As I have mentioned previously, I am living in a small apartment (kvartira) located on Moskovskii Prospekt. It is one of the busier roads of Saint Petersburg, and the Russian drivers are notorious speeders, making jaywalking a serious hazard to one’s health. My apartment, which is to say Marina Vasilevna’s apartment, is situated almost directly across the street from one of the city’s numerous Metro stations. This particular one is known as Frunzenskaya, after the famous Bolshevik commander Mikhail Frunze. Also nearby are several cheap bistros and Lenta, which appears to be the Russian equivalent of Costco...I know this, because Marina Vasilevna took me shopping yesterday evening.
Being in a Russian grocery store is something else, my friends. It's noisy, crowded, and the shopping carts come at you from all sides. Also, the numerous produkti come in very different sizes and containers. Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, there IS a special aisle just for vodka. Floor to ceiling, nothing but bottle after bottle of Smirnov, Popov, Stolichnaya and about 70 other brands.
But back to my home. The bedroom I live in is small, but fairly cozy. There is a TV, a bookshelf (amply stocked with Russian literature, none of which I am fluent enought to read yet), a divan, a workdesk....and a piano. Apparently my bedroom was once the living room. The bathroom is larger, but not by much, and there is a washing machien right next to the toilet, making it a bit of an odd experience going to the bathroom while a machine the size of a small hippo rumbles ominously less than an inch or two from the side of your head.
Also, there is a mosquito in my room. Only one, but I have been trying to kill the blasted thing for the last three nights, and yet the filthy little bugger (pun fully intended) somehow continues to elude me. It's nothing major, but still, annoying to have to deal with.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about the trip to the Blockade Museum and the Column of Victory, which actually happened half a week ago, but I forgot to write about.
Supermarkets in England are also super intense. Maybe it's a city thing? Or a European thing? Either way, it's a nerve-wracking experience to dodge people pushing shopping trolleys who either are oblivious to your existence or take particular joy in mowing down fellow shoppers. But I think I may be a bit bitter...
ReplyDeleteI have to say floor-to-ceiling vodka sounds like a dream.
Don't forget to take lots of pictures of the monuments and museums so we can see them. :D
Hmmm....you could be right. I do seem to recall being in a Tesco a few years back, and that was a bit of a free-for-all as well.
ReplyDeleteAs for the pictures....I'm working on that as we speak...it doesn't seem as though I'll be able to directly publish them on this blog, for some odd reason, but I'll see if there's a way I can link them through from somewhere else.