Mission Possible - where is Tom Cruise when you need him? (posting from the road)

"Is he still behind us?" was the breathless question from Sara as we bolted around a corner and cowered in an alley. The four of us had finally managed to evade our persurer. The night started out as a meet and greet and ended with a covert operation.

My five travel mates and I met up with a representative from our travel company...Olga was available to answer our questions about St. Petersburg and the next few weeks of our journey. (Unlike other 'tours' I have done, this one has no real guides...the occasional "city experts" available to us when the train stops...the 6 of us will just muddle through the remainder of the time. No room for error there I reckon - if it's one thing the Russians and Chinese are known for...it's patience and understanding.)

So like a good pre-departure meeting we settled down to a meal...this one was at a Georgian Restaurant (southern State in Russia). First off, I do not suspect Georgian cuisine will be catching on the way Chinese or Mexican has back home...just a hunch. Secondly I have always disliked when there are people singing while you are trying to eat and talk - it's loud and it bothers me. Turns out I had no idea...our meeting meal where we were planning on getting some much needed trip details was drowned out by frequent sets of 4 Georgian Pop songs being sung by a young stud who fancied his own voice. Dreadful does not begin to describe it.

This is where our adversary was first introduced to us. Mikael, a man who appeared deceptively sweet, was dining in the corner alone. When the music started up he would ask a random woman to dance...at first I thought he too was annoyed by the music and was trying to make the best of it. I was wrong - He was stalking his prey. After 3.5 hours, we simply gave up on meeting and choose to just leave...then Mikael had joined our table. When we attempted to pay our bill, we discovered that, in an attempt to impress Olga, Mikael had picked up the entire 5000 ruble tab. Thankful, but suspicious, we heeded to Russian custom and participated in a drink to show thanks...but Mikael wanted more. He wanted Olga.

He desperately tried find further activites for us to do...really stressing the importance of going on a night boat ride through the canals. I know that sounds like a kind offer but there are really very many problems with this plan...1) It's 1130 pm. 2) It's raining. 3) It's cold. 4) He is very drunk. 5) He has no boat. You can see where I found a few holes in this idea.

We tried to thank him and leave, but he decided to tag along for the walk back to our hostel. This is where the covert operation to lose Mikael started. Unfortuanately I have a hip that occassionaly functions poorly after surgery many years ago. It is rarely is ever a problem, so of course the only time it would flare up would be when I need it to escape a crazy man in Russia. Will - the tallest by far of our group had returned early to the hostel, leaving us 4 girls, poor young jet lagged Pete who had just arrived and the ultimate prize, Olga.

Attempts to politely dissuade him were to no avail. The closer we got to the hostel, the more dire the situation to ditch Mikael became. (Honestly I wanted to bring him back to the hostel and have the Babushka take care of him). Splitting up eventually became the only option...the fact that Mikael spoke only Russian allowed us to somewhat plan the escape.

When Mikael tried to once again flag down a cab in vain (we were neve going to get in a vehicle with this increasingly insistent man), we took off running to the underground tunnels. I was like a gimp horse - every step was excrutiating - in fact if I were a real horse I imagine I would have been shot. But as a human, Tricia and Pete had some pity and stayed behind with me...leaving Fiona, Olga and Sara to make a get away out of the tunnels and hide.

We emerged shortly behind them with a rather depleted Mikael behind us, clutching his chest. Now he is quite upset with us - he is experiencing some chest pain and is demanding to know the location of Olga. We know that they are hiding near by and call out for them to return to the hostel down a different road and we will lure Mikael away. Sara returns to support the three of us and we set off with the agitated, inhiberiated Russian in tow.

We had the home court advantage this time and when Mikael stopped to buy us all coffees, we ran as fast as could, through massive puddles of dirty street water and ducked into an alley. Slowly, under the cover of the darkness that had finally set in (damn the 60th parallel in late May), we made our way back to the hostel to find Fiona and Olga safe and sound. Operation a success...ready for our next mission...