Blogs from Saint Petersburg, Northwest, Russia, Europe - page 60

!Today we went to the Hermitage museum. it was beautiful with fantastic rooms and art- but got boring very quickly. i spent almost 2 hours in the кафе (cafe) drinking capuccinos and coka-cola with cheesecake (nothing like american cheesecake). it is very difficult to communicate because i am too shy with my russian and they are all too shy with their english. its kind of funny. unfortunately, unlike most of the american tourists, i am also too shy to point at what i want. i only order what i can pronounce in russian and then deal with whatever i ended up ordering. we went to the Savior on the Spilled Blood Cathedral- absolutely stunning! the whole interior is mosaic tiled with pictures of Jesus and scenes from the Bible. the most amazing part was looking at ... read more

well, today we went to a palace. i have to say that i was getting so sick of museums and palaces that i was bored out of my mind. dad and tanya toured at their own pace while i kept up with a group of school children (of course the guide spoke russian, so i didnt understand it). i went into one room and there was a little babushka (old lady) who started smiling and speaking russian to me. she kept saying 'krasivaya' which means beautiful, and pointing around the room. i assumed she meant the room was beautiful, so i said 'da'. she looked at me a little strange and continuesd speaking russian. i told her to wait while i ran back to tanya to be my translator. the lady was telling me that i ... read more

Well, today we set off taking the second deepest metro (subway) in the world. we went to Peterhof Palace, the former summer residence of russian nobility. the whole place was renovated after the germans attacked it to become a museum. a lot of beautiful art and material things to be seen around the decedant palace. most of the walls were sprayed with a thin layer of real gold. the layer is so thin that it is thinner than a single strand of hair. naturally, i was more facinated with the beautiful snow scenery outside. we walked thru the gardens and let me tell u- it is like a picture from Anistasia or something! you could see little kids sledding thru the park area. everyone around me was complaning about how it is so much better in ... read more

Was it all a dream? Did we really have six worry free days where all we had to worry about was buying snacks at the train station? Our mid-trip crisis (we've heard from others that this often happens at the three-month mark) began in Beijing and has unfortunately continued in Russia. We were feeling so rested when we got off the train. We found a nice hostel in Moscow and had dinner with our new friends. In the morning we were supposed to get in touch with a Moscow business contact of Justin's father. We should have known that things weren't quite going to go our way when our breakfast included with our room turned out to be a big bowl of plain pasta - not even butter. We set out for Red Square, but before ... read more

ФПОМ РҮССЯ With Love (From Russia With Love) Date: December 25, 2005 Temperature: -6C Snow Depth: 10cm Time Zone: +11 hours Well I’ve made it to Russia and am still in one piece. The train journey from Helsinki to St. Petersburg was stunningly beautiful. I had snowed about 10 centimeters and everything was covered in white. The sun was out and even the 10 kilometers of non-stop ugly Russian apartment buildings looked lovely! I got out of the train station and felt literally in a different world. The cars are different, the language (obviously), alphabet… people EVERYWHERE selling everything. If this place was once communist, one would never know it. It’s as if they are making up for lost time. I forgot to print off the instructions for how to get to the apartment I had ... read more