Lost, found and lost again!!!

God, its all Russian to me!! Puzzles are fun for a short while, but not 24/7. Everything is a puzzle because very little is written in English: example, yesterday we went to the main station to book our transport out of here.
We found ,'Information' because the sign is international! Ha, little did we know that was to be our only success of the day We asked the 'assistant' "Do you speak English?"
She replied abruptly, "No." and that was it. Her shoulder shrug said, 'Deal with it!'
We went to the extensive queues and, when it was our turn, asked tentatively, Moscow? We were signalled to queue 12. We joined. The young lady spoke a little English. Hope bloomed. "A train for 26/9/07?", a Wednesday we signalled.
"It only runs on Mondays and Fridays."
"Any others?"
"Yes!" Increduously.
"Times?"
"Seated or standing?" (They do hard seating or padded I remembered but said nothing).
"Seated." We waited, held our breath. She stared at her computer screen, clicked a few buttons, then announced, "There are no more tickets available." We gave up because we did not know what to do.....
Now, I know that this puts us in the category of super-whimps but we had had a very trying morning. Lee's one goal that day was to book our passage out of there. We were going to track our journey to the station. Two hours later we were still walking!!! The maps are very confusing! We walked miles in straight circles deciding to visit our original bus station in the hope of catching Euro-bus to Moscow. A man wearing an advertising placard advised us in perfect English where to catch the bus. We walked in a strange queue of three! I forgot to suggest to him that we should apply for a job at the station! We got on the number 34 bus which proceeded to take us back down 2 miles of the road we had just walked, then deposited us in an unknown bus-station! Apparently this was the one where we could get a bus to Moscow, but we had Eurobus in mind, so, blinkered, we walked on another mile to the Metro, and, with a sigh of relief, came back up at our original bus-station, which suddenly looked far more attractive than it had on our arrival!
We were pleased to see that building was progressing as a fence had been erected between us and the eurobus office. We walked the long way round, undaunted, flushed with the success of finding our own way to the office via the underground when everything was written in code. It was only when we were waiting to be served that I made the link that Eurobus would not take us to Moscow!!!!!! Plonkers.
At this point Lee concede defeat. We returned to the underground and two stations took us to Pushkin, near to our address. We called into a Druckers type cafe and 'licked our wounds'. Some time later, Lee wandered upstairs to the loo and found an internet cafe, which is where I am writing this, and, better still, as we wandered outside we found an agency that books transport, however, it was closed.
Today is Monday 24th, I think, and we returned to the agency. We now have a flight to Moscow on Wednesday. It is only 50 minutes, and it was all done 5mins from our apartment!!!
A lesson, I think! We are going to celebrate by having a late breakfast in Mollies Irish bar. Tomorrow, we will make a determined effort to find the Idiot cafe, which is vegetarian but sells novels written in English. Bliss!
Impressions of St Petersburg??? A huge building site. I bet 1/3 of the roads and buildings are being sandblasted. There is so much dust everywhere... The canal was covered in red dust yesterday. God knows what it was. There are beautifully ornate buildings but the are either in need of paint or surface work. It all looks run down. There are wonderful cafes and shops selling exquisite goods but it is not for me. I will be glad to go. The local shops selling beer, vodka, bread etc. are very friendly and this apartment is within ten minutes of the centre.
We were sad to feel so isolated in our apartment. Once you close the door it is silent, despite being ten flights of stairs up in a huge decaying block. Our stairwell is a grim, peeling public toilet green, the stairs, though solid, are dirty and warn. Once through the huge iron door opened by a key that would be better suited to a fortress, we were greeted by an appalling stench of drains. However, it still seems very welcoming after eight hours pounding the busy streets of St Pete's! (Please forgive any mistakes, my mind is in a whirl of times and situations and, therefore, a little more scrambled than usual, if that is possible.) Moscow next!

gone....to Eastonia

Well, here we are in Estonia. Monday 17th of September, 2007.
First impressions...Easy to get to, pretty, uncrowded, so quiet.
The people wear quite serious expressions, but, given their recent history, it is not surprising!
Go to the Museum of Occupation! People speak very little English so conversations are limited, stilted and even abrupt. Persevere, there are some nice people out there!
The old town is a curious mixture of ornate and brightly painted Baroque merchant houses, quite large wooden houses, like those I saw in America but strange building materials for the cold and snow , and tall Soviet blocks with nothing to recommend them except serviceability. The tall spires and red roofs of the old town reminds me of Prague. It is difficult to distinguish the use of buildings as they tend to have no distinguishing features and are often behind tall iron gates. A cafe, a school and a museum can be indistinguishable at first glance.
There seems to be no accessibility for disability in the 3 inch threshholds, the 12 inch high steps
and the cobbles like boulders. It feels safe but there are opportunist thieves around so keep your bag across your shoulder and under your coat, for peace of mind.
Our hostel is clean and tidy. It is easy to relax and meander. There are many good cafes and beer cellars. It is a good start....