{"id":1989,"date":"2011-06-03T10:05:31","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T17:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=1989"},"modified":"2011-06-06T22:45:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-07T05:45:00","slug":"spring-forward-day-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/spring-forward-day-77\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

Moscow\/St. Petersburg
\nMay 28, 2011\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Distance Traveled Today: 393<\/h3>\n

Distance traveled so far: 12, 410<\/h3>\n
\"This<\/a>
This is the steeple of the church where lots of the Czars are buried.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well this morning has been wall-to-wall fail.\u00a0 My train to St. Petersburg isn\u2019t until 1:30, so I got up early and zoomed down to Red Square with a double agenda:\u00a0 See Lenin and go inside St. Basil\u2019s.\u00a0 Lenin\u2019s Tomb is only open very limited hours, but I figured I\u2019d have time today.\u00a0 Alas, whatever the huge celebration they\u2019ve been planning since before I got here and have blocked off most of Red Square for is actually happening TODAY. \u00a0So.\u00a0 The Square was totally<\/em> locked down, Lenin\u2019s Tomb opens an hour later than normal, and St. Basil\u2019s is completely closed.\u00a0 Double damn.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>
Peter the Great!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a pity, because here\u2019s the thing about when you go see Lenin:\u00a0 you see Lenin\u00a0 <\/em>By that I mean, they preserved his body, and it\u2019s under glass like a pheasant.\u00a0 That would have been cool to see.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a shame about St. Basil\u2019s.\u00a0 I could console myself by saying I\u2019ve already been in a bunch of Russian churches, but I know from what I have read and from what people have told me that, just like its exterior, the interior of St. Basil\u2019s is like no other church.<\/p>\n

\"Catherine<\/a>
Catherine the Great!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even more tragic, I showed up at the Upside Down Bakery right when they opened, hoping to score a couple of the bacon parmesan muffins for the train ride, but alas, they only had the salmon ones today.\u00a0 Yuck.<\/p>\n

\"Nicholas,<\/a>
Nicholas, Alexandra and the kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I certainly hope my fail trajectory doesn\u2019t extend to the train station.\u00a0 I can get a little anxious in a big train station in an English speaking country, just because they can be so big and busy.\u00a0 Where is my train?\u00a0 Am I waiting on the right platform?\u00a0 Is my ticket alright?<\/p>\n

<\/a>Double that in a country where I don\u2019t know the language.\u00a0 Triple is in a country where I don\u2019t know the alphabet<\/em>.\u00a0 Happily I have an English and<\/em> Russian version of my ticket, so hopefully I\u2019ll be able to navigate myself to the proper track on time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hells<\/a>
Hells ya!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\/\/\/<\/p>\n

So:\u00a0 Who\u2019s the most responsible for winning World War II?\u00a0 Everyone knows it was the Americans, right? Not so fast.\u00a0 The Russians think different, and they\u2019re pretty sick of hearing how America beat Hitler all by themselves.\u00a0 Consider a couple of sobering statistics:\u00a0 Americans lost 418, 000 people in the war, a mere 0.32% of its population.\u00a0 The Soviet Union lost 23, 000, 000, which was 13%<\/em> of their total population.\u00a0 The Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Stalingrad made any action on the Western Front look like a cocktail party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Better<\/a>
Better put a ring on it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, any reasonably educated gay person my age or older could tell you the real <\/em>\u00a0truth, which was\u00a0 that it was a gay man \u2013 Alan Turing \u2013 who was the single person most responsible for beating the Nazis.\u00a0 He did it by breaking the Enigma Code.\u00a0 Take that<\/em>, America and Russia.<\/p>\n

\"Beauty<\/a>
Beauty is everywhere in St. Petersburg. I am deeply sorry that I don't have a photo from the front as well. Trust me on this.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Few Memorable Travel Fail Moments<\/h4>\n