Mother Russia!!
Russia is really in your face! Almost as soon as we crossed the border by train I could tell I was in a different country, strangly worlds away from Finnland. Things definitely aren't as 'neat' here. Along the tracks I could see lots of ruined buildings, trash every where, and just a general feeling that things were less developed here and less maintained than in Scandinavia.
As soon as I stepped of the train today (Thursday, 3 August) in St. Petersburg I realized how much more difficult it would be to travel here. Everything (street signs, all signs)is in the Cyrillic alphabet, except of course the tourist street maps! This makes navigating the streets very difficult as you have decipher the Cyrillic alphabet as you go along. The metro was also quite difficult being in Cyrillic. I managed to find the hostel though without too much difficulty and felt slighty pround at my first crack at Cyrillic.
I got to the hostel and checked in and as I pulled out my wallet to pay, I realized my credit card wasn't there. I think my verbal response was appropriate: "FUCK"!!!!! I had gotten cash at the cash machine in the train station (which in itself was my first introduction to the language barrier because no one understood my question of "cash machine?") and for the first time in my life -- I guess I was in some kind of culture-shock stupor -- I walked away from the cash machine without grabbing my card (although I had my receipt and cash). There is usually some kind of beeping or alarm to keep you from doing this but there was nothing.
I decided to hold off calling the bank immediately to cancel it in hopes that some person might turn it into someplace at the train station (but where?). This was much less likely in Russia though. The people at the hostel (reception and other guests) thought I should call to cancel it as someone could be out on a spending spree right then. So after I finished checking in, which now seemed to be taking forever, I quickly retraced my steps to the train station. Then I found a young Russian guy that spoke a little english and he decided he was going to help me. We went to talk to lots of different people and ended up at the bank upstairs along with another older Russian woman who joined in the hunt. After a long while on the phone the bank teller (no english), the guy who was helping me, and another woman relayed the message to me that the cash machine actually had my card (how did they know that?) and it was not stolen. I got instructions to call a phone number the next day at 9am and then I could return to the train station to get my credit card. I was still unsure how they knew the cash machine had my credit card (I had a copy of the card that the bank teller was reading over the phone to someone). So hopefully all goes well tomorrow when I go to try to retrieve my card. It would be a major pain in the ass to have my bank mail me a new credit card!!
The metro and everything else is noticably cheaper here which is great!
As soon as I stepped of the train today (Thursday, 3 August) in St. Petersburg I realized how much more difficult it would be to travel here. Everything (street signs, all signs)is in the Cyrillic alphabet, except of course the tourist street maps! This makes navigating the streets very difficult as you have decipher the Cyrillic alphabet as you go along. The metro was also quite difficult being in Cyrillic. I managed to find the hostel though without too much difficulty and felt slighty pround at my first crack at Cyrillic.
I got to the hostel and checked in and as I pulled out my wallet to pay, I realized my credit card wasn't there. I think my verbal response was appropriate: "FUCK"!!!!! I had gotten cash at the cash machine in the train station (which in itself was my first introduction to the language barrier because no one understood my question of "cash machine?") and for the first time in my life -- I guess I was in some kind of culture-shock stupor -- I walked away from the cash machine without grabbing my card (although I had my receipt and cash). There is usually some kind of beeping or alarm to keep you from doing this but there was nothing.
I decided to hold off calling the bank immediately to cancel it in hopes that some person might turn it into someplace at the train station (but where?). This was much less likely in Russia though. The people at the hostel (reception and other guests) thought I should call to cancel it as someone could be out on a spending spree right then. So after I finished checking in, which now seemed to be taking forever, I quickly retraced my steps to the train station. Then I found a young Russian guy that spoke a little english and he decided he was going to help me. We went to talk to lots of different people and ended up at the bank upstairs along with another older Russian woman who joined in the hunt. After a long while on the phone the bank teller (no english), the guy who was helping me, and another woman relayed the message to me that the cash machine actually had my card (how did they know that?) and it was not stolen. I got instructions to call a phone number the next day at 9am and then I could return to the train station to get my credit card. I was still unsure how they knew the cash machine had my credit card (I had a copy of the card that the bank teller was reading over the phone to someone). So hopefully all goes well tomorrow when I go to try to retrieve my card. It would be a major pain in the ass to have my bank mail me a new credit card!!
The metro and everything else is noticably cheaper here which is great!
posted by Dustin at 9:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home