Yusopov’s Palace
April 22, 2008 by mlipton
This weekend I went to a palace. It was nice. But that is not the point of this story. I also walked by Dostoevsky’s apartment, but that also is not the point of this story. The point of this story is this: In Russia at all major attractions there is a foreigner price and a citizen price. And as you can guess the foreigner price is more than triple the citizen price. However, being a student at St. Petersburg State University, I get the privilege of getting the citizen rate, and the even cheaper, student citizen rate. Also, on my program, we get a cultural reimbursement. That is, if we use our Russian student IDs at a culturally Russian place, we get the entrance fee reimbursed. Its great. I waited in a long line at the palace. I showed my student ID and gave them 90 rubles, the Russian student rate. The angry woman behind the counter hinting at my accent, and seeing that I study at the foreign student faculty told me that I had to pay 350 rubles to get in, the foreigner rate. Angrily I began to yell at the woman in Russian. “But I study here, at St. Pete State. I am a Russian student. I should get the proper rate.” At that the woman closed her counter, got out of her tiny ticket office and without saying a word, angrily pointed to administration. I marched my butt right over there. I was irate. I was going to give the administrator a talking to. Again I said my speech to the administrator. She casually glanced at me, said, “no” and then picked up the phone and began talking to someone with whom she had an intimate relationship. Needless to say, I was peeved. The ticket woman didn’t grant me my right to get the reduced fare, and the administrator embarrassed and humiliated me by ignoring my complaint. But the truth of the matter is that this particular palace is spectacular, and I was willing to pay the outrageous fee. I got back in line to buy my 350 ruble ticket. A Russian woman who had seen the whole incident play out was touched by the injustice, and discreetly offered to buy me a ticket at the Russian rate. Tears almost fell down my face. The kindness this woman had paid me. She saw that her country’s system of entrance fees was inhumane, and wanted to help. I graciously gave the woman the warmest of nods, but told her that it would not be necessary. Normally I would love to save the cash, but because of the reimbursement program, I would get the money back. And I decided that my program has screwed me over quite a few times that it would give me satisfaction to have them pay the higher fee. So, happily I paid the fee, and explored the wonders of the Yusopov Palace.
