Russia

So I went to Russia.

On Tuesday night we took an overnight train to St. Petersburg, about 14 hours. Now that would seem pretty horrific but we had beds and I had a 101.4 fever so I passed out about 30 minutes into the ride and only woke up when the border guards came in to check out passports and visas at the border of Lithuania, Latvia, and then into Russia. That went well, no problems with the guards. The Russian one was kind of insane. They had two separate people come check our passports, two separate people come check our luggage, and they had german shepards and other things to intimidate us. But being delirious, I didn't really care

We got into St. Petersburg around 830 am and were completely lost. There are no signs in English in this train station and no one speaks it. We stood around trying to find maps and whatnot to get to our hotel. Finally some nice lady just started talking to us in Russian and we followed her to the subway and she showed us the right train to get on. The subway is down literally hundreds of feet. The escaltor went on FOREVER, no lie. We're not sure why... either a) to go underneath the canals and marshes or b) doubles as a bomb shelter. Both are highly probable. So we get to our hostel and have to get driven to a different hostel because we have a private room. Remember that this hostel for tonight was booked last minute because we got kicked out of our other hostel because of the G8 Summit. So a guy comes a drives us to the other branch of the hostel and interestingly enough the steering wheel was on the other side. I thought that was interesting and didn't realize Russia was like England. Then as we were driving I realized that our van was the only one on the road with the steering wheel on the wrong side... I was very confused.
So we got to ur hostel around 11 and couldn't get into our room til 12 so we left and walked to the Church of the Savior of Spilled Blood. Typical Russia Orthodox church... simply breathtaking. It had the onion shaped tops and beautifully brillant colors. The sides were all hand painted with individual portraits and was just amazing. Right next to the church was an open air market where the people finally spoke english... and took money in dollars... that was kind of wierd. I have absolutley no dollars on me so we kept having to ask them how much in rubles. Then we went back to the hostel and took a nap and I started to feel like crap again with the fever and it got reallllllly cold while we were sleeping. Like, really cold. As in I had one jeans, a t shirt, a sweater, and the huge comforter and I was shaking. When we got up we made dinner and decided to check out some of the bars from the guide book. Its so hard to find things because the guidebooks say the street names in English, or how you would pronounce it, while the street signs are in syrillic and Russian. So eventually we found some places to try and then were home by 11. I showered and we met some volleyball players from Canada who are here for the swatch international tournament. That was pretty cool. Then we passed out.

On Thursday we moved into our normal hostel. Its called Hotel California and is a hostel for musicians. Turns out the workers are all anarchists fighting the government... and then we finally figured out why the Russian government wouldn't let us stay there during the G8. So we got there by cab and finally found the place and decided, thanks to Nick, to check out the aquarium. So we went to the aquarium which was alright... and then we came back and bought food and then we took a boat ride through all the canals so we could see the entire city. After that we went back, cooked dinner, watched 28 days later with Dmitri the worker, and slowly but surely everyone in the hostel came into the tiny kitchen with us and we all just hung out. Theres Beth and Aaron from Britain who are touring the world for a year (start in russia, go through asia, work in australia for a few months, hit up phoenix in the summer, work way to nwe york then home) then theres 3 guys from the netherlands who made a website called 1milliondolarcamper.com or something and made enough money off of it to buy a camper and travel around. Theres 2 girls from France, one is writing her thesis on the American fraternity system... very cool. Theres 3 kindergarden teachers (1 canadien, 1 from vietnam, 1 german) among other people. theyre all pretty fun

Friday we went to the Hermitage- which was the winter palace of the czars and is now a history and art museum. it was so crowded that we didnt really get to see much (had picassos and da vinci etc) we just stumbled around and left after about 2 or 3 hours. Then we went back to the market and bought some stuff... came home, ate, and went out to a club with the other people from the hostel. The workers brought us to the club so it was a real russian underground club, not for tourists. it was interesting. they had alive band recording and then it switched to a dj later. Team USA didn't stay long because we didnt want to be out too late in Russia...

Saturday- got up and went to Peter and Paul's fortress. Had a nice chuch with like... Peter the greats grave, etc. Lots to do there but we just mostly walked around the grounds. We're not really museum people. Then we got back and started up foosball which became the obsession for the rest of the trip. Team USA pretty much sucked. Team Russia was good but they liked to playu spinners. Team France wouldn't play, Team England was mia, and Team Holland was the cinderella story. So that was fun. Then we just hung out and drank in the hostel again instead of going out.

Sunday- Sunday we went to a Food not Bombs ralley with the anarchist workers. They made a ton of food to give out to homeless people. We went because we thought it would be funny and interesting. Brandon played his guitar on the street to make them money and I blew bubbles? Nick peaced out because he thought it was too sketchy to be hanging out with anarchists on the street... and it was sketchy, but it was fun.
After we went back, grabbed our stuff, and headed to the train station. I wasnt delirious this time so it was slightly more difficult to sleep, but not a problem.

ill add pictures when i get home, but check out the webshots.