St. Petersburg.

First of all, if you ever get the chance to go to St. Petersburg - GO! It is the most beautiful and historical city I've ever been to. Everything about it, all over the place. I was so overwhelmed. Anyway, here's my story about the weekend.

We got onto the overnight train at 1am and headed off to St. Petersburg. The compartments were very tiny, with two benches, a table in between them and then two beds hanging over head - so there were four beds to a compartment. Surprisingly, I fell right asleep and slept the entire way there. It was really nice. We arrived, checked into our hostel and then went to go get some breakfast. We stopped at the donut and coffee place. The donuts were the greasiest but best donuts I've ever had, and the coffee was really sweet and good. We headed off on our bus tour and we got to see many things including many beautiful churches, fountains, St. Peter and Paul Fortress, Tombs of the Czars, and of course recieved a ton of information on all of it too. Don't worry, I have it all written down, I just don't feel like typing the history out right now. I'll tell you about it when I get back and have the pictures for you. :)

Next we went to the Hermitage, which was the Winter Palace. It's a beautiful HUGE green palace. It is beautiful outside as well as inside...another place that I was a little overwhelmed in because there's so much history involved in it that is so interesting to hear. Many, many, many paintings were hanging all over the walls because one of the empresses liked paintings and kept buying them. When she died, her son opened up this section of the palace so that the citizens could see the paintings because there were so many. Such beautiful architecture, and the chandeliers were just outrageously incredible. I was blown away by the building. I took a ton of pictures.

We ate real fast and dashed off to the ballet. It was in a the Marovski Theatre...obviously incredible inside and outside. There was a spot inside also, that was like a box seat for the emperors when they would come and see the show there, which was pretty cool. The ballet was a lot of fun to watch. It was about pirates and Arabians and each act someone stole the girl, stole the girl back, stole the girl, had a huge fight and won the girl back. That's a boring summary, but it was really good because there were sword fights, dance fights, crazy lifts. oh, so beautiful.

We had the rest of the night (it's about 10pm now). Back story: This is the longest night of the year in St. Petersburg - White nights because the sun doesn't completely set. So, there was this shindig over by the bridge. Apparently everybody gathers by the river to watch the bridges open to let the barges through at night. So, a few of us headed over there. It was such a cool environment. SO MANY people. It honestly felt like it was New Years and everyone was waiting for the ball drop. As soon as the bridge opened people screaming, cheering, popping champaigne, a real sight to see and I'm glad I was a part of it. We headed off to a club next...I forgot what it was called. OH, before we went to the bridge we stopped at subway to eat real fast. and by the way they serve beer everywhere...and also subway. So, we had our healthy subs with a glass of beer. It was so cool. Just wanted to throw that in. Ok, so we're on our way to the bar. Well, people are crazy in the streets now with Russian flags, people on cars screaming, dancing in the streets, chanting "RUS-SI-A." Such an intense but excited atmosphere. Why were they acting like this? Because Russia beat the Netherlands in the Quarter Finals that night for Football (soccer) 3-1. I have never seen anything like it. EVERYONE was celebrating. At subway, it was packed like a bar with people watching the game...silent. no noise, eyes glued on the tv. I'm glad I was a part of that too. We weren't Americans this night, people would come right in ourfaces chanting, and we'd chant right back and they'd be so excited. I've never seen anything like it. You'd think a riot were going to start, but not even close.

We got to the club, people still chanting as they're walking into the bar "RUS-SI-A!" They played all english speaking music there. ha ha. It was pretty cool. We stayed there for a few hours and headed back to the hostel. It was pouring, so a few of us got a taxi. and that was the end of Saturday.

Four hours of sleep later, we wake up to go toPeterhoff. Peterhoff was the summer palace with extravagant gardens and fountains, 140 fountains actually. It';s a beautiful yellow palace. Insid was filled with marble solumns, gold around the framing of the room, paintings on the ceiling. Absolutely amazing. I have pictures. We walked around the gardens next. Well, when you walk out the back of the palace, there's the huge staircase fountain that leads into this canal that heads right into the baltic sea. On this gigantic fountain are many gold statues. This would be the type of picture you'd see in movies with the palace in back and then going down a hill is a grandstaircase with water flowing down it and many gold statues. Beautiful sight to see. We walked around more and found many other pretty spectacular fountains - one even being in the shape of an Oak Tree with water coming out of it. We then found a tiny tiny beach and got to stand in the Baltic Sea. That was definitely an incredible thing to do. I felt so free, so good standing in the water. Later, we went to their bicycle musem on the grounds, and there was this picture of Alexander II in the EXACT same spot we were standing in the Baltic Sea. How crazy is that? We took a picture of that picture of course.

Walking around at places like this is just such an enbelievable experience because the time you spend there is literally like taking you back in time for the few hours you're there. Nothing else in the world is happening, you're lost in the moments of the 18th Century. It's a really incredible feeling, and Lord knows I'm not big on history, but all I want to do right now is take a Russian history class because I'm that inspired by everything. Incredible. I lack words to describe.

Apparently, amber is the stone that everybody buys in Russa. It's the big thing. They had a lot of it in St. Petersburg. I guess they get it from the Baltic Sea or something. Really pretty jewelry, not the cheapest. And those little Russian wooden doll things that have like 5 or 10 inside and keep collapsing and making more. Those are cool and everywhere too.

The last thing we did was go on a boat tour. Really relaxing and a nice way to end the trip. It was really cool because I know pretty much everything they were saying because of the past two days. I knew who Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Mary, etc. were. That was such a great feeling knowing that I'm traveling into their past and accepting and gaining knowledge about them. I was able to expalin stuff to my friends. What a cool feeling. The Boat tour covered a lot we already saw, but summed it all up pretty nicely and was a great finale to the one of the best weekends I can remember.

We got on the train at about 1am. I fell fast asleep. We arrived back in Moscow in the morning and I made some food, wrote in my journal, then went to Acting Class. We got back and I fell asleep at 8pm last night! Didn't wake up until 7:15 this morning when my alarm went off! Crazy! Anyway, hope you sort of got a feel for what the type of weekend I had. Hope you all have a wonderful day. I cannot WAIT to show you pictures and explain everything!!!! Love you al! I have to go to class!