7/17/12 day 83: St Petersburg, Russland

Brief periods of warm sunshine as the other tour escorts and I stood on the pier directing guests to the coach buses at the curb. Today I was escorting the "Russia Today: A Slice of Homelife" tour. The bus took the small group, led by Olga our guide, to the metro where we journeyed to the "Vladamirskaya" stop. Before hand we were warned to leave everything on the bus: passports, wallets, loose change, lint. There is a saying in this town that says your back pocket isn't yours, it's the thief's. Once we got into the busy subway I realized should any of us get lost, with no money or ID, we would be totally screwed. Travel gods smiled on us though and the big bad metro ride was uneventful. We got off and walked into a warehouse market selling everything from crossbows to strawberries. The place smelled like a cross between pickles and fish (both of which they offered). The produce looked good and organic. The strawberries small and vibrant. Ladies were shaving off tastes of what looked like fresh farm cheese. Butchers were hacking up ribs on large wooden blocks. The building itself was cleanish but kind of decrepit. I was pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing. People eat food in Russia too, I get it.

Then the bus took us to a ladies flat. That's about the only way I can describe it. We walked into this ladies cramped one bedroom apartment. We all squeezed in around her table and we sipped tea and listened to her tell us about life and then we'd all look at the tour guides for the translation. It was kind of surreal. Interesting to hear some of the stories like how her mother survived the siege of the city during WWII and how at one point 11 people lived in the flat. Once the tea was gone and all our questions had been answered, we got back on the bus and made it back to the ship.

The club is always slow when we are in St Petersburg. The guests are either on tour or tired from all the day tours. Tonight, no guest was in the club when i was supposed to start. I waited. Then I sat down waiting for a guest to walk in when both my boss the cruise director and the captain entered. Terrible timing. This had never happened before! Oh well. Cruise director wants me to play regardless of guests. Um, ok boss.