St. Petersburg

So my post apparently didn't work so have to retype it.
Anyways arrived mid-afternoon at the airport and for the first time in my life was checked to see if I had taken the right baggage.  Got on a bus to the metro where a nice Danish-Russian couple helped me out and got me to the right metro stop. The buses are differently in Russia in that you don't pay the driver (this excludes mini-buses), instead there is a bus conductor that goes around collecting money.
The hostel I stayed at was called Soul Kitchen Hostel and basically had free everything: internet, laundry, breakfast, international calls, linens...so that was good, especially since I needed to do some laundry. I didn't get to meet a lot of people as there was a large group of asians who mostly talked with themselves in Chinese.
So once I checked in I decided to take a walk down Nevsky Prospect towards the Neva River. It ended up taking 30 minutes and in the heat as the sun was still up. Once at the river I bought an ice cream bar and took a 1 hour boat trip around the river. The tour was in Russian since there was no English tours, but it was nice to be on the water and see all the sailboats, jetskiers, hydrofoils and sunbathers.
After the tour I walked by the Winter Palace and the square in front. Then walked back to the hostel while stopping into various souvenir shops. I also went to a grocery store and picked up some food so I could make myself dinner for the next 2 nights (spaghetti napoli basically).  I tried to go to sleep but the sun was still out so I couldn't really until after midnight.
Wednesday morning I slept until 9 am and was at the Hermitage by 10:30 am (everything opens later in Russia since people stay up later).  It is a huge art musuem with some rooms set up like it used to be in the Winter Palace. So after about 2 hours walking through various sections I decided to leave and go to Peterhof, the summer palace.
I took one of the metros basically to the end of the line and got on a minibus...which would be similar to a russian version of the shuttles/vans you find in Africa. I got to Peterhof ok and paid to go see all the gardens by the water, which were really nice. And there was a little beach so I walked around there for awhile. Didn't go into any of the palaces or musuems as the lines were long and the weather nice anyways.
Around 5 pm I decided to head back (though it only looked like 2/3 pm). I went and did some last minute shopping, made dinner and booked a cab for the morning.  I couldn't really sleep well that night, had cat naps until I got up at 4:15 am to go to the airport. When I did go there it was fairly light out again as the sun didn't really set. But I was able to have a good nap on the plane ride to Berlin and then we landed by 8 am Berlin time.
I did have some photos from my phone...but it seems like my phone deleted them...oops!

Moscow, Russia

4:30 pm Liza and I arrived in Russia and met up with her dad who took us to the hotel we would be staying in. People do not really speak English there...so I was glad to be with Liza, especially in Moscow. We took a 45 minute train into the city and another 30 minute subway ride and a 15 minute walk, basically Moscow is huge. There are wide boulevards, their subway system is very extensive (especially since it only costs roughly 1 USD to ride). Our hotel was located in probably what is an up and coming type of neighborhood since it was in a old chocolate factory and a lot of clubs and restaurants were also located there. It was hard to find, but we found it after a little bit of confusion.

Liza and I then dropped off our stuff in the room, which was litterally a double bed, dresser with a tv on top and then a private bathroom off to the left. Very tiny so we couldn't really spread out our stuff...though a lot of mine ended up at the foot of the bed since there was some space between there and the wall. But it suited our purposes for sleeping so that worked out. We went to dinner, which her dad treated me to as well! It was Ukrainian restuarant and all the staff had to dress up in "traditional" garb. I enjoyed the food, had some red berry drink (I forget the name...you can get it at IKEA), beet soup and meat dumplings. Definitely full after that.

As Moscow is 2 hours ahead of Western Europe, even though the time said it was later, it still felt earlier. Russia is fairly up there in the latitudes and it didn't really get to be twilight until after 11 pm and then would get light again early in the morning...this threw me off majorly so and I didn't really sleep well the entire week in Russia unfortunately. Plus both places I stayed in were really hot and stuffy.

Anyways, I still had a good time!! Sunday morning Liza and I took the subway to the end of the one of the northern lines where her grandfather lived. It used to be that he lived in a cottage where his apartment complex stands and there was just ponds and trees everywhere...wasn't even a part of Moscow. Eventually the city reached it and they torn down his cottage and put him in an apartment. Now there are talks to redo the apartment complex, but he really doesn't want to have to deal with moving everything again. He was a very nice grandfather I would say, though I couldn't not understand him as he only spoke Russian! They let me use his computer so that I could book a hostel in St. Petersburg and check my e-mail. Then he made me oatmeal, yum!

Liza's dad, Liza and I went back into Moscow and walked around the area of the Red Square and St. Basil's Church. Took an obligatory photo of me throwing a coin over my shoulder at the center of this compass type thing in the ground and made a wish. These little old ladies come around right after you throw the coin and take them...so who knows how effective the wishes are, as said by Liza. We went on a boat down the river Moscow to a large park where once you walk up the hill offers a very nice view of the whole city. You can begin to see the area where they are building skyscrapers, called Moscow City, so probably will be the financial area of the city. Other than the ocassional "Stalin" building (this huge grand buildings that are fairly high and have a star on the top built under Stalin), the rest of the city is fairly low in height. There aren't many "old" buildings compared to Western European cities because (I was told) Moscow was burned down and a bunch of buildings were torn down and rebuilt. The city was built into circles with walls around, though really the only wall left is the Kremlin...the oldest part of the city with really only the churches left.

So after taking in the view, we walked back down to the subway and Liza and I went onto this pedestrian street that had a lot of shopping and souvenir shops and restaurants. We went to a Georgian restaurant, where it was decorated inside like a little village, which I thought very cute. We had some shiskabobs and bread, which was really good and of course had some vodka too...because when one is in Russia they must have some vodka. It was pretty terrible though since it was the cheapest on the menu...no more cheap vodka, blah. Went to a bar afterwards, which overlooked the river and so we could start to see twilight, though the sun took a very long time setting. Had this rose-flavored cocktail drink, which was very good...need to find it in the states.

Tuesday morning we got up and walked to the Kremlin to grab some breakfast, Liza a baked potato and me a crepe/pancake. We both had large glasses of orange juice that were really good! Then we went insid e the Kremlin and walked around and looked at all the churches, which were completely different than western churches so that was really cool. Unfortunately, there was rarely a sign in English (you could overhear some German or English tours), so I couldn't really read anything. When I get back I will just have to read up on all the places I went to so that I can better understand what I saw.

Then we walked back to the hotel, where I ended up staying and taking a much needed nap and chill time. Watched some tv and read too. Liza went out to meet up with her dad for the afternoon and get some sun by laying down in a park. Then she met up with me again so that we could go see a ballet in the Kremlin, which was a lot of fun. The ballet was Don Quixote...and as far as we could tell about a couple who wanted to marry, but the guy didn't have enough money. There was this older man and his sidekick that was all for the marriage though and eventually convinced the father of the girl that she should marry the younger poorer lover and not the older richer man he was trying to make her marry. We ended the night of course at the same bar on the river and had some tapas too.

Wednesday morning I packed up my things and Liza took me to the subway station to where I could get my train to the airport....a different one from the one I flew into. So I got to the airport fine and ate some breakfast and took a flight onto St. Petersburg while Liza stayed in Moscow another 2 days to spend more time with her grandfather.

At the moment I am in Duesseldorf, Germany...the past weekend I was in Hamburg with my friend Sarah Moser who I studied abroad in Freiburg with. Today I will be going down to Heidelberg to meet up with my high school exchange partner, Sinah, and her family and I will end the trip in Berlin to go to some museums/zoo/aquarium (still deciding) and some shopping! Then fly back to the States on Friday.