maj

Well, one thing I can say is that I went to Russia for my Birthday! I can't recall when I first got it in my head to try and celebrate my 30th birthday in Russia, but I know it was quite a long time ago. I'm sure 30 seemed like it would never get here, and only a few weeks ago I had probably given up on the whole idea. But here I am, off the coast of St. Petersberg with sore feet and a head full of Hermitage.

I was very trepedatious about the tour. After our wet and cold experience in Lubeck I was worried about another frustrating afternoon being dragged behind a tourgroup with a sad soggy babby. But this tour was a lot easier. The other concern I had, almost the exact opposite worry, was that we wouldn't have enough time on the ground and that I would feel more like I'd watched a documentary than actually visited the place. Again, I'm happy to say this didn't occur. We were up super early -- 6:30am by "Ships Time," but Ships Time has jumped forward 2 hours since we left Copenhagen, so I insist that it was "really" 4:30am. But we made it out of bed, through the now overly-familiar buffet line and down to our meeting point in the Broadway Theater, Deck 6 stern, by 8:05am, Ships Time.

We headed out into an overcast morning in the SP shipyard. A pretty dreary first impression which was livened up up up by a brass band. It did make things a little more festive, but also made Amita nervous. She didn't know what to make of those tubas. Passport control was quick and easy (which reminds me, I want to check my passport and see if I got an actual stamp!) and we piled onto bus 31 with the rest of "the English."

Our tour was a whirlwind, but focused on the main big highlights of the city-- which line the river Neva-- so we got to see the same buildings a couple of times each as we zig-zagged across the waterfront. We had "photo stops" (which I was worried would really be only 5 minutes out of the bus but turned out to be a full 20, more than we needed in most places) at Church of the Savior on Blood, Saint Isaac's Cathedral, and the boat that fired the shot that started the October Revolution.

We also hit the obligatory tourist shop, but I didn't mind this one because a)I did actually want to by some shlock and b)they had free, self-service vodka samples. Our first "inside visit" was at the Peter and Paul Fortress Cathedral. I ended up staying on the bus with the sleeping baby because I'd already woken her up for the last 3 stop and just didn't have the heart to do it again. Plus it was raining. And I've seen a lot of churches. Lunch was a little disappointing: they didn't have any sort of veggie alternative to the "Traditional Russian meal" of chicken, white rice and peas. We ended up with very nicely displayed sliced of cheese where the chicken would have gone. But the first half of the meal -- salmon & salad, an excellent mushroom soup with sour cream, and an assortment of pickled things -- almost made up for it. There was also Russian music and singing, which was cute. After lunch it was all about the Hermitage: room after room of gilt, gold, marble, paintings, and art art art... I have to say my favorite part of it was finally stubleing out into the Palace Plaza behind the Hermitage.

It was just a lot of museum and I've never been a fan of the whole "we're walking we're walking we're stopping" tour herding... Amita fell asleep again as soon as we got back in the bus. Unfortunately her slumber was once again interrupted-- this time by the same brass band awaiting our return (did those guys really sit way out there in the shipyards for 8 1/2 hours waiting to seranade our return?)