Peterhof, St Petersburg...

So i dit arrive in Russia, staid in Kingisepp, then.... took the road to Peterhof.

When the road from Narva to Kingisepp was kind of a no man's land, the road to Peterhof starded as a small 'moon' road (very bad condition, holes everywhere, even some kind of holes going from one side of the road to the other one....), then vilages starded to be more and more present, and the area of St Petersbourg started with a quite good road. But i took the Peterhof (metionned in Cyrilic alphabet... yes my dear, i had to try to read it...) road and found some moon road again...

So I finally arrived in Peterfoh, found the train railway, and had to fins Novi Peterhof station to meet my host... but the city is so wide that i called my host to be sure i was in the good place !

Natacha found me and welcommed me with some tea etc...
We met Lucy then, and cicled around a bit in Peterhof and around the universities.

Then we came back, at 11pm or so, with a sun still there, and cooked a bit, watched Lucy's pictures of Antartica and South Africa where she had been on a ship for her job (geologist).

On next morning, monday, i sleeped until 11 or so, and then surfed the web a bit, and met Sacha and his flatmate for a ride in Lomonosov city and garden.
In the evening we went to his place and ate some indian vegetarian food he prepared... so goooooooooood !

Then back home Natacha and I went for some badminton outside, around midnight, and with only the sun's light...

Tuersday morning I went for a ride in the city to change some money and buy few things for the house, then came back home where Sofia and Natacha were (day off or day to work from home). Another CSurfer was supposed to arrive but.... did not show up.
I prepared some food for midday, then called Nicolay, a guy i had contacted to surf his couch but actuelly i would not use. So he found me in Peterhof and we went for a walk in the city. It was great to visit by feet, and I saw new parts of the town that i had not seen with the previous day's rides. We also had a stop to eat grilled meat and drink a Russian beer (not bear :) ).

After the visit i prepared some crepes, and then went to bed.

Wednersday, I went to the Fountains of Peterhof, then came back home, packed my stuff and prepared the bike, went to give the keys back to Sofia at her work, and went to the city of St Petersburg to find Bruno's place.... without a real map. What an adventure !
After asking my way to few people, a guy gave me a map book and the story became easyer... I arrived around 10 pm when i thought i'd arrive at 9...

Today i went for a walk in the city and followed the book I borrowed from Bruno. I saw a few places in the city, the free ones, and saw such a big queue at the Ermitage museum... that i may not go to it....
I also went for changing my 10 Lats in 580 Ruples, and to do my registration (a foreigner staying more than 72 hours in a place should be registerd) and had to pay 800 Ru (expensive, there are some 230 or 500 solutions, but i did not want to look for places and went to the closer one).

In the evening i met a small group of CSers, with bikes, on a beach of one of the islands.

And now I write, it is 1:20 am and the sky is still blue white, the lights are on in the flat, but the night will not come....

Samuel, from the 'not really visitors friendly' Russia (the system is not really welcoming foreighners, the people are sometimes just great, sometinmes just ignoring thoes who don't speak Russian)