Today is Random Info Day!

Location: Westbound in the Kiel Canal

Hey everyone! I'm always surprised to hear how many people are encountering my blog - it's pretty cool to know I'm being thought of. Anyhow, the ship has left the Baltic Sea and is now cruising along the Kiel Canal, which is a much more direct route to our next port of call in Hamburg, Germany, than going all the way up and around Denmark. It's really neat being able to look out the window and see bits of Germany flitting by, and of course everyone's really excited to arrive in Hamburg and start exploring tomorrow.

So since I haven't been doing much besides classes over the last couple of days, I'm going to use this blog post to reflect on some interesting observations that I never got around to posting about St. Petersburg, and to write some general stuff about life on the MV Explorer!

As you may remember reading, the ship was docked at St. Petersburg's Vasilyevsky Island, along the north side of the Neva River. Apparently the main docks for ships are more to the southwest, and we were lucky to be where we were, because it was much closer to the city center. We were actually positioned right by an ordinary street; there weren't docks or anything, so a little pontoon boat with the Russian customs officials was set up between us and the shore, and every time we wanted to get on or off the ship we had to have our passports and Russian visas inspected by them (yes, I had to get a Russian visa before I came! The whole process took about six weeks, because I had to get visas for Ghana and Brazil as well. I didn't get my visas and passport back until about a week before getting on my series of planes bound for England, but I have spoken with people who didn't receive their's until the day they were scheduled to leave. That had to be pretty nerve-wracking.) We were not the only ones there though––a much larger cruise ship called Silver Whisper was situated close by. The folks onboard were very interested to hear about Semester at Sea and what our floating campus was up to.

Anyhow, there were some aspects of the city of St. Petersburg which I found surprising, and some that were quite normal. They drive on the same side of the road that we do in the US, the crosswalks are similar, and the people walking along the streets are pretty much just people going about their day. The weather was also normal––not super hot, but also not cold at all during the day. Traffic can be a bit crazy, and it's apparently common practice to park wherever you feel like (there were cars pulled all the way up on the sidewalk, and our bus on the first day had to stop several times because people had just gotten out and left their cars in the middle of the road.) While walking along the sidewalk it's very common to hear grumpy drivers honking at one another. We were warned to be super careful when crossing the street, but there were crosswalks that have signs lit up detailing how many seconds you have to cross, and as long as you kept looking for cars anyway (they have the right of way, not you) then it really wasn't a problem.

What was a bit of a problem was the smoking. People smoked on the streets, and in the coffee shops and restaurants. There are cigarette butts everywhere on the ground in St. Petersburg. Our tour guide would be showing us areas where cobblestone was still there from the 18th century, and we would look down and see cigarettes in all the crevices. On a lighter note, can you guess what else were everywhere you looked in St. Petersburg? Weddings! I am not joking; it was a widespread phenomenon. One of my teachers was talking about watching brides lined up on the street waiting for their turn to go into the cathedral. One would come out to tumultuous applause by their crowd of family and friends, and then one would slip in, and then another would come out to be met by another crowd. It was fascinating. Once I was walking down a back street with two other girls and we saw a well-dressed group packed onto a patch of green grass in between the street and a strip of temporary blue fencing (I think they were doing construction next door.) As we were walking by on the other side of the street, there was a woman with tears in her eyes standing on a podium speaking in very heartfelt Russian to the group, and when she stopped the bride and groom kissed and the entire crowd (as well as those of us on the other side of the street) started cheering. It was touching and very strange at the same time.

Also a bit strange were the fishermen. Sprinkled along the Neva right in the middle of the city were rows of fishermen who never seemed to catch anything, but stood there hour after hour just the same. I heard that unemployment was not a big problem in Russia, and that there are jobs (and therefor opportunities to make money and buy food) available for those who want them, so I'm really not sure what motivated those individuals.

I think that covers all that I can remember wanting to say about St. Petersburg, so now to talk a little bit about life on the ship! First of all, my grandma was curious about what they're feeding us, so this next paragraph is about pretty much all you never wanted to know about dining on the M.V. Explorer!

We have three and a half meals served each day. Breakfast, which is early enough that I have only made it there about half of the time, usually consists of fruit, pastries, eggs, and bacon which to me more resembles ham. They also like to mix it up a bit and have biscuits and gravy or cream of wheat. Lunch and dinner are pretty similar, with the usual assortment of salad, rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, and whichever meat they decide to serve (70% of the time it is fish.) There is also always soup, some type of dessert, and the ingredients to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That last task is a bit of a challenge, because the peanut butter and the jelly are both in these big tubs and all they give you to spread them with are these awkward implements that resemble pie servers. I have only braved the peanut butter and jelly sandwich once. Finally, there is a snack time in the evening during which they have tasty little sandwiches and desserts that you can munch on. Of course, if you miss any of these fine dining opportunities you are on your own. The only things available 24/7 are the fixings for coffee or tea, which can be a bit a hit or miss affair in terms of that beverage being hot as opposed to sort of lukewarm.

Or, of course, you can go to one of two places where you can spend more money to buy food! Which I think is nuts, so I don't really have much to say on that topic. Not sure why anyone would pay $6 for a smoothie when they already paid tens of thousands of dollars for the voyage. It gets a bit difficult though if you've missed a meal and start thinking those muffins look really tasty, which is why I actually went on a quest in St. Petersburg to find a supermarket where I could hopefully get something resembling instant noodles. I was successful! I actually managed to acquire a decent armload of food/snacks (everything sealed and single-serve, so that I would be allowed to bring it back on the ship), but I think I may get some more in Hamburg so I don't have stoop to buying expensive ship food on the way to Belgium.

Granted, I just paid $6 to get my laundry done, so maybe I shouldn't be snubbing the folks who broke down and bought a kit-kat bar. The laundry people aren't very nice to clothes here, and I think I may try hand-washing my clothes in the sink in the future. Oh well, live and learn.

To wrap up this lengthy monologue, did everyone know that this ship is actually one of the fastest ships of its kind in the world? It is capable of traveling at 28 knots (32mph), which is apparently very good for a cruise ship. But we have been moving along at a snail's pace for the last few days, because we are in the unique position of needing more days at sea to facilitate (dun dun dun).... classes! I kind of wonder if our captain is a little bummed out at having to move so slowly, but the teachers already have their work cut out for them trying to keep a strain of thought going in a class that may meet anywhere from every other day to not for seven days because of the odd times we spend in port (we have ten straight days of no classes when we reach Portugal, Spain, and Morocco because the ports are so close together.)

So you know that whole not wanting to miss meals thing? Well it's dinner time! So hopefully I'll be blogging about my experiences in Hamburg soon, but don't be surprised if I'm too busy to update for a few days. Love you all!