SO. I'm not done with Lapland blogging yet(will I ever be?), but by gosh I just went to Russia and I wanted to share something that can't be at all explained by uploading pictures. This was a bit of an interesting situation which left me with a quickened heartbeat and a tinge of adrenaline, symbolizing a nice level of uncertainty I experienced which people refer to when they say "Anything is possible in Russia." Now of course, this is one story out of one city from one guy in this one country. So don't let this be your impression of Russia, I'll post the absolutely gorgeous pictures of the city and other great things later. For now here we go.
So let's do a really quick intro to get you up to speed so this story actually makes some sense in context. We went last week to a place in Russia called St. Petersburg (OR LENINGRAD IF YOU'RE A SOCIALIST, YOU SOCIALISTS!). It's one of the largest cities in Russia, the second largest to be specific. The damn place has a few hundred thousand less people than -Finland- aka the thing is huge. Something like 4.7 million, where as Finland has 5.something million. Moscow is even bigger, something like 10 million people. So instead of saying thousand or million let's just say Finland. So St Petersburg has something like 0.85 Finland people, and Moscow has something like 1.8 Finland people. All necessary conversions aside, St Petersburg was originally named.....St Petersburg (I should never be a tour guide), and then got it's name changed at one point to Leningrad during the Soviet Union times. So just know that Leningrad = St Petersburg so there's no confusion on where I was. Okay I think we're good now, I'll add maps and all that stuff later. Right now let's just get to it.
So we took a cruise ship to St Petersburg, as it's a city of many many interconnected waterways. When we got there, we were accommodated in a hotel: Hotel Moscow. It was really nice until you got past the second floor(we were on the 4th), but even after that it wasn't so bad. Just like the city the hotel is freaking huge. So on the first night we went to a traditional "Russian Dinner Party," it was really fun stuff that I'll blog about later. The main thing to take from it is that we had shots between every course and then some, so by the time dinner was over we had all had something like 6 shots of vodka. It was a respectable amount, but not enough to make us damn crazy. Either way many of us decided not to go out that night because well, we didn't get so much sleep on the boat. Actually I got almost none. There was a club on the boat and the cabins were really hard to sleep in for reasons I'll explain later. So a large minority of us were ready to just kinda chill a bit and hit the sack.
This notion left about 6 of us out in the lobby type area of the floor we were staying on. By lobby I mean a table and a couple comfortable chairs outside the elevators. So we start playing some international card games, I don't quite remember what they were but by gosh they were pretty fun. So we start playing and having some fun and being almost sort of loudish. Not really that bad, we were all pretty dead from the night before. So as we're playing some cards this dude, maybe in his early or mid 30s comes wandering slowing around and eventually settles close to the table and chairs where we're sitting and just watches. He's pretty tall, maybe an inch or two taller than me, and a bit heavier than me just in terms of build and muscle. He's not fat.
So he seems slightly on some sort of low gear auto pilot, perhaps drunk I would say. He's carrying a huge water jug in his right hand that he only holds in one way when he's walking. Just down by his side with his arm completely elongated only bending it to take a sip. He's got jet black hair with a thick dark green sweater and skin that was white but still slightly dark. Not pale like me. Perhaps you'll understand why I remember him like I could file a police report on him in a second. This dude watches our game, looking pretty friendly and jovial really. He watches us play and laughs along with us whenever something funny happens and is smiling and seems to be having almost as good of a time as we're having. Pretty cool.
So after we play one round that lasts half of forever we decide we're all ready for bed. So we start down the hall to get ready for bed. Once again the guy kinda gets this "huh?" look on his face and starts walking around aimlessly. The 4 girls immediately went in their rooms and shut the door, I think they were slightly creeped out by this guy for some strange unknown and outlandish reason. Well he seemed nice to me. He was just watching our game. Maybe he didn't have much to do. Took a night walk and found some foreigners and enjoyed watching them have some fun, maybe he needed something to lighten his day.
So me and my French roomate/friend Killian start getting ready for bed. We have the door open and we're just doing the normal thing, brushing teeth and such. So then I notice this guy walking slowly down the hall, again a bit aimlessly. I happen to be out in the hall when he passes by. He looks up at me(he was walking with his head hung before), and gives me a smile. I'm like okay cool this guy is really friendly. I say hey how are you?? Oops.
We get into a conversation, at this point Killian comes out of the room as well and joins as the conversation starts. How are you how are you, good good blah blah......Where are you from??........So, I'm not one to generalize, or at least I try not to. I've made jokes about not telling people in Russia where I'm from, but I was never at all serious. I've heard a couple stories about Americans having a slightly hard time in Russia, but really none of them were even -that- bad at all. I mean it's been a while since the Cold War right?
Killian: I'm from France, Me: I'm from the US......(Oh shit). The expression on this guy's face completely changes, he does a double take and his tone does a complete 180. Now in discourse that follows this I'm going to try and mention a few memorable points and give the jist, but there was a lot more filler out of no where mumbley stuff. He is just kind of like Oooh.. Well what do you do in Russia? The US is a very beautiful place. Me: it's beautiful here as well, this is an amazing city. Russian dude: You know I love the US in a lot of ways, I love your nature, I love your freedoms, but your government..is nothing. Your wars are not good, you know you will not win in Afghanistan. Me: Yeah I Russian dude: There is too much money. It's stopping you from winning. (it was as if he meant to say there some sort of money deal going on with corruption that made us unable to push through). Your Afghanistan is like our Chechnya...If we just had 1000 men all with a grenade in hand, in one day Chechnya would be destroyed(whispery voice). But there is too much money involved, we can't get past the corruption. Now as a side note, I'm not really sure where he got this thousand dudes with a grenade battle plan. Doesn't really seem like a well thought out idea to me, but I'm no expert.
He then goes on to tell me he's an ex-Russian soldier( F*** F*** F***)..... Which, that makes me wonder even more about the thousand man grenade battle plan. But I'm not thinking about that anymore. Russian dude: You know we were in Georgia protecting somebody(can't remember who, maybe it's a small population who is sided with Russia that Georgia was apparently attacking), and Russian soldiers risked their -lives- for those who were being innocently murdered. A Russian soldier is a good man. He would protect you, and me, and you(points to all of us). He would jump in front of you in the line of gunfire. And you know in Georgia, you know there were some Russian soldiers killed much because of American involvement.
At this point I have NO CLUE what to say. What do you say to that? So I start to try and be like I'm sorry that happened, I would like to change bad things when I get older. I've just learned about a lot of bad things in our government, I didn't make any of these decisions(something like that). So he goes on to say Oh I know I know that it wasn't your fault, it wasn't you....But you know you are a citizen of your country....And if an enemy of my country, steps on -my- land, I will protect it.......There. will. be.......war. Okay so now my heart rate has begun to rise, this pleasant conversation has not turned out at all how I ever thought it would go! Is this guy gonna give some sort of speech about how bad me and my government are and then proceed to attack me??? This guy is quite bigger than me AND an ex-soldier. I start scanning his body/pants to see if he maybe had a weapon on him, and I'm not even being perverted!
I thought quickly, maybe if I mess up his thunder so he can't finish his speech he won't be so enthusiastic as to attack me. I thought maybe I could just knock him off his high horse or try to filibuster or something he'd be confused enough not to rile himself up. I try to change the subject, Me: Hey you know St Petersburg is a beautiful city! What do you do here in St Petersburg? What are your life plans in the long run??? Every time I ask a question he gives me a few sentences of an answer and just continues right back on his rant. It's not working! I thought about just quickly running in my room, slamming and locking the door. But then Killian would be left out there with the crazy. Not to mention that making any sudden movements didn't seem like a good idea in this situation.....
So I continue my efforts unsuccessfully but at once see a security guard walking down the hall towards us. Okay cool, maybe if he attacks me the security guard will try to handle things enough for me to get away. I figure the ex soldier might make quick work of the security guard but at least that would buy me some time. Luckily, the security guard walks right up to the Russian dude and asks for his hotel card. The guy gives the security guard his card, security dude looks it over and says come with me(I assume, it was all Russian). So they both just randomly stroll off down the hall........sigh of relief!!!! I was still in one piece! So we just shrug our shoulders nervously and hit the sack. Wow. I put the chain on the door that night, and that's a fact!! Never saw him again, crazy.
P. S. Now you should please fact check what I'm about to say before you run around telling people this or use it to base your opinion, but I got most of this information from the book Blood and Oil. Check it out if you'd like to know more about what I'm about to say. As a political side note. Holy crap America, we need desperately to get off oil. It's my impression that one of the main reasons we're even hanging out in Georgia is for oil. We have a pretty productive pipeline there, which I think Russia feels should be theirs anyways. Not to mention Georgia and Russia have political turmoil. Like many countries we get oil from, we, like assholes, trained funded and armed their military. Sometimes when we go in for oil in a country that isn't first world/has need/political strife, there's some sort of uprising against it. So we have to arm these places a lot of times to ensure our pipelines are safe. Russia, having been at war with Georgia, probably didn't like that very much. AT ALL. A few years ago Russia invaded Georgia, and we all wonder why gas prices go up sometimes. Just watch current events for a clue. It is unfortunately not my impression that other a lot of countries have an entirely better track record for being nice to countries they get oil from, so let's all take note of this. My fellow Americans and people of the World, we must know where our oil comes from and the price that is paid for it not just at the pump, but in blood. We have to find alternative energy and fast! Otherwise people like me will keep having weird experiences like this, and that's the least of the problems from it! Peace!
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