Saints and Artists, Bears and Brides

Warning: I don't have all the pictures of things that I talk about but they will come in time.

Okay so here is my update:)

We took a "sleeper" train to Moscow so we tried to sleep on the way there.... the smells of Russia are only excentuated when you bottle them up with as many people as you can fit into a small confined space for 8+ hours. To be honest the ride there would have been fine if it weren't for the bear snoring coming from the man nearby, the bathroom with "wetness" all over the floor, the sleeping in jeans, and the need to guard my backpack whilst I slept. I really did sleep a decent amount.

"St. Petersburg is gloomy, St. Petersburg is bleak" apparently the weather hasn't changed much since they wrote the words to that song in Anatasia. I loved it but it was both of those adjectives. I might forget to write some of the things that I saw but I hope that I will remember most of them.

First of all, we slept in as kindergarten gym every night we were there. We had to be out by about 8am every morning and we couldn't come back will 8 or 9 in the evening depending on  the day. They didn't want parents seeing a bunch of us just spending the night at the school apparently. we slept on these lumpy mats, but they gave us clean sheets and we even got to shower!!!

 During the day we walked all over st petersburg in search of food and of cool sights to see. We also rode the bus and the metro. The first day we climbed up this Bell tower in the convent Cathedral and got an Amazing view of the city. It was great because we paid to go up but weren't sure how far up we could go.... so we just kept climbing. up the regular stairs... then up the spiral stairs... then up the metal stairs that were obviously placed for tourists.... then to a door that we weren't sure whether or not it would open and when it did we found ourselves at the TOP of a cathedral. Best Staircase EVER. Don't worry, we took videos of us on top.

We took a river cruise around the center of moscow, the tour was all in Russian but it was really cool anyways. I also got to see the Peter and Paul Fortress... its on an island along with a church/cathedral that holds all the bodies of the Royal family... yeah I saw where Anastasia and her family are buried.



OH MY GOSH

***HERMITAGE**** aka winter palace

Most incredible museum ever. Not only is the building itself a work of art but it contains works from the greatest masters of all time. I saw original works by Michelangelo, Rafael, Matisse, Rembrant, DaVinci, Giovanni, and Picasso. Tell me thats not worth all of this. It was incredible.... I wish I had better words to describe that place. Maybe instead I will tell you this story....

I was standing in front of Rembrant's "Prodigal Son" soaking in the message and the feeling and a man scooted over and asked me something in Russian pointing to his camera.... I tried to ask him if he wanted me to take a picture of him with the painting, but then just said "I'm sorry I don't speak Russian."

"English?" He asked
"Yes, please"
"haha well then I guess I can speak American again!"

We had a friendly exchange and I found out he was from North Carolina. When I asked him what brought him to Russia he pointed at the painting and said "This". I almost cried. That's how beautiful that museum and that art is.

Down one of the corridors they had paintings on the ceilings that depicted stories all through the Old Testament, while I couldn't identify everything I was glad that I had recently taken Old Testament at school.

Lets see... The other main highlight of the trip I feel like was the Cathedral of Christ on Spilled Blood. Again, it was another experience that I don't have the words to describe but it was incredible. The entire inside... all the walls and ceilings are decorated with Mosaics; all beautiful enough to be paintings but all tiled. It made me want to kneel down in the cathedral and pray. I didn't because it was swarming  with tourists but it was incredible.

There were lots of other randoms things that we did.... jumping on random buses because we were "pretty sure" they would take us where we want to go.. talking to whoever we found that also spoke English. (We made friends with an ice cream man who lived in New York for 3 years and hates the movie Anastasia but loves giving us samples of his ice cream (and boasted that HE had the biggest "scoop" )bahahahaha, a 17 year old college student on a bus that couldn't  tell us where a good restaurant was but could tell us about a few pubs, a lady from moscow, visiting in St. Pete and a few others.

Also, I'm almost a pro at navigating the metro and paying in Roubles. I tried my hand at bargaining for my first time yesterday and it went okay. I'll get better though.

I'm generally enjoying the people and the culture. While Russians seem scary at first, they also seem pretty easy to smile after the first time and they have a fun sense of humor (When i understand what they are saying)

Oh! Also, I have seen tons of brides! I thought that getting away from provo would also get me away from that scene but apparently its tradition for Russians to have a small wedding and then go and take pictures and all the historic spots to pay tribute to their country and traditions. Sweet stuff. All the brides were so beautiful. I've seen well over 30 in the last week.

Also.... I saw a bear. Like.... a baby bear on a leash drinking what looked to be strawberry milk out of a bottle. Tight right???