NOT SETTLED... STILL..

It's been a while since my last post, and even I forgot the web address of my blog for a moment.. ha~
Looking at my posts, turns out I've actually started two posts before and didn't finish them, probably because I was either too busy, or internet was too crappy, or I just couldn't be bothered with it. Lots of happened in this 3 months.
The biggest one is I guess that we had our last second wedding with all the close relatives coming all the way from NZ and a couple of friends from the States. It was tiring but special. Definitely no more weddings, as sometimes I get asked, "So, are you going to have a wedding in New Zealand as well?". The wedding itself went fine, with no major hiccups except that my best man was absent in the second half of the celebration, due to the long "talk" of life and death with the squat toilet in the restaurant. haha~~ I hope he reads it too, because I promised him that I would remind it to him for many years ahead. And yes, you read it right, surprisingly it was a squat-toilet, even though the restaurant wasn't a cheap one. But I guess it sort of fitted the traditional theme of it. I got quite drunk myself, but hung on through it all, and managed to not to embarrass myself in front of my lovely in-laws. I don't have the photos here now, so, I can't post them, but I will some time. After that, the next day early in the morning, still hungover from all the vodka, we took off to Samarkand on a train. The whole trip of just about 5 days went with no major accidents as well. It was interesting for me as well, since I haven't traveled around my country as well. Soon after that I had to go to St.Petersburg on work related matter (which is another big news I guess), so, Katy with her parents and I flew to St.Petersburg for 10 days.

Whenever you visit a new country, the first thing you see and experience is the airport, and, consequently, its staff. Pulkovo airport is horrible, I'd say on par or even worse than even Tashkent Halqaro airport. Why?. The stereotypical opinion about Russian rudeness and unfriendliness is a given factor, (although, I must admit, it's getting better), the inefficiency with which the passport control is working is appalling, the facilities are so inadequate that it's really embarrassing for the such a great city as St.Petersburg, to have it. You feel yourself when you go through the Pulkovo-1 airport's passport control as if you're in the Zoo, you know one of those pits you see in the zoo, made specially for dangerous animals when you look at them from above. Robin said it, too.. Of course, we were surrounded by tens of pushy and impatient Uzbeks who have no concept of a line and just trying to get to the customs lady from all directions. Wendy (my mother-in-law) adapted very quickly and wouldn't have any of the BS like pushing and cutting in from the surrounding Uzbeks, so, she started to push and elbow them back and tell them off with that stern look on her disapproving face. I loved that moment. Robin, as always, suffered in silence. :)
It took us a few thousands of dead nerve-cells, about 2 hours and lots of pushing and elbowing to go through the line and pick up our bags. We arrived at about 22:30 at night and only got out at 1am or something like that. By the time we got to our place of stay (an apartment that I rented), we were exhausted.
St.Petersburg was boring and all-business for me and lots of excursions and sightseeing for the rest of the group. There was an incident in the subway when someone lost his wallet, well, it got stolen, by the notorious Uzbeks apparently, who works the subways and target foreigners. Luckily the only thing they stole was credit cards, and we managed to quickly cancel them before any damage could have been done. On one of our last days, we went to Petergof, the summer palace built by Peter the Great and finished by Kathrine the Great, a beautiful place but very expensive to go to (if you count the transportation and entrance fees and light snack and stuff). Better to take enough money, because we apparently didn't and had to sit and wait outside in freezing cold waiting for a boat instead of enjoying a cup of hot tea and a cake.. :) It was a good sport though, and I have a picture of the three poor kiwies stuck in Petergof waiting for a boat on a cold metal bench looking to the sea. :) (will upload it as well).

To be continued.