Vyborg

Another exciting week has passed: Going to the beach after work, meeting my old flat mate and his now roomie, hanging out with my colleagues after work, going to Datcha a few times and to the ballet to watch "Swan lake" were very enjoyable!

Schwanensee

I have adapted so well to life in St. Petersburg that I felt it was time to show it physically :-) So, on Saturday the mission was to find a good and cheap hairdresser! Yuan, this really nice guy from China, was a great help when it came to deal with "Russian services". Russian understanding of running a business is slightly different from common Western thinking. In Russia you have to be thankful if the sales woman in a shop does not yell at you, because you disturbed her conversation with her friends... There are exceptions of course, and we finally found a nice "salon" where I spent 3 hours (being the only client) getting my hair done. They were amazingly friendly and Yuan managed to negotiate a good price for me!

On Sunday we went to Выборг (Vyborg), which is about 150km away from St. Petersburg and very close to Finland. It was a perfect summer day and a Sunday how a Sunday is supposed to be! We didn't mind the 6 hours on the train... It is RUSSIA! The 3 hours back certainly were a Russian experience, because EVERYBODY seemed to have left the city over the weekend and wanted to take our very train back home. People simply didn't fit in and there was a lot of aggression between some of the travellers. I got home safe and sound, warmly welcomed by a hungry cat :-)


Über den Dächern von Выборг
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Vyborg seems very European


View from Vyborg Castle to the Finland Bay


Having fun.... ;-)


Water lilies everywhere!


We rented this lovely thingy and discovered one miracle after another


Left alone on a rock... :-(


Sun, blue sky and blue water! What else you want on a Sunday? :-)


Der Franzensbaum


Tired on the way home (3h by train - normal in Russia)