LIVE UPDATE - # 21

Let me tell you a sad story...

St. Petersburg, Russia, is a beautiful city. The streets are very wide and the buildings are beautiful, walking around it feels like Europe mixed with North America mixed with Russia. The main street, Nevskiy Prospekt, is always busy and lined with tall ornate stone buildings. I toured around the city today with two women from my tour. (Even though my tour is now over, there are a couple of people staying around for a few days and we are meeting up to see things together.) We visited Peter and Paul Fortress, which is across the Neva River from the main area of town, then after a nice snack in a cafe on Nevskiy Prospekt we decided to go and see the inside of The Church on Spilled Blood.

This church looks simular to the famous St. Basil's in Moscow, though the inside is vastly different. The walk from the cafe to the church goes along a lovely thin waterway called Kanal Griboedova. I decided that the view down the canal towards the onion-domed church was very pretty and that I should take a picture. I walked across the small side street that runs along the water for a better shot. I pulled out my little camera, which is affectionately known as 'my James Bond camera' because it is so slim. I have been carrying around a Lowpro camera bag which holds my large SLR digital camera that I got for this trip. It has a small front zipper pouch where I have been keeping my neck-money-wallet-thingy and my tiny automatic camera.

After taking a few pictures I returned to the other side of the street, where the side walk was nicer and wider. A few minutes later I felt something strange happen as a couple of guys brushed past me. I stopped, slightly confused. I can only describe the feeling as 'Huh? That wasn't right. Something just happened. Wha?' It actually felt simular to the feeling I had when I got my belly button pierced when I was 17. Since I had numbed the skin so much, and I didn't watch the girl do it, I only felt a strange sansation of 'something happening'. It was quick, caught my breath a little and then my heart rate quickened like when anxious.

I quickly stopped and looked down at my camera bag, which I carry around like a purse, and the front pouch was unzipped. My neck-money-wallet-thingy was in there, but the space in front of it was empty, where I normaly keep my small camera in its little leather case. I reached in and riffled through it and sure enough it was gone. I still did not clue into what had happened at this point and my mind raced through possibilities of where it had gone; "After taking those pictures did I put it in my jean pocket? Was it in my coat pocket, which I was carrying over my arm? Did I drop it? Did I not zip up the pouch and it fell out? Oh no! I was just pick-pocketed, and I mean just."

This was just such a strange realization that I didn't quite want to believe it. I rushed back a few meters still thinking that maybe it had fallen out and I would see it on the sidewalk. Also, one of the women I was with was behind me taking some more pictures. When I reached her, I told her what had happened. She was very upset and said that it must have been the three men that had just passed us. I could see one up ahead and I rushed towards him, still scanning the ground for my camera.

When I reached him, I could see that he had many square wallet/camera shaped things in his front and back pockets. However, none of them were the right size or shape for my camera. I started asking him, in a slightly frantic manner, about it. "I think I just lost my camera. My camera is missing. Have you seen it? Have you seen a camera?" By the time I had finished my questions I had figured out that the things in his pockets were not my camera and I couldn't really challenge him about taking it. I started looking ahead at the next man in the group, the third was gone and I don't think I would have recognized him anyway. At first he seemed surprised that I was talking to him and asking these things. Then he started to ask if I wanted him to take a picture of me with the church, and asked for my camera and made some taking-pictures gestures. I turned back to him, "No, it is gone. I lost it. Do you have it? Do you have my camera?" To this he said he didn't speak English, waved me off, and walked away. By this point the second guy up ahead was gone and I didn't know what eles to do.

I spent the next half hour feeling a strange combination of emotions, though was predominantly what I would describe as anxious. I am rarely anxious so it was a strange and slightly uncomfortable state for me. I'm no longer anxious but still feel a number of emotions like anger, sadness, and relief. I have never been a victim of thieft before and although always hear about pick-pocketing happening to travellers and people in large cities, I tend to adopt the 'it won't happen to me attitude'. Now I have more of a, 'that sucks and I will be more careful, but it could really happen to anyone and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it' attitude.

Relief...

--the camera was a few years old and not that costly to begin with, there have been two newer models since mine, it should not cost that much to replace because though I loved it, it wasn't particularly fancy
--my parents new netbook that I have been using all trip and is my main connection home to friends and family was safe back at the hostel, locked into my locker along with a few other important things like my journal, chargers, flight information, addresses and phone numbers, etc.
--though it was in the same pocket, they did not take my neck-money-wallet-thingy, which at the time contained my passport, the photocopies of my passport, a fair amount of money, and all my cards
--in the large pocket of the bag was my big SLR camera that I just got and is quite expenisve, it was a recent gift from my parents and has a new lense which I bought just before leaving that cost me a lot, and it has all my nicely composed photographs from the trip which I believe is currently over 1500, thankfully they did not take/get this
--'the James Bond camera' only had about 8 photographs on it, having done another upload onto the netbook last night of all the pictures, which I have been doing once or twice a week, so it was only pictures from today and I have a bunch on the SLR camera from today's sites
--the entire experence was not, even in the least, a violent crime, occasionally pick-pockets use knives to slice open bags or cut straps, but this was not the case for me today, I did not feel scared, and when talking/questioning the man I did not feel like he was dangerous

Sadness...

--I loved that camera, it was so cute and fun, I have taken it many places and its tiny size makes it very convenient, I have dropped it I don't know how many times and it was really durable, though was a little scratched up by this point, it was also a gift from my parents a few Christmas' back
--the camera was kept in a little black and purple leather case, it fit snugly in it so still was small and thin, I think the case probably helped keep the camera safe with all the dropping I did, the case was Kenith Cole, who I think is some clothing designer, and was given to me by Little Brother Mike the same Christmas that my parents gave me the camera
--it was great to have a little camera to take quick pictures with and give to other people to take a picture of me with, now I will have to decide whether I will start giving my SLR to have pictures of me taken
--I had gotten into a good groove using it for 'quick shot' or 'record type' photos and taking more 'art' shots with the larger fancier camera, it was very nice to have a 'back up' of pictures in case the nice ones on the SLR don't turn out well, or get lost somehow
--it used an SD card and my other, and now only, camera uses the larger Compact Flash memory card, with SD I was able to upload pictures onto the netbook, while all the other camera ones I won't be able to see until I get home and load them using a special card reader
--now I won't be able to upload Teri In Hats pictures, Finger Puppet pictures, or Pin pictures for my friends and email them from the trip

** This also means that blog posts from now on will be only written as I can't get recent photos onto the compter anymore. You will have to read these long long posts without anything interesting to look at. **