Day 6 - Where'd The Keys Go?

Hi all.
I'm so bored. I was looking forward to going round to a friend's tomorrow, but now I don't even have that. I mean, I suppose it's partly my own fault, but I've hardly seen ANYONE this holiday. It's been so boring. I mean, there was the trip, and easter, but apart from that, hardly anything's happened. I should really be revising loads, but I just lack motivation completely at the moment. I mean, I know there's the long-term "you'll go to a good uni and get a great job" malarkey, but it would be nice to have something a bit closer. Say, this weekend? Nothing's going to happen now I've suggested it! That's how my life works!

Hey...

I know what would cheer me up, and I know what would cheer you up as well! Yep, that's right! It's the final day of my Russia diary! Hooray!

So, I woke up this morning and had a good breakfast to compensate for my lack of lunch money, and after five minutes of packing (I didn't have much to put away), I found I had half an hour spare, so I headed down to the bar and asked if there was any chance I could play the piano there - Apparently I could!
To be honest, the piano wasn't brilliant. One of the Ds wouldn't work, which was frustrating because a lot of my stuff is D-related. To be honest, I just wanted something to fling my feelingss at for a bit, and I thought it would be beneficial for everyone if I chose the piano over Ian. Among other things, I decided that the little blues improv number I always seem to have up my sleeve should be called "Tounge-Tied", mainly because it has no lyrics. Some random Italian guy appeared to be complementing me, which was a good sign, I guess. But at least it passed the time until we left.
So at nine we headed to the first site of the day - a memorial cemetery for all the Russian soldiers who died in the Second World War - the Siege of Leningrad etc. It was really moving. They had another one of those eternal flame things in the entrance, and from there you could walk down through rows and rows of "common graves"; that is, graves which have groups of people in, rather than just individual ones, because the people of the city were starving so badly they did not have the energy to dig separate graves. At the other end of the walk, you could see a statue and a written memorial, as well as some flowers from the President of Chile. They were playing sombre music through the tanoy as well, although I could have been sure I recognised Pachabel's Canon in there somewhere. I thought they only played that at weddings! All said, however, it was a pretty sobering experience.
We then headed to our second port of call, the Finland railway station. Logically, it's the station at one end of the line that goes over the top to Finland. Inside, we saw on display the train that Lenin was sent out of the country in, and which he later returned in. The picture-taking wasn't that good because the Sun was in the wrong place and the glass was really reflective, so my camera could hardly detect the train itself. We also saw a statue of Lenin... or at least where it should be. But they were busy restoring it because someone had bazooka-ed him in the back, or something.
When we'd finished looking around the station, we took a short drive to the Museum of Russian Politics - it was as boring as it sounds! It wasn't that the things they had on display weren't interesting, because they were, they were fascinating. They even had Sputnik, or at least a replica - I thought I saw the real one in the Science Museum. But it was the sort of museum where you had to be herded round in huge groups, and a guy would stand in front of all the most miniscule displays, and talk at you for five minutes, before herding you on to the next section, and so on. What made it worse was that the man who was leading the tour only spoke Russian, so we had to wait twice as long for the English translation. You had to pay for a photo permit again, and as I had no money left, I passed on this option.
Excruciatingly slowly, the time passed, and soon we were on the coach again, heading for the airport! As we drove, I took my last look at the streets of St. Petersburg, and too soon we had arrived at the end of the line. Our guide, whose name I have finally deduced is Theod, or something like that, bade us a sad farewell, and before we knew it we were through the airport's seriously convoluted customs system and in Departures. The shopping facilities here weren't fantastic, but still more comprehensive than, say, Banjul. Everyone else went of to get lunch at TGI Friday's, but as I've already mentioned, I had no money, so I sat and did my diary and waited until they served us on the plane.
It turns out I drew the longer of the straws - The lunches at TGI Friday's turned up late! So I waited around some more, and then, after passing through yet more convoluted customs, we could board the plane. I had an aisle seat on row 13, which was quite ominous and foreshadowing. Once everyone was seated (I ended up next to pokemon-pringle guy and his Reigate friend) the safety video was shown and the pilot spent fifteen minutes taxi-ing around the airfield in random circles. I was certain he had no idea where he was going! Another quarter of an hour passed as we camped out somewhere which wasn't quite the runway, and I began to dig in to my Heroes magazine. I feel really guilty I haven't made a start on my "proper" literature - The James Bond book, "From Russia With Love", naturally! - but to be honest there just wasn't time!
Eventually, we were soaring into the air again and waving our final goodbyes to Russia. Lunch was soon brought around, and I cracked on with my diary, whilst playing "Here Come The Drums" on my iPod to get me in the mood for the sunny remainder of the holidays which hopefully awaited me back home.
Well, time passed, and sure enough the captain soon announced that the weather in London was a sunny 16 degrees! Bodes well for the barbecue tomorrow (Said barbecue has since been cancelled.)! So, rather suddenly, we found ourselves thudding onto the runway at Heathrow. I was sad because the holiday was over, but happy because it was sunny! So the pilot returned to his favourite hobby of driving around in random circles, and eventually we ended up in a part of the airfield which wasn't quite the terminal, and got a bus back to the building itself. From there, we passed smoothly through passport control and onto the bus. It was really strange to see a Pulhams bus again, after all those Ladas and trams and electric buses.
Once on our way, we presented the teachers with their thankyou presents, and as we all cheered for them I got the sense that all of us, despite our differences, had become part of a massive circle of friends. I guess that's what school trips do to you. No doubt after the holidays we'll go back to acting just as though nothing had ever happened, but you never know with these things. And hey, if nothing else, I can be content in the knowledge that, somewhere out there in that humungous world we live in, some random Italian guy has enjoyed my music. Hooray.

Cripes, it's all over. I hope you've enjoyed reading about the trip as much as I've enjoyed being their and writing for you! I guess the next cool diary moment like this will be for the Spanish work experience in July, which promises to be awesome. And we're a much smaller group as well, so we should really get on. But until then, your normal, boring service will resume. Anyway, what am i doing here, I should be revising! Ho-hum...

See ya 'round!

Jack