Today marked the end of my first full week in Saint Petersburg. I think we’re the first group to come with UA and not lose (or get robbed of) anything for the whole first week. So three cheers for us! I don’t know about everyone else here, but I am flat out exhausted! I’ve done so much since Monday, it’s ridiculous. This morning we had to meet on Nevsky Prospekt next to the Kazan Cathedral (which they’re restoring right now, so most of it is covered in scaffoldings) because the school arranged for us to go on a tour of St. Pete’s by bus. So touristy of us. We saw a lot of things that I had already gone to see and gone inside of. We drove around, got off at some places for pictures and then went back to Nevsky Prospect, nothing too exciting. I got some good pictures and it helped us make a list of places we want to go back to and those we felt like we had seen enough of. We did see one cool thing later. On the west end of Nevsky prospect on the north side of the street there is a sign paint-stenciled onto the building warning the citizens of the city that when during an air raid in WWII, that side of the street is the most dangerous because the Nazi attacks would come from the south. The sign is still there (obviously) accompanied by a plaque stating that the notice is left there to commemorate all those who died during the siege of Leningrad.
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| Saint Issac's Cathedral |
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| The WWII bombing sign |
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| Current Senate Building |
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| Some poor soul got pulled over by the Russian police |
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| Me across the Neva River from Peter and Paul Fortress |
Afterwards, some of the girls and I headed back to Dom Knigi to look at books. I three more books: White Nights by Dostoevsky, a book of poems by Pushkin, and a collection of Anna Akmatova’s work. There were lots of colorful post cards by the door, so I might go back and grab a couple to send state-side. So everyone who wants one should email me your address for where you’ll be for the next few weeks and then be on the look out! After grabbing some food (during which a creepy Russian guy tried to get us to go out with him tonight) and munching on an extremely good piece of almond cake, I headed home to Primorskaya. I ride the metro like a pro now; I’ve even got my metro legs back!
And now I’m super tired, sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea. Anna isn’t here and I have no idea where she is. Since she left me breakfast and showed me where it is, I’m assuming she went to the country to a dacha for the weekend. Everyone seems to do that here in St. Petersburg. It’s not like the city is hot or anything; I guess they just want to get away for a while. I’m trying to decide whether or now I want to go back down to Nevsky to meet some people at a bar (ironically) called Dacha to have a few beers or not. I spent a decent amount of rubles today between the food and books. This first week has been a bit of a money sucker, but I kind of expected that: a few bigger purchases had to be made upon arrival (i.e. food, phone, metro pass, etc.). Hmmm, decisions, decisions…
Love to all!
Xoxo
P.S. Just a note to anyone who thinks I’m ignoring them on Facebook or whatever, I only have internet for an hour or so every couple of days when I venture down to the coffee shop. So be patient with me please!!!!
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