Posted 1:55 AM by Gobbler
The Wheels Fell Off...

Tragedy. Failure. Russia sucked the time out of my schedule, especially as I decided to go to saint petersburg. well, why not? I was in the area. As well as this my trusty guidebook had divulged a vital piece of information, that there was a train from st petes to berlin that did not go through Belarus which i need a transit visa to pass through. No such service existed in moscow, and therefore it looked economical timewise. Looks can be deceiving.

Its one thing going into a train station and saying in russian "One ticket Berlin Kupe Class today" its quite another thing attempting to explain that you want a ticket for a specific time not going via Belarus. That is to say it is not possible in any way shape or form. A twenty minute walk from my friends ouse to my hostel to try to get some information and pay for my room, a tfiftenn minute walk to the tourist agency where they spoke english, but they did not know about such a train and in any case couldnt book me an international train ticket. I had to go to the central train booking office, and i got them to write down in russian what sort of ticket i wanted. Off i tramped through the rain, my cheap Chinese trainers, which experienced structural failure weeks ago, letting the water through holes in the soles at every step, oozing st p rain and well on the way to giving me these blisters i now have. A twenty minute walk later and im in the ticket office asking ticket seller after ticket seller if they speak a little english. This doesnt get me very far so i try my luck with the piece of paper. I asked two people but they were both in agreement that no such train existed. "Are you sure?" I quizzed. "DA. Go away." Back to the travel agent. Perhaps a train to riga, and from there to Berlin. But they knew nothing about this service. Back to my hostel to check the guidebook. No evidence of a decent service from riga to berlin. There was no way i could get a belarus transit visa and try and get back in time for the cricket. And so, dear friends, the wheels had come off the train. The special st p to berlin not via belarus was a mere myth, and the cricket was only 5 days away. I have failed in my glorious mission of taking the train home. I swallowed my pride, i knew the dream was smashed. I bought an aeroplane ticket to Berlin.

Of course, it simply wouldnt do to leave it at that. Russia had one last devilish trick up its sleeve: the St. Petersburg Metro system. The plane left at half past ten, i was to be at the airport at half past eight or nine, so i had to leave the hostel at half 7 or eight. We went out to a club the night before, one last blast in st p. Come four in the morning it... TBC