Right, having already recounted the way into England, here comes the (possibly) eagerly awaited second of this blog post.
Having arrived in Sheffield once again, time to reacquaint myself with literally everything which had become a complete impossibility in Russia for the past two months. Sandwiches and bacon being the most obvious things. A couple of awkward linguistic slips of the tongue later, involving addressing people in Russian for a brief period of time, and I was finally reunited with bacon.
The scale of things I just haven't done for the past two months were quickly apparent. I hadn't actually cooked anything for myself in that time, nor had I had anything like a lounge to chill in. Five pound notes suddenly feeling like a novelty. And takeaways, yes, Russia hasn't latched on to this concept yet, let alone Greggs. I obviously won't go into any depth actually describing Britain, as that'd be somewhat pointless, you all know what it's like.
Seeing everyone again was brilliant, I couldn't really have asked for a great deal more to be honest. A good time was had by all. In fact, several good times were had by all. In fact, I'm pretty sure by the end, I'd just got used to being there again.
It was "Dress up" Sunday of course.
Once this time had run, and after witnessing perhaps the most disappointing football match ever witnessed, it was time to make the epic return back to the motherland, this time, via Estonia rather than the disappointing Riga.
When my Dad said to me that he'd take me to the airport, I'm not entirely sure if he realised he'd just signed up to take me to the airport at literally the most inconvenient time of the day, traipsing over the M65 at 3:00am in heavy fog. For that I'm grateful. Anyway, being at Liverpool airport again at such a time was tiring in itself, regardless of the titanic distance I still had to cover.
Wasting time on Liverpool Airport's wi-fi provided an ample way of passing the couple of hours until the flight left. In fact, wi-fi was generally a bit of a godsend all over the place to be honest. And another of Stelios' tin boxes took me to Tallinn this time. Step off the plane, instantly realise how incredibly cold it is in this part of the world...usual drill.
Suddenly, 14 hours to kill in Tallinn, no biggie... Riga had sort of tainted my appetite for the Baltic, so I wasn't really expecting anything particularly impressive this time around. Wrong. Tallinn is absolutely amazing, definitely the most under-appreciated European capital city in my opinion. The old town, which takes up a huge chunk of room in this city, is one of those places you can walk into, and just turn in any direction down its winding, heavily cobbled and narrow streets. Then you work your way gradually uphill towards to various important looking old buildings, wind your way round another few corners and suddenly, the whole of Tallinn beckons before you as you peer over the edge.
This was maybe the best spot.
Whilst 14 hours was a long long time to kill, and, truth be told, was probably too long to be walking round with a ridiculous bag, I definitely want to return to Tallinn sometime to properly do it justice, and to be honest, being in St Petersburg for a whole semester next year, it's more than likely going to be a case of when rather than if.
Another problem soon emerged whilst sat in one of the many bars surrounding the old town, that being that I realised I had absolutely no idea where the bus station was, I'd completely forgotten to actually check. As it turned out, free wi-fi to the rescue once again, and a two mile walk was the net result.
Ready to drop dead into an Estonian bus going in anything like the right direction, I found one. Then quickly became a victim of my own downfall once again as I was turfed out of my own pleasant window seat by some girl who wanted to sit there, requiring me to take the middle back seat. The WORST seat on any bus, so no sleep there, as St Petersburg approached from the other side this time.
8:00am and a pitch black St Petersburg. No idea where to go, so went to Moscovskii train station to book my train home that evening, secretly praying that there were free spaces on the earlier trains going to Murmansk via Petrozavodsk. Not a hope, so ANOTHER 14 hour layoff in St Petersburg, granted, I loved St Petersburg the first time around, but this was a different test, before I even live here.
Somehow, 14 hours were killed, partially finding the British Airways office and changing my flight home date (now the 12th December, if anyone needs to know...), costing significantly more than previously anticipated...
Arriving at the correct train station in St Petersburg an hour and a half early, and about to have my first ever experience of the Platskart class of ticket. For those of you who are unaware of this, essentially, Russian trains have a mysterious third class. First and second class represent more or less their English equivalents, and then they have scum class below these, a barn attached to a normal train if you will, looking like a big climbing frame full of pissed up Russians.
After a surprisingly peaceful nights sleep (probably because I'd been waiting 3 days to actually get any sleep), the train pulled back into PTZ. At 6 in the morning. Finally getting back, and after knocking on the door and waking everyone up because my keys didn't work, time to be brought straight back to Russia with a thud with a bowl of porridge and tea without milk, followed an hour later by going back to school.
After slowly, bit by bit getting less and less tired through the week, and after forgetting this myself numerous times through the week, Friday was time for my birthday, probably the only one I'll see in Russia.
And so starts the second part of my blog. I really wasn't expecting much from my birthday, maybe a few happy birthdays here and there, and the odd Facebook message, but no. My host family went all out for this one, and to be honest it was quite overwhelming. Waking up and walking in to the kitchen to see a huge cake, and numerous banners adorning the room, then the unfortunacy (spell checker is saying that's not a word, but it definitely should be if it isn't) of having my birthday on a weekday. Once this had passed though, back to work, so to speak.
The Russian hospitality I was on about.
It was really nice to know that my birthday actually meant so much to a family I'd only met 2 and a half months previously, but that's what I've learnt Russian hospitality is all about.
Time to go to Neubrandenburg, armed with a table reservation, and an insatiable appetite, which was the start of another huge success, and the large turnout was very much appreciated. After this it was time for FM, although that remains understandably a little hazy.
With such a disregard towards choice of drinks the previous night, Saturday was the biggest waste of time ever. Ever. As much as I tried to persuade myself otherwise, a second consecutive night out was always going to be a ridiculous idea.
I've recently realised that there really isn't very long left on the Petrozavodsk clock, and even though I've been home quite recently (the start of this fairly mammoth blog post), I've still got mixed emotions about the fact that there isn't long left, whilst I do like the place, and it's more than adequate, I wouldn't say I'm not looking forward to being back home again, with all the comfort it brings and everything else. Coupled with the fact that after two years of English university life back home, being here just feels strange, and I find myself unoccupied for huge patches, obviously decreasing motivation all the time. Leaving me in a strange position of actually wanting to do academic things, and even feeling ever so slightly envious of friends back home battling through third year, something I never in a million years thought would happen after last Summers IC marathon. But anyway, for three months back home, I've got a lot of Russian to forget in that time...
After that, I think I've covered everything that I needed to. The temperature has definitely taken a turn for the worse recently, and the days are getting shorter and shorter. I've pencilled in this weekend to buy a hat. Fun times ahead. I'll update as and when news becomes available.
Спокойной ночи :D x
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