I spent a good portion of my evening and this morning looking up information about St. Isaac's Cathedral, the square it's located on and the rather famous buildings that surround it, and what do I get? A closed cathedral. And, you know what, I'm not surprised. There seems to be a recurring theme here in Russia.
Everything that is connected with a museum is closed on Wednesdays.
Since Hot Stuff and I had something else on the agenda, we went ahead and did that, so it wasn't too much of a let down. ...That is, if you consider going to post offices enjoyable.
I'm going to say this now, this particular post office worked more like a DMV or the Social Security Office than any post office I'm used to. Now, as I didn't have to actually send anything, I sat there and watched, trying my best to understand how the system works. I'm not entirely sure, and I could be completely wrong, but here is what I saw happening.
A little note before I begin, I'm going to base this off of a woman who I'm going to call Package Lady.
Package Lady obviously arrived after we did and she was carrying a rather large bag of things she needed to mail. She approached the appropriate window (yes, there are different windows you go to for different mailing needs) and, after talking to the lady, was handed a box that was put together on the spot and a slip of paper (I'm assuming this had a number on it, but I'll get to that later). I watched this lady try her hardest to get everything to fit into this box that wasn't necessarily small, but was definitely too small for her needs. But Package Lady was determined to get everything to fit in that box, and she did it, though the box was not in very good shape afterwards. She approached the window as soon as she was done, but was turned away because her number hadn't been called.
Now to explain the number thing. From what I have gathered, everyone gets a number that corresponds to a certain window. When the window is available to help the next person, a loud noise goes off in the room and the the screens in the corners display the window number and which client number they are ready to serve.
So Package Lady had to wait a little bit before her number flashed on the screen. When that number flashes, you better get there quick. If you aren't ready, the number will change before you can get up. She was up at the window before I could blink. The lady handed her a slip of paper and Package Lady returned to fill it out and wait patiently for her number to flash on the screen again. (Package Lady must have been in a hurry, because she was insanely impatient. In the amount of time it took for her to complete the whole process, some people hadn't even finished filling out their address forms.) When it finally came to her number, Package Lady again approached the window and quite a bit of tape later, she left the post office knowing (or maybe it's hoping) that her package was one step closer to reaching its destination.
Now, as I said before, I didn't actually have to mail anything, so my idea of how this works could be completely different from how it actually works, but at least I am one step closer to understanding the workings of the Russian post system.
Hopefully, Hot Stuff and I will be able to actually visit St. Isaac's Cathedral soon. I did tell her all the fun historical tidbits I had discovered, but I'm tired of not actually going in a historical place. I want to change that. Soon.
Instead of that, we had lunch at a place that could rightfully be called a home for happiness and walked all the way to Sportivnaya, not only to walk it off, but to go to St. Vladimir's Cathedral (or The Prince Vladimir Church or whatever it's actually called). I can officially say I have said a prayer in a Russian Orthodox church. And, I actually remembered that it's right then left as opposed to the Catholic left then right. I will admit to watching people end their prayers and what they did upon entering and leaving the church so that I didn't look too much like I didn't belong there.
But more on all of that later. Right now, I want to focus on my day dream about those cookies from earlier today.....
Everything that is connected with a museum is closed on Wednesdays.
Since Hot Stuff and I had something else on the agenda, we went ahead and did that, so it wasn't too much of a let down. ...That is, if you consider going to post offices enjoyable.
I'm going to say this now, this particular post office worked more like a DMV or the Social Security Office than any post office I'm used to. Now, as I didn't have to actually send anything, I sat there and watched, trying my best to understand how the system works. I'm not entirely sure, and I could be completely wrong, but here is what I saw happening.
A little note before I begin, I'm going to base this off of a woman who I'm going to call Package Lady.
Package Lady obviously arrived after we did and she was carrying a rather large bag of things she needed to mail. She approached the appropriate window (yes, there are different windows you go to for different mailing needs) and, after talking to the lady, was handed a box that was put together on the spot and a slip of paper (I'm assuming this had a number on it, but I'll get to that later). I watched this lady try her hardest to get everything to fit into this box that wasn't necessarily small, but was definitely too small for her needs. But Package Lady was determined to get everything to fit in that box, and she did it, though the box was not in very good shape afterwards. She approached the window as soon as she was done, but was turned away because her number hadn't been called.
Now to explain the number thing. From what I have gathered, everyone gets a number that corresponds to a certain window. When the window is available to help the next person, a loud noise goes off in the room and the the screens in the corners display the window number and which client number they are ready to serve.
So Package Lady had to wait a little bit before her number flashed on the screen. When that number flashes, you better get there quick. If you aren't ready, the number will change before you can get up. She was up at the window before I could blink. The lady handed her a slip of paper and Package Lady returned to fill it out and wait patiently for her number to flash on the screen again. (Package Lady must have been in a hurry, because she was insanely impatient. In the amount of time it took for her to complete the whole process, some people hadn't even finished filling out their address forms.) When it finally came to her number, Package Lady again approached the window and quite a bit of tape later, she left the post office knowing (or maybe it's hoping) that her package was one step closer to reaching its destination.
Now, as I said before, I didn't actually have to mail anything, so my idea of how this works could be completely different from how it actually works, but at least I am one step closer to understanding the workings of the Russian post system.
Hopefully, Hot Stuff and I will be able to actually visit St. Isaac's Cathedral soon. I did tell her all the fun historical tidbits I had discovered, but I'm tired of not actually going in a historical place. I want to change that. Soon.
Instead of that, we had lunch at a place that could rightfully be called a home for happiness and walked all the way to Sportivnaya, not only to walk it off, but to go to St. Vladimir's Cathedral (or The Prince Vladimir Church or whatever it's actually called). I can officially say I have said a prayer in a Russian Orthodox church. And, I actually remembered that it's right then left as opposed to the Catholic left then right. I will admit to watching people end their prayers and what they did upon entering and leaving the church so that I didn't look too much like I didn't belong there.
But more on all of that later. Right now, I want to focus on my day dream about those cookies from earlier today.....
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