The Russian Subway Angel

Arriving in Russia

We were tired. ‘Feel it in your bones’ tired. ‘Non-functioning exhausted’ tired.

We had just arrived in St. Petersburg Russia after flying for I forget how many hours from Western Canada. The economy seats we had purchased included a seatbelt but not much more. Sleeping was pretty much impossible.

Fortunately, a hostel had been booked (it was a requirement for the Russian Visa) and we had some reasonable instructions on how to get there via transit. We confidently set off from the airport towards downtown St. Petersburg with nothing but a map and the anticipation of a good nights sleep. 

On The Subway

The subway stations in St. Petersburg are incredible. There is beautiful architecture and artwork everywhere you look. In fact, there was so much to look at we didn’t notice that there were very few Latin alphabet letters anywhere to be found.

Our panic started to set in when we looked at the map of the subway and realized we couldn't understand anything on it.  We tried to figure out how the shapes and symbols on the map corresponded to the sounds coming from the announcement. Usually we can decipher the announcements with the phonetic spelling of the stops on the subway map. Not this time - everything was written with the Cyrillic Alphabet.

It was likely obvious to everyone around us that we didn’t know what we were doing. Our lack of sleep resulted in us speaking to each other in a less than calm way. There was no shortage of throwing our hands up in the air with the international sign for “I haven’t got a clue.”

It was at this point our Russian Subway Angel stepped in.

Russians aren’t known for showing a lot of emotion and this woman was no exception to this rule. She abruptly grabbed the map out of my hand, and spun it right side up (still unclear to us which side was up). She pointed to one of the stops on the map and pointed down. OK.. we were physically at this conglomeration of symbols. This is a start.

We said the name of the stop we were trying to get to out loud – although it likely didn’t sound like the actual pronunciation of the place in Russian. Our angel pointed to another stop on the map and put up 3 fingers. OK! Our stop was three away. We nodded our head in understanding and smiled at her. She gave me the map back and proceeded to look out the window with a blank expression on her face.

Everyday Hero Impact

It is unlikely that this Russian Subway Angel knows the impact of such a small interaction. In her own way she welcomed us to this new country and reminded us that people are good, and not out to get us. We would have been a REALLY easy target.

Thanks to our Russian Subway Angel, we both feel the same way about the country!

We never said thank you to her as we hadn’t yet learned how to say ‘thank you’ in Russian. We know that this Russian Subway Angel isn’t the only one on the planet because we have run into folks willing to help us out at every corner of the earth!

So, to all the Subway Angels out there helping wayward ignorant travelers get to their stop safely we say:

 Spasiba!

Have you met a Subway Angel anywhere? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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