Arrival

We had all our forms and passports ready for the passport control.  It went very smoothly.   We collected our luggage with no problem.  As we exited the baggage hall, our contact, Larisa, was holding a sign with our name.  She took us to the car and driver, Misha.  We drove directly to an office where she registered our visas ($24/each) and then we went to the apartment.

The Apartment

We pulled into this courtyard of a building where there were trash bins, large pot holes, walls that didn’t look like they’ve been painted in many, many years and some derelicts sitting on a porch.  My wife and I looked at each other, like what did we get into to.  We got out of the car and Larisa led us up three concrete steps to an ugly steel security door.  She used her electronic key to enter and we stepped into an area that needed some rehabilitation work desperately.  There was a teeny elevator that I took the luggage up in; two pieces and I were all that would fit in it.  The apartment was on the 2nd (US) floor.  The apartment door was another steel door covered in wood, but not a proper keyhole, just a hole that the key would fit into.  After the security door was open, another door had to be opened.  What kind of place did we get?  Then we finally entered the apartment.

It was light, airy, had high ceilings, and wood floors except in the bathrooms where they were tile.  The apartment was great for what we wanted and consisted of two large bedrooms, a good sized living room (with a TV that only received Russian language broadcasts), a small kitchen (with a range, refrigerator, electric kettle, microwave, and dishwasher), a full bath (with a small washing machine but no dryer), and another ½ bath.

The living room had 2 windows that faced Nevsky Prospekt, a corner window that faced across the Anichov Bridge and 1 window that faced the Fontanka Canal.  Even though Nevsky Prospekt is the main street and very busy the noise was not too bad at all because of the triple panes of glass.  The bedrooms had two windows each facing the canal and the kitchen had a window facing the canal.  All the windows were very large.

In our leisure moments we would sit in the living room window wells (they were about 2 feet deep and several feet wide) and watch the people, traffic, and canal boats going by.  In the morning we would have coffee at the kitchen table, looking out the window at the canal and the bridge, making our plans for the day.

The apartment was very quiet from interior noise from other apartments, the walls were concrete and the exterior noise was not bad because of the triple panes of glass.

The two problems, if you want to call them that, were with the water.  There was a central hot water system and the water was tepid at best in the mornings.  It was not really hot until midmorning, so I assume they turn off the hot water heaters at night.  Also, when I ran my bath I saw why we were warned to NEVER drink the water, the water had a brownish color like it was coming through rusty water pipes.  It was fine for bathing but for everything else we used bottled water (easily available) for drinking, brushing our teeth, etc.