Everything has been ticked off.Houston, we have lift off.Inch of Snow Brings London to a StandstillRiga For A DayWe made it to RussiaRussiaAndy V, we thought you might like this!University: Learning Amidst HistoryWedding AnniversarySunday stroll in the sunZa Zdorovie! (Cheers!)Today's explorationsCathedral CentralThe week continued...by JodiBIG Weekend!Russian experiencesLast week in St Pete's(Mis)AdventuresMoscow - Some fun answers to prayerOrphanage visitKremlin+15C!Warning: Rambling AheadSpecial Birthday CelebrationsEaster partyAn afternoon in town.VNDKhOur last visit at the babies home10 girls and snow come to stayAuschwitzWieliczka, PolandZakopane, PolandLwowek Slaski, PolandPrague in SpringFour countries in one day.4 countries cont.Ancient Sea-side CityThe View From the Ferry Split - DubrovnikNothing to do by the seasideRainRome was seen in a dayThe 300km homestretch!Leon, SpainDay OneBloody Hard Work!Up the MountainSnow!Cacabelos Albergue is the best one we have seen yetBrazilian AlberguePerserverence has its rewardsFantastic Lonely ForestsLoooong DayWalking With WalterWet DayPerserverence pays againThe Final Stage
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Saint Petersburg, Russia
St Petersburg, Russia
It has been quite a week. The last time we recorded our trip we had started a great weekend. Well things didn't slow down much through the week. As Jodi said last time, we spent Saturday wandering around St Petersburg. On Sunday friends of ours from Australia, Nathan and Ellie, arrived in St Petersburg after traveling all the way across Russia on the Trans Manchurian Railway. (You can find a record of their trip on this site as well. It is called 'Overland Adventure Nach Deutschland.) We had a hard time finding their hostel, but had fun walking through the snow. Sunday was the last day of a festival called Mas-la-nitsa. It is a festival to say farewell to winter and welcome spring. During the fesival they eat bliny (Russian pancakes) and at the end they burn a female scarecrow kind of looking thing that represents winter. When we arrived at the hostel, the manager told us that there were some festivities on at the park. So we went down to see what we could see.
There was a big snow fight where a mob of people layed siege to a 'fort', where women with brooms defended themselves. There were lots of people sliding around on various apparatus, and there was music here and there. It was joyful and populace and by far the most 'Russian' thing Jodi and I felt like we had seen. From memory, the four of us wandered around a bit and had tea together, and that was the day.
On Monday we went to uni and had Nathan and Ellie around for dinner in our tiny college room. We invited a French friend of mine and his girlfriend around as well. We had many laughs about different things, including Ullrich quoting a bunch of Italians about their time in Russia ('More than enough!'). His english was amusing at times as well. Getting 'tomorrow' and 'yesterday' confused, Nathan and Ellie had 'just arrived tomorrow'! Nathan did say they made pretty good time...
Tueday we wagged uni to see the sites with Nathan and Ellie. The weekend had been pretty warm, but not Tuesday. It was too cold too stay outside long enough to walk anywhere, so we only got to see two of the three things we wanted to see. We went to St Isaac's cathedral first. The view from the top is great! The building itself is absolutely massive, and very opulent. We found a mosaic of St Peter that we thought resembled Billy Conolly. The picture is here somewhere. The inside of the church has lots of mosaics and paintings and is made almost entirley out of marble. For me there seemed to be a confusion about what the purpose of the building was. I think it was built to honour a few people and religion was the vehicle to do that at the time.
Anyway I have run out of internet time so I will finish this later.
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