Day 3 - Sea Day (July 3rd)

10AM under the violins in the Explorer's Lounge was where we were to meet those joining us on the Den Rus tour of St. Petersburg. The group consisted of Janet and I, Marty and Karen of Long Island, Penny and Ed of California and Bonnie from Ohio. Penny happened to be a passenger we briefly met the night before who had exuberantly suggested we run and take a look at the dinner menus for the next night's dinner. It never occurred to us at the time that she might be one of our tour folks. Her partner Ed briefly joined us to make our acquaintance before hurrying off to one of the many cruise activities on his itinerary. Marty and Karen were already new friends and we were hoping they would be able to join our dinner table for the remainder of the cruise. Bonnie was new to us. We quickly learned that Bonnie had recently taken an early retirement package from corporate management to dedicate time to her Victorian home and exotic travel. She was an organizer with strong opinions who wanted to get the details of the tour straight. How would we be tipping? Would we be bringing lunches? Marty, never one for a straight answer but more apt to regale us with an amusing story soon tested her patience. This was going to be an interesting 2-day tour, I thought.

Sea days are great for taking a rest between ports or for getting acquainted with the ship. I chose to go for a run in the gym followed by some time in the sauna and a late afternoon wine tasting seminar. Lunch was another opportunity to meet more passengers. Seated at our open table were Geoff and Shelley of Tucson, Arizona and a couple who had escaped Russia during WWII. When we told them we were from Canada, the old Russian lady quickly exclaimed that her son worked in Canada and happened to be a very prominent staff member of the University Of British Columbia. Why we would be interested in the details of her son's employment and salary was beyond us. Geoff and Shelley were likely one of the few other couples on the ship who happened to be younger than us. Shelley made apologies for ordering 2 orders of everything. She was pregnant and wasn't shy to show us her protruding stomach, skin and all. We quickly warmed to Geoff and Shelley. They were adventurous, well traveled and full of humour. We bolted from the table when the old Russian man started complaining about how the Chinese were killing the economy. It wasn't so much the heavy opinions but the scrambled egg that shot from his mouth every time he made a heated point.

That afternoon, a letter left at the door of our cabin informed us that our dinner seating assignment had been altered. Marty and Karen had requested that they be seated at our table but instead of adding a few chairs, we were assigned to a 4 seater with them. We didn't want to leave our existing table as Janet and I were quickly warming to our newfound tablemates but we weighed up our options and decided to go with the flow. A stop at our former table to explain what had happened hopefully ensured no offence was created by our departure.