Today we were back in St. Petersburg, Russia. I had hoped to be a crew escort on one of a number of tours, but I am only able to do a half-day tour, that is in the morning, due to the production show at night on this day. Tonight is SHOUT, the 60's mod musical, starring the 5 female production cast singers. We have our technical run-through in the afternoon, and then an 8:30pm performance on the first St. Petersburg day. So, that precludes me from a full-day tour. Unfortunately, the three morning tours in which I was interested were all sold out. I would like to take a tour, and see some of St. Petersburg, but with the new anti-gay laws that just went into effect (to which tourists are subject), I am not keen on the idea of exporing on my own, nor do I really have any desire to give the country any of my money.
From www.huffingtonpost.com . . .
Travel site Skift reports that the new law, signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 30, contains a provision that allows the government to arrest and detain gay (or "pro-gay") foreigners for up to 14 days before they would then be expelled from Russia.
As far as what is considered "pro-gay," the laws specifics are somewhat vague, but Canadian site Travel and Escape suggests "gay-affirmative" speech, displaying a rainbow flag and same-sex partners holding hands are among the prohibited actions.
REALLY?!?!?! IT'S 2013!!! WTF?!?!
So, on the ship I stayed today, getting some work done, and just relaxing a bit. Truth be told, when I found out last night that I wouldn't be on a tour today, I didn't set an alarm for this morning and stayed in bed until 11:45am! In all fairness, we did move ahead an hour last night, as well as two nights ago.
I did manage to take two photos of tonight's sunset, from the 13th deck of the ship. This was at 11:05pm! And at 12:03am (yes, I checked) it was still "twilight." Actual "darkness" hours are very limited here in the summer. How depressing January must be!
