St Petersburg
I spent over an hour waiting for a transfer to the hotel, but because of miscommunication, I had to get one of the airport staff to ring the company. They were not expecting me until tomorrow. However, a short Taxi ride later and I found myself in the cutest boutique hotel. The Shelfort is a three star hotel with only 15 rooms, but one that appealed to me immediately. Once through the doors into the entrance hall, the room itself was a large twin with ensuite of course, on the ground floor and best of all free Wifi. Everything that was important to me. You could walk past it in the street and not even notice the small sign on the door. The graffiti on walls before reaching the hotel gives a bad impression of the area.
After settling in, it was off out to check out the locality!
Oh joy, a McDonalds and a lovely tree lined street of various businesses, taking note of possible eateries. Shop fronts being made ready for the summer outdoor eating and coffee consumption. A church with local women tending it was worth seeing, just for the fact it was an ordinary parish place of worship.
After lunch at Maccas, whose prices were actually no cheaper than home, it was off to try the tram system.
The old tram clanked, hissed and struggled around the city; it was a cheap ride at 21 rubles. I saw a great deal of the city for over an hour. Finally getting off the tram at the end of its run some distance from the hotel. I had relied on it being a circular run but alas, it was not. No problem, there was a Metro just down the road to use; it was a considerable distance from one I needed that was close to the hotel. With the Metro map in hand and a few struggling conversations with language difficulties, I managed to use the Metro and change trains ultimately back to the right one!
The Metro system here is supposed to be one of the deepest in the world, I found it terrifying going on escalators that you could scarcely see the bottom. Well lit and maintained certainly, but still not for the fainthearted. I noticed even some of the Russians did not like looking down so they faced the top of the escalators! The question I had to ask, why would it break down today? The tokens for it obtained either from machines or from Kacca booths. I always buy my tickets from the ticket booths, something they don’t encourage obviously. The women behind the glass are invariably sour and unhelpful; one in particular threw the change and tokens into the dish! They have a customer service problem! It must be very boring sitting alone behind a glass protected booth all day. The Russians seem to work long hours as well.
As I have said before customer service in ordinary life needs to improve big time in these countries. After a very pleasant day, wandering it was nearly 8pm before I was back at the hotel, but as sunset is not until nearly 10pm, there was plenty of time. I rarely go out after dark, mostly as a safety precaution.
