The photo at right, taken from a car speeding across the Troitsky bridge (I think) early in the morning on July 8, is probably my favorite from the whole trip to St. Petersburg. For some reason, the fact that this photo was taken from inside a chastnik's cab reminded me of the most out-of-place-looking chastnik (as private or gypsy cab drivers are called) I've ever seen, one of the many with whom we rode that first week in July - a man of African descent who spoke heavily accented Russian and piloted a bright-orange VAZ-2101 with nearly opaque tinting on the
windows and paper temporary license plates. Going totally off-topic for a minute, readers not familiar with Russian autos may be interested to know that the VAZ-2101 was a design purchased from Fiat by the Soviets decades ago which is still very much in evidence on roads across the former Soviet Union. This car is popularly known as the "kopeika" - which means a kopeck or a one-kopeck coin - and served as the narrative conceit for a recent movie of that name.
The photo at left was taken on the evening of July 8th as we headed to Moskovsky Vokzal for the night train to Moscow. Looking back out the window of another cab (this one was a black Volga, if memory serves) at what is definitely the Troitsky (Trinity) Bridge, with the spire of the Peter-and-Paul Fortress visible off to the left.
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