" the stop in Novgorod. He pulled over on the side of the highway to let us off, hail a bus in the opposite direction and graciously paid for our fare in the opposite direction. Imagine my surprise when I asked the second bus driver how far we were from Novgorod and he said "2 hours." Wow, it shouldn't have taken us 6 hours to get there...we could have traveled from DC to Boston by train for the same amount of time. Good thing there's not much to see in Novgorod! Despite its name, which means New City, it's among the oldest cities in Russia. It's a cute town, that's for sure, but besides the walled-in areas of the Kremlin and the area across the river called Yaroslav's Court, which is packed with churches from the 11 and 1200's, there's not a lot to see or do. The highlight, by far, was having a late lunch at a cute restaurant inside the Kremlin walls (originally built in the 1050s). Very cool, indeed, to be eating inside a piece of history!

A view of Novgorod's Kremlin from across the river

Our bus ride to Helsinki was a little less adventurous than our previous rides, although it was still rather exhausting. The 383-kilometer ride (that's 237 miles) took 8.5 hours each way, including a nearly 2-hour stop-and-go dance at the border. (Yes, you can fly cross Atlantic from NY to Paris in less time!) Fortunately, the bus picked us up and dropped us off at our nearest metro stop; unfortunately, it snowed the morning we left! Brrr...

We also traveled to hell and back last week -- a quick weekend getaway, if you will. I found a lump in breast while doing a routine monthly exam on Friday and spent much of the weekend getting poked and prodded by doctors. I spent all day on Saturday at the American Clinic, where they were unable to find anything abnormal on an ultrasound. On Sunday, I met with two traveling doctors from Georgia (in the US, not the FSU) who were here with their church group and who graciously volunteered to see members of the missionary community for free. I decided God would forgive me for twisting the definition of a missionary to include me, especially in my breast-cancer-paranoid state; alas, in the end, I don't think I pissed off God too badly because the prevailing medical opinion -- based on my age, my family history, and the results of the ultrasound -- is that I have a benign cyst.

Helsinki proved to be a wonderful distraction from life in St. Petersburg. We left amid the grayish white snow covering; we were delighted that by the time we arrived in Helsinki it was sunny and bright. We loved the diversity of the people, the architecture and the cuisine. We hated the prices -- holy crap, things were expensive! Lucky for my wallet, many of the stores were closed for the May Day/Student Day festivities. Instead, we were fortunate enough to witness the raucous celebrations littering the streets.

Soaking up the Finnish sunshine near Helsinki's port

In case you aren't familiar with May Day in Finlad (we certainly weren't!), all the students dress up in ridiculous brightly-colored jumpsuits and silly white sailor hats, clean a famous statue, and get wasted. (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.) Part of the fun was a bunch of outdoor concerts, including a bizarre rap/R&B performance that was fun until we realized that they were singing Christian rock songs! We scooted out to seek some good Mexican fare and try out some Finlandia vodka drinks at the Arctic Bar, which was completely made of ice. So it turned out to be a major tourist trap...oh, well, you only live once!

Nope, those aren't Eskimos or aliens -- it's us, all bundled up at the Artic Bar in Helsinki!

All in all, we've decided that as fun and adventuresome as we are, we will be very happy to return to the monotony of everyday life back in the US soon enough.