My whole body hurts!

People i met here who contributed to, and improved my trip: Maria (Finland), Brian and Cheanng (America), Mahko (Australia), Tanya (Russia), Katja (Russia), Matthieu and Alex (France), Karina (Russia), Juliana (Russia), Bruce (Australia)

St Petersburg has to beone of the coolest cities on earth! I arrived having heard many reports of 'unfriendly Russians' and scams galore, but on the contrary i found the people to be some of the most friendly i have met on my travels. This has been part of the reason for remaining so long... that and been hospitalized!

During the day time, some memorable sights that i visited included the Hermitage, Peter and Paul Fortress, Peterhof, Church of Spilled Blood, climbed St Isaacs cathedral, Kazan Cathedral, Summer Garden, Vasilyevsky Island, Petrovsky Stadium and numerous walks up and down the beautiful Alexsander Nevsky Prospekt.

During the night, i frequented Dacha and Fidels (2 awesome bars on Dumskaya ul) aswell as Novus on Bolshaya Morskaya. I also checked out Dickens, Red Lion and Metro, but in my opinion none of them compared for atmosphere or value for money (drinks are only 50 Roubles - $1.80) at the former bars mentioned.

In my third week here, I was rushed into hospital as I was having really bad pains above my stomach and below
my heart accompanied with diarrhea and vomiting blackish green liquids. An ambulance was called for and I was taken to a Russian state hospital, which was not too impressive to say the least! They took the usual blood and urine samples and decided they needed to do an endoscopy also. They shoved a massive tube down my throat which made me vomit everywhere including over my clothes.

Luckily i had started dating a Russian girl called Juliana, who came with me and not only acted as my translator (nobody spoke a word of English) but loaned me her jacket so I didn’t have to wear stuff covered in sick. Ok i looked like  woman, but it beat been naked! They admitted me and put me on a saline drip.

Juliana was brilliant and stayed with me so as I could understand the different procedures they needed to do and was great company or I would have died of boredom. She also brought me fresh clothes, wash room bits and pieces, my music, phone etc etc. I got moved to a private 2 bed room and she also stayed with me, for the 5 nights I had to stay. I was very lucky to know her and her family. Her Mum came to see me and father called asking after me, whilst her sister sent me a get well gift (none of her family speak English, but it was all really nice gestures).

I was eventually released on a Monday, as doctors tend not to work over a weekend and the few people who are working in the hospital are usually drunk, honestly, its very strange! After been relesed, I needed to go to see a gastroenterologist, who gave the diagnosis that I had pancreatitis along with minor problems with my liver and kidneys. They said some of the damage looked like I had been poisoned, as there was erosion to the organs.... maybe Russian vodka, beer, tequila and Cognac had finally fought back! Whatever the cause of my illness, it has made me seriously re-evaluate my way of life!

So far, I have only paid an excess fee of $150 and I was told that my insurance should cover everything else which comes as a relief as the bill was in excess of $2000.

So having insurance has finally paid off at last!

Juliana’s family have very kindly offered to put me up until I am fully recovered, as the doctor said it is something that can be fatal if it reoccurs and needs monitoring for the following weeks. Basically this has blown any chance I had of doing the Trans-Siberian, as 4 days on a train is a bit risky if something was to happen. Also, the further East in Russia, the worse the medical treatment. So I will stay in St Petersburg until my visa expires at the start of October, then try and go to Tallinn to get another visa and re enter and make my way across to Mongolia and China. Obviously the weather is deteriorating, so I’m just going to have to play things by ear.