Unfortunately, bad luck came with me when I was in Saint Petersburg (the first city I travelled in Russia). I couldn't reach my host by email before I arrived Saint Petersburg, and neither by phone when I was already there. He did not show up at the port to pick us up. Anger, frustration and anxiety could be used to describe my feelings at that moment. What should I do? My friend and I expected to stay with a local Russian so we didn't bother to search for any accommodation before I went to Saint Petersburg.

However, I found another host from the hospitality club for offering us a free accommodation. Pavel, born on the same day and month as me, became our host in Saint Petersburg. He lives with his mother and a lovely white cat called Kate.

I thought that my bad luck had already gone after I found Pavel as my host. However, it was not the case. We had to register our visa within three days (excluding Sunday and public holidays) upon arrival. On the next day, my friend and I followed the instruction from the tourist information centre and finally found an agency to do the registration for us. Since we didn't fill in the immigration card and neither give the card to the officer at the pier, the lady of the agency told that it was not possible to do the registration without the immigration card. But at the end, she said she would try. We were told to pick up our passport on the next day.

We got a nightmare on the next day in the agency. Our visa registration was failed as we didn't have the immigration card. What we should do was to go to the agency, which issued the invitation letter to us, to ask them to proceed with the registration for us. However, my agency told me the exact thing that the previous agency had already told. To solve the problem, I was told to go back to the pier to get back the immigration card. On that day, I spent nearly the whole day for going from place to place to do my visa registration. Fortunately, I got the immigration card without any problem and then went to the agency for visa registration.

The bad luck should have been disappeared after we both had our visa registered. Unluckily, it still attached to me.

On our fourth day in Saint Petersburg, we could finally spare our time to visit the State Hermitage. In the Hermitage, all jackets and handbags must be kept in cloakroom. I took my wallet and notebook out from my small backpack and brought them along with me. All the time, I was holding both of them. I deeply believed that it's safe enough to put my wallet on the table in the Hermitage, so I did it twice. I didn't lose it in the first time, however I was not lucky enough to avoid a thief in the second time.

Sickness weakened my attention on everything including my personal belongings. I placed my wallet and notebook on the table in a cafe; while I was having my light meal. A Russian lady came over to me and asked me a question. By her gesture, I guessed she was asking me whether the seat next to me was occupied. I replied her in English and it seemed that she couldn't understand, so I repeated my answer once again. Without saying anything, she left quickly. I didn't realize that she had already stolen my wallet until I was ready to leave.

When I found that my wallet was stolen, I was just running in all directions, trying to chase the thief. But, it was not possible since my wallet was lost a few minutes ago. My American dollars, Russian roubles, international student card, YHA card, bank debit card and a pair of earrings given by my best friend in London were lost. I didn't care about losing the cash and cards because I had bought travel insurance already. So, I was quite sure I could claim back the money. However, the very valuable thing in my wallet was the earrings. It was not possible to ask my best friend to buy me a new one, nor did I get the same one. After answering my phone call, my Russian friend Pavel came to the State Hermitage and accompanied me when I was, at that time, feeling lost, frustrated and anxious. Later, my Hong Kong friend Ming Chong accompanied me to a police station to report the case.

It's not easy to find the police station. My friend and I spent at least half an hour to find the exact location of the police station, even the local people didn't know where the police station is. Due to the difference in language, I couldn't communicate well with the police officer. Luckily, they provided an interpreter who was not physically in the police station. The interpreter talked to me and the police officer on the phone, it's really interesting. At the end, I got a written statement from the police officer and the statement was, of course, written in RUSSIAN.

We spent our first few days in Saint Petersburg on visiting visa registration agencies, pier and police station. Frankly speaking, I didn't enjoy much there and had a bad impression of the country. Complicated, troublesome, dangerous, many thieves and gangsters were all I would use to describe Russian. However, later I found that I made my judgment too early. Not all the Russian are bad guys, actually most of them are kind and helpful just like my host, Pavel and his mother.

Even though I lost some money, I told myself that I was lucky as I am still alive, not robbed and not got hurt. So, on the next day I almost forgot losing money but still thought of the earrings. In the evening, my Russian friend, Pavel came back from work, brought some presents to us and good news to me. I couldn't believe my eyes when he showed me my wallet. My scream scared everyone in his flat. After hugging Pavel, I opened my wallet immediately. Money had gone for sure; however, my earrings and all the cards were still in the wallet.

As my Estonian friend said perhaps the Russian lady needed the money for her poor child, your money can help her in some ways. If you think thing in this way, you will feel comfortable. In our life, things happened suddenly and can not be predicted and avoided. We have no choice, but to accept. However, I am not pessimistic; I still think that I have my own choice to being happy or unhappy when I encounter any bad experience or even tragedy. It's all the matter of our attitude towards life, whether it is positive or negative. To me, the money and also the earrings are not important. The most important thing is that I have a very good friend in my life and I treasured our friendship. Even if the earrings had lost, he is still my forever friend.

Wai Yee @ Saint Petersburg


P.S. I was invited to share my travel experience on Radio 5 (RTHK), you can hear my voice and share my trip at:
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio5/worldtravel/20050318.html

If you don't understand Chinese, just click the icons of 'real player' or 'windows player'. There are two hyperlinks, both of them are my personal homepages, one is in English (designed and
created by Pavel), the other one is in Chinese.