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Let Me Explain

I am in Saint Petersburg for the third time of six projected total visits this summer. I really had no idea how i would feel about going around and around the Baltic for two months, most of the time back and forth from Copenhagen to Stockholm.

Maybe I would be bored.  I mean, how many times can I visit Tallinn, Estonia, and still feel invigorated about it?

All I can say is, I still pinch myself and say, “lucky, lucky me!”

Today, visit three to Saint Petersburg (this year), second day:  I had for breakfast some perfect fruit someone else had cut up and cleaned up after.  Then i went and did a little upper body at the gym.  Reviewed and added a few of my own photos to my lecture on Stockholm.  Had a light lunch of salads and my big splurge dessert, bread pudding.  YUM!

Then, the day took on steam.  I used my visa to get off the ship and take a six-mile walk through St. Petersburg, along the Neva, then across the river and on to the Hermitage and up the big shopping street, Nevsky Prospekt.  Then I wandered back, past St. Isaac’s Cathedral and along a green strip,  across the river and to the ship.

Walking back through the main bar (sort of the Grand Central for the ship), I ran across a family i had met briefly before and sat down and chatted with them.  Of course i was immediately approached by a waiter who brought me some champagne which i had totally earned by then on my walk.

I went back then, took a shower, called Dan, and then went out to dinner with some lovely people in a beautiful restaurant, where I could eat and drink whatever I wanted, no charge. What i want at this point is very little, but it doesn’t matter.  I have what works for me, no more.

On my way back to my room, I stopped in the bar and listened to a Ukrainian pianist play the slow movement of The Moonlight Sonata.  Now, back in my room, i found myself wondering why anyone would ever ask if i am tired of this.

Let me explain in one word, if this description of my day doesn’t do it:  No.

Sure, there are many things I am missing in this nomadic, cruising  life: the powerful silence of nature, the humbling experience of great mountain peaks, the lovely affirmation of being truly alone.  But really, what i have is so wonderful I simply cannot express how warm and wooly I feel to have found this life.  Thank you, powers of the universe! I hope this photo of me and my visa, as i leave the ship,  says how much i know I am truly blessed.