No Questions

The previous entry heading is in Russian script, thus I'm discovering most computers will not display it except as "??? ?? ????". I'm still not telling what it says. I typed a nice, long birthday related entry while I was sitting at an internet terminal yesterday in St Petersburg.

My time ran out as I was "publishing" and apparently the entry didn't make it through.

To summarize:

1) The birthday party thrown for me last year on my 30th will likely never be topped, that's a simple fact.

2) Threw my own party this year, off the ship in this Italian restaurant I like in St Petersburg. They offered kids parties with entertainment very cheaply. They set up the party but wouldn't let me book the performers (clowns, trained animals, and a magician for 1300 rubles ($40-45)) once they knew it was for adults. Even when we tried to bribe them. Still, the party was a bunch of silly childish fun with good Russian beer and a Russian approximation of Italian food. "La Strada" the place is called. Remind me to write more about this.

3) The firework placed in the center of my cake was, we all agreed, probably illegal for ANY use in the Unitd States. There is a video of me trying not to get my face too close to the roman candle like, sparking, Class C explosive at the center of my tasty birthday treat...

4) My cake, at the behest of my friend Brad, was to read "Happy Birthday Brother Skillet"... don't ask. The Russian who decorated wrote "Happy Birthday Brother Skihet" so that's my name for the next week or so I think.

Anyway, I have to run, I'm using the infernally slow internet onboard right now.

BY THE WAY - John Dalton - I got your music in St. Petersburg!!! It was obviously looseleaf paper and was clearly labeled music, so I guess the very crooked mail system here decided there was nothing of value to resell within. Thus it only took over a month to arrive. THANK YOU SO MUCH and I have a little something for you in return. As to birthday gifts and stuff people have asked about, it hasn't arrived. If you sent it to Copenhagen, it will; in fact it takes very little time it seems. St. Petersburg, well, someone on the black market will enjoy themselves a great deal.

Adriana- I am waiting for the big screen for Charlie and the Choclate Factory. I bought it on DVD but the transfer is AWFUL, which is very, very rare for these "questionable" DVDs here. It's on the level of one of those DVDs of a new movie you buy on the street in NYC. When you buy them here, they're usually indistinguishable in many way from a commercial DVD.

Later all...

??? ?? ???

I haven't posted here in a while for several reasons.

I haven't had a lot of time, and the ship's onboard internet is so painfully slow that it isn't worth the effort.

We've only been to the same few ports over and again since ... well, for over a month now, and there's not a lot new to report of sights seen of trips taken.

Stockholm, Helsinki, three days in St. Petersburg, Tallin, Visby, Copenhagen... then reverse that. That makes for convenience in getting mail, but not from St. Petersburg where apparently a few birthday gifts are now in the hands of the black market.

The same black market where I obtained my personal birthday gift of a... well, I honestly can't say what it is but it facilitates the viewing of any DVD in the world, and the playing of any of the abundance of $3 Playstation 2 games the sell here. There's a big black market, for electronics primarily, called "Unona"... that's ????? in Russian. I'm learning to read ... to be able to pronounce... Russian text.

This is odd because ... I probably already blogged this, but so many of the signs form English words when you finally do sound them out, you wonder why they're in Russian at all.

What else? I had a copy of the new Harry Potter waiting for me at this great bookshop in Copenhagen... they're called "bogers" they're, no lie... but I finished the... "bog" and... if any of you have read it, well, damn. I got to the end and thought about what the next book will have to be and how many children will be distraught upon reading this one. Wow.

Also, we found an amazing, huge, English language movie theatre in Tallinn and finally caught Batman Begins and War of the Worlds. I guess there's quite the longing for the familiar, the taste of home, lately. Batman Begins blew me away. Even with the Estonian and Russian subtitles.

Today I bought "Bewitched" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" on DVD to watch in the next few days. I've also been picking up a lot of souvenirs for gifts when I return. . . Russian militaria and etcetera. The things they have here, and the inexpensive nature of the place... I'll miss it.

There are many stories to tell or immigration, customs, taxis, gypsies, gypsy children, and other such things but... another time.

I'm a little homesick lately if you can't tell. Might have to do with my approaching birthday, four days hence... but it also might be that I'm midway through the cruise.

I promise to blog more often. I'm just a lump lately, missing kith and kin.

Address issues

Anyone who's sent me something in St. Petersburg, any of you who've asekd if I got your stuff... I didn't. Except for one thing, so far.

Turns out they're in the habit of holding anything and everything randomly in "customs" and you may or may not ever see it. Thank you black market, I both give and I take from you it seems.

Anyway, for future and speedier mail, until late July it's cheaper, very safe, and very efficient to send to:

Donald Winsor - crew #929
Radisson Seven Seas Voyager
c/o Maersk Broker
Esplenaden 50
DK-1098 Copenhagen, Demark

My birthday is coming soon... ;)

Bear Spit

Today, I had to wash bear slobber from my hands.

Yesterday I obtained a slimline PS2 with a crazy Russian modchip frmo the St. Petersburg Blackmarket, along with a boatload of games. For my birthday. From me.

As for you, you have my address, here on the blog.