petersburg, day 5

The last day in Petersburg, Christine and I wandered around the Russian State museum. This was after we slept in, checked out of the hotel, bought a phone card, and made a freaking-complicated pay phone call to Natalya, whose baby was sick and couldn't meet us. The woman at the Russian Museum who helped us was crazy nice. The Russian Museum was OK. There was only one picture that I remembered, maybe two. Oh, that barge-pullers on the Volga something or other, I recognized that from a propaganda poster.

I'm in Chicago now and the plane is getting ready to board, and my computer is about to die.

I went to see Ella and Sasha, my old host mom and her son. It was wonderful, but short-lived. She gave me sweets, as she remembered I loved them. Happy happy.

Then a slightly-worrisome taxi ride to the train station, and Christine and I got onto the train with a woman and her sullenly inquisitive teenage daughter.

Oh, but we're going now.

So I'll finish later, with more details.