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ST. Petersburg russia, July 8-22, 2008

 

TUESDAY, 7/8/08: 2:56PM: The mail is in, but my Lonely Planet guide hasn't arrived, and unfortunately I looked at the e-mail and it said it would be delivered by regular post and be here in 4-10 business days! So much for the guidebook! Played Spider to 2:45, then dressed and put everything in its place and phoned the car service and said I'd be downstairs. That's when I checked the mail and left it in the box. Out to the curb at 3PM exactly and the guy waves to me from across the street. Well, I just don't feel like DOING this any more, so I'm just plain GOING TO BED now at 7:46PM, and I don't CARE when I wake up!

THURSDAY, 7/10/08: 7:39AM: Back to ancient history: Lots of traffic on Atlantic Avenue, so the driver goes through side streets until South Portland. Then it's clearer, though still slow, and to airport at 3:48PM. Go to an empty check-in kiosk while most of them have lines in front of them, and get all the information in and am left with a triangle saying "an agent will verify." Wait for a long time, the triangle disappears, and while the person next to me complains, the agent comes from a family across from me and says I'll have to enter everything from scratch again, easier the second time. She verifies my plane reservations, and even the dates of my Russian visa, though she doesn't ask to see any of the other documentation that I'd been told to bring along. The agent and I finish at 3:58. On security line 4:11. Through 4:17, shoes off, laptop out, and a Russian goes through my luggage, saying my liquids are 4 oz., over the 3.5 oz. limit, but he'll let them pass, to which I say "Spacibo," and he wishes me a good trip with a smile. Do puzzles at Gate 2 at 4:10, after having looked into three shops for a compass and not finding one. [This keyboard is more accurate than the last, though there's an annoying "shadow" of the cursor that lasts for a few characters beyond where I'm typing.] Find there are two meals on the plane, so I don't bother buying a sandwich. Boarding at 5:45, hungry. Move back 6:47. 6:31 flight. Finish a puzzle at 7:45 and still sit. Off at last at 8:04, already sitting for more than two hours, husband on my left keeps talking to his wife across the aisle, who keeps standing even when we're taxiing toward takeoff. Quickly over the water and don't even see any of Long Island or Cape Cod, though there's a strange small unoccupied island at one point. Then it's dark and any of the Canadian cities marked off to the right just aren't visible in any form of lights. Some bumps during dinner of good chicken and rice, most of which I don't eat, and have tonic to drink after an apple juice. Take Ambien and Valium after going to the john for the second time and try to sleep at 9:30PM, uncomfortable with a tiny pillow against the awkward wall.

WEDNESDAY, 7/9/08: Wake, with some surprise, to light outside at 1:14AM with breakfast on the tray in front of me despite my telling my seatmate I didn't want to be wakened, and he in fact didn't wake me: I guess it was the light. So I actually slept maybe 3.5 hours! Cloudy. Take PM pills at 1:25AM that I'd forgotten last night, using up almost all the orange juice, and enjoying the croissant and butter and jam. At 1:32AM I change watch to London time: 6:32AM. Gossamer clouds outside, nothing visible below, cerulean blue above. Multi-layer wispy clouds over Ireland. Start down at 7:07AM, again captain says there may be a delay in landing at this busy time. 7:24AM below clouds to fields and highways, 7:32 over Millennium Dome. #1 try at London Eye at 7:33AM, but don't think I got it. Land 7:38, raining. 55 degrees, but don't feel I need a jacket. Off plane 7:50, pee 7:54, look for terminal 5. Long long walk to line for terminal 5 to 8:09. First bus goes, full, at 8:14. Onto second at 8:17, getting a seat in back to look at the motley groups. Pass Singapore Air A380 airbus with double row of windows along entire plane, looking not all that huge, but it might be a matter of proportion: it's much HIGHER than most planes, so it doesn't seem, proportionately, to be that long. Through long tunnels, into many trenches beside green fields, about 20 standing in bus. To terminal 5 by 8:27. Quick through with entry pass, up LONG escalator at 8:34. To security 8:36. Through easily by 8:44, nothing opened. No gate yet at 8:50AM for 9:35AM boarding for 10:55 flight. Try three shops (here, not before) for compass, no good. Pee at 8:55. 9AM find it's Gate 19, leaving at 9:55. 9:05 "Gate closed." Fellow says, "It just landed, it'll be a quick turnaround, ask about seat when they come." They enter soon after and cluster in seats at 9:07. I switch from A6 to A27, which she guarantees is behind the wing. Suddenly there's an ENORMOUS line, as if they all just got off a bus, at 9:36. 6A had VERY little legroom, and 20A is well behind wing. 20C bitches, "How did you get by with two carry-on bags?" Get jacket out, chilly and VERY rainy. Seated at 9:52, with London Times, nothing much in it but sudoku. 2:45 flight announced. "Good weather en route, north of London, Hamburg, pass between Riga and Talinn." Move back 9:55. Off 10:16AM. WONDERFUL castle to the northeast of London, too fast in passing to take a picture, not to mention scattered clouds blocking views. #2-5 Sweden? south of Kristanstad at 11:34AM. After GREAT bacon, scrambled egg, sausage, tomato, mushroom, roll and butter and jam, orange juice and coffee with two milks and three sugars, and peach melba yogurt. Get form and told to keep Part B in passport. BEAUTIFUL Denmark isles under clouds earlier. To #8 land-edges in the western part of the Baltic Sea at 11:44, hard to tell from distant small TV screen exactly where we are (remind myself to change time on camera!). Do so at 8:26AM. We're still west of Visby Island. #9-10 westernmost Estonia? 12:14 #11 Helsinki in distance? at 12:16. #14 Curonian Bight at 12:24? 12:36 change watch to 3:36PM. 3:44: 15 minutes to landing. #15 Leningrad 3:52. To #23 city? to 3:55. Land 3:58. Dock 4:05. To passport control line 4:15, maybe 20th. Through 4:27, no problem, no other papers looked at. Pee 4:29. Alexander right at exit with sign for Hostel Nord, young and not unattractive, though somewhat rank of smell, so I won't feel out of place if I smell! Into car 4:34, bags in back, and he asks if it's OK that he pick up laundry: Marsha said he could only if I agreed. "No problem." Drive on completed part of ring road: "Traffic a big problem," this part's been here only a year, will be finished quick because the government is backing it to be finished. Little traffic, he asks if I mind if he goes fast, and goes maybe 100 kph, saying he can go up to 180 if he likes, but then we're onto local roads that are much more congested, driving past endless sets of multi-aged apartment buildings in the suburbs, some with balconies so ratty they make the place look ready to be torn down, then to a more central part of town where he points proudly to fortress-like "Stalin-era" buildings from WWII era, which have high ceilings and will last forever. Pass a Casino, many squares, one with a statue of Stalin, palatial buildings he dismisses as being "government buildings," and past an enormous factory that he said produced tanks and munitions during the war, not saying what they did now. To a traffic jam he refuses to avoid, pointing out an unlabeled police station, identified by three gray Jeeps parked outside. Says this is rush hour, but it'll be OK past a particular intersection, and as if by magic, he's right. Finally pull up to a gate where he toots his horn for the gate to be raised, and into a factory-like area where a thin red-haired guy in a leather apron tools around in a lift-truck while Alexander gets out to get loads of laundry, I guess for the Hostel, that he piles into the back, and we're off again, with music from the radio-plate that displays a 30-40 word advertising crawl, the first I've ever seen. At last at 5:30 he pulls into a curb, then through a tunnel under a building where two pedestrians hug one wall and a third backs out until we pass through. A car-cluttered inner courtyard has one place for him to park, and he says, "Here we are," and gets out to go up five or six steps, past two guys sitting on either side of the top of the stairs, pushes open a door, offers to take my black bag because "It's up four floors," and the floors are ENORMOUSLY tall, each about three flights with two landings between, and into a new-looking door with a busy young lady smiling at me and holding out a hand saying, "Welcome, I'm Marsha." She's supervising a few workers but takes time off to write me the door-code on a green card, shows me the kitchen with eggs, milk, juice, bacon, yogurt, stove, cereal, and a sink with a sign "Don't leave dirty dishes." She opens three doors to various johns, rooms with multiple beds are open to view, and she takes me around a corner to a large room with a small unmade bed and a double bed (with a single pillow and coverlet and a large gray-green towel) long enough so there's only about six inches between the foot of the bed and the wall, making it more convenient to walk over the bed to get to the window filling the far wall with a top-open pane, a solid gauze curtain, and two translucent drapes that can be closed to dim the light by about half. A tiny night-table with a lamp, a small wooden desk with no drawers and a wastebasket, and a closet with maybe 6 hangers and a shelf on top. She gives me the key to the room, with a press-on button to open the two doors to the apartment itself, then sits at a computer, Googles a map, and prints me a map of where we are, surprisingly far from Nord Hostel itself, with a line drawn as to where I walk to get there, maybe just under a mile. She draws an elaborate map of the double courtyard, reached by two parallel streets, with a dot for our entrance. I ask to try the entrance code, just to make sure I know how to use it, and Alexander mercifully shows me the workman's elevator "That works most of the time" to take me from 4 to 1, where there's still the three-flight stone stairway to the entrance. Almost miss the lit button on the wall to open the door from the inside, go out, get shown the number pad on which to enter the code, and get rung in. Back to the elevator and ask Marsha about the water: OK if boiled, otherwise drink bottled water, and about the tickets, and she strikes her forehead, says something about how much she has to do, and hands me three red envelopes with three tickets [and now at 8:54AM there's a knock on my door, I say "Yes?" and women giggle and walk away]. I ask about ATM and she says the one just outside where I came in should still be open, otherwise "around to the right, then again to the right, and you'll find lots of places," and I hope the near one is still open. She asks for the total of 67E that I owe her (32E for the car, for which she said I could give Alexander a couple rubles as a tip, and 35E for the accommodation papers), but that the city goes by rubles, about 23-24 to a dollar. I leave at 6:30PM with a passport COPY, which she recommends rather than carrying my real passport, go across to the bank, insert my HSBC card, and ask for 6000 rubles, about $250, which should hold me for awhile, and continue to the right to the main street, turn left, and find Bistro Max Food, with a few people eating at plain tables, and point to two meatballs, accept the "garni" of rice, but no salad, and when asked for "drink," look into the fridge for lots of soft drinks, ask about a silver can, and get told it's a beer, so ask for one and get a draft in a large glass, all for 220R, not bad for a "full" meal, and the place gradually almost fills up, so it's a popular place, advertising "open 24 hours." Decide to get a bottle of water for the pills that I forgot to bring, and choose "fizzy" for 30R. Ask about the street, and I somehow came out the wrong way, to a street beyond my map, and I think to walk, but just feel tired so I trace my way back to the room at 7:02PM, get told there's a school group here also, but the teachers have the room next to mine so "it should be quiet," she says with a hopeful smile. Slightly dizzy at 7:08 from lack of sleep, I start typing, take #25 of room at 7:11. Look through Heathrow Terminal 5 book to 7:44, and decide to just go to bed at 7:46. Wash face in tiny sink, using my towel, pee, and get into bed at 7:55, comfortable enough, with eyemask on, even with light pouring in through drapes, but then remember I forgot NIGHT pills and get back into bed at 8PM exactly.

THURSDAY, 7/10/08: Wake at 12:25AM to pee and the hall is LOUD with young male and female voices! Can still SEE clouds in a "night" sky. 12:40AM light tap on door? Did they mistake my door for a john as they did later that morning? But usually the john doors are left OPEN when unused. Then think to take Wednesday's (very late) 3mg melitonin, WITH an Ambien to make sure my sleep comes, and want to pee again, but john door is closed and I don't remember where next one is (as it turns out later, directly OPPOSITE this one), so at 12:47 I pee into my water bottle, dribbling some on the floor that I mop up with the few tissues left in my black pants' pocket. Onto note 3 already: wake at 6:25, gratified to have slept about ten hours, pee, empty bottle, wash it out, stock up on toilet paper, write dream. Feel slightly dopey, so I lie down for a bit before starting day. Up at 6:55 and dress and decide to tackle the kitchen for breakfast before everyone's there. Out at 7:01 to pass the "dorm" at the corner, flooded with light, door open, at least three and maybe as many as six bodies sprawled, limbs akimbo outside blankets, sexes indeterminate though probably mixed, all sleeping away. Close door slightly in kitchen, finding milk and orange juice from the fridge, muesli in a hard-to-open-and-close plastic container on the table, toast two pieces of wheat bread with the soft oleo-like yellow stuff in the plastic tub, and forgot my pills! Go back and pick up two TicTac boxes to find I took an empty and the aspirin! Finish with a yogurt, feeling OK, if not full, wash all the dishes and dry them with one paper towel and put them all back, brushing the bread crumbs off the counter, and get back to my room at 7:37 past the unchanged vista of sprawled limbs in the dorm. Read the "Russia and Belarus" book during breakfast: yes, the water must be boiled for at least ten minutes to get rid of the Giardia lamblia which can infect after years and never go away; watch out for pickpockets at special places and everywhere in general, and the lines at the Hermitage are killers, try to get an Internet entry, and you need an appointment for the special Gold collection, admission like 350R, two days for maybe 550R, enormous. Opens at like 10:30? Some books say individuals in courtyard, groups on riverside, others the opposite. Stop typing to look through the guidebook and feel tired just contemplating the whole thing. SO glad I've so much time here! Type more. Morning pills at 8AM with bottled water. #26 room with dual time set on camera. Finish notes to date at 9:34AM and decide to unpack. But TIRED! Lie down! 9:49AM: Mosquitoes and RAIN said to be problems. Get out Russian phrasebook, mosquito repellant, money, and leave things UNpacked for now. 10:25AM: KEEP studying two maps, the colored one from John's DVD book particularly graphic, but I STILL can't decide WHICH WAY to go on Muchnoi to get toward center of town! Clearly NOT the way I went for dinner last night! 10:50: Kazansky Cathedral has Kutuzov's grave, MANY shops and services going on, and what I thought was recorded music actually came from a balcony high above one alcove. Priests in cloth-of-gold performed, acolytes carried candles, and people lined up to kiss the icon of Our Lady of Kazan. No pictures allowed inside, but it's modeled after St. Peter's in Rome. #27 House of Books from 1902 across from #28 Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan (1820). 11:23 come across REAL Nord Hostel, unlabeled beneath number 10, just before the arch where I took a picture, and took #31 to the west of the square, of St. Isaac's Church and the Admiralty spire at 11:29. #32 ticket line at 11:32, which got longer as I watched it, but I thought I read about some special way of avoiding the line, but I can't find it in John's guide. Decide to cross the bridge over the Neva and took #34 of two huge cruise ships 11:46. 11:54 onto much shorter Kunstkamer line, after going in the exit since I could see no other way in. Read New Yorker while waiting, slightly chilly in my short-sleeved shirt. #35 inside lobby at 12:22, 28 minutes for this "minor" museum, 200R ticket, 50R for camera. Pee 12:25. Incredible stuff from American Indians (South American Indians [Orinoco] closed upstairs), Africa, Japan, China, the incredible monstrosities of Dr. Ruysh, India for #41 Altar of Kali 2PM. Then hungry, so downstairs to search for cafe and have a Tuborg beer for 50R and a sandwich for 45R from 2:13-2:44, tired and glad for a chance to sit and watch a couple of attractive guys. Back up for Korea and Mongolia, a little man at 3:38, then to the third floor for some scientists' furnishings, then down to john at 3:45, to produce three little turds to 3:55, glad I brought my own toilet paper, but they DID have a dispenser by the sinks, which everyone used to dry their hands rather than the blower. Take photos of the fountains in the Neva, across the bridge in a wind that started to rain, put up the umbrella for a few moments, but then it stopped, and by the time I walked past the Kazan Cathedral to the square where all the tours left, the sun was back out in force. Looked at the strange Schelkink (Nutcracker) ballet by Tchaikovsky for the 11th, but found when I got back to the hotel that I had the Corsair for that night, though I might try the Don Quixote the next night at the Mikhailsky Theater, supposedly just down the block from the ticket office. Decide to take the city tour tomorrow at 11AM for 550R from Eclectica, but see now that the Davranov tour starts at 10 and lasts longer. Fuss with those till 4:55, sun so bright I put on hat and wander past German outdoor restaurant on Dumskaya where I might have dinner tonight, go around corners where they're working on the Griboyedova Canal and find my street and to my room, no one else on the floor, exhausted at 5:17. Undress and lie down at 5:20 and up at 6:18, still tired but at least able to move. Re-read good Kunstkamer book (how great to pick up Russian version, ask if they have it in English, and it's just below it!) to 6:28 and catch up with this at 7:14, trying to sort things out. Maybe unpack now? No, not interested in it. Play sudoku to 9:35, disturbed by Alexander UNLOCKING (or would have, had I not had it locked from inside!) my door to "check for garbage." I guess I can NOT leave ANY cash in the room: GOT to take it all WITH me! Kids and young people hollering in adjoining rooms, many trying to use my room as a john. NOT that great, but at least I'm up, ready for dinner, and getting adjusted to the time! 11PM: Decided to go into the restaurant just three doors down, and it turned out to be CHINESE (unless the poster for Korean Air meant they were really Korean, and indeed they served six little dishes like kimchee and daikon and bean sprouts and carrots, like the Koreans?) and had what menu said was fried pork chops, but turned into a kind of pork schnitzel, rather good, for 380R, and a beer (Nebashko, or whatever) for 80R, for a total of 460R for which I just left a 500R note and left for my nearby door---where 14094# didn't work!! Tried five or six times, not working, wondering what to do: call upstairs? Walk to the real Nord Hostel and (again) call upstairs? Ask someone to use their telephone, maybe back at the restaurant? Left restaurant at 10:35, and then just before 11PM a couple came OUT, and I showed them my number, and they said I should put a * first! I looked at them so strangely that they proved it to me. What a relief! Tried to communicate with a smoker and his girl in the hallway, but they didn't understand. In to find a bright-eyed young man from Zurich, with the whole group, and they greeted me as "their new neighbor" and said they'd pass along the news that it seems you have to use the * before the number! NEVERENDING ADVENTURES!! Finish this at 11:06PM, perfectly content that I'm caught up with the time, preparing for bed (hoping the happy whistles from the Zurichers can be ignored). Finish a Times puzzle by 11:49PM. REALLY time for bed! Bed 12:03AM!

FRIDAY, 7/11/08: Type dream 3:15-3:17AM. 5:01AM: ANOTHER IBM dream, finished at 5:09AM. Have trouble getting back to sleep, doing a full Actualism session before dropping off, and then wake with a start and look at my watch: 9:20AM! DAMN! I wanted to take the 10AM tour, but that's now impossible. Record last dream by 9:27AM. Breakfast 9:39-10:06, almost all dishes dirty, but fill two bottles from a large bottle of water, and put a banana on my desk for later. Put suitcase on floor of closet to take dirty wheels off spare bed. Change from flannel shirt, which feels sweaty already, to short-sleeved shirt with jacket along with a ton of other stuff in the shoulder bag. Leave at 10:30AM, still no one on floor. Walk to "tour corner," glad I'm wearing short-sleeved shirt. 10:45 buy 550R Davranov city tour on bus 415, leaving at 11:30, but they won't let me sit on bus. Sit outside and watch people, find at 10:50 that there's no Don Quixote ticket for tomorrow night. People start boarding 415 at 10:56, so I get on too. Read through the little guide, few of which museums I really want to see. At 11:40 the guide tries to sell four books, all in Russian. 11:45 I ask about English and get a wire for Linguaphone, which I plug in and it works almost well enough. Yesterday's fountains too through photo #53. No books for sale in English from her. Almost full bus (seat next to mine remains empty), and she sells books to 11:55AM. Bus HOT. Start 11:56. St. Petersburgundians elected to use St. Petersburg instead of Leningrad in 1991. #54 St. Isaac's Cathedral 12:03 at 5-minute off-bus stop. Horseman is Nicholas I, and in back is the Maryinsky PALACE, not the theater, which is farther away. Take to #59 to 12:11. 101 kilograms of gold on roof, covered with gray paint to disguise, then taken off; building still in good repair. Pass sexy Dioscuri going up street to left of St. Isaac's from Maryinsky Palace, take photos later. Stop "ten minutes" 12:35-12:48 for Church on Spilled Blood (of Tsar Alexander II on 1 March 1881), lots of wedding parties, take to #67 including two flowered wedding limos, ornate gates around park, and glittering golden domes. Then a photo of a "pirate ship" Blagodyat which turns out to be for karaoke! #71 Aurora ship (which fired to signal Bolsheviks to storm Winter Palace at 9:40PM on 25 October 1917) 12:47, and photo of Aurora herself on a pedestal for the Saspotol (maybe Sevastopol?) Fleet 12:49, sculptor, which the guide wrote on my page, Anikyshchi, #73. #74 Hermitage facade on Neva, tour boat, St. Isaac's dome, from Aurora 12:54. #75 Hotel St. Petersburg and glass office tower to left 12:57. #76-82 Historical Artillery Museum across from Fortress to 1:18, where the Russians got off (for a pre-paid tour of the Fortress?) and we few stayed on, having passed Peter's Log Cabin, commentary just too late for more than a glimpse as the photo in the guidebook. It's HOT out. Tour over 1:40, barely two hours. Wanted to ask to stop because I saw that Zoological Museum was open, despite book saying it was closed on Friday, and walked toward it, same legless soldier sitting begging on the street, some sexy shoulders passing, but on impulse decide, as I pass column, to get on Hermitage line at 2PM, a TINY bit smaller than yesterday's line, and it moves fast enough, getting in at 2:40, confusing talk about "multi-pass" ticket for 350R, which seemed to mean only that I could come and go many times THAT DAY, and didn't bother to pay the 100R for "non-professional photography" and, as predicted, never got asked for my ticket. Pee to 2:45. Just enter and wander at random on this first day, having not seen the free floor-plan being given out to each ticket buyer. Islamic special exhibit 2:42-2:53, not allowed to take photos, and the one I DID take was wrecked because my camera straps ruined picture of ruby-encrusted box next to fur crown. #86 Alexander Nevsky's tomb, enormous and leaden, at 2:56. #87 Malachite Room 2:57. Up to third floor for Near East 3:02-3:23. #88 5th Century ivory. #89 2nd floor grand room 3:28. #93 Armorial Hall 3:31. Then French painting, porcelains, then Dutch, then reliquaries. Five Cranachs, #98 three Cranachs 3:54. #99 Mengs: Perseus (absolutely ideal body!) and Andromeda 3:57. EIGHT Caspar David Friedrichs #100-103, some hard to take because of reflected sunlight from windows behind. Three Kandinskys. #104 Stuck: Fight for a Woman (1905). FINALLY a circuit (I'd started on inside, finally found a place where I'd SEEN inside and could now circulate on OUTSIDE). Back to champleve (find that floorplan is given FREE at Control!). #105 early XIV Century French ivory 4:11. #106 XVI Century Antwerp altarpiece. #107 Heemskirk Calvary 1570 with incredible buttocks in foreground. #108 Wedgewood Room 4:33. #109 Gold Room ceiling 4:41 (with temporary unphotographable exhibit of cameos in pyramidal display cases filling room). To first floor 4:44. Armenia. To cafe for chicken sandwich for 120R and fabulous Tuborg for 90R at 4:54 according to receipt. SIT and relax to 5:02, thinking I might try rooms 11-25 before setting off for my walk to the Maryinsky Theater. Sit on narrow-edged john and try to shit (but don't) and review photos to 5:30. 5:43: rooms 11-23 CLOSED, so I go to exit. Buy 300R book and 100R for 32 postcards, which comes out to a wonderful 13.6 cents per card. Now I just have to buy eight stamps. If you buy a ticket on the Internet, you don't have to wait on line, just show your voucher on the embankment, but it takes 4-5 days to get the reservation. Leave at 5:06, sunny and warm. Treasure rooms by PHONE, or at the desk as mentioned in the guide p.125. #110 carriages 6:02. To theater by 6:35, try for minutes to find translation of Sela Cydba, which turns out to be La Forze del Destino, for which I buy a seat essentially where I'm sitting tonight for 480R, which means my Internet site practically doubled the price of my tickets! Walk up three flights, my right second toe hurting less than it did earlier in the day, and squeeze past a number of chattering Japanese to find a man from Copenhagen on my right, and for the second act a woman from Glasgow, here for only two days, sat on my right. The Corsair is spectacular, with Conrad, the Corsair, Ilya Kuznetsov, probably the son of Svyatoslav Kuznetsov pictured on page 12 from 1966 in my "Ballet of Maryinsky" book bought for 20R, though published as long ago as 1997, 11 years ago! And what names are there: Ulanova, Makarova, Baryshnikov, Asylmuratova, Liepa, Ruzimatov (whatever HAPPENED to him), Zaklinsky, and Vishneva. Though the name KIROV isn't used? Medora is the good, older, Irma Niradze, and I can't tell who the shirtless one was, though I could see what part Corella played, so I can only record that Birbanto was Dmitry Pykhachov and Ali was Andrei Ermakov, the shirtless one partnering the famous trio undoubtedly bound for future glory, getting the most applause, also. #114 chandelier at 8:32. Lots of pictures to #130, since many many flashes interrupted the ballet itself, with no one seeming to complain, though I thought it reprehensible until I joined them. Out at 9:38, complicated path back home to 10:11, where number works without * in front. Drink FOUR cups of orange juice, dried out. Take pills 10:20. 10:30 wash face and hands. Drink more water. Bed 10:34.

SATURDAY, 7/12/08: 1:22AM: Type mish-mosh of dreams. 2:29: Make do-list to quiet THINKING: 1) How to use subway? 2) Hermitage Internet reservation? 3) Treasure room phone? 4) Marsha: a) * necessary, like, after 11PM?, b) who washes dishes, c) how to arrange transport to airport? d) registration? other than airport form? 5) Yusupov Palace? 6) Supermarket for 2-liter water? 7) Shower (stinky after FOUR days; last was Tuesday!), 8) unpack: souvenirs, powder. 9) Arrange days? 10) Get 8 stamps. 11) change NEO batteries and recharge them, 12) carry four replacement batteries for camera. 3:23AM: take Ambien, eat banana, pee, and at last get to sleep. Wake 8:41AM, numb, lie to 8:56. Breakfast starts at 9:06, two, then three, then up to 6 join me, doing just as I do: scavenge for utensils in washer, search fridge for food, get whatever dishes are available, fill bottles with whatever water's left. No one knows how to start computer, until someone turns it on. Then manage to get e-mail to Marsha, saying I have no idea how to get ANSWER. Then go to Hermitage site and you have to give e-mail address, so I detour to Verizon.net and read MY mail, answering Tris's memos, and then ordering two entries to Hermitage for $25 to my e-mail address, printing out confirmation with great satisfaction. This goes to 11:05, by which time I'm alone on floor. Shower 11:13-11:33, LAY, tired, to 12:47PM. Start typing 12:52, but at 1:30 hear woman's voices and there's Alexander, saying 22nd's OK for transfer to airport (and I check that I have 40 euros), and he introduces me to Sveta, who's washing dishes and stocking up with orange juice, of which I have two delicious cups, having had only water with pills for breakfast with meusli and two slices of toast and butter and strawberry jam. [This typewriter has VERY odd characteristics: sometimes randomly jumping down to bottom line, even typing there so I have to backspace and go up a line, since each new "look" starts on THIRD, rather than on FOURTH, line of screen, which is a bit of a jolt, except it DIDN't do it that time, and I identify my hitting ENTER at times to cause it to jump to next line.] And hitting "end" always sends it to the first character of the NEXT line, so I always have to backspace once to get to where I want to be, all of which is disconcerting, like THAT time the next line starting on the FOURTH line, rather than on the third, as it usually does. There's no phone, no one knows how to GET e-mail---maybe I should e-mail Marsha [and there the cursor was BELOW, but when I typed, the character was on the line ABOVE] to respond to bobzolnerzak@verizon.net! I review my pictures, always fun, to 2:03. Look at new postcards (can't decide WHICH to send and WHICH to keep) and Hermitage guidebook, which is VERY complicated, and I figure I'll have to make a room-by-room guide for each PAGE, and that goes to 2:43. Look in guide for RESTAURANTS, of which there are none in this area, so I'll probably settle for Max-Food around the corner for a late lunch-early dinner before opera tonight. THAT goes to 3:22, and I'm still not unpacked when I finally catch up with this at 3:43PM! Permanently carry US$87 in my pocket, along with my wallet that now has 2790R, over $100, and haven't used my credit card yet. 3:54: Brush teeth, go to see if Sveta added water; she's at the Internet, doesn't know how to get a response from Marsha, "Maybe Sasha knows." "Sasha is Alexander?" "Yes." "He doesn't know." "Oh." "Is there water?" "Only milk and juice." "Oh." 4:39PM: ENDLESSLY complicated: circle Novgorod for tomorrow, but then find I have a ticket for 8PM for "Swan Lake." in the "Akademichesky Bolshoy Dramatichesky Teatr," at Nab reki Fontanki 65, for which the guide has F2 on map 5, but the Nab reki Fontanki is along the canal, but UP from the canal is the Akademichesky Theatre, so which is which? 4:54PM: Then, on the City Tour map, I find a "theater mask" with NUMBERS along the Reki Fontanki Emb, that makes it "clear" that the theater is straight down the continuation of Muchnoy Lane, Apraksin Lane, and then left just a few numbers to the theater! In the C3, not C2, square of the guidbook map! 5:01, actually shit. What an INCREDIBLE day, but at least I have about seven bags (one only a bag containing empty bags) on my spare bed, things vaguely organized into past and future, and ready for a meal in my first place, buying a bottle of water into the deal, and proceeding slowly to the Maryinsky for tonight's "Forza Del Destino." At 5:13 it's fucking RAINING! 5:20 Bistro "Y Techa na Blanix," the closest the dictionary can give me is "the mother-in-law on blanix," is jammed with people and a wide selection of food, and large glasses of beer for only 75R. I stand in line, get a tray, point to the big meatballs which have no picture in my (John's) guidebook, and she says something about kartoshka, which I assume is potatoes, and give me a big glob of white mashed. I motion to the sauces in bowls and she points to a well-used dark red sauce that I take two spoons of, and then return for two more spoonsful, and a big beer. Find a table at the end and finish at 6:04PM, still raining. Streets are puddly, MANY of the streets are being repaired---I don't know HOW a car could make its way through the old town with the number of detours necessary. To theater at 6:30, just where the crazy American kids were running in the rain, I could hardly believe. Try to shit, but don't, buy a 20R program but see a Russian program with a LONG description, so I return the 20R to a smiling saleslady who knew I wanted English in the first place, and find it's Maria Gulegina as Leonora, conducted by Valery Gergiev, which two are giving a CONCERT themselves here in a few days! A kick! And the scenery is reconstructed from the scenery of the PREMIER performance in 18-whatever! Awful plot, but the two men really "sing out, Louise," with Alexei Markov as the brother and Avgust Amonov as the lover, followed by a boffo basso buffo in Andrei Spekhov as Fra Melitone, who, during the distribution of food to the poor in the last act, has to compete with a knock-down drag-out fight with an older woman trying to keep a ragged prostitute, I suppose, from getting any food, and they roll on the ground and kick and punch and almost steal the show from poor Melitone. Act I is 7:15 (even most of the musicians are late, and Gergiev gets a big hand) to 8:35, exhausting and hot; Act II is 9:05-10:08, which I hoped would be the final curtain, but they have another long intermission (at least it's stopped raining) and Act III goes from 10:36-11:16, applause lasting to 11:21, I take to #146 trying to get good shots of the two principals. Leave 11:25-11:51, and when I get to the room at 11:56 find that I happened to get 2 liters of GASSY water for 33.50R! Take night pills with lots of water. Shit a BIT slimily, I hope not a portent to worse. So MUCH to worry about! Very humid to bed.

SUNDAY, 7/13/08: Bed at 12:26AM. Wake at 5:07AM with a dream. Pee. And think SHIT: I left my UMBRELLA under my SEAT! 6:26AM still awake, still OBSESSING: postcards (which I decide to write and mail from NYC on my return, saying I was too busy ENJOYING St. Petersburg to take time to write postcards!), umbrella (just have to go back today and GET it!), Novgorod (which I found has a bus tour, what a nice way to spend a whole day for 900R), Yusupov Palace and the Nabokov home on the WAY to the Maryinsky today, not knowing exactly where the theater tonight is, restaurants, 2-day Hermitage pass, Treasure rooms, health, foot problems, Giardia, water, subway, St. Isaac's, Peter and Paul tour, energy. 6:42AM still awake: pushing myself, Sharon, John, Shelley and Dubai, health, robbery, Valium? At 9:54 I look at my watch to realize I MUST have dozed off, so maybe got 7.5 hours' sleep max. Up at 10AM, breakfast 10:30-10:50, everyone scrounging for food and dishes, since I got the last bowl, and Sveta's sitting at the computer waiting for the dish washer to cycle to the end, watched by some of the guys, who I think are leaving today. Get to Verizon and REMEMBER that my password is bob0ee, and get a REPLY from Hermitage, but not yet an ENTRY time. Also another e-mail from Tris to which I send a lengthy, nonsensical reply. At 11:04 I verify that the Nabokov, Yusupov, and Maryinsky are all on a line! Leave at 11:10, get to Nabokov, which should be open at 11AM, to sign saying it's open at 12. I sit on stoop across the street and do a VERY easy mild sudoku and get well into a second, when at 12:10PM the Nabokov door is open and a couple's gone in already. #147 exterior 12:12. 100R. Russian video to 12:45, from 1997, followed by a 1962 half-hour interview in English, at which time "The Gift" was his favorite book, which had only "some" biographical touches. At 1:15 a French "apostrophe" starts, with moderators doing most of the talking, and I take a stolen photo of main room, not THAT much to see: lots of butterflies, lots of his dedicatory butterfly drawings in various book-gifts to Vera over the years, some items from the house, Dmitri donated his father's butterfly net in 2004, and some American gave an unpublished poem to him on a frontispiece of some book! Lots of photos of the Russian-burnt country estate at Rostovo, or some place like that. Leave at 2:06 and get to Yusupov tickets at 2:19 to find they're open to 7PM, better than the 3PM in the guidebook, so I buy a 500R ticket, pay the extra 100R for a photo STICKER that I'm glad I got, and leave 500R deposit for the English guide, which isn't bad. Decided to leave shoulder bag at check desk. [And now, at 5:31PM, check that my $500 is still in my shoulder bag and my 40+E are still in my envelope on the bed.] Start at 2:36PM and essentially take one photo per room, though what they HAD was so much more spectacular than what they're LEFT with, the Rembrandts and Renoirs and Murillos all to the Hermitage. They once had FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND works of art! #175 of mechanical organ which system had on as guide took us back from theater to where we turn in a new direction. #179 original marble bathtub in left corner. Audio tour to 3:24, backing and forwarding where I got lost, not able to just STOP it. Pee and return headset for 500R and take off for Maryinsky, happy to see people entering and leaving. Ask guy for buyro nakodak, which dictionary helpfully gives as Lost Property Office, but he professes not to understand, and says he can't SEE when I offer him the dictionary, directing me to the Assistant Manager's office. Tall handsome young man shows me a purple-flowered frowzy umbrella from last night, and I INSIST that mine is DARK and in the BACK under the SEAT, and insist on going up, which he says is impossible, repeating that after trying two phone calls to someone, and finally he says he'll go up HIMSELF. I wait in agony---wait---and he comes through door with my umbrella dangling from his finger! SPACIBO, SPACIBO, SPACIBO, I shout, and he smiles and says I'm welcome, and I even say, "And it's raining!" though it isn't when I get outside, just JUBILANT at my success!! Can't find shop where I got water last night, but find a place right across from entranceway at 32 Gorokhovaya that has two-liter COLD gassy water for 30R!! Back to quiet floor (only two women smoking in hallway) at 4:17 (to find my wastebasket emptied and MAYBE the floor swept) to drink about 3/4 liter of water and just sit in underwear and SMILE IN TRIUMPH!! With all that shit this morning, THIS is my pony! Sit to 4:30, lie down to 4:44, then up to start typing, pausing to check various spellings, and catch up at 5:44PM. Now just treat myself to some sudoku to 6:17. Satisfactory shit, wash face, and leave 6:30 for dinner and show. Walk straight down Muchnoy and continue down Apraksin, rather desolate save for the pedestrian streets labeled Spassky on the map, and pass the aquaria of the restautant Triton, too new to be listed in John's guide. Find the theater, and a surly guy says the ballet is next door, since I couldn't be sure that the sign for the ballet on the locked door didn't say that it was being held somewhere ELSE! Back to Triton at 6:50, stepping on the glass over much more fish, and the handsome doorboy gets me an English menu and assures me they take Visa, so I sit at a table facing the entrance and an even more handsome waiter takes my order for a Heinekin (.33L for 180R!), the Chicken broth with scallops and seafood foam and baby octopusses, and the Breast of duck with cherry sauce, ignoring their fishy specials. A party of five, four women and a leather-jacketed man, who are later at the ballet, come in, followed by a Japanese bully-boy and his slutty date. They start, assuring me it's free, complements of the chef, with a small square of cheesecake with a bit of fish under a bit of daikon over a bit of sweet sauce, served, appropriately, with a small trident, which of course doesn't help with the sauce below. It's not bad, but no prize. Then the waiter puts a black torso-length bib around my neck, putting tongs next to an enormous soup spoon on the right, and a small fork on the left. The soup has four mussels, which I tong up and fork out, with a transparent edible envelope enclosing various bits of fish, caviar, and thankfully unidentified seafood. Floating in the soup are also wispy clouds enclosing some harder interior, maybe the scallops I think the menu mentioned, and lots of lozenges of zucchini. He demonstrates the lit-from-below electric sea-salt and fresh-pepper shakers, which I don't quite manage the first time so he shows me again (oh, show me again!). The envelope deliquesces into a delicate pasta-like gel, releasing all sorts of stuff that I lap up with the spoon, each of the four or five baby octopi edible in one gulp: head, beak, coiled tentacles, the whole fishgilla. A fleck of pepper catches in my throat, but I restrain from coughing. A wonderfully refreshing fruit (mostly grapefruit, but with maybe one or two sweeter ingredients) sorbet served as a palate cleanser, and then comes the plate with four largish, medium-as-requested (and glad I didn't say rare, since these were rare enough) thick slices of duck breast with too little sauce, but the waiter was so busy assisting the others I couldn't get his attention to ask for more sauce. Alongside was a sort of fish spring-roll-like crisp cylinder that took about four forkfuls to finish, a tiny heap of crushed cherries with a trail of cinnamon through it, with a cherry on top, and a flan-like pincushion of carbohydrate that didn't really taste of anything (oh, the grainy peasant bread and chunky wheat bread came with a garlicked butter; and the Lagiole knife was appreciated to the waiter, who simply replied, "It's a steak knife.") I finished about 7:45, worried about my 8PM curtain next door, and asked for the check, which came to exactly the menu-priced 1580R, to which I abstractedly added 120R as a tip, rather annoyed because I was SURE there was a two-inch remainder of beer in the bottom of the bottle after it was poured into the elegant conical glass, but he insisted it was finished: I hope he liked it! Sign the bill and grab my stuff and dash off around the corner to see NO one in the lobby. Up the stairs and show my Third Ring ticket and she waves me toward the Orchestra door. "But this is Third Ring," I remonstrate, and she says, "You can sit anywhere you like." So I do, on the aisle in about the eighth row, thankful that the tall male head blocking my view for the first act leaves at the end of that act. The orchestra is in chairs replacing the first few rows of orchestra seats (as a way of saying, it IS the Bolshoy Dramatic Theatr, so it has no ochestra pit), and it's a motley group indeed, though even the Maryinsky players were in shirtsleeves. The brass overpowers the few strings, and the cymbals overwhelm everyone else. It starts at 7:57PM by my watch, though it proved to be a minute slow the next noon when the cannon startled everyone in front of the Marble Palace. Not great, the music, though the setting is old-fashioned glitzy and the costumes are rather fresh and new, the Rothbart elegantly slender and black-arrowed on his hawk-face, but the Romeo is a frowzy-haired non-looker with no great anything, though the ballerina comes up with a few nice things, but I wasn't willing to pay 100R for the program, despite the fact that my 300R (or whatever, since OperaAndBallet charged, I figured, TWICE the box-office rates) ticket was upgraded to Orchestra front-and-center. The tutus ride incredibly high, showing as much female crotch as the males show theirs. The male corps is almost laughable, and a few of the tourists in the seats to the sides laughed when a tossed Romeo headband struck a serving wench, who visibly flinched. The ballroom scene almost merited a photo, but there were more than enough flashes to make up for mine, and I had to turn to tell the two Italian women to, distinctly, "SHUT...UP!" which they thankfully did before I moved in front of the second, louder, one in retribution if she HADN'T shut up. String quartet plays for the Pullmantur group during intermission, I think even serving free champagne, and I cruised the upper levels to find the second and third rings actually LOCKED. John was only a bit smelly, the large "buffet" remained entirely empty, though the "cafe" got a few to pay 160R for a glass of champagne, about the size of my glass of beer for 180R! Sporadic applause, but the performance wasn't bad enough to be agonizing, just disappointing, though there were few enough of us to be disappointed. It ends at 10:06, even with two intermissions, and I take a few shots of my own, badly out of focus. Take #193 of endless street at 10:10, back at 10:18. Drink orange juice, eat some of the freebie pretzels, pee, and get to bed at 10:38PM. Wake for dream 1 at 11:44PM.

MONDAY, 7/14/08: 2:41-2:58AM type dream 2. Pee. Someone else IS here: toilet seat DOWN, and of course meet Gail and Kerri at breakfast, who said they hoped they didn't wake me when they got in from Moscow after midnight. Started Actualism at 3:09AM, and think two things: 1) Radiant Warrior SHININGLY, RADIANTLY, SCRAPES AWAY the fat from my body and liver as my dream scraped the fat away from the underside of the ham with a knife. 2) The pink Love and Perfection, for a moment, a) took me back to a time in my life when I BELIEVED that all was I, and GOD, and LOVE, and PERFECT, and b) solved the dilemma of "not being able to MAKE the afterlife you want, because some afterlife wish would have been to IMPART the REALITY of this truth to the world"---but it would be a simple CAVEAT of this reality: you CAN'T do that, just as God "can't prevent each (or any) disaster or illness to ANY individual or civilization" to give a simulacrum of FREE WILL, or NON-predestination, or sheer CONTRAST to love---perfect versus imperfect, ecstasy versus agony. 3:20AM think of HH meals: ONE delivery/week, each 12 NOW SIX breakfasts and SIX dinners, to try to emulate St. Petersburg's BIG breakfast and ONE meal around 5PM. And BUY endless end-meal fruit salads for snacks. 4:32AM still thinking: show Mildred my website, so she can HELP FINANCE it! Add PERSEPOLIS to my "want-to-see" list. And Ajanta and Ellora, and Brahmaputra tour and Darjeeling and Jalsamir and other places in INDIA. At 4:30 list what I want to check on the Internet: 1) Hermitage visit? 2) MY favorites for welcome, and FORGOT to try ZOLNERZONE.US! 3) Swan Lake cast and company last night? 4) Triton restaurant, 5) BEST St. Petersburg restaurants; Michelin? 7:58AM: did complete Actualism before falling asleep. Dream 3 at 7:58AM. Up at 8:20, shit a bit, wash face, to breakfast 8:37 with Gail and Kerri to 9:25, checking Internet to find no Hermitage date yet, no favorites on my site, just a list of "best" restaurants, mostly unrated, except for a few 5-star, sort of clearly from one vote, since each of the 15 or so begs for a vote. Leave at 9:40AM hoping for a tour at 10AM. Try to 10:07 to find ONLY English tour tomorrow, buying ticket at 11AM to Peterhof to "see how many are going," which implies it might NOT go, though she DID say it would be a small group, but the English guide is 350R/hour, so we'd have to be a lot to amortize that reasonably for a 5-6 hour trip. THEN wait for a 1PM TOUR. Decide to try the Zoological Museum, and walk that awful length of Nevsky Prospect again to sit on a bench outside the Hermitage and at 10:30 (since Zoological says it doesn't open till 11AM) decide on Marble Palace, which it says is open at 10AM on Mondays. 10:50 it's 300R, but I only have a 500 and she has no change, and then try two 100s and small change, but it doesn't quite make it, and she finally flags me in free, saying, "It's very small, you can buy photos later if you want." Well, the Marble Hall ITSELF is closed for renovation, which is the main point aside from the staircase, which I take with #197. Upstairs to AWFUL art and some old tchotchkes, and downstairs to almost-as-bad Ludwig for Pop Art as "both a reaction to the immense abstractness and the complicacy of the abstractionism acting as a continuation of a so-called "action painting."" Whatever THAT means! Out at 11:54, tired! #194 Marble Palace and "ostracized" horseman. #195 Helsinki (NOT Delacroix, WHO is the Spanish best-of-show?) (Las Meninas?)(and not Goya!) bronze panniered ladies walked across the Bay of Finland? 11:48: TIRED. 12:14 decide route: Field of Mars, Engineers/Mikhaylovsky CASTLE, Church of Spilled Blood, Russian Museum/Mikhaylovsky PALACE. #196 eternal flame in Field of Mars. Rowanberry/ashberry liquor good. 300R for porcelain in Castle too much at 12:48. #198 flowers, "Pradidy Pravuty" 1800 on horseback, facade of Engineers Castle at 12:54. #199-200 Spilled Blood outside in sun at 1:08. In at 1:15, 350R including photos, to make up for not taking inside of Kazansky Cathedral and take 3-minute CD panorama, for fun. Discover camera's "eyepiece only" button by mistake. To #224, just CAN'T get handsome face! at 1:45. Into Russian Museum, 350R, 1:54. [Following entered in file 6: Photos from Russian Museum: Start circuit (1) on the outside of rooms 85-84-83, down to 66, then start taking pictures on circuit (2) the INSIDE of that circle around the second floor (the first floor is said to be closed for reinstallation) of the Benois Wing: #227 Nicholas Roerich's "Holy Island." #228 Konstantin Sumov's "Mr. Someone," clearly gay. #229 Bogatevsky "Evening Sun." #230 Kusevdiev "Shrovetide." #231 Kuzma Petrov Vodkin "Boys." Kandinskys in room 79 unphotoed but noted on circuit (3). Circuits (4)-(6) catching up with rest of that wing, then (7) down stairs, through the connecting passage, to the ground floor of the Rossi Wing, (8) starting on the outside of rooms 48-47-46 to 39, for a closed door to the rooms 36-38 and 18-23 (look at map!), continuing (9) on the outside of rooms 35-34-33 to 24, the second closed door to the rooms 23 and lower (and 36-38). Continue on the inside at (10) and (11) for #232 Perov "Monastery Refectory," #233 Repin "Barge Haulers on the Volga," #234 Repin "Sadko," and #235 Repin "Saved Convicts." Finish (12) and (13) for room 34. Start (14) on inside of rooms 39-48 for #236 Makovsky "Shrovetime in St. Petersburg." Then past 48 find unnumbered rooms (still on map, however), filled with "stuff": #237 bone carving from Archangelsk, #238 headgear, #239 17th Century wood from Vologda Province, #240 1888 gable from Nizny Novgorod, with lace, toys, niello, lacquer, papier-mache miniature paintings, dolls, birchbark, embroidery, #241 clay toys, #242 fish-whale, #243 bone, #244 tablecloth from 1982, #245 papier-mache miniature painting from 1979, then back through "stuff" to circle to shop I'd seen before in center, which leads to stairs (which I lose when trying to find the cafe, and found the toilets) to the second floor for the final circuit (16), first outside rooms 1-17, then inside rooms 1-17, taking #246 room 7, #247 Sokolov "Mercury and Argus," #248-249 room 11, "unchanged since 1820, music room where Rubenstein, Liszt, and Berlioz were heard." #250 (in two final enormous rooms with enormous paintings) Brullow "Last Day of Pompeii," #251 Aivazovsky "Ninth Wave," and #252 "Wave." #253 Bruni "Brezin Seaport," #254-256 strangely unfocused sexy Ivanov "Bellerophon," #257 room 12, #258 Ivanov "Seductive Boys," (my title, not possible to do justice to erotic qualities given to pre-pubescent lads), #259 enormous "Lads Playing at Knucklebones" (sure!), #260 Ivanov (NOT David and Goliath, but) "Mstislav Wrestling Redyedya." [All this transcribed painstakingly from paper Russian Museum map, given out so I could check my still-heavy shoulder bag so I could tour freely with camera and map and pen from 1:54 to 3:42 tired, finished with (15).] Looking for MORE? Cafe CLOSED at 3:48, before 4PM announced closing. END 4:25, now to find bag. Finish WATER at 4:37, and out. Get 6000R at bank, drink orange juice, have pretzels, collapse out of shoes at 5:04. Collapse naked at 5:06. Lay to 6:06, decide on sudoku to 9:26, great passtime. To dinner at 9:40, right on corner, shashlik-like skewer with cold potato salad and lovely beer, all for 236R which I pay in exact change, having only .5R coin left. In room at 10:17, full, and it starts raining at 10:26! Having thundered before, and some lightning after as I type this ENDLESSLY until 11:41PM! DEFINITELY ready for bed! Bed at 11:50PM.

TUESDAY, 7/15/08: 7:47AM: Woke at 1:50AM, then at 3:46AM with a dream, then at 4:57AM to pee, then at 6:52AM with a second dream, and finally at 7:32AM (remarkably only 40 minutes) with an incredible dream about an ENORMOUS [start file 2 on 7/15/08 (coincidentally the MIDDLE Tuesday of the trip) at 7:51AM] tidal wave in France. Record that, and catch up with this at 7:53AM, a good time for my shower, I hope. 8:19AM: Well, it was the WORST time for showering: incredible, unpredictable fluctuations of water temperature: toward cold, it would get hotter for a long time, then turn icy cold; toward hot, it might get even colder, then suddenly turn scaldingly hot; the VOLUME levels seemed to contribute in some mysterious ways, and probably also OTHER showers, or sinks, or washing machines, were being used at the same time to siphon off whatever water temperature it was that I wanted. But finish at last, knowing I have only two more to go, and these certainly as close to mid-day as I can get. Now to change clothes for only the second time on the trip, the shirt, I guess it's about time, for the FIRST time. 8:26: Guess I'll type the photos from yesterday in File SIX, since file 1, where they should be, is full. Finish that task at 9AM, naked, drying from shower, hungry for breakfast. 9:09AM: Voices finally stopped from kitchen, but when I open drapes, it's RAINING lightly, which will probably make the chances of the English Peterhof tour leaving today QUITE poor, DAMN! Doors slamming this morning continue the annoying "rattle" of MY door that I stopped for the night with toilet paper making the fit tight against "rattle." Breakfast 9:15AM alone. Try computer, no connection. 10:28AM: Stopped raining. Brushing teeth; Sveta comes in and says she can't help with the computer not connecting with the Internet, "Maybe Sasha, who comes in one hour." It just won't connect! Finish teeth. Leave in desperation at 10:43AM to tour sign-in. 10:45: Sasha's on the phone (in HIS room?), and I wait till he's finished and says, "The storm last night knocked out Internet service; they're fixing it." Or words to that effect. To Davronov and at 10:58AM BUY a 1850R ticket for the 1PM English Peterhof tour, being told to board to 12:45PM. It's essentially stopped raining, but the marble banquettes around the lampposts are still wet, so I take a corner seat on the shelter wooden bench at the bus stop---and what a NUMBER of sizes and shapes and colors and destinations of busses there are! Mini-cabs, small busses, middle-sized busses, regular-sized busses, GIANT busses, all with different destinations and "via" lists, all totally unknown by me, but known by MANY people, since the majority are filled to capacity and even to standing room. Many wait, get on, get off, they all know where they're going, except me. Get out the 5/24 Saturday Times puzzle and start it at 11:03AM. At 12:20 a sweet Chinese couple ask for the Hermitage, saying how difficult it is to find someone who speaks English here! I couldn't agree more, telling them it's a longish walk, but I haven't any idea how to get there by public transportation. They thank me profusely anyway. See a large bus for Peterhof, but then it drives away. Wait until 12:43PM and go to the kiosk and a cute kid in low-rise pants says, as if expecting me, "Ah, English tour of Peterhof," and leads me to an 8-10 passenger mini-van, and opens the door for me when I say I can't see where the door is. A blonde "guard" (as it turns out) sits in the front seat, and a couple from Miami sit behind the driver's seat, and a strange woman who reminds me of (what's his first name?!)(MARTY!) Sokol's lady friend who worked for the Met archives (Miriam? Muriel? Marietta?), anyway, HER, and she's Marguerite, a Russian friend of Joyce and whoever, who they're treating to this "expensive" tour. Joyce pushes the phone number 300 33 33 on me for English assistance in this city. The fat blond driver finally appears, the guard leaves, and Kate, or Katya, finally, arrives, speaking in a VERY quiet voice, even directly into the mircophone, and we leave at last at 1:17PM. #261 clouds over a canal 1:27. #262 sphinx on bridge 1:33. 1854 green stone arch #263 at 1:49. #264 Kirov, known for his ballet, but made his money with the largest metal works in Russia (or was it the world?), making guns and ammo and tanks for the Russian army, and neither Sasha nor Katya seemed comfortable being asked the question "But what do they do now?" I asked if the city is expanding, and Katya says the city has SEVEN MILION people! No WONDER it seems to go on forever. Our route seems to be taking us, for the most part, the way I came in from the airport. Peterhof opened in 1723. Into HUGE bus-parking area at 2:44, told we'll be going back on a LARGE bus, and #268 first palace at 2:48, Katya buying tickets. In GROUNDS at 2:49, past an ENORMOUS panoply of shops and souvenir stands and people of all nationalities. Movies and photos of fantabulous fountains from the terrace, in and out of sunlight, while Katya buys tickets for the PALACE, which we finally enter at 3:04. #280 palace after World War II 3:13. #286 throne room, largest in palace 3:19. #289 original throne from 1735. #290 Catherine the Great's audience room 3:22. #292-3 Catherine the Great's Wedgewood service (her FIRST one). #294 throne of Nicholas I. #295 "no photo room." #296 portrait room. #310 crimson room, used by soldiers 3:40. #311 Chevalier's room. #314 Peter's great bed 3:48 (as everyone at that time, he slept sitting up; he was over two meters tall). Finish palace 4PM, just under an hour. 4:30 change batteries, and how happy I was to have them with me!! And the old ones sit, recharging for over an hour already, right in front of me. Johns are 15R outside and 20R inside palace. #337 Bay of Finland 4:34, past Mon Plaisir, #338. #339 Adam fountain 4:47. Rush past later fountains, missing the tree, she admitted; no one sat on the bench which would direct water at them; the parasol with water running off the sides isn't working: before, if you sat on a seat, water would fall directly onto your head! Hercules to #352 at 4:56, none really good for his fantastic gold glitter, and the BEST shot is from a helicopter in the book! And we didn't see the Marly Group at all, and I inadvertently took a photo of the "high garden" in back, from one of the windows looking out the back. We race to the bus, getting there at 5:02, thinking we're last, since the driver starts his engine, but two MORE follow us on. Bus goes at 5:04, still lots of traffic. #353-4 of Putin's rehabilitation of an old castle to house various presidents: Szarkozy, Bush, etc., at 5:25. Long hot sunny road back to town, which had been visible over a large part of the horizon of the Bay of Finland, though one part was Kronstadt (ah, subject of a tour, too), an island which had once been held by various owners like Finland, Sweden, Russia, etc. Then, with a jolt, at 6:39, I recognize Goradolsky (or whatever), and ask for my guidebook back from Joyce, who encourages me to get off on Kazanskaya, wave quickly at Katya and Marguerite, solving the problem of how to get away without tipping her, and get home by 6:46, sadly the Internet STILL not working. Tired, put the batteries in to recharge, and I FINISH the 5/24 Times puzzle in triumph at 7:20, having taken surely over two hours in all, and now I'm determined to go to the Internet cafe in the courtyard to see if I got my admission pass---it might be for TOMORROW, or even TODAY---, go to dinner, and buy water. Look through streets all around the enlarged area but find only ONE sign for Internet, and they don't have it, after the one in the courtyard appears to be CLOSED. Go down the wrong street, but circle back to Y Tasha na Blanix, which is ON the sign on the street, and see someone getting borshch, so I ask for that, and when she asks, "bludablubadub?" I say "Dah" and get a green sprinkle on top of the warmed soup and a dollop of sour cream. Point to the golden roll and ask "Chicken?" and she responds "Chicken." Put on the sauce she nods OK for, take a roll and another large beer, and it's all for 260R, and the chicken Kiev is JUST HEAVENLY: deeply herbed butter, thick tender white meat lightly breaded with a delicious sauce, and a roll to mop up the spilled butter. The lukewarm borshch is very good, too, and I'm in heaven. Then make the only mistake of the day by stopping in the same shop and jerking on the door (I guess THEY have to open it!) and pull out a 30R 2-liter bottle that happens to be STILL, not gassy, but I drink it anyway when I get back to the room at 8:51. Start typing at 8:56, take time out to go through ALL the photos, some very good, some sadly a waste, but what an IMPROVEMENT over slides! And finish now at 10:04PM, barely digested the heavy meal, and I was hungrier than usual this afternoon, probably after last night's heavier than usual meal. Got to get away from heavy meals! Drink refreshing cool still water, look at my battery-charging light still on, listen to too many doors slamming, and stop at 10:05 to start another Times puzzle to pass digestion time---with more delicious water. Guess I've just GOT to take my two letters to the Hermitage tomorrow to beg them to check THEIR system, if they have one, and then end up at the Zoological display if they don't let me in. Finish the 7/6/08 Times puzzle by 11:20PM, hard enough to be a real challenge, but still doable. AND they stopped stamping on the floor above, AND whoever was murdering a guitar finally achieved a bitter end! Pee and bed at 11:30PM. 11:58PM: Velazquez was the Spanish painter, and Regina was Marty's lady friend. Now to sleep at 12:01AM.

WEDNESDAY, 7/15/08: Wake at 5:49AM with a vague memory of what seemed to be a series of dreams involving Eddie and young men like him, which I finished recording at 6AM, then thought I was missing something when I went back to file 1, forgetting for the moment that I'd already progressed here, to file 2. Nose running, and gotta pee. 6:58AM still awake: subway, Hermitage, walking, Maryinsky, theatre, Internet, tours. Then I guess I drop off to sleep. 8:06AM: Wake with second dream. Type to 8:13AM, not knowing whether to get more than the about seven hours' sleep I've already had, or just get up. Figure to lie down a bit more and see what happens. 9:24AM: Hear what may be a doorbell and wake with dream 3. Loud radio from somewhere outside as I finish typing dream at 9:29AM. Clear and sunny out. 10:05AM: Finally check out transport: Metro nowhere near me and nowhere near Hermitage, so that's out. Trolley 17 runs up Gorokovaya to the Admiralty from Sadovaya, which would be GREAT, so I'll try it this morning. Go to breakfast 10:07, hoping Internet will work. But it doesn't. Finish breakfast about 10:30, then find that the Internet Cafe is DOWNstairs, not upstairs, and I go in and ask if it's working, and they say YES! So they assign me a machine, I get to Verizon, and THERE'S MY VOUCHER! Ask them to print it, and they say they can't. I say they MUST print it. They talk, and one finally comes over and shows me a sheet of paper with a black inch at one side. I can't figure what he means. Then someone comes, looks at my page, and disappears. I wait for him to come back, but he doesn't, so I go out to desk and look at him inquiringly, and he produces a Voucher with a black line down one side, but ALL THE IMPORTANT INFORMATION PRINTS! I laugh with joy, say PERFECT, and it was well worth the 40R I had to pay for it. Start from door 11:17, figuring to follow Gorokhovaya to see where the 17 trolley stops, also AT LAST realizing it's much more DIRECT to go up that street to the Admiralty, and I'm practically AT the Hermitage! Keep looking for the "hanging M sign" the guidebook describes, but see it only ONCE, more than halfway to where I'd get off, so I ignore it and get to the Neva entrance at 11:37, just 20 minutes in all. Present the voucher to the guard and he barely glances at it and ushers me in. Go to an information desk, and the woman starts to say something about "This isn't a white copy," and I say it's from the Internet, that's the only way I could GET it. She takes it to someone to verify, then motions me to follow her to the cash window, where she shoves ahead of EVERYONE, plunks down my form, which is shoved back at me to sign, and I get TWO TICKETS, one for today and one for tomorrow. Then I ask another Information person about Treasure Room 1, and she says that'll be another 300R, which I pay, and I get a ticket at 11:43AM that says 11:45AM for the English tour! What LUCK! Wait on a bench, gasping for breath, and a petite well-spoken guide comes around with a family of five, "SOON to be a family," they say coyly, and I assume the young couple are engaged, one a grandson of the old woman in the wheelchair. We leave at 11:46 like magic, but then wait while the guide phones, and I think it's to have someone open a door, but it's for the clerk with the keys to the sliding platform for the wheelchair. They agree the woman can make it up the stairs without waiting, so she does, and we go across room 102 and then the same woman who helped me arrives with the keys and the platform comes up VERY slowly and the wheelchair is wheeled on and the platform goes down VERY slowly and the wheelchair is wheeled off and FINALLY we're to present our tickets to the matron at the Treasure Room 1 door, and she doesn't even bother to take my "control" stub, but of course it's dated and can't be used; it's just a bigger souvenir! We're in at 11:55, to be shown the oldest treasures: two gold and two silver bulls from the Maikop burial, in the Caucasus, from the 4th Millennium BC. The hit must be the horse blanket with 16,000 diamonds! 45 kilograms of gold in a 46-piece dresser set for Anna Ivanova. EXTRAORDINARY things to 12:55, an hour of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, gold, enamel, workmanship, and TOTAL madness of luxury. A snuffbox top just PAVED with cabouchons of every size and color, like a children's rockpile; diamond-studded clockfaces obscuring the time; watchworks with moving pieces, a WOODEN-works watch, pendants dripping with gold and diamonds, baroque pearls as ships, poodles, mermaids, and an enormous baroque face. Leave off bag at 1:08. #355-6 a try for photo of Voucher, but it didn't come out, and thank goodness it didn't need to. 1:17 I start my own tour: #347 Hercules, Laocoon, Prometheus and first man, Apoxiomanus, Castor and Pollox, Orestes and Pylades to #362. Mut-Sekhmet #363; "Three Graces" just to take them. Cleopatra GONE "for exhibition."#365 Antinuous at 1:46. #367 20-column hall: TONS of vases! Marcus Aurelius #369. Jupiter, Sarcophagus with tale of Hippolytus, Roman hero, #343 Pan and satyr 2:11. #374 Proteus(?), 4th Century BC WOOD coffin from Kerch (ancient Pantikapaion, which furnishes LOTS in this gallery). To #373 on MAP. Start on first floor, labeling today's route with numbers in circles 1-17, marking off the left side of the first floor for Thursday when I go to Treasure Room 2, in the heart of that area. Circle 3, room 100, on page 40-41 of guide; circle 12 #379-380 Nimrud winged deity 9th Century BC in room 90, mostly cuneiform. Mark room 102 with kids' drawings. Circle 6 is 20-column room, circle 7 is room 107 page 30-31 "green walls." Circle 9 doesn't lead to closed room 110. Circle 10 is "lesser jewelry." Circle 11 #377 Hercules and lion; #378 many mediocre statues in room 114, the area mostly empty. Circle 12 to second floor, circle 13 I start labeling circle P-numbers from YESTERDAY, starting with the staircase and the tents, find room 152 is empty, 156 is empty, and rooms 157-187 are CLOSED. Up to third floor 3:05, saying circle 16 was circle P6, which I go through again to make sure there was nothing I missed at end, and 381-397 are repeats, and 398-400 are closed. I go down and try to get to 351-370 and THEY are closed! Circles 20-25 take me around moderns: 33 Picassos, dry, #384 2 women from 1902. Derain, Van Dongen, Vlaminck, Utrillo, Matisse Dance #386 and Music #387: 7 sculptures and 37 paintings from 1898 on. #383 David at 3:37. #384 Joel Stein: Captive from 1960 (for a change). Lots of Rockwell Kents from GREENLAND and Maine. Circle 26 takes me to 15 Gauguins, #388 Canoe; 4 Van Goghs, 3 Douanier Rousseaus, 11 Cezannes, 8 Monets (20 faggots on wonderful IIX (in purple, of course) tour group), Monet: Lady in Garden #389, 5 poor Renoirs. Rooms 324-328 closed. #390 Lethiere Death of Cato, and FINISH third floor (what was LEFT of it) at 4:16 to circle 27. Circle 28 on 2nd floor rooms 275-281 backward, rooms 263-268 closed. Circle 29 corresponds to P10, locate Antwerp Altar, to 203, 202, 143-146 for 4 Van Goghs, 4 Cezannes, 1 Matisse, 4 Gauguins, 9 Renoirs, some good; 7 Monets, and 200 a tapestry hallway. #391 room 194, #392 room 195, #393 room 198, throne room. Circle 31 finds rooms 270-271 closed, circle 35 in room 269 checking all routes, and circle 36 elevator down to 1 at 4:57, leaving all the 206-258, the best, for tomorrow, when I'm rested. 5:01 #394 Egyptian, out of focus. WRONG bag room. Pass cafe: roast beef (more like ham to me) and cheese sandwich 120R, Vochkarya beer 80R, and 5:07 can't resist 120R carrot cake to pass time. 5:23 to bag, AGAIN wrong, to third at 5:35! Pass under arch 5:45, walking SLOW. #395 Bolshaya Morskaya ruined at 5:50. #396 BTb Bank 5:56. #397 Yusupov Palace 6:09. 6:18 SIT in park. #398 Maryinsky Theater at 6:20. Beer stain on left knee almost invisible. Doors open to third ring at 6:55! Program for "King Roger" 120R! Act I 7:23-7:53 (first NOTE at 7:26 after singers sat), 32 minutes. Curtain down for Act II 8:28-9:05, 37 minutes, 69 in all so far. Intermissions 35 and 38 minutes for 73. Act III 9:43-10:06
adding 23 to 69 for 92 minutes of music, not that great, no big deal, except for two live penises dancing for my binoculars. Applause to 10:13. Walk 10:18-10:41, elevator not working momentarily at 1, but then it does. Pee, drink water, and start typing 10:45, ending with a MARATHON to 11:49PM, and I wanted to get to bed EARLY! Guitar player going, so I put in earplugs. Now to wash hands and face and just GET TO BED! Pee again and type this at 11:55PM, almost finished with Wednesday, and Thursday is Hermitage last and then Friday-Monday only for bus-tours, mostly in Russian only. Remember to take night pills. Shorts off and discover GHASTLY skid-mark! How did THAT happen? Anyway, now it's official!

THURSDAY, 7/17/07: 12:02AM to bed. Wake at 2:32AM and get right back to sleep. 5:17AM: Wake and type dream 1 to 5:24AM. It seems unsually humid in the room: I'm covered with a light sweat. Do a lengthy Actualism through Mental and wake with dream 2 at 7:06AM. Finish typing at 7:13AM, vaguely turned on, now looking forward to being home in five days for another reason other than to be just back in the comforts of home: drinkable water, my own bed, my own food, catching up with this very eventful trip. 8:39AM: A phantom phone rings in my head and look at my watch and it's time to get up. Only five more days to determine when to get up! Extract a few tiny turds from tiny skin folds after an unsuccessful shit, probably should have done that yesterday. Comb my hair, use deodorant, and dress while someone has to bang front door VERY loudly MANY times before it closes. Hope Sasha recognizes a problem and fixes it. Put most things together before breakfast at 9:08-9:33AM, recording from 6/20 St. Petersburg Times that sunrise was at 4:34AM and sunset was at 11:26PM on 6/21/08, and it was probably light for about two hours around each time. Brush teeth with some of the last still water at 9:53AM and start on 5/25 doublecrostic before leaving for the Hermitage at 10:10 after one last pee. Get there just at 10:30, to an ENORMOUS crowd of groups pressing to get in the door, but since I have my ticket---only the Japanese are forceful enough to insist they stick to the end of their group without allowing me in between. They file off to the ticket booths to the right and left, and I go straight through to Information to be told that the little slip I brought with me from yesterday, almost as an afterthought, was ALSO my pass for TODAY. Gasp with relief! Then ask for Treasure Room 2, and it turns out to be 1:15PM for English, so she says, "Just go directly to the ticket office and ask for the ticket," and they let me through, though the clerk asks again and again to make sure I know that it's at 1:15PM, even after I pay her my 300R. More than dinner, for Heavens' sake, but then dinner takes less than an hour. #403 Dying Gaul (how did I miss HIM?) from 1798 at 10:43 (and of course, now that I look, that's the TIME on the SLIDE). Go through various halls to get where I want to go, and find that Friedrich's "Sunset" and "Sailing Boat" are GONE! Just wires hanging inside their ornate frames still on the walls. Decide the pad is too difficult to manage with the map, so I start to take all my notes on the map. Finally get to room 255 and think I may have gone down the left side, but not the right, though "my man" gives me a jolt, though I saw him from a distance anyway. Looked at more things in detail on the right, however, then got to room 206 to take #404 Apollo and arch at 11:07, my official start time. Through rooms 217-221 on both sides, jammed with people, and take #405 for the bodies on the frame, and when that's not convincing, #406 of A body on the frame. #407 Da Vinci's "Madonna Litra," but the place is SO jammed with early groups going against my tide that I sort of flee these rooms, going "out and in" in rooms 216-207 backwards, doing #408 of door, #409 of Perugia's St. Sebastian, #410 of Della Robbia Nativity, and note MANY Fra Angelicos. #411 of the room 206 staircase, #412-415 of Rembrandt's Prodigal Son to 11:54, then #416 Descent from the Cross, got from Paris's Malmaison (many of these came from Stroganov's and Yusupov's Palaces, some from collections, others, rather defensively it seemed, simply said "acquired before 1774" or something to that effect: Don't ask! #417 Flora, after his wife Saskia, they say, #418 Danae, in 1985 slashed and doused with sulfuric acid, taking 12 years to repair, though "it's still visible," it certainly isn't to me, and I really LOOK with a paint-grain glancing in the sunlight. Room 244 is a special exhibit of woodland drawings by the German Wehle, not very interesting. #419-20 of El Greco's Annunciation, and #421 of Peter and Paul at 12:22 (since all these times ARE on the slides, I'll leave off typing them!). #422 room 239, #423 room 241, #424-27 tries at great bods in room 241. #428 room 245: Snyders (above) and Vos (below) and Jordaens on the side. #429 Ruben's Ecce Homo, and what a homo it would make! #430 3 big Rubens. #431-2 of School of Rubens for Nessus (and cock) and Dejanira. #433 an ivory Mercury, 1639 Rubens workshop. To cafe at 12:30 just to sit, have an ice cream for 25R that they opened the case for me because I had the five 5R coins in my hand and didn't have to wait in the long line. Go the long way to the waiting seats for Treasure Room 2, then decide I have to pee at 1:08, then back to rest until we 6 go at 1:16 to unlock the room, and then four more (Italians, I think) join us for a few too many at 1:26. [Shucks, when the camera sits too long, it just shuts off without remembering where it was. And looking through the instruction book doesn't say there IS any way to select a particular photo.] 1:20 6th Century BC panther earliest gold piece in collection. Herodotus told about Scythians: their god of war was a sword. The sun was carried through the sky on the antlers of DEER. Hercules and a goddess, Apia, bore the first king of Scythia. They were nomads, so no homes, but large burials under huge mounds. Then came Sarmatians, north of the Caspian Sea, who thought they were descended from the Amazons. Peasant stepped into one of the tombs in 1902. 400-500 saw the Huns, from Mongolia, making objects with gold. A Bulgarian hoard was found in a field. Byzantine enamels from 700AD. 300 items on display of the FIVE THOUSAND they have. The Chinese worked gold so finely they boasted they could stretch 50 meters of gold thread from ONE GRAM of gold! On some pieces, like monkeys, the fur, of gold, is just like FUZZ! We go from room to room, more and more, and when we think we're finished with the civilizations we get to the gift items from Iraq, India, China, and elsewhere of INCREDIBLE beauty and variety: more and more diamonds, ruby-and-emerald-studded vases and plates from India, one fantastic ruby at the tip of a sword scabbard. I talked of their objects loaned to the Met, she said 20 years ago, and I recall the bowl with large heads every 30 degrees, with smaller heads in every space between, with even smaller heads in the spaces between THEM, so that the smallest, say there were 12, more like 20, to start, then 40, then 80, then 160 tiny heads out at the rim, though they might have even gone to 320, I didn't have the wit to count while soaking up the visions. I asked a lot of questions that she answered, and seemed interested in the feedback. Out at 2:20, GASPING. STAGGERING, I must SIT! 2:22. At 2:42 I take #434-7 of Wtewael Lot and His Daughters, working better on the SMALL than on the LARGE with damned REFLECTIONS and LIGHT blotches! #438-40 with Velazquez "Lunch". #441 Satoni Hercules, #442 room 238, #443-446 of Michelangelo's Crouching Boy, #447 Raphael Holy Family, #448 Raphael Comestabile Madonna. The theater is closed off room 225, but I take #449-50 of video of it. #451-2 of someone's Apollo and Marsyus, #453 Da Vinci Benoit Madonna, #454 Fra Angelico from fresco, Madonna, #455-6 Fungai Continence of Scipio. #457-9 Rembrandt Abraham's Sacrifice. #460 Stoman Jacob and Esau. #461-8 tries at Van Mieris Old Woman Remembering Her Youth. #469 successful SMALL Wtewael, #470 Dou Woman Sewing, #471 Dou Soldier Bathing, #472 Potter Urinating Cow, #473-4 Potter: Punishment of a Hunter. 11X yesterday and 7X today, gay groups from all-gay Constellation ship in port! Then at 4:02 I've seen all that's new, so decide to go back to Impressionists. and at 4:05 start with #475 Van Gogh Ladies of Arles (1888), #476 Bush, #477 Thatched Cottages 1890. Then Gauguin #478 Tahiti Pastorale, #479 At the Foot of a Mountain, #480 Woman Holding Fruit, #481 Month of May, #482 Motherhood, #483-4 Life, #485-6 (no card: my title) Lunch. Douanier Rousseau: #487 Luxembourg Garden, #488 Tiger Attacking Bull. Then Monet: #489-490 two paintings of Montgaron Garden, #491-6 Lady in Garden, finally. Renoir: #497 Child with Whip, #498-9 Jeanne Samary, to 4:27. GOT to get to BEER. #500-501 Guerin Morpheus and Iris. GOOD beer to 4:54, search for low-number rooms and find MORE: #502 bear with hardon, #503 scissors from 834-965. #504-5 figure and crown about 1AD. #506 gold even out here from Scythia, #507 at 5:14, worrying the place will close, #508 8th Century BC shield, #509 from throne of Rusahinili, 7th Cent BC. #510-1 silk from 8th Century AD. #512-3 9th Century burial, Golden Horde in FAR room! #514 gold from Juchids 13th Century. #515 14th Century weapons. #516 14-15 Century Berdian horde from Cilicia 13-14 Century. #517 11th Century. #518-20 Armenian 12-13 Century. #521 13th Century. #522 1293 triptych, #523 cross 11th Century. #524 small SHARE of gold room 5:35. #525 400AD, #526 4-5 Century AD. #528 1BC-1AD. 5:43 pee. Get bag in JAM 5:45. Into RAIN 5:48, arch to Gorok, home 6:20, elevator comes from 5-2, but NOT goes 204, but COMES to 4. Guy is fixing front door from banging excessively! I review photos to 6:34. Recharge THOSE batteries. Back to puzzle to RELAX. Finish doublecrostic 6:55. 7:34 finish TOP of 5/25 Sunday puzzle-page. Finish 5/31 puzzle at 8:08. GET cryptic solution from PAPER by 8:57, tired of trying. To dinner 9:20-9:57, again getting the wonderful borshch and chicken Kiev with same sauce and whiter roll. Out to find it raining slightly, but get in and start typing 10PM and finish now at 11:31! It DOES take TIME! Guy coughing, probably throwing up, in MY bathroom. Can't he use HIS?! Drinking lots of water, but I guess I won't use the john until I have to. Friday for English tour, maybe one day (if the weather's nice) for an on-and-off bus tour including Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and maybe even a quick look at the Zoological Museum, though that might be worth a day in itself. And then there are the Russian tours, but I start to worry about money. Should get more TOMORROW to make sure I don't have to change American dollars if my HSBC card doesn't provide enough cash. MY john floor was all wet, so I used the one across the way, and someone tried the door JUST after I got in. Then he went into "mine," and I hope didn't try my unlocked door. Wiped my ass, just to be sure, and typed this, put in earplugs, and got into bed at 11:42PM, earliest in long time? Did I note 25R for ice cream, 80R for beer, 300R for TR2, and 280R for dinner? Money going fast: how much do I have, how much need? Bed 11:51.

FRIDAY, 7/18/08: 12:28AM: DEFINITELY hear a phone ring in my head, though I don't think I'd fallen asleep. Well, back to bed. Wake 5:15AM, left eye sore. Pee. [Oh, forgot to mention the presence of a SECURITY GUARD at the restaurant the last two nights. Is something going ON that I don't know about?] Wake 6:28. I must have napped more. Finish what I remember of dream 2) by 8:42AM, deciding, somewhat against my will, that I've had just about 8 hours' sleep and so should get up now, though I still feel sleepy, but it's more like the groggy quality of too much sleep than the real need for additional sleep. And WHY does the cursor so often end up on the NEXT LINE and have to be shifted up or back to be in its proper position?? 8:47AM: Count only 2715R left, less than 1000R if I spend 1850R on a trip today, so I have to try for ANOTHER 6000R just to be SURE to have enough for the rest of the trip. Now to try a shower. 9:17AM: Thank goodness "my" bathroom was available, so I could shit, shower, and powder my crotch all in the same place, even though two different (from the characteristics of their door-rattles) people tried to get in toward the end of my stay. Then to my room to dry off even more before putting on clothes. Remember to change socks, not shorts. 9:38AM: [Find that if I just TYPE with the cursor on the line below, at least THAT time, it automatically goes UP to the next letter on the line above.] Pretty much ready for breakfast; then have HSBC card AND US$200 ready for the bank afterwards. 10:09AM: Talked to Kerri, who went to Pushkin yesterday on her own: 500R admission, 300R for gardens, 8R for Metro, and 63R for a GREAT book from the Singer Building on the Romanov Empire with a definitive family tree. So now to put shoes on and do financial business. 10:20AM: SUCCESS! Put the card in, and it said "Please wait" for a LONG time, but then coughed up my 4000R, so that's a total of 16000R, or US$695 at 23R/$, which comes VERY close to my remembered balance of $700! Maybe that's why it took so long? Sasha was eating breakfast as I left, so I told him my plane left at 6PM on Tuesday, and he suggested leaving here at 3PM, but I thought about traffic and said 2:30, and he said, "No problem." It's all working out, and I wonder if it was the VERY thin guy in shorts who came into the kitchen briefly from his room across the hall from it, said "Hello" in English, and then ducked back into his room. Now at 10:24AM it's a bit early to leave for the tour, so let's sudoku! Leave 10:49AM. Davranov has "no guide," I say Katya said yes, "no group,": "tomorrow!" For sure? NOT sure! Where today? To Gatchina, 600R regular + 600R for TOURIST. "But no tourist LANGUAGE!" She shrugs, writes ticket for 600R, then adds "+600R" 2-3 times. It leaves at 1PM. I think SHE says, "Maybe Eclectica." I go to Eclectica: "is going." "English?" "Yes." "Today?" "Yes." "Wait a minute." I go back to Grandma, who smiles, takes my ticket, and gives back 1200R. To blonde with Eclectica sign and she writes ticket for Pushkin for English for 1800R. Tries to change my 1000R note, then her own 500R note, but finally accepts my 800R and gives me back my 1000R note. Bus 23 "may go." Ask her TWENTY minutes before 2PM. I sit and write on "my" bus bench to 11:20, "only" 140 minutes to wait. Get out 6/1 Times puzzles. Finish by 12:17, 87 minutes to go. Read book on Tsarskaya Selo to 12:42, MANY palaces! Start 6/8 acrostic. Finish 1:22PM. Decide to pee. 15R for cabinets with many people waiting outside. No. See free-standing porta-potties, locked, one OPEN, and guy says, "Key at bar." I go in, say, "I'll have a beer after the tour, but I want the key now," and he gives me the key to number 1, where I pee free. On bus 1:38, escorted by blonde, and sit two seats behind who I think is a tourist, but when he gets up to leave, I ask if he's coming back and he says, "I'm the guide." Oh. More puzzle and sudoku. Bus leaves at 2:08 with a Japanese woman from outside Tokyo, and a couple from Britain, not Scotland. Guide gives GOOD talk as we go along Moscow Prospect, longest street in city, at 10 miles. #531 Constructionism: ugly, followed by Stalinism, long-standing. #532 Russian National Library: 2 copies of every book published in Russia, 40 million now, and growing, more buildings being added to the current SEVEN, at 2:32. #533 Chiesma Building, administration, 2:33. #534 Siege Memorial 2:35. #535 CLOUDS 2:46. #536 Egyptian gate to Pushkin 2:54. #537 Alexander's Palace, lost in trees, only three rooms open, not on view. Off bus 2:57. #538 Pushkin 2:59. Panorama and photos to #544 by 3:09, and hardass guard REFUSES to let Alex through, which Alex says is personal, rather than anything to do with the group. In at 3:15, but stopped at entry to let HUGE group through with a bitch of a leader who clearly detests Alex. In at 3:19. 300 meters long enfilade of rooms. To #554, antechamber done JUST three years ago. #565 Crimson column room. FR=Frederick Rex, also from book. #577 Hermitage (here!) not visible, under reconstruction. #580 ORIGINAL parquet. #582-3 pre-post World War II. Pee at exit at 4:24PM. Not nearly as impressive as Peterhof, but the guide is charming and the pictures speak for themselves, and the Amber Book gives the order of the rooms for the photos. Start walk 4:28. Lanskoy, Catherine's favorite for WEEKS, died while trying to maintain his virility, which was what she loved, and she mourned for an ACTUAL MONTH. #601 "Creaking" pavilion, maybe, but also Small Caprice. 368 meters high point of St. Petersburg. #603 "Great Caprice." #606 Concert Hall by Quaraglia (or whoever). #621 Chirsme Column. #630 Dutch Pavilion (all 3). To street 5:27. December good time to visit, has light 10AM-3:30PM, no one in palaces. 5:51 I pay 150R for Amber Room book. He fills my ears with a fortress tour tomorrow from 9-5, and a two-fortress tour Sunday from 8-8, for which he'll bring me tea and something he'll cook, though we'll stop for a pieman at noon and a cafe at 5PM, but it MIGHT be sold out. Off bus at 6:20. Take to #640 of things before Nevsky Prospect. 6:34 it's not THIS Eclectica. 6:45 they say BOTH Alex's tours Saturday and Sunday are COMPLETELY filled, not even room for ONE more, and I try to get them to CALL him, since he's planning to bring me tea and something he's cooked (and I gave him 200R tip after couple handed him something), but they just don't cooperate. So I go to Davronov and buy Novgorod for SUNDAY (Saturday sold out) for 1000R, be there at 8AM, with stop for lunch. At 6:56 I check Citi-Tour, get brochure, first bus goes at 9:30, so I'll stop at least at Fortress of Peter and Paul and St. Isaac's, and maybe even stop into the Zoological Museum if there's time after I spend a lot of time at Peter and Paul's. And only 350R. But looking into the guidebook, everything seems open only from 11AM. Go to the Carlsberg pavilion and get a key to number 2 to pee this time, and order ribs, a HUGE mistake for little meat, and THAT grossly underdone, so I hope trichinosis takes at LEAST a week to manifest itself, and a 100R Baltic beer (the only "local" beer beside Carlsburg!) for 400R, and I give him a 500R bill, thinking if he gives change, he expects a tip, but he returns a 100R bill, which I certainly can't leave, so I DO leave, and buy a can of Baltic beer, .5 liters, for 31R, and get back to take a yogurt at 7:49. Eat that while going through the Amber Book, VERY detailed and well worth the 150R, whatever the "actual" value might be, and start typing at 8:08 and finish at 8:51, finishing the beer at the same time, having taken my evening AND my night pills, but GOT to wash my face! AND hoping the full LITER of beer will kill any trichinosis larvae. To wash at 8:52. 8:58PM: GOT to give more of WHERE I AM in all this: Peterhof was a thrill for its fountains and suite of rooms only second to the Hermitage, which has no equal when it comes to sheer glory of architectural detail and luxury. Pushkin had a lovely history (and I still want to get an English version [stop by the Singer Building tomorrow!] of the Romanov line, and some lovely rooms that I took pictures of simply because I was there, and was also disappointed by all the things we COULDN'T see, like the bedroom of Maria Fiodorovna (as we didn't see ANYTHING beyond the Green Drawing Room and the stairway we took as a way to the basement for the photos of the destruction and reconstruction), the Chinese Blue Drawing Room, inside the Cameron Gallery, the Cross Bridge, the Palladian Bridge, the Ruin Tower, the Alexander Palace, and the Palace Church, either inside OR outside (except for painted representation). Looking through the book, Pavlovsk, Gatchina, and Oranienbaum are definitely second fiddle to Peterhof and even Tsarskoye Selo, with its dynamite Amber Room. And I DID get excited about the idea of a 9-6 tour tomorrow to a fortress with a special tour by Alexander, and an even more special 8-8 tour Sunday to two fortresses, right to the border of Estonia, but both of them were SAID to be full, though I can hold the paranoid thought that they wouldn't sell any remaining tickets to a FOREIGNER, since his tours are obvious sell-outs to LOCALS. And then I DO get my "wish" to see the rest of the sights of St. Petersburg ITSELF, like the Fortress of Sts. Peter and Paul, particularly the burial places of the last of the Romanovs, and I guess St. Isaac's, and maybe even the Zoological Museum, though that leaves a question for Monday and Tuesday, though I could probably be content at that time (though I thought of how deliciously adventurous I'd be by taking the "special Alexander" tours, sorry that I'm not here longer to reserve for FUTURE tours of his, which are obviously a hit if they can SAY they're sold out. AND I avoided another evening at Y Techa na Blanix by that horrible rib dinner at the Carlsburg pavilion near the sales corner, which will be torn up tomorrow when they repair the Nevsky Prospect on the weekend. Now at 9:22 I feel caught up, and will get to bed, figuring to get up at LEAST by 6AM, to accustom myself to getting to the ticket office well before 8AM on Sunday for the Novgorod tour, which even Alexander deigned to speak highly of. But I'll feel SO sorry if he ACTUALLY brings tea and "special cooked something" for me on Sunday and I don't show up. At least they can report a rabid American who insisted on going, but who was refused. Serves them all right! At least I'll have enough cash not to worry about being caught short, with 3030R in my pocket AND my 1000R Novgorod ticket BOUGHT. It's a good thing Iceland and Greenland taught me to go to sleep while the sun was still in the sky, since I'm sure the sun hasn't set HERE yet, and I'm going to BED! Take the batteries out of the camera to recharge them, keeping backups; take a last pee to empty the beer-filled bladder as much as possible, take an Ambien to go to sleep at an unreasonably early hour, and get to bed at 9:38! 9:45PM: Note to check Eclectica at 8:45AM tomorrow for CANCELLATION of Alex's 9AM tour, and maybe see HIM to say I was told Saturday and Sunday were TOTALLY sold out! Fall asleep almost immediately.

SATURDAY, 7/19/08: Wake at 3:33, almost six hours with Ambien. Try Actualism, but don't get very far, feeling out of it. Pee at 4:23AM. Do I feel that right-neck crick for the first time in a long time? Look at watch at 5:46AM. ABSURD dream at 7:09AM! Thank God, at first I thought it was 8:09, which would make it very difficult to get to the Eclectica area by 8:45AM! Transcribe it by 7:32AM, now, and still can't get the ABSURDITY of it out of my mind, but I DO have to go to the john, so let's hope that I can find it ;) ) (as if adding a smiley face epitomizes the craziness of the dream, and even my attempts to transcribe what I remember of it). Transcribe even more details (and ideas of the details) to 7:40AM. Organize things a bit before breakfast 8:05-8:28, take a jelly sandwich, yogurt, and a jacket in CASE the trip with Alex has a space, and lots of money. Leave "home" at 8:33AM. 8:49AM sent to (full) bus 393 on Sadovaya. Alex greets me, but the bus looks full, and a mute couple in the front seat are obviously not happy when the guy from the booth finally comes, collects all the tickets, looks at his list, and finally takes 800R from me and lets me on the BUS! And there's a WINDOW seat in the third row, and she invites me to sit at the window IN ENGLISH, saying that everyone on the bus knows my story. I later say I have THREE good pieces of luck: 1) a seat, 2) a window, and 3) a new friend who speaks English! We leave at 9:14, Alex going at it strong in Russian. #641 will be "business center: (150R to tour NOW) 9:20. Along Neva to south, or to the sun in the east. #642 drawbridge. #643 new apartments. Pass Tikivin Cemetery, where he lists all the famous people buried there. WELL note all the flowers EVERYWHERE, really wonderful, though she says they can be like this from May until the first snow, maybe in September, maybe not until December. 9:51 sign of leaving St. Petersburg, and 1377 km to Murmansk, straight on at 10:05. #644 flower produced to feed cattle, but now POISONOUS, even FATAL in very large contact. Spreading all over Europe. Nothing kills it. To 10:24, pee stop where most go to roadside because the line at the gas station is so long. He mentions "Chooch" a lot, which Eugenia says were the people in this area before the Slavs moved in. Then he talks of "Tigger," which she says was the German tank which was conquered at that spot. #645-6 two-car crash? (Not!) 11:02. Vyborg 200km to right. The purple ubiquitous flowers she calls John's Tea, tea from flowers and leaves. 11:19 half-hour in forest. #648-50 stream. Near river which once bordered SWEDEN, area conquered by Romanovs in 1702. To #660 by 11:45, in woods. #661 washing RUGS. #663 shirtless 11:45. BACON smell makes my mouth water. #666 potato farmer at 12:18. This was called the Putilovo Tour, from the area we're in. #670 ditch. Yellow flower is Dirok in Russian, melilot (sweet clover) on his handy Wiki. See Lake Ladoga in distance (and again later). Church/cemetery wonderful. 1:42 finish jelly sandwich and yogurt and stop 25 minutes at 1:44. Beer for 35R and 200-gram chocolate bar marked 69R on shelf and rings up 71R on cash register, and he lets it go by at last. Leave 2:14. 2:50 off at Shlisselburg, which we get to by BOAT! Also known as Oreshek. I lose group, wander base, top, inside, around top until gate makes me backpedal, pee in darkness, climb cliffs, re-climb stairs and hit my head a SECOND time on SAME log. I worry about everyone leaving, go to boat dock at 3:33, and there sits Alex, saying he told everyone they could stay until 5PM, so I go back and wander even more, covering the whole thing, both jails, but miss the plaque for Lenin's older brother, hanged when he said that he'd try again to kill the king even if he were freed. IDIOT! I get tired, see no one, go back on boat and still boatman demanded 50R, #749 of Peter I (with fill-in flash: NOT) at 4:13. Back on bus 4:45 after missing photo of priest giving communion on the street, do a sudoku, driver talks on phone, I hope about me, but it wasn't. Alex said they missed me, I apologized, he said it was OK. His uncle smiled. Bus leaves 5:34. 5:50: 35 km to St. Petersburg. Off bus WAY to the east of where we got on, and Alex said he's taking the Red Line (first constructed, most elaborate, at Ploschad Vosstania, or Mayakovskaya, to the green line to Gostiny Dvor, or Nevsky Prospect, Metro one stop, for which he doesn't want to wait 10 minutes so I can use his card a second time, so I buy a token for 17R and clutch everything when he warns me about pickpockets. From one elaborate station to another (first Stalinist, second Khruschovian), wait for second train to get off just where the ticket kiosks are, and I thank him without tipping and he doesn't seem to mind, but we exchanged cards. Eugenia gives me her friend's e-mail for her photo with the poison plant. She leaves for Metro, and crazy denimed guy sits next to me and OGLES me and gives me "two thunbs up," which can ONLY be a cruise, but I ignore him until he pushes, and I keep putting up a put-off hand until he gives up and gets off at the next Metro stop. We're off Metro, relieved at not being robbed, at 7:09, and I just want to be back, so get home to two glasses of juice at 7:25, decide to take shower to get rid of tackiness, and type 7:52-8:32, batteries recharging, water needed, dinner coming up in same old place. 8:35PM feel really INERT, but MUST eat so I can digest so I can get to bed so I can get to kiosk at 7:45AM tomorrow! Leave for dinner 8:55PM. New chicken soup isn't as good as the borshch, but it DOES have lots of chicken. The "schweinya" is toughish, but still good under the sweet, nutty sauce I had on the chicken Kiev. And the MUSHROOMS in cream side dish is heavenly, so I ate too much with the beer, coming to 312R, for which she had to accept 310R, SORRY. Back at 9:40 to find the elevator door on the fifth floor OPEN, so I walked up there, and I closed it on the way down to 4. Cute guy says, "G'dye," wonder where HE'S from? Brush my teeth with good fizzy water, and then do the whole schmear while looking at a puzzle from 6/8 so I can digest now at 9:49PM, TOO LATE! Finish at 10:35PM, still stuffed from dinner. Bed at 11PM, 80 minutes after finishing, but still too soon, yet STILL too late for 7:45AM at kiosk! Set alarm for 6:40AM and leave earplugs out at 11:02PM!

SUNDAY, 7/20/08: Still awake: look at watch at 12:10AM, and at 12:52AM, and at 2:12AM with dream 1. Look at watch at 3:28AM and 4:06AM with dream 2. Pee and drink water. Look at watch at 4:44. Forgot: Had mympths second watch-look back. Watch "tings" at 5AM! Look at watch at 5:39 and 6:17 and 6:28 and 6:34. Unfortunately, those "plunks" that I seemed to be hearing IS a very light rain. Oh, well, to put it mildly. Look at watch at 6:38 just as a matter of obsessive-compulsivity, and then at 6:39. And at 6:40 the alarm does NOT ring! Maybe because I had just the little bell and not the zigged lines to the LEFT of the little bell?? Anyway, it's 6:42 and I'm UP! Breakfast to 7:15, "finding" a guide to Peter and Paul Fortress that might come in handy tomorrow, and start putting things away while the rain comes down HARDER outside. Will now try to shit. Only a bit, but at least the system's working OK. Decide to WEAR jacket and take out umbrella before going down: pity to think of a day with WET SHOES all day! Took a jelly sandwich and a yogurt, since they came in so handy yesterday, and at the last minute remember to bring a big plastic bag for my wet umbrella in case I need to carry it when it's not raining. Leave at 7:33, hoping the elevator's working. On bus 231 at 7:49, already crowded. Do sudoku. Tickets taken by guide who knows NO English at 7:53. Only about SIX (turns out to be nine) empty seats, mine RIGHT at door. Leave 8:16, after THREATS of more people. Leave St. Petersburg 8:40. Same way to Pushkin. I have ONLY steamed window; 9:04 654 km to Moscow. 9:48 Novgorod 90 more km, total 195 km. 10AM: 15 minute pee stop, off at 10:29. [start file 3 9:45AM 7/21/08] Window finally clear. Woods, villages, parked trucks (sleeping during day to drive at night when less traffic between Moscow and St. Petersburg?), a train (nearly empty), fog, three storks on a nest, rolls of hay in one field with about a dozen storks foraging for grain. Into Novgorod 11:18. 11:30 stop for 1 hour: pee for 10R. Two sisters (Svetlana [Sveta] and Marina [Marusha]) answer when we're getting off and I plead, "Poshalsta, anyone speak English?" They offer to lead me around after they go to the john. I have AWFUL hot dog with ketchup for 30R. On bus 12:30, crowded with nine more people, next to Misha from Bay Area, who lived 27 years in St. Petersburg. We leave parking lot at 5:20PM. 12:45PM drive city. 1:01 off at Yurian Monastery. 18th Century tower, 19th Century new starred domes "When they got a rich patroness," and earliest church here 1119AD. No photos. HIGH inside, but in poor condition; they're slowly fixing it. #769 at 1:36 of OLD Novgorod. Bus goes at 1:39 WITHOUT three people, and many argue about it. Out for wood-carving area 1:43, due back to bus 2:40. 1:52 starts drizzle. Pee in woods 2:04. Lots of pictures (and first hordes of mosquitos). Another shot of "old" town after delicious kvass in kiosk, .5L for 30R, cold and tangy at 2:25. Back in bus 2:35, after buying Novgorod book for 200R, which contains ALL the sights. Bus goes 2:42, with "vcye," "all" aboard. Off bus at 2:53 and in to church with fast-talking (cute) male guide at 3:11, in good shape (both guide and church). Out of church 3:31, 12th Century painting framed of Constantine and Helena. 14th Century church to #815 by 3:33. To museum 3:52. 110R museum, lots of icons, but 70R extra for jewels, nothing compared to Hermitage, but interesting anyway. Good free bathroom where I wash my face and hands to feel better. Leave 4:47PM. To parking lot at 4:56 to find no bus. Wander lot and shop, and sit on bus at 5:12 and eat jelly sandwich and yogurt and drink water. Bus goes 5:34, no rain! 6:05PM close eyes, nothing much to see but woods. 7:05 open eyes. 7:34 bush stop for kids and guys and gals. 7:38 St. Petersburg 47 km. Out in great rain and traffic at 8:15, to Moskovskaya Metro on BLUE line (so I saw red, green, and blue lines), buy 17R token, catch up with Misha, who's going beyond and tells me when to get off at Sadovaya, still raining. I go in wrong direction, find a canal, check map, get reoriented, but it's raining SO hard and I'm SO paranoid about money in my shoulder bag that I just go to TOTALLY FLOODED Gorokhovaya entrance at 9:11, take off flooded shoes, find I took through #816, and back down via Muchnoy to Y TECHA (not Cheta, as I tried to tell Misha) na Blanix for more wonderful mushrooms and a good dish that I ask the waitress for name, and she stammers, "Schveiny---en gribess." Home at 10, elevator and Internet still not working---I'm alone in place? Review pictures to 10:45PM. AGAIN, 11PM, invisible fireworks in rainy evening. Bed 11:12PM. Oh, withdrew ANOTHER 1000R.

MONDAY, 7/21/08: Dream at 3:05, pee. Bed 3:12. 7:29 dream, type to 7:37, still TIRED. Lie down. Then take a Valium for penultimate day of trip. Shit and wash face and flush spider down toilet and look to see no rain NOW, and just lie DOWN at 7:55! Car alarm at 8:44AM. Up, reluctantly, at 8:54. To breakfast at 9:06. Sasha comes by, "You leave today at 2:30?" "No, tomorrow." "You sure?" "Yes." I go to get papers, but he's in john. Type 9:40 to 10:01, when he's in hall (and another guy's here too): I show him schedule, and we agree to leave tomorrow at 1:30. "I don't know who made mistake, but you paid 900E, so is OK if you move room?" "Yes, but I'm away till about 6PM." "OK." "Good." I type more and think to ask if it would be better if I moved NOW. "Yes, thank you." So I say ten minutes, he gives me choice of room, assuring me I'm still alone, and I type to 10:16AM to catch up, and start moving. Fuss with move to 10:30, and get a bill for 2850R! So I got to go to BANK again! 10:42AM: Bank coughs up 2 1000R notes, I get change from cashier, pay Sveta 2850R, who signs bill, and I'm back in room WITHOUT desk, but it's only for tonight, and Sasha is clear I need to go to the airport at 1:30PM tomorrow. NEED to PEE! At least I don't have to worry what to do until Peter and Paul Fortress opens! Leave at 10:50AM for the hop-on, hop-off bus. 1225R left: 350R for bus, 500R entrances, 300R dinner ends up 1150R, with 75R left: one beer! On bus 11:08, 350R. Look at map, I want stop 7. Leaves 11:30? Bus goes 11:20. #817 Lomonosov drawbridge 11:29. #818 Belosertsev Palace. St. Petersburg the capital of Russia 1712-1918. 2000 rooms in Winter Palace, over 1000 staircases, 3 million items. SHIPS on Neva, some holiday? 11:40 five-minute stop at "Blood." Eternal flame since 1957. 3/11/1801 Michael took 5 years to build Mikhailovsky Palace, afraid to live in Winter Palace because he was afraid of being killed. Lived in his palace 40 days before being killed by his guard. #827-8 Peter the Great's log cabin through trees at speed on the bus. 5/27/1703 Peter and Paul Fortress founded St. Petersburg on "Little Rabbit" island. Off bus 12:04, buy FULL ticket at 12:20, 250R with VISA, for a change, covers everything: Cathedral, Commandant's, Curtain Wall, Space, Neva Panorama. #829 Peter's Gate. Engineer's House 12:25-12:35, pictures. Horn concert at 12:40. Into Cathedral at 12:45. To #844 for last Karamazovs. #846 Mikhailovich group. #847 Empress Marie Alexandrovna (pink), Emperor Alexander II (green). #847 Left: Alexander III, Right, Empress Maria Federovna (1847-1928). #848 Left: Nicholas I, Empress. #849 (L-R) Emperor Paul I, Empress Maria Federovna (1759-1828), Emperor Alexander I. #850 center iconostasis. #863 Right, Peter the Great; Left, Empress Catherine Ivanova. #864 (L-R) Catherine the Great, Emperor Peter III, Empress Anna I Ioannovna. #869 Lessers outside Romanovs. #870 Back of pink and green. #871 9-12 ensemble and background 1:20. #872-3 entry center, central center. #874 LAST of Peter the Great 1:23, and out of Cathedral. 1:25 into Commandant's House. #875 key of St. Petersburg 1770, finished 1830. #876 Bronze Horseman 1870-1880. First Millennium BC had Finno-Urgrarian tribes: Tchud, Ves, and others. Slavs came in 9th Century AD to Kiev and "Upper Rus." Vikings were mercenaries for Novgorod forces. Neva short: from Lake Ladoga to the Bay of Finland. #878 Viking jewelry 9-11 Century. #879 Northern Rus 12-13 Century. #882 Shlisselburg, 16-18 Centuries. #883 Oreshek 16-17 Centuries. Neva battle (1240) site of Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1710), joined to Admiralty ON the Neva by the Nevsky Prospect (through forest!). #884 1708: Shlisselburg (right) on Lake Ladoga, source of Neva, to St. Petersburg. #887 1850 St. Petersburg. #889 1824 St. Petersburg flood. #890 raising #891 Alexandrovskaya Column in 1880s. #892 railroad from Moscow to St. Petersburg 1844-51. Great, exhaustive, STUFF. Wonderful 1900-1913 MOVIES. To 2:36. 1:11 inside exactly. 3:15 Fortress construction 2:44-2:50. #902-4 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost 1907-1925. To Neva Panorama 2:56-3:20. #909 FOUR ships, and St. Isaac. Space Museum 3:23-3:35. #911 Sputnik model. #913 Soyuz, and more. Leave Fortress 3:40, bus at 3:49, MY LUCK! Get off at 4PM at Rostral Column. #916 Rostral Column 4:03. Pee at 4:08 after checking bag in Zoological Museum, WHEW. #922 Thylacine! #924 Morskaya Kurina---from east of Kamchatka. #929 Przewalsky's COW---taller than I! #931 HAIRY mammoth! Upstairs 4:35. Insects 30R, and they SELL them, after she gets out spider and hands it to kid for pictures. #939 Calico moth. Earlier was a blue whale skeleton in main hall. Out at 5PM, having taken to #941. Bus arrives 5:06! I'm in HEAVEN! Off bus 5:16. Take four or five shots of the Dioscuri at LAST. #952 experimental art ENTRANCE, not entrancing, at 5:26. 5:40 get ticket to Isaac and photos 350R. 300R left! 6:12 exhausted. Someone leaves seat and I SIT, and LOOK: absolutely completely mind-boggling, though not particularly religious, though they do a good business selling candles. Leave 6:25, SPENT. Buy a liter of gassy water for 25R---should have spent 30R and thrown rest away! Back to room 2 (missing room 4 already) at 6:50, having taken to #991. Pee, drink orange juice and cold water. Sit, numb (but footsore) to 7:06, and start typing. Finish at 7:55PM, deciding I just MUST take a shower NOW! Turn the water on, then decide to try for a shit, and have a WONDERFULLY complete, perfectly textured, marvelously satisfying excretion. Then shower, managing the water rather well by now, powder lots, and back at 8:25 to finish this off to date. By this (watch) time tomorrow, I'll be over the Atlantic on the way home! WHAT a trip it's been: FAR more seen than I'd been told one "must" see, and lots more that no one's even heard about, like Shliesselburg, and even getting to where I hadn't expected to get, Novgorod, which offered more than I'd expected of IT, along with a wonderful book to "prove" it all! AND found the genealogy of the Romanovs for only 40R, which I actually think I'll read NOW, now that I've seen them all buried! Read to 9:08, VERY confusing and complicated, with lineages all over the map. Still not very hungry, and can't eat more than 275R anyway. The idea of staying up very late, to try to accommodate to the coming eight-hour time difference, isn't appealing at this point, but we'll see how it turns out. At this "time" tomorrow, I'll be somewhere over Maine! Mosquito bites itchy in a few places from Sunday's trip. Rained hard about an hour ago, but it's settled into a drizzle. Patter of running feet overhead. AH, should take melitonin! Well, too late to take a half-gram on waking this morning. Take a half-gram on waking tomorrow. Take 3 grams "at bedtime the first night," which would be along with a sleeping pill on the London-New York flight. Then take a half-gram "first thing in the morning," whatever THAT means. Also, if you wake "during the night," take another half-gram. But my day and night will be so MIXED it'll be hard to TELL what to do. Make a list: 1) half-gram on waking tomorrow, 2) 3 grams on London-New York flight, 3) half-gram "first thing in the morning." Manage to summon up a grand total of 285R for dinner, greater than which I think I never spent. Leave at 9:40PM. Back and pants off by 10:30, having to detour around a flood on Godorovaya again, and waiting a long time for a group of seven Russians to stare and stare at the menu, then at the food, then ask endless questions of a staff that seems entirely new, and finally I get a potato salad and a breaded pork steak and my beer for 262R for which I think to be helpful by adding a 2-ruble piece, and she practically wordlessly calls me an idiot, throws the piece back at me, and plunks down a 1 and a 2. Then one of the "party" of smokers who'd taken so long to order sits with his head on the table next to me! If it'd been like this the first time, I never would have gone back! Shows what first impressions (or last, in this case) make. Now 10:35PM and I think I'll start a puzzle to see how late I can reasonably stay up. Checked all my money: all the euros and dollars there, along with the princely sum of 38.5R [which is what I end up giving a thankful Sasha as he lets me off at the airport the next day]. The 6/15 Times puzzle is solved by 11:45PM. Work on 6/7 puzzle to a puzzling "In a rush" being "miner." But if "Elol" is a Southern university, a "miler" is surely in a rush. But that takes me to 12:36AM.

TUESDAY, 7/22/08: Get to bed, tired at last, at 12:48AM, by rottenest coincidence having people pass to the kitchen as I pass the main hall in my bathrobe. How GLAD I am that I had the room I HAD! Wake at 6:09, longest straight sleep in ages? Up 7:29 with dream. Finish typing at 7:34, still sleepy, but decide I'd better pee. 7:39AM: Most unusual: the door to room 4 is OPEN, both beds apparently having been used, and the kitchen door is CLOSED with the light on, yet no other lights are on in the hallways at all. I shit a tiny turd, pee, and blow my nose, and come back to bed after drinking water. 7:59AM: Take Valium to quell anxiety: what if I die, will John get everything? What if Sasha doesn't show up at 1:30PM, how do I get to the airport? If my flight leaving Russia is delayed beyond today, will they not let me out because my visa has expired? What if my passport and visa are missing? Valium is better than all that! And, of course, one strap of my eyemask breaks! 9:11AM: Up, figuring it's 1:11AM in NYC, and I'll be home by 11:11PM, two hours earlier, so I have 22 hours until home! Or five stations: 1) here, packing, 2) St. Petersburg airport, waiting, 3) flight to London, 4) London airport, waiting, 5) flight to NYC. Take half-gram melitonin. 9:30AM: Pee, wash face, start packing, to delay breakfast as long as possible to adapt to NYC time. Essentially finish packing by 10:40AM, annoying sound of a child coming from outside. COULD squeeze shoulder bag inside black case if needed: by wearing jacket and camera and reading material. 10:45AM: Nothing left but to pee and go to breakfast, child or no child. 10:49AM: Peed, but kitchen full of small father and two smaller kids in the middle of peeling boiled eggs and taking up the entire table. So I'm FORCED to an EVEN LATER breakfast. Sudoku time! Finish one. 11:10AM: Door slammed, no more voices; try again for breakfast? 11:30AM: Last quiet breakfast; may it be a long time before I see muesli and strawberry jam again. Another sudoku before brushing teeth. Another sudoku by 12:01PM. 12:30PM: Teeth brushed, Internet checked one last time: still down; black bag closed with lots of room to spare, shoulder bag almost empty. Ready to go! An hour to wait for Sasha. 12:40PM: Finish a New Yorker article, back to sudoku; my right fingers are CRAMPING, as before many flights! 1:22PM: Finish an "ambitious" sudoku, fingers cramping worse than ever. Should I start worrying about Sasha at 1:30? Sasha arrives 1:28, saying he was due at 2PM, but could we leave at 1:30? Since that was the time he was due, I said OK, and he went to the john and I went to the john and we left at 1:36. Gribis is mushrooms, and Y Techa na Blanix is mother-in-law with pancakes. To airport at 2:07 and everyone has to go through security, and woman looks at my flight and says, "To London?" as if she'd never heard of the place. "Yes," I said, "to New York," and when she checks her schedule on a hand unit, she says I can't check in for 40 minutes. I try to tell her that British Airways doesn't accept prior seat reservations, but she's not phased: "Sir..." she accuses me, so I go sit and wait. Fill this out to 2:12, and decide it's just as easy to start proofreading. Start file 1 at 2:13. Find they ANNOUNCE check-in time: mine 3:05, now only 2:39! Finish proofing file 1 at 2:59, think to try check-in again. Stand 3:01 for 3:15 entry. 3:05: go to counters 7-10. Through 3:08. Through security (rock OK) 3:13, then on LONG check-in line---one line for four counters 3:14. Get seat 25A at 3:40, after refusing a probable wing at 16A, and into EVEN LONGER passport control line right there [pick up NY boarding pass in London]. Other groups (Spanish and pilots and crew) zoom by at 4:11. Through at 4:17. Gate 6 checks us AGAIN, so I drink SMALL water. Glad I SAT there, because British woman comes through and says gate has been changed to 5, which enables me to pass a toilet at 4:23. Pee and wash hands and face to 4:29---good! Onto gate 5 line 4:30. Through at 4:39, shoes off this time. Finish sudoku 176 by 4:54. At 4:57 remember to take BLACK BAG, sitting at the end of the trestle for almost 20 minutes! Line moves at 4:58. Board 5:08, next to last seat, getting two British papers, one with two sudokus, both of which I do. At 5:09 I check that there IS a meal! Back out 5:20: we have a tail wind, which is why they were late coming in. Off 5:35. #992 5:41 beautiful clouds. 3-hour flight. VERY fancy graphics of zooming in on area in understandable increments, then zooming out, at the end, showing the plane on the entire PLANET! Also shows the view from the pilot's cabin, and shows the path with the towns below marked by very clear arrows, with the "camera" zooming around the plane to show it from every angle. VERY impressed. They serve the guy next to me his vegetarian dinner, the smell of which excites my salivary glands, but they then start serving the regular meals, VERY SLOWLY, from the front, so I wait until the second shift comes out and BEG for my meal, which she gives to me with a joke. Then order a vodka and orange, as she calls a screwdriver, and at the end go whole hog with a vodka tonic. Good dinner (though my appetite undoubtedly helps) of small morsels of beef in a good gravy with small potatoes, a salad with something like crab, and a delicate cake for dessert. Almost worth the wait, and I would have gone out of my mind had they NOT served a meal. Finish at 6:31, variable clouds below, some glorious farmland at the southern end of Visby Island, but clouds over major Amsterdam and German cities, though some of the boats in the various bays and seas are impressive. #993 London outskirts 8:19. Land at 8:26, having taken to #996, hopefully a castle. Change watch from 8:30 to 5:30. New York flight at 8PM. Off plane last at 5:40, to terminal 3 by bus: on at 5:51, off at 6:01, through ANOTHER security check by 6:11, then to desk to get my 35J seat, gate not announced yet. Shop to 6:36, getting a dark chocolate bar for Spartacus, and a total of 3 bars for 10 pounds, probably too much, and can't think of anything tastier than Amarula for 10.95 pounds, which comes out to more than $43US on Visa. Put stuff in bag, check once for gate, not up yet, and type this to 6:57, gate BOUND to be announced. To gate 18 at 7:10, another security check, this time taking shoes off. Sit again 7:13, proofing file 2. Board 7:35 and continue proofing. Back out 8:03. 7:07 flight. Finish proofing file 2 at 8:06. Off 8:17. #997 Same Castle? 8:20, then above clouds, sky VERY sunny. #999 Oxford? 8:16. #1000 cloud layers 9:23. Dinner at 9:30. Take tea for caffeine 9:28. 11:19 change watch to 6:19. Do magazine puzzles to 7:07. Proof file 3 to 7:34. Great misty northern Newfoundland in red-orange sunset starting at 7:37. #1001 sunset 7:39. #1004 8:27, sets at LAST 8:35. Jet flies NORTH, THROUGH sunset, leaving vapor trail. So for over an hour I risked my eyeballs staring into the sunset: at times the wing shielded it perfectly, and I could see beads of molten-red reflected from lakes dotting the sun's path toward my point of view above them. Then clouds started appearing, rosy toward the sun, dark behind, from my view. Then some higher clouds past, still rosy from the sun itself. Sun lowered through layers of clouds, lighter, darker, finally dim enough so that I could raise the shade, just as we passed the mainland and entered the Bay of the St. Lawrence River. Something must have slowed us up, since our arrival time gradually slipped from 10:05PM to 10:24PM now at 8:48. Earlier, the clouds below had been an incredible yellow-green with pure white above. Later, pools of light seemed to reflect upward even after the sun set, showing bright patches in the clouds. What a pity I missed the jet, just a few miles away, barreling north through the red-streak of the sunset [and I must here insert the times of the various sad attempts I made at motion pictures of the spectacle, not coming anything near the actuality of the glory that, it seemed, only I was interested enough to watch]. Later, the guy two seats ahead tried to use a camera, and then the guy between us brusquely opened the shade, glanced out, and slammed his shade down on his view. Even the higher clouds were now dark, below the sun-line, and at last I tried to take a final picture of the upper crescent just before it vanished into the intervening cloud. Watched more as the light faded, islands and shorelines still visible below, and then later bright spots of lights from towns where the clouds thinned enough to be able to see the ground. I felt VERY privileged to be sitting where I was sitting, and what a pity pilots don't have video cameras, or just cameras, to capture some of the incredible sights they must see so often that they probably just take them for granted, with the rare examples of the pilot to Tokyo who announced to everyone that Mt. McKinley, or Denali, was visible out the right windows, and I ran over to take two or three tries at that gorgeous panorama. The time of arrival has slipped another minute, and I have the awful fear that the repeat of the retreat to Washington when the local NYC airports were so booked they had to close and force planes to go elsewhere. But we're from Europe, not from Dallas, as the other flight was, and we surely have less fuel to mess around with, and at least maybe American would treat us better if we DID have to overnight somewhere else. I'm amazed at how good I feel, not even tempted to fall asleep, feeling quite alert, as I was on that extraordinary flight across northern Canada and Alaska going on another trip to the East. Now time to New York is 1:25, 85 minutes, about a fifth of the flying time. Maybe I can even proof the dreams, now that only gray cotton-wool clouds are visible out the window under a still blue sky with a line of bright pink at the horizon with the remnant of the sunset half an hour ago. Maybe start proofing dreams now at 9PM, just to keep myself awake. Snack comes at 9:08, in middle of proofing dreams (oh, dinner was chicken and rice and two awful brocolli florets, with a strangely sour "salad" of mixed cold vegetables, and a piece of cake, and ended with tea, or did I say this before?) 9:11PM: 14 miles from Houlton. Jewel-like lights in cloudless Maine. Proof more dreams, but when snack trays are taken I get up to take a last shit and piss at 9:26. 9:38: BRIGHT shore towns below. Then clouds seem to have come in because there's nothing visible of Boston and other town listed on map. The VERY last streak of light is visible on the horizon, and foggy smudges of lights are visible through clouds below at 9:55 when they announce it might be a bumpy landing in 35 minutes, some rain, 75 degrees, put all devices away and get ready for landing already. Stop this at 9:57PM. 10:06: estimated arrival 10:29. Fly SOUTH of Long Island and land at 10:42. Foggy, rain held up landings, seatbelt signs off at 11:03! Off plane (held up by ridiculous Jewish quartet fussing over nothing, ugly wife telling everyone useless things to check and do) 11:13. Onto immigration line 11:19, and through lines by 11:27. 11:30 onto long taxi line. Into taxi 11:42, paying $38 (and wishing I'd recorded what I paid going OUT: I think $44 was the stated charge, and I AGAIN asked for $2 back from $50, for which I was loudly thanked), and into apartment 12:20AM.

WEDNESDAY, 7/23/08: Took three phone messages: 1) OAT values for January-March, call 800-955-1925. 2) Best Buy pickup automated message. 3) Woman with same as 2). Bed at 12:40AM, not even having picked up mail, only weighing shoulder bag. Pee 2:32, try Actualism, but can't sleep, so up at 4:18AM to pee and j/o to 5:15 and watch news to 5:30, take half-gram Melitonin AND an Ambien. Awake at 8:30AM, lie thinking, and get up at 8:45, looking at slides on video 9-10AM, try to cum again 10-10:30 but can't. 10:37 call Best Buy: no charge, pick up with ID anytime. LW Mildred; LW John, who calls back 11:54; LW Charles; Shelley's line is busy; 10:40 LW with Sherryl; 10:41 talk to Bill P.: he came home on 17th, a week after his operation, under Mehmet Oz, says Steve. Bill had gone in for a stress test, almost collapsed, had an angiogram, and he was immediately sent by ambulance to Columbia University Hospital. Two days later he had the operation (Wednesday 7/9, I guess). No doctor's appointment until August, but a visiting nurse comes every other day, and he's had a physical therapist twice; we talk to 10:47AM. 10:48 LW Steve. 10:49 try Shelley again, who tells me of the 4-5 days over 90 degrees, and she SENT me a Dubai sheet, and we talk to 11:32. Have breakfast. John calls back 11:54-12:26, his poor 25-year-old tree destroyed by a semi too big for Hicks Street. Talk to a frantic Marj about Section Breaks 12:27-1:32, when I beg off to go to bank. Call Arnold at 1:35, who's leaving to see Bob in rest home a half-hour subway ride away: he couldn't get into Carroll Gardens because they said "alcohol" on his form! He'll leave the Times in front of his door. Pick it up, go to bank to find that I had NOT overdrawn my account, get two wonderful slices of Fascati's pepperoni pizza for $5.50 which I bring home since it's crowded there, talk to Mildred 3:10-3:55, and to Steve (both of whom called me back) 3:55-4:35. Go through the mail, aghast at a call at 6PM from Sharon asking where I was, setting up an appointment for 4PM tomorrow, make my wonderful tuna casserole for dinner, finish watching "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny," finish more of the mail, do some New York magazine puzzles, and get exhausted to bed at 12:25AM, home 24 hours and done a LOT!

THURSDAY, 7/24/08: Up at 3:27AM, again at 5:27 to type a dream and pee, then up at 6:55AM to type a dream and shit. Up at 7:35AM because I can't get back to sleep and don't want to take another Ambien; there's just so much to DO! Breakfast 7:45-7:55AM, trying to kid myself that I've bypassed jet lag. Fill pill box to 8:10. Look at e-mail: FORTY-EIGHT in inbox to 10AM. LW Ken at home 9:25AM. Spartacus calls 9:30-9:40. I transfer file 1 of Neo, taking to 10:35 but it goes to TWELVE pages. Then to gym, finishing just before noon, dash out to say a surprised "Hello" to Bill on the sidewalk with his physical therapist, make miraculous connections with three subways to get to Le Perigord just before 1PM, just after Doug, and we have a raucous meal, during which I feel partly sedated and removed from Mildred's ludicrous insistence that "She knows me so well, but she can't understand why I would..." and launch into something that proves she does NOT know me, and I take comfort in being supported in almost everything by Doug, who might show up Friday at Park Avenue...Summer with Spartacus. Subway in, pick up extra tweezers and my Simvastatin that C. phoned in already to CVS, and get to Sharon 4:01-4:47. Pick up lots more mail, read New Yorkers, eat chocolate, and just too tired to do more than go to bed at 8:35PM, taking pills but having no dinner, but eating more chocolate.

FRIDAY, 7/25/08: Dream at 1:35AM. Take half-gram of Melitonin. Shit three little turds. 3AM start j/o, and it goes WELL until 4:15, VERY satisfyingly at the brink for a long time, and watch end of "DOA" until 5:30AM, when I debate going back to bed, but decide I can nap if I have to, and have breakfast, looking through both Sundays' Times magazines and book reviews, and finish transferring NEO files 2 and 3 by 6:40, then catch up TO DATE at 7:15AM, trying to figure when best to phone Ken to ask him to leave out tapes so I can 1) go to lunch at 1PM, 2) take an F back to 23rd and pick up video camera, and 3) walk to Ken's to exchange tapes, which means I have to watch a film NOW, or at least after I phone Ken. But I start Spider at 7:18, interrupt at 7:30 to call Ken, who says, "I have no time," and I say, "Sometimes I just don't understand you," and he calls back at 8AM to say, "I prepared a package of tapes for you to pick up." "Thank you," I respond, and continue winning Spider to 10:03AM, getting to a WAY new high of 50.09421. Continue plowing through two Sunday Times, meet Spartacus at 12:15PM for lunch with Mildred at Park Avenue...Summer, mediocre except for filling chocolate-cherry dessert, come back to pick up more mail, finish the Times, finish other papers piled up to read, watch "Dreamgirls" and "Grass," a rather different pair; take 3 grams of Melitonin and bed 11:13PM.

SATURDAY, 7/26/08: 8:45AM: Type dreams at 1:36AM, 4:12AM, and 8:08AM, getting up at 8:14 to shit and take a half-gram of Melitonin. Want to start transferring the "extra" files from Neo, but catch up with this to 8:48AM. Transfer the DREAMS file, which turns out to be 2/3 full, through page 8. FINISHED WITH TRIP NOTES NOW.

ST. PETERSBURG SUMMARY
TUE,7/8: Fly JFK-London 8:04PM to 7:38AM (6:34 flight).
WED,7/9: Fly London-St. Petersburg 10:16AM-3:58PM (2:42 flight). Sasha drives me via laundry to Nord Hostel. Marsha shows layout. Get first 6000 rubles at ATM across the street. Dinner at Bistro Max Food. Bed at 8PM.
THU,7/10: Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, Kunstkamer 12:22-3:45PM. Look at tours on corner, lie down for an hour, next-door Chinese restaurant dinner, bed 12:03.
FRI,7/11: Bus tour: St. Isaac's Cathedral, Church on Spilled Blood, Aurora, off for line to Hermitage at 2, in at 2:40, photos, lunch at 4:44, out 6PM. Walk to Maryinsky Theater for Le Corsair, walk back, drink juice, bed 10:34PM.
SAT,7/12: Order Hermitage tickets on Internet. Unpack and study guidebooks. Dine at Y Techa na Blanix. To Maryinsky for La Forza del Destino with Maria Gulegina, conducted by Valery Gergiev! Worry about shit. Bed at 12:26AM.
SUN,7/13: Up 9:54AM, breakfast to 10:50. Walk line to Nabokov House, Yusupov Palace, and Maryinsky Theater for my umbrella. Dinner at Triton, then mediocre "Swan Lake" at Great Dramatic Theater. Bed at 10:38PM.
MON,7/14: Marble Palace and Ludwig exhibit, Field of Mars, Engineers/ Mikhaylovsky CASTLE, Church of Spilled Blood, Russian Museum/Mikhaylovsky PALACE. Get 6000 more rubles. Bed 11:50PM, exhausted.
TUE,7/15: Shower, wait for Peterhof tour, back to transcribe photos and do puzzles and rest before dinner at Y Techa. More puzzles and bed at 12:01AM.
WED,7/16: Print voucher to Hermitage at Internet cafe in courtyard! To Hermitage and get 11:45AM ticket for Treasure Room 1 at 11:43AM! GREAT JEWELRY! Tour much of rest of Hermitage to lunch/dinner at 5PM in cafe. Walk Boyshaya Morskaya to Maryinsky Theater for "King Roger." Bed at 12:02AM.
THU,7/17: At Hermitage opening, many rooms until 1:15PM Scythian Gold Treasure Room 2, incredible. Beer at 4:50PM. More rooms to 5:45PM. Dinner at Y Techa of SECOND wonderful Chicken Kiev and borshch. More puzzles before and after dinner. Worry about money needed. Bed 11:51PM.
FRI,7/18: Shower, get 4000R more at ATM. Buy English tour to Pushkin at 2PM. Sit on bus bench and do puzzles. Great guide and fantastic Amber Room in Tsarskoye Selo. Eclectica says that both of Alexander's tours are completely sold out. Free pee again thanks to Carlsberg pavilion, so I have underdone non-meaty ribs there for dinner with a Baltic beer for 400R. Read Amber Book. Bed with Ambien early at 9:38PM, thinking to check tomorrow for cancellation for tour.
SAT,7/19: Wake at 3:33AM, pee at 4:23, look at watch at 5:46, dream at 7:09AM. To bus at 8:49AM and get last seat next to English teacher! Start with Putilovo Tour of countryside and flowers and streams, then to Shlisselburg on Lake Ladoga until 5PM. Metro one stop from Mayakovskaya to Gostiny Dvor. Shower, pork dinner with wonderful mushrooms at Y Techa. Bed at 11:02PM
SUN,7/20: Look at watch TWELVE times during awful night. Up at 6:42AM, breakfast, and get on bus that leaves for Novgorod at 8:16AM, arriving 11:18. Awful hot dog for lunch at noon. Tour Yurian Monastery, wood-building area, and Cathedral and Museum. Bus leaves 5:34PM and off at 8:15PM at Moskovskaya Metro to Sadovaya stop. Dinner at Y Techa to 10, Internet not working. Bed 11:12PM.
MON,7/21: Withdrew 1000R yesterday and 2000R this morning and must move room for last night. Leave 10:50AM for hop-on, hop-off bus to Peter and Paul Fortress for Engineer's House, Cathedral, Commandant's House 1:25-2:36PM, 1:11 exactly; Neva Panorama, and Space Museum to 3:40. Zoological Museum 4:08-5PM. St. Isaac's Cathedral 5:40-6:25. To room 6:50, spent. Shit, shower, puzzles, bed 12:48AM.
TUE,7/22: Take Valium and melitonin before breakfast at 11:10AM. Pack, puzzles, Sasha arrives 1:30. To airport, proofread files, puzzles, fly St. Petersburg-London 5:35-8:26PM (2:51) (great graphics by British Airways, and a good meal early for hunger), change watch to 5:26PM. Buy chocolate & Amarula. Fly London-JFK 8:17-10:42PM (7:25). Dinner 9:30, 11:19PM change watch to 6:19PM. Proof files, do magazine puzzles, great sunset. Snack at 9:08PM. Taxi 11:42PM-12:20AM.
WED,7/23: Bed 12:40AM, j/o an hour, up 8:45AM. Phone calls. Fascati pizza lunch. HSBC not overdrawn. Miss Sharon, watch "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny."

JOURNAL:SAT 7/26/2008