Business Hotel Karelia St. Petersburg

... night, so everybody MUST. GET. DRUNK, so made us turn the film off. We had no alcohol, and so didn't get involved in this Australian drinkathon.<br><br>We took all our stuff and went to get the tram to the Tallinn bus station, where there was a crazy woman shouting things at us and these other 2 guys in Estonian. We couldn't understand anything she was saying but the 2 guys decided to do some sort of Estonian rap in retaliation, which was quite funny. We've noticed also that the ...

... Is he going to handcuff me to my bed, or worse yet, to his? The sound stops. His mother snuffles and rolls over. Later, I realize I can't hear him anymore. He doesn't even sound like he's breathing. Maybe he's dead.<br><br>I wake up once during the night. The Brazilians dropped about 100 pounds of **** on the floor at 3:30, and then go to bed. They fall asleep before they hit the pillow, and sound like ventilators. It's going to be a very long night. Waking ...

Well, this is our last day in Saint Petersburg. Today, we took things a little easy. We walked around the historic part of the city and did some souvenir shopping. We have alot of packing to do, and need to try to get a little ...

... cargo ships going back out to sea. a bit odd but he was adament that this was something to see. All the bridges in St Petersburg open at 0100 and ships travel upstream to drop off their cargo. at around 0300 ships return back downstream and out into the baltic. Actually quite a pretty sight wseeing about 5 bridges all raised, light standards, rubbish bins and all! of course at that hour it causes quite a few problems for the locals as they are ...

... their middle daughter Masha with whom she shared a room was away at camp. Their eldest daughter Anna lived just 5 minutes away with her boyfriend. Their room was large enough for all of us and the girls had painted directly onto the walls to decorate the old wallpaper with great swirls of colour and flowers etc which looked great. Unfortunately it has given Tom &amp; Rachel ideas about what they could do to their bedrooms which I am actively ...

Peterhof is the grand palace of Tsar Peter the Great. It's modelled on Versailles in France and attracts thousands of visitors. I'm sure thousands were there the day we went there! It's an interesting place with gardens for the garden lovers, fountains for the water people and various other attractions. Interestingly, the fountains all ...

March 21st Today we woke up at 7:30 A.M. and went to eat at Café 1913. After breakfast, we went to Saint Isaac Cathedral. It used to be the largest Cathedral in Russia but then it wasn't around 1858. Another church was created and less people came to that church and went to the other one. We went and viewed the top of the 300 steps and viewed the entire city. We learned ...

... Baukräne in die Luft. Die Baustelle selbst ist von den Augen der Passanten mit einem riesigen Werbeplakat verdeckt. Noch vor einem Jahr stand hier ein "Architekturdenkmal der föderalen Bedeutung", ein Haus, in dem die Tochter des Peter des Großen gewohnt hat, ein anderer Zar eingeschworen wurde. Sei Leben lang stand das Haus unter dem Denkmalschutz, durfte nur restauriert werden, aber niemals umgebaut, vom Abriss ganz zu schweigen. Heute ist nur noch eine Fassadenwand ...

... stuck in traffic. The city though is really beautiful, and much more tourist friendly than Moscow (ie more signs in Roman script and more English spoken!). We saw the Bronze Horseman, the Church of Spilled blood, the hermitage and many of the cities famous bridges. We also went to the hermitage (winter palace) and had a 'highlight' tour, which was a bit long for us all, as it was all European art (once again we aren't ...

... her attempts to educate us and her ability to keep a very complex tour organized. · Like most Russians, Galina is very abrupt at times. It was obvious that the Russians have no use for Westerners, especially Americans. I cannot tell you the number of times Matt and I were treated rudely. · The weather is yucky. It was cold and rainy during most of our time there and it was that wet cold that cuts right through you. · The days of sunshine were glorious and the Russians have a ...