Petersburg First Take

So far, I don't find Petersburg to be nearly as discombobulating as New York City. I already feel a bit better oriented on the whole -- and it doesn't look like it would be a herculean task to actually learn one's own way around the city. I think that it has to do with Petersburg being a flatter, more Memphis-like city. There aren't the overwhelming skyscrapers everywhere one looks like there are in New York. Of course, this could also be an effect of being herded through the city by people who know what they are doing.

We had a late lunch and dinner in the city -- both in nice little restaurants of the very trendy variety. Dinner was better -- delicious pel'meni and sour cream!

I've now been retested for HIV in order to get a multi-entry visa. One of the other girls went back into the clinic with me. The Russian nurse was surprisingly understanding and asked if I would rather have blood taken from my arm or my finger. Which helped, as it gave me a bit of control over the situation.

Then we had a touristy bus tour of the city. Bus tours with a group of jet-lagged college students don't work well -- I kept falling asleep on the bus.

At any rate, here are some touristy photos of the Smolny Cathedral and the Colonnade (sp?).
More orientation and touristy things tomorrow perhaps in some rain -- today was very sunny. Tonight, some sleepy sleep. In a comfy, if narrow bed.

From the Frankfurt Airport

I have discovered that international air travel provides one with numerous opportunities to practice meditation under adversity. As usual, I failed to reach and/or approach enlightenment.

Lufthansa isn’t entirely unpleasant; although, I do think that it is a bit cruel to make the cattle walk through business class before reaching the wagon. I was unfortunate enough to be stuck in a bum row where I couldn’t recline my seat at all. And sitting next to a fourteen year old German boy is a nightmare. I don’t know if I have ever so seriously contemplated murder in my life. I was trying to get an hour or two of sleep and the little twit decided that he was bored and the appropriate way to deal with boredom is to take the plastic cup and break it up in itty bitty, teeney tiny pieces. This could be why people drink on long flights. Perhaps on the next leg I will go for some whiskey rather than just a single glass of red wine.

ETA: Or, on the next leg, I’ll just pass out from exhaustion right after the plane takes off and only be jolted away by a screaming little girl as it’s landing. Since that’s what happened.

Wandering About Manhattan Photos

Look, look -- Christmas Lights!


Fun Display in Some Chocolate Store Window in Rockefeller Plaza.


This one looks better larger, I think. I might need to crop it some. I think this cross belongs to the Presbyterian Church. It's not St. Thomas's, where I sat for a few on the steps with the bums and watched a lady leave a few bags of something or another at the church door.



Saint Patrick's, Architecturally creating an axis mundi between the sacred and the profane. Thank you, Mircea Eliade.


I happen to like elaborate interiors in sacred spaces. Not necessary really, but it's a personal preference.


I've forgotten which saint this is -- I'm wanting to say, St. Rose of Lima.


And St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower. I like her. She apparently wanted to be a priest, and commented that God mercifully allowed her to die young -- around the age at which she would have been ordained -- so that she wouldn't suffer.

I Just Follow Excitement Around

I have a remarkable talent of wandering past scenes of excitement just after an event has occurred. I drove by the sight of one of Columbia's rare shooting while the ambulance was still in the parking lot of the Fuzzy Duck. Kelly and I were walking back to her apartment and outside of a pub on the way there were something like four police cars, two ambulances, a sobbing woman, and a bunch of people just standing around. Someone said something about a stabbing. Kelly assures me that this isn't normal for her neighbor.

And then I was in downtown Manhattan as the building caught on fire. I saw a man with a journalist quality camera standing on a corner looking up and thought -- hey, maybe I should look up. So I did. And then I took these pictures which, according to Kelly, makes me a sick person. She may be right in a way. It's fortunate that the building was already abandoned and in the process of being torn down -- it's tragic, however, that two firefighters died and five others were injured.