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IPPNW Baltic Bike Tour 2006
- Medical Students Cycle for Peace -
August 21st - September 6th
D.
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Day
8
Monday, August 28th
Enjoying the sights of the imperial city - free day in St.
Petersburg
Some of the team in front of the Imperial Winter Palace, now housing
the Eremitage
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What a treat
to
finally wake up in a real bed again! After a wonderful little
Pilmeni-brunch
served by Agyeno and Alex, the day was devoted entirely to strolling
through the city of St. Petersburg - for most of the group, anyways...
André, Michael and Alex had to spend a great part of the day
locating and reaching the city's only laundromat in order to wash the
group's clothes. As you can imagine, with 20
participants' clothes to wash, the boys
were very busy indeed. With Tamar as a local guide to get them through
busy St. Petersburg traffic, though, they made the 10 km to the
laundromat in little less than 5 hours ;) Below are some pictures of
the sights the others saw during the day, starting with the great
Russian way of selling melons on the streets (literally at every
intersection...
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 St.
Petersburg's Admiralty, once its most
important building, as the city was founded by Peter the Great first
and foremost as an imperial port city, Russia's first ice-free harbor
and its most important link to Europe and the rest of the world
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The view
down
from St. Isaac's cathedral on the city's beautiful neoclassical
facades... and a picture of Agyeno earning himself some extra bucks...
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The famous Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy
Blood, situated right on the banks fo the Neva-canals...
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Small excursion into Russis's nuclear
policy:
Being on
the territory of one of the world's seven confirmed nuclear powers
(according to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which entered into
force on march 5th 1970), the participants had quite a few interesting
dicussions about Russia's role as a nuclear power. Also, the topics of
the G8 Summit, which took place in St.Petersburg a mere month and a
half ago, proved a fruitful foundation for further talks on Russia's
energy politics and its use of nuclear power.
President
Putin emphasized that nuclear power engineering is "a priority
[industrial] branch for the country, that makes Russia a great power;
the most ambitious projects and progressive technologies are linked
with this branch."
Describing
nuclear energy as "one of the most important national priorities" for
Russia, Putin said not to long ago, that nuclear power is "no longer a
Cinderella" or outcast.
*
These quotes were taken from
the article "Russia embarks on its global nuclear power plans" by
Marsha Freeman, which appeared in the March 31, 2006 issue of Executive Intelligence Review (http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3313russ_nuke_plans.html)
* If
you are interested in political cartoons this sight might be something
for you: http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/BushPutin/main.asp
*
World Nuclear Association: "Nuclear Power in Russia", June 2006: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf45.htm
* Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI): http://www.nti.org/
Concerned
that the threat from nuclear weapons had fallen off most people's radar
screens after the end of the Cold War, CNN founder Ted Turner asked
former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn in the spring of 2000 to help assess
whether a private organization could make a difference. After months of
discussions and consultations with some of the world's most respected
security experts, Mr. Turner and Senator Nunn founded the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (NTI) in January 2001. NTI's mission is to strengthen
global security by reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread
of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. NTI seeks to raise public
awareness, serve as a catalyst for new thinking and take direct action
to reduce these threats.
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At
the end of
the day, everyone met up again and Dmitry took the group to a secret
Russian Banya (traditional Russian steam bath - in a way comparable
with a sauna), where the participants spent 4 hours getting steamed
like dim sum in their bamboo basket, the slight difference being,
that it is typical for such a banya to hit each other
with bushes of dried branches and leaves from white birch trees or
other suitable wood (called venik, веник) in order to improve the
circulation. Yes,
this
hurts! But, everyone
enjoyed it a lot. This was also
due to Kolja und
Dmitry, who proved to be real masters of whipping the others with the
branches. Maybe it's the
jump into a bath of ice cold water, that comes after the steaming and
whipping part that made the experience such a positive one. We, who
have never participated in such a banya outing before, will never know
until we try it ourselves;) |
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The TOP 10
List of the Day
"The
Top Ten things NOT to do in St. Petersburg
1.
Enter
central St. Petersburg traffic with a large van filled with laundry
(Alex)
2.
Go to one of the city's great Blini stalls and try only one type (Maren)
3.
Go to a Shwarma shop just as the group
plans to leave and get lost (Agyeno)
4.
Take one of the illegal cabs and forget
where to get off (Josh)
5.
Buy a fishing rod in one of the city's
black markets and forget to ask for spare parts (Pauli)
6.
Go to the St. Petersburg Mosque and expect
to be greeted by halal meat stalls (Ahmed)
7.
Spend a whole day doing other people's laundry (Michael and
André)
8.
Tell Kolja to beat even harded when you're in the Russian banya getting
whipped (Robbi)
9.
Drive down the St. Petersburg curbs with your bike at speeds of 30 kmh
(Nino)
10.
Use Hostel showers without rubber flip flops (Tova)
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MEDIA COVERAGE
As of now there
have been several press reports about the Baltic Bike Tour 2006 in
Tallinn. Also, the participants who already resided in Tallinn ahead of
the tour's start on Monday, gave a radio interview there and might have
convinced a local television station to report on the start of the tour
and appear for live coverage (more infos on that on Monday). For all
those of you who are fluent in Estonian or Russian - here the first
published articles on the Tour. No worries for all those who don't
understand one of the two...more links to media coverage on the event
are to follow soon.
August
18th in the
Estonian Magazine "Postimees":
http://www.postimees.ee/190806/esileht/siseuudised/213838.php
August
18th in the
Estonian Magazine "Eesti Päevaleht Online":
http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/351329
Mentioning
of the BBT found on August 20th on the homepage of the "Gruene Liga
Berlin":
http://www.grueneliga-berlin.de/
August 22nd You can see news
with Alex and Meelis interviews on the internet:
http://www.etv24.ee/index.php?0534940
21.08.2006 - Aktuaalne kaamera (vene keeles) + Eestimaa Vene Muuseumi
ekspeditsioon:
Saksa 2 - in russian (clip starts
10:32)
21.08.2006 - Aktuaalne kaamera kell 21:00 - in Estonian (last clip)
August 22nd
in
the biggest Estonian
newspaper "Postimees":
http://www.postimees.ee/220806/esileht/siseuudised/214176.php?r
August 23nd in
the German newspaper "Rheinische Post"
(Interview with Alex):
http://www.ippnw-students.org/baltic/rpartikel.html
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For
all those of you who would like to send the bikers personal messages,
words of motivation or who would just like to say something in general
about the Baltic Bike Tour, please write your contribution to the
following E-mail address and it will be updated in the guestbook.
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