Passion For Russian

No Dropping Anchor Here (??)

Little old lady (бабушка) feeding the pigeons while we drink our Балтика.

Универсам “Фреш” - our local grocery store while we were stationed at Hotel St. Petersburg.

Универсам = универсальный магазин самообслуживания (literally general purpose self-service store or self-service department store)

This was definitely one of the things I was looking forward to doing during this trip. (I know - ambitious, huh?)

When we found this nice outdoor cafe, I walked up to the counter, looked at the small posted menu, and asked, “Do you have any _____?” (Can’t remember what I wanted, but it was on the menu.) The young woman behind the counter replied very politely, “No.” So I asked, “What do you have?” Again, very friendly and politely, “nothing”.

Luckily, in Russia, there usually isn’t a shortage of kiosks selling greasy little treats. This is a хычин с мясом (fried meat pocket) I originally fell in love with the cheese version (хычин с сыром) in Sochi in 2003. And don’t forget the Балтика (Baltika beer)!

Russians seem to like to decorate their cars more than we do. Муж really enjoyed this. (More to come…)

I found this huge area by the elevators to be a little odd: very quiet, old, dull carpet, no decorations…

One of those pictures that really reminds me of the feel of that building.

Hold the door.

Outside the St. Petersburg Hotel.

More bad parking. (Hint - if you park this bad, you might get a flat tire.)

‘Rooski Kloob’

This one goes out to my brother Drew, who loves the Simpsons. So I zoomed way in to take this picture of it for him. I was afraid if I openly took a picture of it they would make me buy it.