Not As Outnumbered: St. Petersburg, Russia

We would have loved to tour around St. Petersburg on our own, but Russia doesn't make it easy for tourists to do so. The visa process is such an expensive hassle that it wasn't worth it this time. However, you can't visit or leave the boat without a visa. So we went with a tour bus that provided the visa, transportation, tickets to everything, lots of information, and saw the city that way. We were able to really get a good taste of what St. Pete had to offer. I LOVED being there with Darin. It was wonderful to listen to him tell me about the sites and his memories about the streets that I was seeing. It was neat to see the things that hadn't changed and listen about the things that had.

Darin, finally back in Russia.
It has been 17 years since he served in this city.

Rainy, cold, and gray just like Darin remembered it. Just like I thought it would be.

Darin and Noah

The battleship Aurora that fired the signal for the 1917 Soviet Revolution. The gun currently points at the KGB building.

The Hermitage square. Rainy.

Yep, the bus ride was fun.
Anya gets a whine going that makes her sound like a siren. Everyone around her wants to slam their head in the nearest door. A little bit annoying. Poor baby, just wanted a bed and a nap.

Darin on the hydrofoil boat.
We rode the boat to the Peterhof gardens.
It was on this boat that we were swindled by a Russian man selling playing cards. Darin let him know that he was being dishonest and the guy pretend not to know what he was talking about. I wanted to inform the boat that he was a crook and they shouldn't deal with him, but we just left. 5 euro less and grouchy. It wasn't worth the fight.

Peter Paul Fortress

Christian at the Peterhof Gardens. Finally the rain stopped and the sun thought about coming out.

The Peterhof has lots and lots of fountains. Some of the fountains were "trick" fountains and would go off getting you wet if you happened to step on the wrong rock. The "trick" part was that there was a man in a booth who happened to think it was funny to get tourists wet when they were not expecting. Ha, ha.

An old Soviet style building.

Lots and lots of apartment buildings. Lots and lots.

We took a metro ride just for fun to see the communist stuff inside the metros.

Workers of the World Uniting

Inside the metro. Communist stuff all over the place.

I am so mad that Christian and Jag decided to stay on the bus. The fam plus Darin's sisters in the metro station.

A lot of apartments and a rickity old tram.

An awesome and authentic lunch of Russian salad, borscht, stroganoff (I didn't realize it was Russian) and bread. I enjoyed it, the kinder, not so much.

In front of a Soviet mural that was one of Darin's favorites when he was here. I'm amazed that it is still around and in good shape.

In front of Isaac's Cathedral. The 3rd largest cathedral in the world.

Davis took this picture. It is of the gray building behind the yellow bus. It was there that the Russians made that bad deal when they cheaply sold Alaska to the US.