The days are bleeding togehter...

I could swear that the days are melting together. The separation between night and day, or more accurately, the lack thereof, makes it impossible to keep time "straight". Time here is not time, I've said that before. JD made an interesting observation at one point, he said that distance is disconcerting in that you can't trust what you see or that you're always surprised by the distance of things because the buildings are so massive and you can't really tell how far something is. The scale of these 19th century giants makes a seemmingly short walk seem like a million miles of unpredictable "ulitzi." This has been a remarekably different trip for me. I'm not sure how to categorize it. I've done nothing cultural, I haven't stepped foot in a single museum. I've been to all the big ones multiple times. I've simply "been" here. Does that make sense? I've spent a bit of time walking around but mostly talking with an international cast of friends who I'm fortunate enough to see once a year in this magical place. I've had some bloody great conversations and enjoyed the company of good people while sleeping in till the afternoon and coming home between 5 and 8 in the morning. Does it seem like I'm throwing this whole trip away? I don't know, maybe, but I think I've been ready for a "vacation", one of those things where you lay your ass down on a sandy beach and spend a week causing the depression of your bum to become a permanent fixture somewhere in the tropics. I haven't had something like that in a long time. I did my exploring while I was in Israel, a madman on the run trying to take in as much ancient history and modern "stuff" as possible. Here I'm just in a state of being. I did some serious drinking over the past week but it's slowed down. We had some binge nights that featured waaaaaaaay too much vodka, beer (not an alcoholic beverage here) and a giant bottle of Johnny Walker Green Label that Tanya brought James and left in our room, so yeah on that front, I've worked my muscle, I mean liver like a hooker in the tenderloin.



Last night was James' birthday, let me rephrase that, last night James and fellow degenerates, including myself, marked his Birthday by collecting ourselves near the Defense of Leningrad museum at a flat inhabited by Ryan and Scott, quasi participants, former alums of the program who are just hanging out in "the burg" and playing Peter Bjorn and John's Young Folks over and over and over again. There were like 5 trips to the market for beer, no matter how many we would buy they seemed to be gone in the space of 30 minutes. 2 bottles of vodka and about 25 liters of beer later we were all quite happy and once again, out of beer. So the decision was made to move the entire crowd to Marstal. Marstal is one of those terrible places that I'd say is a strong argument against capitalism. The place is essentially a brothel that happens to have strippers. 90% of the women in that club are "working girls" and if you have a foreign passport you can get in for free while locals or people carrying a Russian passport pay a cover charge of 50 rubles. We stayed in there for another hour, I sat down feeling no real compunction to dance to terrible Euro Trash techno and guarded our group's things. It really is a terrible place considering that down the street and around the corner is a great new club called Achtung Baby where the music is good (mixing is crap) but the music is danceable, the lights aren't obnoxious and cheaply arranged club strobes, and the space itself is this wonderful high ceilinged brick room. We've gone there a few times for drinks and to cut some rug and it has always been a beautiful time. This is the kind of join that feels unpretentious and the locals get down with the foreigners without trying to take them home for a price. The place really is a melting pot and I dig that about it. I've heard everything from US3 to Sinatra, David Byrne and Oasis in Achtung Baby.

Going back a few days...

We sat around and enjoyed the celebration known as "The Last Bell" where a historic 3 mast schooner is sailed across the Nevya river and the main drag, Nevsky Prospekt is shut down so the throng of recently graduated teenagers and military cadets can get stupidly drunk and break their beer bottles. In past years we would charter a boat and cruise the Nevya but this year we couldn't get a boat and wound up hanging out near the cathedral watching the madness unfold. As the day waned the streets became bloated with people frolicing. I walked out into the middle of the street to shoot some photos of the crowd. I was a little nervous about having my camera out, feeling a little vulnerable, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world to be quite honest. Pictures are now up here.



So this town has become very expensive. 3 years ago I could get a business lunch for 3 dollars, 90 rubles and the excahnge rate was like 33 to the dollar. Now it's 25 and I can't find one for under 250. It's insane! Beers at the beer garden are now over 2 bucks, the store is still cheap, but we used to score them for just over a buck! Everything here has become ridiculous including my favorite Uzbeki place, but I don't care the cost, it's still one of my favorite things. I went to Banya today with a couple guys and it was 360 rubles for 2 hours unlike 300 for the last two years. So this place is changing something fierce... and I'm not sure I like the changes...

There are a few things I'm planning on doing still, there's an exhibit of courtyard photography at a gallery next to Nabokov's house that I'm going to go too, and probablly pop over to Nevsky's Monastary for a little photo shoot of the other graveyards I didn't have enough film for 3 years ago. I want to also finally get inside of the monastery and see Nevsky's grave... there's also the siege museum at Moskovsky Metro Station... so maybe on Thursday... the weather is crap and I'm unmotivated to go anywhere. I've been sitting here in the office bar writing and uploading photos, seems like a successful day for me... the tea is good and I have a fresh pack of smokes, so I'll be here for a bit until it's time to go to Il Patio for James' official birthday. That man hasn't celebrated his birthday in the states for 7 years, not such a bad way to go about it, what do you think?

Hope everyone is well...