I have recently completed a 9 day trip to St. Petersburg, Russia to meet with two women I had been corresponding with, and another woman (non-romantic) who had encouraged me & I had instilled confidence in, enough to travel to St. Petersburg on a solo trip. Those of you who have read my other post entitled "The Out-of-Towner's Travel to St. Petersburg" (in the Travel Discussion section), know full-well that my trip had plenty of up's & down's.
In this post, I will hopefully not be as long-winded and overly-detailed as I was in my travel post, as there were a lot of romantic interludes that don't need to be repeated here. I will now attempt to set the stage by introducing the people that were more than helpful, and thus responsible for my decision to travel to Russia solo.
Earlier this year, I thought I would finally make time to take a short vacation over there. I considered going the tour route, but work & school commitments would not permit 2 weeks away.
I decided to choose St. Petersburg as my first city to visit, mostly for the culture, architecture, arts, museums, and everything else that those traveling there before me have mentioned in their trip reports. I decided to purchase several addresses of women in the St. Petersburg area, from one of the larger, more well-known agencies. One of these women was Julia who lives in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, about 30 miles or so in a small village known as Dibuny. (Da-boonies). I had a letter composed in Russian (from a translation service), and sent it off to Julia. About 3 weeks later, I receive a nice reply from her (in Russian) and 2 very beautiful photos of her. In her letter she thanks me very much for writing, and prior to closing the letter, tells me that she was recently diagnosed with some form of Lymphoma, and is presently undergoing radiation & chemotherapy treatments. She goes on to say that if I choose not to continue correspondence, she will understand. Since my sister died in 1994 from cancer, and underwent the same procedures, I decided that I wanted to quickly send her another letter & some roses.
Having read these boards for several months, I realized I remembered a member mentioning in one of his posts that he had a connection in St. Petersburg who could deliver flowers much less expensive & probably more reliably than flower services. After exchanging e-mails with this member, he sends me the e-mail address of a woman named Nina R. in St. Petersburg. After several e-mails back & forth with Nina R., I determine that she is credible, and for what seems like a reasonable fee, she offers to deliver 7 red roses & translate a letter I have written for Julia. Nina R. without hesitation boards a suburban train headed for "da-boonies".
Over the next several months, Nina R. becomes my go-between, between Julia & me. I inform Julia that I am preparing a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, and I would be thrilled to visit her. Over the next several months, Julia & I exchange e-mail a couple/few times per month with much help from Nina R. (as both have fax machines). At present, Julia did not possess direct e-mail capabilities.
In the meantime, Nina R. informs me that she will gladly provide me with a private airport transfer, an apartment located about 2 blocks from Nevsky Prospekt, for much less than I had found elsewhere on the internet, and also sight-seeing excursions if I choose. I decide that this trip is finally going to become a reality, and is really a no-brainer. Since Nina R. converses in almost fluent English, I sense that this is the best way to visit St. Petersburg.
Now, not wishing to place all of my eggs in one basket, so to say, I proceed to search-out at least 1 other woman for correspondence, and possible meeting. On the internet, I find a lovely woman who has her profile listed on an all-Russian personals site. She's about 40 (I'm 42, for you age police), and appears to be quite a lovely, proper-looking lady. I sent her an introduction letter in Russian, attached with a couple of my photos. The next day, I get a very warm response from her, and we develop an e-mail relationship exchanging letters almost daily for 5 months. This woman is Nina S.
I inform her of my impending visit to St. Petersburg in August, to which we both plan our vacation time from work accordingly. She tells me that she speaks German, but doesn't know much English. I have been studying the Pimsleur Russian I course, so I'm hoping for the best between us. Nina S. also informs me that she only lives 2 Metro stations down the line from the apartment that I'll be renting, thus she says to me, "I have big opportunity to bother you". I respond by telling her that I'll only be bothered if she does NOT bother me.
In the meantime, I learn that Nina R. is the lady that Phil of another discussion board has established relations with. Wanting to know more about my hostess in St. Petersburg, I read with great interest Phil's trip report, and establish e-mail communication with him. Over the past few months, Phil has given me pointers, advice, and assures me that his lady Nina R. will accommodate my vacation needs.
In all, I depart for Russia on Friday August 17th, which will be 3-4 of the most hellish days I have ever experienced en-route to Russia. Again, my travel report entitled "The Out-of-Towner's Travel to St. Petersburg" (in a thread below) makes for some rather long, but interesting travel reading.
--- To be continued ---
In the meantime, I have instructed Nina R. to deliver roses to Nina S. and I have given Nina R. her telephone number so she may contact Nina S. and discuss convenience of delivery, etc. Therefore, Nina R. has met personally both of the ladies I have been corresponding with, and ensures me that they are both quite lovely ladies. Although Julia is showing signs of wear from her present radiation & chemotherapy treatments.
A couple weeks prior to my departure for Russia, I decide it's only proper to give each of these three ladies a personal phone call (just to ensure that I really haven't been corresponding with "Fat Yuri"). A call to Nina R. reveals that she indeed does have a virtually fluent command of the English language. My next call to Nina S. reveals that she's quite amused at my attempt to speak Russian, as she mostly just giggles & says "ahh, vedy goood" when I converse in Russian. Nina S. has a very soft & lovely voice , & is able to converse a little bit to me in English too, although in a slow & deliberate manner of speech.
A subsequent call to Julia reveals that she has virtually no command of the English language, a slightly harder voice, and any meeting with her will require an intermediary, to which Nina R. gladly accepts the responsibility. Julia tells me in her letters that she enjoys BBQ's, and making homemade wine, which she tells me she hopes we can enjoy on my visit.
Since I had communicated much more with Nina S. than I had Julia, and that she was such a close distance from my apartment, it made perfect sense to me that this was the woman that I definitely wished to see first, and barring any disasters upon meeting, would probably choose to spend the majority of my time with while in Piter. Nina S. had agreed to sit by her phone & wait for me to call her, when Nina R. & the driver Slava had delivered me to my apartment. Nina S. had inquired if I liked pastry, and stated to me that she would need 60-90 minutes after I called her, to give her time to negotiate the Metro, get to her favorite confectionary shop, and arrive to my apartment.
--- Monday, 08/20/01 St. Petersburg, Russia ---
Well, after a VERY eventful 4 days courtesy of Delta & LOT Polish Airlines, I arrived at Pulkovo Int'l. Airport to a warm greeting from Nina R. and Slava. They quickly & efficiently whisked me away towards my apartment near Ligovsky Prospekt Metro station. Phil had warned me that the apartment building may not look tremendously beautiful from the outside, but that the 5th floor apartment was quite clean, cozy, modern, and more importantly, a big bargain compared to others I'd seen advertised on the internet for 2-3X the price. Phil was absolutely correct in his assessment. Having lived in San Francisco for 5 years during my youth, the sight of rather large inner-city apartment buildings was no surprise. Nadya, the apartment owner was there to greet me, and I found her to be very pleasant, attractive, and informal in her business dealings. After paying the previously-agreed upon price for the apartment, Nadya, Nina R. & Slava decided to part company, thus leaving me only one HUGE item on my mind to take care of. That was get cleaned-up, and call Nina S. to inform her of my arrival, and prepare for meeting a woman that I already had a great affection for, even though we had not yet personally met.
--- To be continued ---
