Happy Birthday

Of St. Petersburg. 303rd, I'm told. I didn't know when I landed up in the city centre and was pleasantly surprised by the festivities. Here are a few of the hundred odd photos I snapped.

The crowd was unbelievably huge, and thronging the length of Nevsky prospekt. I'm a little surprised that I can't find anything about it in any of the (English language) news websites, yet. Is this the Iron Curtain?

(I have so many more things to write about: like how the sun rises at 5 in the morning and sets at 11 at night. Maybe later...)

So far so good.

Or mission accomplished, I should say. A long process has culminated, somewhat anticlimactically, in a US visa stamp on my passport. So on I go in this trip, back to the US, tomorrow.

(Staying in a warm Bed & Breakfast place in Ottawa. Pretty cool place. Warm turbaned host and hostess, a dog and a cat, organic food for breakfast, and wireless connection for my powerbook. All very cheap.)

The Itinerary

If sufficiently many things go as planned, this is where I will be on the following days:

May 17-20: Ottawa (where I'd be trying to get my US visa)
May 20-24: Seattle (where I won't be if don't get my US visa)
May 25-June 3: St. Petersburg (well I have my Russian visa, but my flight is from Seattle)
June 4 - June 7: Princeton/New York (alma mater!)
June 7th: Back in Champaign (where, whenever I return, tonnes of work awaits me)

If they don't go as planned, well, we'll see...