General Discussion

St. Petersburg is the same. So much beauty after you wake up from the bus trip where the windows are hard to see through. you can't get a real glimpse of how they live and what it looks like out the window. The train only takes you at night and they lock your entire car down so there is nowhere to see out. They called it protection from gangs and that may well be but I can say it is a very confusing mess there. You must be on your toes at all times and anything that might be considered a good time or a good meal for the regular people there would make your hair curl. A dinner with meat for one thing they were so proud of it then. Their McDonalds was such a big deal in Moscow that was the first place they took us before we did our stuff. I will never forget it. The impression was that it may be tough there then but things were looking up but we saw it. That constant worry in the back of our necks and we were INVITED and had plenty of people to make sure things were OK.

I always have to say this because I never want to leave a bad impression of the things I saw there. The people were wonderful. Of course they were supposed to make it all good for us, it was a tit for tat. They were here and then we went there. Still there were a lot of very kind people out and about.

I always say too much when I remember the kind people there. This was my actual response to you about the sleeping and eating and butting out. Like you said the deal then is made that as long as you have a place to sleep and food to eat, butt out of politics. Scary.