Photo: Ralph at St Petersburg hotel
March 31, 1996 James gave me a ride to the Intercontinental Airport Houston. My Delta flight left 45 minutes late because of fog in Atlanta. My Atlanta flight was direct to Frankfurt. I sat next to an Indianapolis doctor, an immigrant from Iran. He was on his way to Istanbul, Turkey to meet his Iranian wife at the Iranian Embassy. They were to be interviewed as part of the process for his wife to emigrate to the US.
April 1, 1996 Although the plane was late into Frankfurt, I made the Warsaw/St Petersburg connection. The land around St Petersburg was very fiat, and covered with snow. Russian customs was very easy. At the X-ray machine, I removed my computer and a small bag with film and computer diskettes to show the official. He did not even look at them.
Photo: Church of the Resurrection of Christ, St Petersburg
I was met by Anna, a university linguistic student working for the CDC. Another American, Joe Doherty, also arrived on the same plane. Joe was to assist an advertising company in Petrozavodsk. The trip from the airport passed by many of the concrete block, multi-story apartment buildings so fashionable in earlier times. She took us to a hotel in the midst of the old dachas used by the former Communist elite. This part of St Petersburg was somewhat isolated and an almost park-like setting. At 9 PM there was still some lingering daylight. The short hotel bed barely accommodated my 5'5" height.
April 2, 1996 Our 7 AM wakeup call came at 8 AM. The CDC driver arrived at 8:30 to take us to a "welcome" breakfast at the Europa Hotel with our CDC program director, Mariya Shilina. CDC picked up the breakfast buffet tab of $22 per person, payable in rubles. Mariya told Joe he would be staying in the same apartment with his host, the wife and child. Although, I would be staying in a "hotel", Mariya said the company, "Karelia-Reserve" did not know if they could keep me busy for 3 weeks.
Photo: Irena at St Petersburg hotel
After breakfast and a brief visit at the CDC office, Irena (another CDC staff member) took Joe and I on a tour of St Isaacs Cathedra! and the Hermitage Museum. The admission charge for foreigners at each was about $8. Russians paid maybe $0.50. St Isaacs had been a museum for a long time, but will eventually be used for Orthodox services again. Especially notable were the large carved wooden doors.
It was a good day to be inside, since it was windy, cold, and snowy. We were In the Hermitage for only 2 hours, certainly not enough time for such a large, famous art museum. Both Joe and I were very tired from the previous days plane trip. That night we took the 9 PM overnight train to Petrozavodsk. Prior to departure, the porters wanted $40 to carry a few bags about 100 meters, so we carried the luggage ourselves.