karen the adventurer

So I arrived safe and sound to a cloudy but dry St Petersburg at 6am, while I was on the metro, there were lots of people who were either still partying from the previous night, or were very very worse for wear !! the Metro carriage stunk to high heaven of stale booze ...... lovely at 6,30am I can tell you ! On the walk to the hostel there were lots of people still drinking out of cans and bottles and staggering all over the place. One guy was laying on the pavement with his hands down his pants, rumaging !!!! ....... my pace speeded up at this point !!!! then I was back home at Apple the hostel I stayed in last week. I was greeted with a smile and a hug from Anna, nice ... read more

yes today I have been chilled to the bone .......................... relaxing wise :) Just eating every so often, reading layed on a huge bean bag on the varranda, and lots of tea (obviously) I did go for a walk to the museum of wooden houses that was really cool. Its full of replica wooden buildings that would have been around from the 15th to the 18th century. And there were even signs in english which is VERY unusual, so it was nice to know what I was looking at. They had houses of simple peasants and grander ones that were what they called "well to do peasants" a few churches and 2 windmills. Then it was time to relax again and thats what I've been doing all afternoon, reading on the bean bags and the odd ... read more

So today was another hot day, after a shared breakfast of bread and peanut butter from my two friends from Amsterdam and myself went to Suzdal's kremlin. Which was a mixture of museum type houses and modern art as well as churches from the 12th century so something for everyone. Then we went for a spot of lunch and had chicken salad and warm cherry dumplings ... very nice indeed. We decided against the honey wine as it was a very hot afternoon and the girls were leaving after lunch for a coach trip to moscow. However I did notice them stock up with it at the supermarket before they left !! I went for a read after lunch and a little snooze zzzzzzzzzzz and when I woke up there were 3 girls in my dorm, ... read more

Today was to be my last day in Moscow, so I was up early and determined to find the goddam entrance to the kremlin today, and guess what ?? I did !!!! I walked a different way and literally came out of a subway and there was a sign saying "kacca Kpemль" which I could read as ticket Kremlin !!!! I've learnt nearly all my russian alphablet so if the words sound like english when you spell them then I can sort of work out what it means, as you can see I am typing on a dual language keyboard that can type english and russan letters. Sorry I'm digressing, so there was only about 4 people in front of me in the Kremlin queue so I bought my ticket and in I went ......... Oh ... read more

So today started off raining and a bit miserable. However it was warm, so umberella in hand off I went to visit Catherines Cathederal. The outside is beautifuly decorated with white stone carvings and huge golden domes on top. Inside was beautiful with gold everywhere, paintings on the walls, etc. The nice thing for me was the quiet atmosphere and that it was full of "real russians". Ladies with scarves covering their heads, old ladies shuffling alone kissing the paintings, yes kissing the paintings of Jesus, everyone constantly crossing themselves, and the cutest of all was seeing little girls with their little scarves on their heads saying mass with such dignity and senserity. There was a choir of women singing that was so beautiful that it sent tingles down my spine. I lit a candle for ... read more

Today I was going on a tour called Moscow Greeters, a volunatary group where people who live in a city, show us strangers around for free, they're usually students who are interested in improving their English, so obvoulsly I failed to mention my accent !!! So on time 2 girls in their early 20's arrived at my hostel and took me off for a tour. I had asked for different places that were not neccessarily on the average tour guide list, they told me it was a festival today (Valentines day for the whole family) and there would be lots of outside fetes etc. We went to the Russian exhibition centre where there was a fun fair and lots of stalls and stuff. As usual there were fountains (the russians do love a big fountain) and ... read more

I've just got in from watching Swan Lake at the Alexandrinsky theatre built in 1725. The theatre was so beautiful, small and cozy and with plush scarlett red velvet seats. I was on the 1st circle in a little booth with 3 other people, It was like the booth which Richard Gere took Julia Roberts to the opera in Pretty Woman. I smiled at the other people in my booth, but they just gave me blank looks, their loss, I didn't offer them any of my M&M's, Anyway the ballet was great, I loved it. The music was gorgious and the ballet superb. It was all very lovely and elequant. when I got back to the hostel there was a little letter left for me from Oskana one of hte hosts, saying she hoped I had ... read more