Blog #5: Russia Trip

Blog #5

I am sorry that the blogs have been so slow in coming. For a industrialized country like Russia, the internet connections in hotels are simply awful—we have one in the hotel—but it is a dial up and it is I think at the rate of 1 byte a day. So no pictures on this particular blog. I have had to go and seek out another way to send message--and have found one in a cafe.

Arrived in St. Petersburg to a glorious sunny day at least 20 degrees warmer than it has been anywhere else. Met our guide, believe it or not, her name is Svetlana—perhaps it is a Russian requirement that all female guides are named Svetlana? Every one is well, albeit a bit tired.

Since we were accustomed to the time we did not go immediately to our hotel by to Peterhof, the grand castle and grounds started by Peter the Great on the Finland Sea, and added to by others (including Catherine). It is enormous and quite beautiful—it has 11 parks and more than 200 fountains that are actually done cleverly from an engineering standpoint and use no mechanical assistance (gravity feed and series of smaller nozzles to control size of spray). I have been lucky enough to go to Versailles and this puts it to shame. Andrei played a joke on our group dealing with a fountain and it was quite amusing to watch (and we have pictures!!!). We spent about 3 hours here and then went to our hotel—which is quite nicely located in the center of town. After a brief rest and check—in and all that we then went to dinner. The young crowd is undoubtedly going to explore the city as it is their last full evening in Russia.

It began to rain in the evening and it is now Saturday morning here and it is a dreary rainy day. Today we go to the Hermitage, the fortress of Peter and Paul, a boat cruise down the many many canals of the city and then to dinner and a show. Afterwards we get on the 11 PM over-night express train to Moscow for our flight home—so it is very likely that this will be my last blog from Russia. Amusingly, many thought that we would be sitting in seats on the train back to Moscow and then take a 12+ hour flight home---not the case--even I am not that cruel--we will be in sleeper cars. I am not sure that we will be able to arrange for all of our crowd to share a compartment together (no, not all 22, but 4 to a compartment--we were able to do this on train to Syktyvkar). Syktyvkar has proven to be a very nice "small" town by Russian standards. It is surrounded by forests and one does not have to go far to be in the woods.

It has been an interesting trip on many levels and I hope that all have enjoyed it and come back enriched by it. IF I can I will do another blog—but I am not terribly hopeful on that front. I always find it fascinating to see/hear what those on the trip found interesting--I will have that opportunity on the flight home, on the layover in Atlanta and in the van ride home.

J.

John F. Mahon
Dean, College of Business, Public
Policy and Health
John M. Murphy Chair of International
Business Policy and Strategy and Professor of Management