I hope to pick up my visa on Tuesday. In any event, I’ve booked everything else. I’ll be there from the 18th to the 21st, staying in the Hotel Moscow, or Moskva, depending on which spelling of theirs or which website you prefer ;-)

Cool!

I think I prefer Mockba :-)

I will be staying at the Rinaldi Art.
I am curious to fond out why they call it ’Art’?

See you at the Rinaldi.
But I ain’t expecting the Chelsea Hotel.

Me and my collegue Fredrik will be there! Staying at Hotel Moscow from 17th to 21st.

That’s five of us. Great! :·)

I hope someone keeps a blog, or maybe records some lectures for us poor sods who can’t attend. :(
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

I just recieved the news that my visa and passport wil be returning to me with all the stamps, stickers and marks of approval. So I am going after all. See you all there.

See you! Obligatory russian vodka for everybody. :)

Damnit! I’d give much for a privilege to shear a drink with a fellow typophile.
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

Mark me down for the Hotel Moscow too - providing I get my visa I’ll be there on the 16th.

Anyone flying Luthansa 3218 from Frankfurt who wants to share a taxi?

As my esteemed colleague Göran already has told you I will be there as well. Thanks to sauna pictures from their relaxation area of unearthly tackiness we chose the Hotel Moscow. These are now unfortunately removed.

My plan is to cover some impressions of the conference on my blog Typografism. It’s usually in Swedish and deals with the kind of stuff that other, better, bloggers, like James Mosley misses out on. For instance the fact that Simon de Colines during a period included killer rabbits on his book covers. Also featured are rebuses of Swedish type designers (I’m particularly happy with this one, even if it’s in Swedish you can figure it out) and reflections on ornament, Ben Shahn and my brief adventures as a Commodore 64 type-designer.

A brief summary in English could of course be added to the St Petersburg blogposts as an attempt to establish myself as an important type blog authority of international reputation.

I expect some assistance from Göran (this will be first time he hears of it, btw) in covering the Typetech part.

See You there!

ƒ

Ура! Я вернусь к Санкт Петурбургу 10 лет после того как был там на первый раз. Не могу подождать!

Сердечно за Вас рад Пол, Питер - чудесный город.
Удачи.
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

Я не могу говорить, читать или писать русский язык!

жаль!

Люблю тебя, Петра творенье,
люблю твой строгий стройний вид ...

I love you, Peter’s creation,
I love your disciplined and harmonious appearance ...

СПБ is a wonderful city where I was privileged to spend a summer (and White Nights) long ago. And Pushkin’s famous second line seems made for typographers. Alas, I can’t justify the trip right now, but I hope those attending Atypi СПБ will have time to look around. Still, if I could go I’d have even more qualms about armies of occupation, including our own.

David

Si: I’m on the same flight, but staying at the Rossi. Still, we could share a taxi into town, right?

T

A silly Russian souvenir for those who stay behind:

What those annoying ADs would be like if Vyaz was in common use :)
The text reads “Shoe Shining”

Have a safe trip.
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

The shoes don’t look anywhere near as good as the lettering :-)

ChrisL

Guys, my mobile is +7 911 799 6609. Feel free to call me in case of any problems on your way from the airport to the city. I’d be happy to meet you there (it is just some 20 min drive from my home) but I feel that I will be deadly busy on 16th.

One hint: it will be much less expensive to call for a taxi than to get one that is “waiting”. Let me know if you would like me to arrange taxi pick up for your flight, I think it will be easier for me to do it from here. I need to know name, flight number and estimated arrival time. It is better to email me this info to yar-fontlab-com.

Oh, one more thing. No one can predict weather a week ahead, but it seems that it will be about 10 celcius here. Lower at the evening. Make sure you have some warm stuff with you. Usually weather in this time of the year is fine, but not on this year, unfortunately.

Yuri, I think that I’m going to take the bus to the nearest metro stop, and take the metro to my hotel. Do you know how easy it is to find the bus stop from the terminal, and about how long the subway ride from the airport to the city center takes? Thanks!

It is very easy. Bus stop is between arrivals and departures, about 100m to the left as you exit the terminal. SPb Pulkovo 2 is quite small terminal, no chance to get lost there.

Bus will stop at “Moskovskaya” metro station which is on the “blue” line. If you just go on to the north and exit on “Nevsky Prospect” - that will be as close to the “center” as it can be. Or you can change to the red line on “Tekhnologichesky Institute” (just walk on the opposite side of the station, no need to use stairways or elevators) and exit on “Ploschad Vosstania”. If you want to go to Hotel Moscow, you need to change at “Nevsky Prospect” to “Gostinyi Dvor” and take another 2 stops to “Ploschad Alexandra Nevskogo”. Which is located *in* the hotel.

This is the map (in Russian, but you have to learn a bit of it anyway :-):
http://maps.yandex.ru/metro.xml?mapID=500

More travel info is here:
http://www.atypi.org/05_Petersburg/travel

Airport:
http://www.pulkovoairport.ru/eng/

This is the info about the shuttle buses:
http://www.pulkovoairport.ru/eng/transportation/shuttle_bus/

It will take 15-20 minutes from the airport to the metro station, Pulkovo is quite close to the city.

Спасибо!

I’ll try to get to work on Russian. Hopefully I’ll get the alphabet down before I land.

Yuri, thanks so much for assisting us and your generous offer to help us get on a proper taxi. Feels good to have your mobile number aswell, just in case... :)

Yuri

I know this is off post but can you help me with something when the dust has settled from the conference, please?

I am a big fan of Igor Ushakov and the male choir of St. Petersburg. I have been trying to go through some Russians here but it is difficult. I have gotten posts from Igor but the conversations are impossible at best. He is willing to send CD’s but my contacts are transient.

So will you help?

Michael

Michael,

Do you have anything other than his name? I found that there is some Igor Ushakov who now is a leader of the chor named after the Valaam Monastery (ancient monastery on the island in the Ladoga lake). Is it he?

Yes, the Valaam Institute. He is the director of the choir. I contacted him at ushakov_igor@mail.ru originally. I do not speak Russian and he was as limited in English.

We can wait until you are finished with your conference, but thank you for even responding.

Michael

I’m joining the FontShop posse and will hopefully succeed in covering the conference in full this time. I dropped the ball last edition. :^/

>I dropped the ball last edition. :^/

I’ve found in conference coverage you need to hold onto the ball with both hands - hard when you’re holding a bottle of premium Russian vodka in one hand and a tasty piroshky in the other. ;-)

Cheers, Si