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Today was to be a sight seeing day to Pushkin, which is a village named after the famous writer, its about 25km outside St P. The famous 3 were all up and ready to leave by 9.30, catch the metro and then get a local bus for a 30 min drive. We found the bus and armed with Hazels trusty guide book we were off to The Catherine palace, there was the customary queue of about 150 people that we duly joined. After 15 mins of waiting without so much as a baby step being taken, I was instructed by Pete to ascertain the order of play,
ie "for goodness sake !!!(or similar terminology) go and find out how long we have to wait.
I quickly established from a lady selling ice creams that one waits in the queue until such time that the security men decide to let a block of people go in. This could be every 15 mins or longer depending on the mood of the men in question. Obviously Pete was delighted with my findings and after much deliberation we felt it was wise to stay in the queue but to picnic on the grass beside
us that read 'keep of the grass"..... well we were starving hungry, so took it in turns to eat whilst the other one kept our place. Naturally as soon as Hazel unpacked her food the queue moved at a rapid pace and it was like a scene from a carry on film, getting everything together, stuffing it into bags and running before the barrier was closed. We made it.
Inside it was pure opulence, massive ball rooms with mirrors and gold everywhere, all 3 of us did a dance as was fitting a 17th /18th century queens palace, with curtsies and bowing to each other.
There were state rooms, dining rooms, drawing rooms, buffet rooms, waiting rooms and bedrooms, they're decorated with marble, amber mosaics and gold, with the occasional flock wallpaper !!!! all beautifully restored to their former glory after the Nazi's totally trashed the place during the war.
We took lots of photos but nothing like the Russians do. The women pose for pictures like they're in a glamour photo shoot, with lots of draping over statues or banisters or monuments, like a 70's car advert, and if there's nothing to drape over they lay on
grass posing like they're on a page 3 !!!
We all found it quite disturbing as fathers would be taking pictures of their daughters looking farrrr to sexy for our liking.
Anyway we walked around numerous buildings and monuments, until my back hurt and my feet ached, silly Karen had worn her green flip flops with the big diamonds on them and although they looked beautiful, the limp and hobble I did in them could hardly be called an attractive sight.
On our way home and after taking painkillers for my aforementioned lumbar and metatarsal regions, I was able to limp to a restaurant called Zoom, a VERY trendy place where we had another great meal. Roasted veg in a cheese sauce for me, with Pushkin potatoes (sliced, boiled and fried in butter) and I went crazy and had another cocktail, Oceans which is a bit like a sex on the beach cocktail. yum yum.
I was soooooo pooped when we got in at about 11pm I did little else but get into me jarmies and go bobo's 😊
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Joanne
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you make me larf!!
You really need to either get these published or sell this material to a comedian!!! x