Via several e-mail messages, I had previously made arrangements for
airport pickup and for an apartment rental from a firm in SPb. They told me
that a 30s something woman named Sveta would be there to pick me up.
We had even exchanged pictures. She was supposed to be waiting for
me, but she was nowhere to be seen.
I was mildly worried about Sveta’s absence, but did not panic. I had also
been well warned that things did not always work smoothly in Russia. I
pranced around in the lobby area for about 10 -15 minutes and then went
out doors to survey the parking lot. Cab drivers talked to me in passable
English and offered to give me a ride to town. I went back inside and sat
down on a long bench seat near another man. I notice his green (Russian)
passport, so I don’t attempt any conversation.
Finally, about 12:20 PM, I approach a counter desk at the front of the
lobby. It was not an information desk, some sort of reservation desk it
seemed, but I could not exactly tell what they did. I showed one of the late
20s gals a sheet with Sveta’s office phone number and asked if she would
call. (Sveta had mentioned doing this in the ‘unlikely’ event she was not
there.) She said nothing to me and kept the typical non-smiling face as
she began to dial. She handed me the phone and said, “Just talk very
quickly.” But there was no answer, so I asked her to dial Sveta’s mobile
phone number and to tell her I was waiting. She dialed and then began
talking in Russian. She hung up the phone and looked at me and said, “5
minutes.” I asked her to clarify and she said, “She will be here in 5
minutes, go sit down.” She was not sneering or being totally rude, but was
still unsmiling.
Sveta does arrive shortly, and tells the standard story about being hung up
in traffic. I smile but am always wondering why this frequent situation is
not factored into the time for departure. Sveta is a fairly jovial type; about 5
feet 5 inches, a little overweight, dark black hair, nice smile and pretty good
English. She had studied English in college, taught English in high school
for about a year, worked at various import type jobs for several years, and
now was trying to make a go of it as a consultant and interpreter for
businesses and travelers like myself. She has a hatchback Lada that
appeared to be about 10 years old. The Lada is the largest selling auto
made in Russia. It is about the size of a small Nissan or Toyota; they are
very basic vehicles, but apparently fairly reliable in recent years.
We drive out the airport road and then turn north on Highway 5 that leads
into St. Petersburg. This street is named Moskovsky prospekt inside the
town. (‘prospekt’ is equivalent to ‘avenue’ in the USA). I had heard that
the streets in St. Petersburg were in terrible condition, but Moskovsky was
a wide street (three lanes each direction) with center median and was very
smooth; probably having been recently resurfaced. After about 20 minutes
we turned right onto Fontanki. Fontanki is a street that follows on both the
east and west sides of the Fontanka River. Northbound traffic is on the
west side of the river, and Southbound traffic is on the east side. We cross
Nevsky prospekt (the main street in the center of St. Petersburg) and
continue on Fontanki to the Simeonievskaya most which is near the Circus.
(‘most’ is equivalent to ‘bridge’ in USA and the Circus is a landmark
building in St. Petersburg where a live circus actually performs). We turn
right across Simeonievskaya most and the street becomes Belinskovo
ulitsa. (‘ulitsa’ is equivalent to ‘street’ in USA). We turn left on Mokhovaya
ulitsa, left on Pestelya ulitsa and left again on Fontanki. This puts us on
the southbound (east) side of the Fontanka river. The bridge across the
Fontanka river at Pestelya is closed (except for foot traffic); otherwise that
route would have eliminated the need for so many left turns.
My apartment house is on Fontanki back inside an interior courtyard.
These buildings were built some time in 1800s. There are several ground
floor entry doors to various sets of apartments and mine is at the very rear.
There is a push button coded door lock at this main entry and the three
buttons have to be held in simultaneously which takes a little time to
master, and is very tricky to do if you are carrying anything in your hands.
We go through the short entry hall and up one flight of steps to the second
floor. Then back to the left along the stairway railing to door number 26.
Sveta gives me a key ring with 3 keys. Two are for separate locks on this
entry door. One is gold colored and a larger one is silver colored. These
keys are flat and somewhat like the old skeleton keys in USA except there
are small notches on both sides of the flat piece. These keys are not easy
to use as the key pathway is not continuous. The key can get ‘off center’
as it moves into the door cavity and take some jiggling to enter the actual
lock mechanism near the back of the door. Opening the outer door reveals
a second insulated inner door which helps to keep out the cold northern air
in winter time.
To the left is a closet for outer garments which I didn’t even notice for a
couple of weeks. The first room to the left is a very roomy living room
containing a phone, about 12 inch color TV with cable, fold out sofa, easy
chair, table under TV, higher coffee table, desk and chair, and another
office type chair with arms. All of the furniture is cherry colored, but the
shades are not the same and the styles are all different. The floor is oak
parquet and there are three large windows which look out over the
courtyard. A glass ‘french type’ door leads into this living room.
Down the hallway and to the left is a small kitchen. There is a small
wooden table with L type bench seating (with backs) around two sides of
the table and two sitting stools. (I moved one of these stools into the
bedroom to serve as a night stand). The kitchen contained a regular sized
single sink (medium depth) with single handle faucet. To the left of the
sink and under the counter top was a refrigerator. An apartment size, 4
burner gas stove with oven was also present. There was an assortment of
dishes, pots, pans, tea kettle, cooking utensils and silverware. And very
conveniently, someone had left a nearly full bottle of liquid dish washing
soap which I could see the words ‘antibacterial’ on.
At the end of the main hallway was a bathroom which was same size as
most bathrooms (excluding master baths) in USA. It contained a tub with
single handle faucet, hand held shower and a shower curtain. The hand
held shower head tended to fall on my head until I got it firmly pushed
down into its holder. A very small sink (with hot and cold faucet handles)
had a glass shelf just above it which prevented me from using it much
(brushed teeth in kitchen) and a mirror above. The toilet had a ‘pull up’
flush mechanism, and a very interesting seat. The seat was not fastened
down and proved to be quite a challenge as it tended to slide around when
your body moved in various directions during certain procedures. Later, I
took time to look at it and was able to fix it.
Opposite the living room was a very roomy bedroom. It was similar in size
to many master bedrooms in tract type housing in USA. It contained a
queen sized bed, one easy chair, three small dining room type arm chairs,
a small table with lamp, ironing board and iron, and cherrywood cabinets
along about two thirds of the south wall. Several of the cabinet units had
locks that worked via the third key on the key ring I was given. One third of
the cabinet space was devoted to a space for hanging clothes and the
remainder had enclosed shelving with a counter top half way up. The
cabinets contained several items of linen materials, but none seemed to
match anything and there was only one medium weight comforter on the
bed. This concerned me as I thought it wouldn’t be enough, but this did
not prove to be a problem. There was also a thick insulating pad (thicker
than just a mattress cover) on top of the mattress, and I think that helps
keep the body warm. There were two large throw rugs on the floor. One
was of oriental type with fringe and the other something like an American
Indian pattern (but not quite) without fringe. I had given some thought to
using one of them as a cover on the bed, but it was never needed.
There was a steel frame around the bedroom door that required one to
step over a threshold. I worried about tripping over this obstacle, but I
always seemed to remember it. The door was of steel and the inner side
was covered with Cedar strips similar to the wood on our home exterior. It
had a massive lock with three throw bolts, but I did not have a key to this
lock; it made me wonder about the purpose. The bedroom also had an
oak floor laid out in an interesting ‘hound’s tooth’ pattern. These oak floors
had been sanded and refinished many times, and had a sort of washboard
surface from the uneven sanding jobs. The windows in the bedroom faced
east and looked into another set of buildings about 20 or so feet away.
This room proved to be fairly quiet due to its location at the back of the
courtyard.
Everyone remarked how roomy this apartment was compared to their own,
and attributed it to the date it was built (1800s) compared to the much
smaller units that were built during the communist years.
Rex
