Novotel Centre St. Petersburg

... 1 052;&#1077;&#1083;&#1082;&#1080;&#1077; &#1087;&#1086;&#1082;&#1091;&#1087;&#10 82;&#1080;, &#1087;&#1086;&#1076;&#1072;&#1088;&#10 82;&#1080;, &#1082;&#1091;&#1087;&#1083;&#1077;&#10 85;&#1085;&#1072;&#1103; &#1086;&#1076;&#1077;&#1078;&#1076;&#10 72; &#1080; &#1090;.&#1076;. - &#1085;&#1077; &#1091;&#1095;&#1080;&#1090;&#1099;&#10 74;&#1072;&#1102;.<br><br>&#1048;&#1090 ;&#1086;&#1075;&#1086; - &#1086;&#1082;&#1086;&#1083;&#1086; 1250 &#1077;&#1074;&#1088;&#1086;.<br><br>&# 1044 ...

... With two hands?"<br>"Yes, with two hands.  How I drink my tea is no business of yours. Give me my hand."<br>Misha saw that I was obviously unhappy and leaned over to Kolya. "Ok, enough enough.  We've been drinking since 8 this morning - he opened a bottle of champagne with a sword - but that's enough.  Leave her alone."<br>Kolya then tried to impress me and rattled on something about a Kalashnikov.  Dear God, I thought. This is like another Nikolai that I know, and I think they really are ...

... the first 30 minutes of alloted hour time slot to figure out how to get everything in order to swim. Once the hour is over a bell goes off and all the rec-swimmers have to get out so the next group can get in. It is a very strange system, but I suppose it helps keep the lanes less crowded.  The moral of the story: be glad that when going to the pool you can swim for as long as you want without have some strange doctor check your feet for fungus!  I hope everyone is having a restful weekend! 

... I wake up again and sit, maybe check out my hair in the mirror, throw on some clothes and go get some breakfast. Usually, I get an omelet with bread, cheese, and sausage. The omelet is like several eggs combined and cooked over-medium. Not really the same as the omelets I make because they don't have delicious fillings with mushrooms and jalapenos and bacon and such. Anyways that's always delicious and I get a cup of coffee with that as well ...

... a new place firsthand. This was an opportunity that VERY clearly they would never otherwise have, and after ten minutes needing to convince them that no I was NOT joking, they would come as our guests for a few weeks, a mild state of shock mixed with euphoria settled over them. This gesture though was only in keeping with the extreme generosity they had shown us, no more, and I felt that in the scheme of things and given how fortunate we ...

... We had to scavenge silverware and cups from tables that were being set up for lunch. Breakfast is always bread and cold cuts and cheese and yogurt and juice, and some thing special. The first day we had curds, kind of like fried ricotta, then blinis like small pancakes, and today a slightly sweet carrot patty which was very good. It's clear but cold on the sun deck so I'm in the disco bar watching the show about ...

... we wandered down to the banks of the Neva river to take some pictures across the water of the Peter and Paul Fortress, thesite of the original settlement in St Petersburg. When then followed the river until we came to Ploschad Dekabristov and the famous statue of Peter the Great commissioned by Catherine the Great. This also provided us with a fabulous vista up to St Isaac's Cathedral. We also found the statue of Alexander the first which sits the other side of ...

... had hired her, so a leisurely pace was out of the question. After all, the Hermitage is HUGE, and it has a collection that is more than double than the Louvre. While we recognized that we could do nothing more than barely scratch the surface, Natasha wanted to make sure we scratched the surface well. Our selected mode of transport was going to be the marshrutka, which according to Lonely Planet "function like buses, only passengers are free to request a stop ...

... and we were right below Nevsky Prospekt Street. I asked and forgot to mention the station part and he sent us right back up again, so we emerged at a different metro station, only 3 blocks away from our point of departure. As we tried to get help, and older woman approached us, she spoke almost perfect english. She said she would help us. After about 15 minutes of almost one-way conversation, we faked an exit and left as soon as we could, because we were a ...

... a lot of photos here, but my fatigue is setting in and I don't bother to photograph anything after leaving here. Eva, Svetlana and I share a coffee and pastry in the coffee shop during the free time we have given the group to wander the gardens and take photographs. We decide to speed up the afternoon by taking the hydrofoil back to the Hermitage, thereby knocking off about a half hour of bus travel time. After returning to the city we make a brief stop at a large souvenir ...