Nevsky Express Hotel St. Petersburg

... answer, and piles my plate with little desserts, truffles and chocolates.  If I eat this, I'm going to be sick.  I root around for a tissue in my bag.  Nothing.  Then I do a very crass and unladlylike thing.  I get up to use the toilet.  Striding over as if I own the place, I excuse myself and go inside.  Grabbing a wad of toilet paper, I look around. Where to put it? Aha!  I stuff it down the front of my dress, covering if with my silk scarf. I cooly return to ...

... day! ypa (hooray)! May 9th is Victory Day here, the celebration of the end of World War II. Early in the morning Giovanna, Caroline, and I left the dorms to get good spots to view the start of the day's festivities. All day long there are concerts, parades, and ceremonies and subsequently people everywhere! The last time I saw so many people in one place was at the Inauguration this January. The first event of the morning was what they called a "parade" but ...

... was already sold out. The travel agent sent us to Nevsky Prospekt to wait for the bus, where we found numerous kiosks offering tours for Tsarkoe Selo, "the Tsar's Village," where the palace is located. We boarded the van with ten other people and for the next thirty minutes the tour guide spoke non-stop When the bus dropped us off outside the palace grounds, I saw a residential area consisting of new homes ...

... which makes sense because it fades the artwork. But several people
wanted to take pictures in the Metro and the little comrade said "is not
allowed", so of course we Americans all said "Why?". She did not know and was
offended that we even asked! So, having been given no good reason not to,
everyone proceeded to take pictures. The Russians on the Metro were again very
nice, one women even got up and gave her seat ...

... thought about doing a lamb dish, but it looked pretty bad, so I settled on a lovely piece of pork. I cooked a yummy dinner and also made a cherry clafoutis, which went down a treat, but we didn't eat until about 10.30! Anna came also and a great time was had by all before we finally crashed into bed around midnight, just as it was getting dark. Thursday 24th July Alison: Katerina had managed to convince her boss to let her have the day off ...

... next to the stove. Of course these 2 bunks were the warmest place to sleep. A table was in front of one of the windows, for the light. A woman was making a carpet on a loom in one corner, and the other corner was for a man's work area. The next room was where dinner was held if there were guests. A woman was doing embroidery at the table, and the rest of the beds were in this room. The next room was a large room for storing hay, a ...

Two days of travel from Newcastle - via bus, a stop off at Mike's (thank you Mr. Skeleton!), avoiding air strikes in Milan - and we made it to Russia! Not speaking the language or understanding anything that was written anywhere we didn't venture too far the first night! Marsha, our guide from Russia Experience (who we have booked the Trans-Siberian leg of ...

... to three quarters of a kilometer away), as luck would have it, it wasn't close enough. Once we turned the corner onto Nevsky Prospekt, it started to rain. Ho-Ki, as always was well prepared, I had been caught out a couple of times in Berlin, but this time I was prepared as well. Tucked away in my trusty backpack was not only a jacket, but an umbrella (thank you Kaufhof am Alex - Berlin), both were immediately put to use. We ...

... a tamberine. After dinner we called it a night to try to conserve money and rest up. Weve probably walked about 40 miles since weve been in St Petersburg. The city is huge, everything seems to be on the other side from our hotel, and were too afaid to take the metro...Also, upon arriving here, we realized that USAA, the bank we all use, does not allow their ATM card to be used in Russia...Luckily Hart had his card from another bank, so ...

... I have to push in order to open the door. How embarrassing! The sun rises very early in Russia during the summer, and we have not closed the curtains in our compartment, so I finally give up on attempting to sleep and sit up around 6:30am to watch the countryside go by. The porter brings delicious coffee about half an hour before we pull into the station in St. Petersburg. I feel grungy and grumpy from not sleeping and not bathing. I had written to they guys earlier ...