Location

So I can, so I can cut out the midnight sun when I'm trying to sleep.

I used to think someone who wore sunglasses at night, was a bit of a tool. Now I find myself doing it. This time of year this far north you never see real dark. The sun sets at 11 something in the evening and shoots back up again around 4. In between that it's a kinda twilight that does nothing to convince me its time to hit the hay.

Unlike some eastern European capitals mentioned in the Lonely Planet St Petersburg is a city that dazzles at first glance. Then as the days go by you start to see it in a different light (but never dark!). You start to discover there's more to the city streets than the continual fashion parade that is Nevsky Prospect. You find the little restaurant bars where the less pretentious St Petersburg crowd hangs out. You discover the thriving contemporary arts crowd at Pushkinskaya 10 and everyone in Fish Fabrique, none of whom care you are a tourist or even know what an Australian flag looks like.

This one guy's shirt was covered with an Aussie flag and the name of Aussie sports people. Much impressed some of my passengers gave him the thumbs up and said they were from Australia. This guy didn't have the faintest clue what they were talking about, as he didn't speak any English and had bought his shirt from the addidas store not knowing what they hell was printed on it. When I told him in Russian we ere from Australia he seemed less than totally convinced that I hadn't just made up some imaginary country. At this point his friend jumped in and assured him that he'd heard of a place called Australian and that funny thing with the British flag on it was probably an Australian flag.

Another thing I liked about Fish Fabrique was one of my passengers lost his wallet there and got it back almost as soon as it was lost with all his money and cards in it.

Now it's Friday night and I´m thinking about heading out for a few beers and some clubbing with some others on the hostel. Great place here, Nordhostel, free internet and free international phone calls. Almost too good to be true.

Anyway, I should head over to by backpack and see if I can un-crumple an outfit for this evening. Please keep the emails coming. I try to reply to everyone individually when I get the chance. It's always great to hear what people are doing back home, or in Japan, or the UK, or Germany, or Canada, or the US, or the Netherlands, or Finland, or anywhere else around this globe you guys might be now.

Cheers, Peter.