ARRIVING

After months of anticipation, we are finally here! Mike has been here already for 3 weeks and as a result, his is a mind filled with local knowledge already, although I suspect he has only scratched the surface of discovering the tools of survival here (and this is summer!)

We are staying for the few weeks until we move to our permanent (I hope I mean semi-permanent apartment) in a small flat on Moika. This is a very well known and popular canal route through the town, very pretty and where we are situated is just three minutes walk from the Palace Sq. where the Hermitage dominates.

Pretty Hallways -

I was prepared, therefore not shocked by the dreadful state of the hallway leading to our flat on the first floor, which is not only has been left untouched for about two hundred years but also the stairs have gradually subsided to an interesting angle. I hope to quickly learn to post photos from my very new camera to be able to show you this amazing hallway which was the subject of my first picture. This is apparently normal here so I was even less shocked to see that we have an equally beautiful entrance to our permanent flat. Although, at least we will have a lift and 24 hour security. There are several codes to learn, from the street entrance into the courtyard and then into the hallway of the flats and then double doors, heavily bolted into the apartment itself. This is also apparently normal so it should be fun visiting friends and actually managing to enter their buildings. I have heard that the main reason for all this security is to stop people being able to enter and find a cosy place to sleep in your hallway!

Theatre Tickets

I was delighted to find the Mikhailovsky Theatre on my first exploration of the city and as a celebration decided to purchase a couple of tickets for Saturday night`s ballet performance of Spartacus which promises to be spectacular. It had better be just that. I thought I was paying about 40 pounds per ticket but it turned out about twice that. That was a quick lesson in calculating the local currency incorrectly! Ah well, I want to go anyway and we have just about the best seats in the house! I am wondering if there is a different price for locals.

Food

I have spent some time over the last two days exploring the possibilities of procuring fresh vegetables from the small local supermarkets dotted about the town. It`s not looking good. I will have to find a fresh food market soon. I have already made a couple of mistakes in purchases. In one small supermarket I was delighted to find some fresh salmon which I was disappointed to find when cooked was heavily salted and cured, a bit like haddock but much saltier. We ate it anyway as we were hungry with frozen spinach. Also I bought yogurt, a very large tetra pack thinking it was milk. Fortunately the seafood products that we love are readily available here, e.g. cold water prawns, smoked salmon, caviar and crab.

The weather has been changeable to say the least but is not cold so I have managed to `hit the bricks` and explore this side of town. The sidewalks are so busy it reminds me of London. There is a great buzz about the place.

Social Life

I am looking forward to meeting some fellow expats this afternoon who I am sure will be full of helpful advice, I must take a notebook!

Thoughts

Have seen already a huge problem with alcohol in Russia. There are people in a terrible state all over the place. Beer is cheaper than bottled water and every evening in the small supermarkets there are queues of poor people purchasing bottles of beer. The young people think nothing of walking around with beer in hand. Fortunately, most of these people are pathetically harmless, just in a horrible state.