Take Back the City

What a week. I’m still exhausted from Meghan’s visit, but it was oh so much fun. I successfully managed to pick her up at the airport (only after waiting for half an hour outside the WRONG metro station for a bus that wouldn't ever come), and when she finally came out of customs, I couldn’t believe that she had actually come all this way.

Unfortunately, since my visa was currently in the final process of being turned into a re-entry visa (it’s complicated), I couldn’t officially check into the hotel that Meghan booked for fear of screwing up my visa process and getting deported. Why, you ask? That’s a good question. I honestly don’t know what the details are, but the point is, I couldn’t stay at the hotel with Meghan until the last night, only after my visa had finally come through and I could show the hotel my official, original documents. 

Meghan got in at 5 pm on Saturday, so after dinner we just walked around Nevsky Prospekt. The hotel is located behind a sketchy metal gate and down an even sketchier alleyway hidden behind one of the vast buildings lining the Moika canal, but on the bright side, the hotel was less than a 10 minute walk from Palace square and the Winter Palace, which, every time you go there, never ever gets old. 

The next day, Sunday, was devoted to the Hermitage. My friend Alicia joined us, and I warned her and Meghan before we got in that it’s practically impossible to see everything in the museum, but if we wanted to see all of the coolest stuff (in my opinion), then we better move at a brisk pace. This went over well with them, and we walked through the Russian culture sections, through the palace interiors, past the Italian section, into a little bit of British art, through some Greek sections, and lastly exiting through the Egyptian section. We were only there for a few hours, and we covered an impressive amount of ground, but as I’ve noted before, museums are DRAINING and we needed to be done. 

After the Hermitage, Meghan and I stopped into a little produkty to get some “lunch.” This turned out to be a loaf of bread, some cheese we didn’t know the name of, and 26 ruble berry jam. Like the trash monster that I am, I put it all together and ate 10x more than Meghan did when we got back to the hotel. She was nice enough to eat some, but she also had the decency to be like, “this smells like feet...” Are we college students or what? 

Later in the day, after the rain had stopped and our clothes had somewhat dried from being soaked during our produkty run, we walked through Palace square and towards the Bronze Horseman and St. Isaac’s Cathedral. After that, we went to dinner and then out to the Decabristov cafe for drinks where Adam and Sean joined Meghan, Alicia and I. We ordered a few drinks and played “turrets” with Alicia’s playing cards. I felt like I got an ab work out afterwards I was laughing so hard. 

I played hooky on Monday and continued to show Meghan the sites. In the morning we went to Church on Spilled Blood, where Alexander II was blown up, and then afterwards we went to a little outdoor souvenir shop behind the church. There were a bunch of vendors selling everything from matryoshku dolls, to Soviet pins and knives, to necklaces and scarves. Unfortunately, we were the only ones there, and the salesmen and women were all over us. 

God, I hate business. I don’t like pushing people to buy things, and I don’t like to say no to people. Bartering? Have you met me? I can’t argue or think on my feet to save my life. After the end of 15 minutes, Meghan was practically forced to buy a little matryoshka doll for 450 rubles (which was originally 500, but I had the courage to ask for a whole 50 rubles down! [sarcasm, people]), which was most likely way overpriced. Well, now I know. 

We moved on from the open market to more stable, less bloodthirsty souvenir shops. After a while there, we took to the metro to Gorkovskaya to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress. And THEN, after a few hours of Romanov tombs and prison cells, we took the metro back to where we started, walked towards Church on Spilled Blood again, and then went into the Russian museum. My legs had started to protest at the Peter and Paul Fortress, but Meghan was only here for three full days, so I found my reserve tank and trekked on. 

Dear lord. I am so tired just thinking about how much we saw and did on Monday. We took St. Petersburg BY STORM. As a result, Tuesday was much more low key. One of my language classes which met on Monday was having a 3 hour make up class on Tuesday, and since missing one class is very frowned upon, I decided to drag Meghan to Smolny for a little bit on Tuesday. Luckily, when we finished we still had the afternoon left. We went to look at the Stieglitz Mansion just around the corner from Smolny (Baron von Stieglitz was a famous banker under Nicholas I, and Meghan’s family just happens to be his direct descendants [according to Steppi Mette], so we went to take some photos of the outside [the mansion looked abandoned, unfortunately]), and then afterwards we went to cafe счастье (Happiness) by St. Isaac’s Cathedral to relax for a little bit. After we recharged, we went into St. Isaac’s and then up to the colonnade, where Meghan was able to get panoramic views of the city atop the golden dome of St. Isaac’s. When the cathedral closed, we sat down in the Decembrist park next door and talked until we met Adam for dinner, which was followed by drinks. We went back to the hotel and called it an early night, for we had to get up at 6 the next morning to get to the airport in time. 

All in all, I had the best time touring Meghan around. I had wanted to go back to all the places we went to at least once before my semester ended, and now I don’t have to stress about going to see Nicholas and the fam again. The whole time she was here felt so unreal. There were quite a few times when we just looked at each other and were in complete disbelief that this trip, which we had been planning for almost a year, was finally happening. It was wonderful to be around Meghan, who for me is apart of my family and therefore, a direct piece of home. I’m glad I was able to introduce her to my friends here, although that is always such a weird experience; introducing friends from high school to friends from college, that is. There’s something so strange about seeing those two worlds collide. 

I never really knew how tense (?) I was until Meghan arrived. Tense is clearly the wrong word, but what I think I mean to say is that I noticed how much I completely let loose and relaxed once we were around each other again. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my friends here. I’m confident they all know everything worth knowing about me by now, and I feel comfortable talking with them about anything. But, it’s not the same as being with someone whose been your best friend since you both randomly decided one day at the end of 4th grade that, although we’ve never spent anytime with each other prior to, we should be best friends. Teehee, I get such a tickle out of that story. Anyways, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t know how much I have been behaving like a different person until Meghan got here (or is it more that I have been on my own?). Does that make any sense? Probably not, but in sum, I’m grateful I was able to have a piece of back home around me for a few days. I love how much I can talk with Meghan about normal, stupid Liv stuff, but I love how I can talk about all that stuff without worrying that I'll be judged even more. Most of the time, Meghan gets what I’m trying to say, and even if she doesn't, I know that she’ll still love me. Is that how couples that have been married for a long time feel? I wouldn’t be surprised. 

Throughout Meghan’s time in Russia, our conversations were fueled with statements that more often than not happened to start with: “Remember when we were in [INSERT COUNTRY] and we...” We’ve made memories in Bermuda, Ireland and Paris, and now I’m so happy to say that we can add St. Petersburg to the list! Here’s to more adventures.