The Adventurers by K.T. Tomb

Author:K.T. Tomb [Tomb, K.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

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The ferry from Helsinki was just as uneventful as the flight to Finland and it was surprising how easily they crossed into Russia. It seemed strange that while all hell was breaking loose on the Crimean peninsula, they walked into Russia’s second largest city as if they were walking across the Florida-Georgia line. The ferry stopped right before docking and immigration agents came around checking the passengers’ papers. It was eerily silent for a minute as they each handed their brand new passports over for inspection, but none of the agents said a word to any of the people they inspected. It was almost as if these agents were barely present and merely looked and stamped each document absentmindedly.

Within minutes, they’d disembarked the ferry and were on the way to their hotel. They had arrived in St. Petersburg earlier than their originally scheduled flight so Xenia was still in Moscow. She wouldn’t be arriving until later that evening. They decided to have their English-speaking taxi driver take them around the city so they could enjoy seeing a little of the wonderful city. They were very happy to find that almost everything was written in English as well as Cyrillic. Travis couldn’t stand the backwards R’s, he found it disconcerting.

The city center impressed Travis, he expected it to look like something out of a bleak 1980s cold war movie. Instead, he found culture and music everywhere, and a bustling metropolis that could rank in comparison with many cities in the United States.

“St. Petersburg is the biggest city located above the Arctic Circle, and as such, the sun does not set in the summer,” their cab driver narrated to them. “The city becomes a party town at that time of year.”

Travis knew that just about twenty years ago, you wouldn’t have been able to find a McDonalds, or any fast food restaurant so not only was he surprised at the fast food places he saw everywhere, but also, according to their driver, beer was available at every single one. He decided that he liked Russia already.

Xenia had certainly chosen very fabulous accommodations for them. The Grand European Hotel was a huge hotel that dated back to pre-soviet times. It had been known as the “Hotel Evropeiskaya” during that time, and was one of the first luxury hotels built in the city. To Travis, it seemed the entire city was built on a foundation of luxury and questionable money. The entire street was filled with fast cars and motorbikes, some even raced each other down a densely populated street and the drivers stopped for no one.

They all retired to their rooms to rest for a while, it had been an early start for them that morning. Mark had advised them that bad weather had been forecasted for the Gulf and they had all agreed it was smarter to get across earlier than not at all.

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