St Petersburg St. Petersburg

... her interpreting skills as the commentary was all in Russian, so I had no idea what I was looking at! But, feeling better that evening, she and Sasha insisted on escorting me on the metro to the train station and settling me in my berth for the night journey to Moscow, before saying goodbye.<br><br><br>I hope that, when I am finally settled in Aus, I will be able to return the kind hospitality I was shown by my new friends...

... woman a man comes across her napping in the woods. He instantly falls in love with her and learning of the prophesy of the crimson sails he builds a ship with crimson sails and takes her away. Thus the big event of this holiday is the sailing of a large ship with crimson sails down the Neva which is accompanied by a ...

... However, it seems in a small way this was to our advantage. We were seated right away when we got to the theatre and we were put in better seats than the tickets that we had. The opera production itself was quite minimalistic but the voices of the singers were enough to make it a very rich and exquisite performance.  After the opera Madelyn and I went to Teremok, a Russian fast food restaurant that serves blini mainly and other Russian staples. It was a bit chilly out so I ...

... as beautiful as we had been led to expect. Within about half an hour we had seen the whole Palace. On the way out we went to use the toilet but they expected us to pay the equivalent of 50p, when we had already paid a lot of money to get into the Palace in the first place. We were very cross about this and told them that it was disgraceful to make people pay but they wouldn't budge. So we left in disgust and went for lunch in a café where we got to use the ...

... the ground. In every room of the tour, there was a picture of what the room looked like after the Nazis had left, which were basically ruins. The Russians did a wonderful job restoring the palace to its original form. This palace is also home to the famous Amber Room. This room is made completely of amber, and its amber panels were a gift from a Turkish prince. No one knows where the Nazis took the original amber panels, but new panels were replicated. After walking though the ...

... you could need. Here you had the chance to exchange currencies and buy all the booze and cigarettes that your compulsive heart could want. It was a fitting first experience in Russia. Our hotel in St. Petersburg was surprisingly nice. When Blake and I got to our room, we turned on the TV and randomly the first thing we saw was this gypsy chanting into the camera. They also have a large amount of American tv on as well with all of it being ...

... other than that, this weekend was pretty great. We took the night train up, in sleeper cars, and basically started drinkingwhile we were in the train station waitingto board. I'm not sure if anyone was sober that night, I sure wasn't. That's how I got my bruise - alcohol + trying to stand up in a swaying train cabin + not much foot room = C falling backwards onto the table and sustaining a brilliant purple softball-sized bruise. And I ...

... all the signs with Visa card symbols marking the way to the restaurants are not true - nobody will take anything but cash for anything - especially the really really hard to find ticket people in the Palaces - who will only take Rubbles. So anyway - we wait in the rain a long time to get into the main Palace - push our way past huge crowds of people trying to use the coat check and through the footie-putting-on room, to the actual door to the Palace rooms. There ...

... even check in until 1730. So we have a very bad lunch at the only restaurant in the airport and spend many of our remaining roubles on coffee and ice cream. We go through customs at 1730 -- passport control was VERY slow. Once through, we find that our flight doesn't board until 1820 and we can't go to the gate until then. So we spend the last roubles on a coffee mug -- pay in roubles and get change in Euros; it's usually the opposite. Finally, it is time to depart.