Catch my nose - if you can: Day of Russia and a cat

One entire month has passed since I arrived in Saint Petersburg and I have the feeling that I have been here forever already. This passed weekend was one of those funny and typical Russian weekends when I didn't know for sure whether Monday is a holiday or not. Sunday, 12th of June was The Day of Russia and since Russians do not waste any of their holidays, we also had Monday off :-) But I wasn't sure about that until I called my boss Sunday evening!

Friday I went out with Simona to the nice chill out bar/restaurant/cafe "Zoom" where I had been on my very first evening in the city. I tend to return to good places! By the time two Zhenyas (one of them my former flatmate) joined us, I was a little tipsy already and I didnt really care about closing metro stations and opening bridges. We moved on to a rather small club/bar called "Datsha" where many foreigners were said to hang out. I didnt spot too many of them, but that might be caused my "more-than-tispy/half-drunk" state of mind :-)

Saturday I spent in bed, unable to get up before 6pm and then went off to check out my island. Yes, I'm living on an island: "Vasilevsky Ostrov" :-) I found loads of Russians doing "shashlikiy" and fires at the beach. Honestly, I love Russia! I assimilated most of my so-called "laid back" attitude here. People seem to know how to enjoy the short periods of free time to an outstanding degree. And things always work out anyway, even if there is no plan at all. All it takes is patience and time :-) This doesn't mean that I don't freak out anymore about unorganised and stuborn Russians!
Simona told me this hysterical story from her last camping adventure: They arrived at the lake and hundreds of hungry mosquitos were ready to eat them. Having grown up in Europe, Simona started hunting and killing mosquitos, and happend to hit one of the guys three times rather fast and hard. After the third time he gave her a disapproving look and informed her that there is no need to hit so fast and hard... Russian mosquitos are not fast at all! :-))) (They are smart however: I still havent found the one that kept me awake till 5am Sunday night!!!)

All right, I'm writing too much again... I did a great sightseeing trip on Monday and I'm more than happy to inform you that I'm the proud owner (well, part-time caretaker) of a wonderful black cat called Mishka. His owner will be traveling for some time and I'm the lucky one who got the cat. Don't tell him that I really wanted the cat... I would lose my advantageous position ;-) Mishka is currently checking out my appartment and I'm trying to teach him that my bed is a forbidden zone. I'm sure though that he forgot about it this morning no later than 5 secondes after I walked out of the door! :-(

Have a great week!