A Russian Affair

Russia was an interesting country to visit. Their museums were world class.

St. Petersburg is known as “the Venice of the North”. It was the former imperial capital of Russia. I went on an evening canal cruise after dinner and sailed along the Neva River and its canals. Our tour rented this private boat, it came with an accordion player dressed in Russian costumes while our local guide Natasha provided all the commentaries. Vodka, Champagne and orange juice were served. I braced the chill and went up on the deck to enjoy the surrounding scenery. After dark, I got to enjoy the same scenery illuminated. It was beautiful.  St. Petersburg is the former city of the Russian Tsars, lined with world class architecture. It looked very European, reminded me of Vienna, and nothing like a communist place. St. Petersburg was mesmerizing.

Daryl came introduced himself and sat down next to me. He told me he worked for the government and lived in Korea. Daryl told me he had 3 ex-wives and there would be a 4^th one. He was traveling with his sister on this trip.  I noticed his “sister” turned around briefly to look at us and she looked mad. She never said a word nor introduced herself on that cruise. (I introduced myself later after the cruise.) Someone offered me a shot glass of vodka+champagne drink. It took me a couple of minutes to swallow that mouthful. Vodka is a strong drink.

So what was the adventure in this encounter?  Well, one day when we were leaving the hotel for our morning sightseeing, someone mentioned the “brother-and-sister” was nowhere to be found, should we wait for them before we took off? Veronica, our tour director, looked puzzled. She asked what “brother-and-sister” we were referring to. She had no clue what we were talking about. It was then that we learned Daryl and Vicki were friends who met once a year outside the country; they were not brother and sister like they introduced themselves to the rest of the group. Well, that did it for us. The rest of the tour group started having these private jokes among ourselves like “yo, we spotted the brother and sister holding hands while shopping at the supermarket across the hotel”, etc. Daryl and Vicki continued to “pretend” they were siblings, not knowing we found out from our tour guide about their “sibling relationships”. Some people just like to make things complicated. Had they just introduced themselves as friends traveling together, nobody would have paid any attention and the tour must go on. Nevertheless it gave the rest of the tour group a good chuckle.  Morals of the story, don’t lie, it always backfire J