ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, SUMMER 1993

View from my flat, which looked much the same as the ones across the road

My kitchen table after a romantic visit

Viktor, Alek's friend, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Brains from Thunderbirds. My employers at the Arctic and Antarctic Institute introduced me to Viktor and Alek so that I wouldn't be bored...

Alek makes sandwiches to keep us going during an all-night drinking session

This is the cafe in a children's park where I first met Kostya (centre), who made the romantic visits illustrated above. On the left is Amy, my intrepid travelling companion, and on the right is Oleg, an artist

...I was never bored in St Petersburg but from time to time I was incapacitated, thanks to a steady inflow of vodka, champagne and beer

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