It's a beautiful city: I spent two weeks there in 2001, while they were prettifying it for their tricentennial a few years later.... *well* worth a visit!
It's beautiful in midsummer -- although it can be very hard to sleep, since it is light almost 24 hours per day. Don't visit in winter: it is dark almost the whole time!!
I was there in 198..4? or 3..... It was Leningrad, then, a strange city, one where beauty and dilapidation walked hand in hand, where the bakery had no bread, where cabbages were sold in secretive transactions on street-corners. Where the two men in black overcoats followed, until you gave them the slip in a crowded store.... Maybe it had got cabbages? it was besieged by old ladies, anyway.... we ducked down and circled.... went out by a different door... It was fun, but kind of crazy. A man asked us if we'd ever seen Dizzy Gillespie... my friend was american, so it stood to reason he and Dizzy would be on first-name turns... A very pretty girl in a red velvet dress asked me to marry her, so she could leave Russia. She had money saved, she'd give it all to me if I applied for an exit visa for her, as my betrothed. She thought I was American, but I'm not, so she decided to proposition my friend Steve, instead, because he was from California. She had nearly $200 dollars....
It was a beautiful, tragic place. People's beliefs about the west were bizarre, distorted. Of course, as we were free to travel, we must be the ruling plutocrats with our heels upon the necks of dickensian workers. Our pockets were full of treasure. A man pestered Steve to sell his jeans. Steve refused, so they struck a deal for his belt, which had a fancy buckle...I think the barter was for rotgut vodka, probably made out of antifreeze. Afterwards,Steve suddenly burst out laughing. What? I asked. "I just remembered", he said "I think it says on the back of the buckle 'made in the German Democratic Republic'"
It's a beautiful city: I spent two weeks there in 2001, while they were prettifying it for their tricentennial a few years later.... *well* worth a visit!
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I want to go but Mr. Nag has suggested visiting i winter when it's cheap. We'll have to continue negotiating because winter in Russia scares me.
ReplyDeleteIt's beautiful in midsummer -- although it can be very hard to sleep, since it is light almost 24 hours per day. Don't visit in winter: it is dark almost the whole time!!
ReplyDeleteI was there in 198..4? or 3.....
ReplyDeleteIt was Leningrad, then, a strange city, one where beauty and dilapidation walked hand in hand, where the bakery had no bread, where cabbages were sold in secretive transactions on street-corners. Where the two men in black overcoats followed, until you gave them the slip in a crowded store.... Maybe it had got cabbages? it was besieged by old ladies, anyway.... we ducked down and circled.... went out by a different door... It was fun, but kind of crazy.
A man asked us if we'd ever seen Dizzy Gillespie... my friend was american, so it stood to reason he and Dizzy would be on first-name turns...
A very pretty girl in a red velvet dress asked me to marry her, so she could leave Russia. She had money saved, she'd give it all to me if I applied for an exit visa for her, as my betrothed.
She thought I was American, but I'm not, so she decided to proposition my friend Steve, instead, because he was from California.
She had nearly $200 dollars....
It was a beautiful, tragic place.
People's beliefs about the west were bizarre, distorted.
Of course, as we were free to travel, we must be the ruling plutocrats with our heels upon the necks of dickensian workers. Our pockets were full of treasure. A man pestered Steve to sell his jeans. Steve refused, so they struck a deal for his belt, which had a fancy buckle...I think the barter was for rotgut vodka, probably made out of antifreeze.
Afterwards,Steve suddenly burst out laughing. What? I asked. "I just remembered", he said "I think it says on the back of the buckle 'made in the German Democratic Republic'"
Great story, Soubriquet!
ReplyDelete