If you are one of the two avid readers of blog, you may recall that I took a trip to St. Petersburg back in the end of October. Yes, I did, and I had a lovely time. So lovely, that of course I wanted to return...and during a time without snow.
The second weekend in May marked my spring weekend getaway number 3.
I traveled by train with my Richmond Virginia native roommate; Ashley, and our comical British fellas; Dudley and Tommas. We were in town from a Thursday evening-Sunday morning, and had two full days of adventuring.
Take at look at some marvelous photos from my trip:
On Friday, Dudley and I ventured a bit away from the heart of St. Petersburg...to Peterhof! In German, Peterhof means "Peter's court". Peter the Great used Versailles as an inspiration when he decided to build an imperial palace in the suburbs of his new city. Often, Peterhof is referred to as "The Versailles of Russia".
It is no secret that I am not fluent in Russian. As a result...I signed us up a tour of the Cascades...to be led in Russian. So here are photos of the Cascades...sorry, no information. I got lost as soon as the tour started..as Dudley and I were too busy laughing at our communication error to try to follow what the guide was saying. It is ok, I made up my own story about the cascades (or as I fabricated it as "Peter the Great's man cave") and it was pretty to look at:
We lost count of how many butts and fountains we saw at Peterhof.
Gulf of Finland...connects to the Baltic Sea
Peterhof was huge! There was something beautiful around every corner. Things just continued to pop out of nowhere for hours!
Friday evening, we enjoyed a dinner boat cruise. We set sail at 9:00 pm... the sun up with zero intentions of setting in the following couple hours! It was beautiful!
My stunning travel buddies:
The cruise ended around 11 pm...with the sun setting. It was lovely!
The highlight of Saturday, was our trip to Kuntzkamera. This is a museum which was started by Peter the Great. He was really interested in anatomy, and started a collection of abnormal bodies. What I mean is...there were countless amounts of preserved (in pheramaldahyde) fetuses and babies. One eye, 12 fingers, fused legs like a mermaid, all sorts of siamese...you name it. Pictures were not allowed, but there were certainly many interesting things to see.
When we returned to Moscow Sunday evening, I was shocked. It was in the 80s (fahrenheit) outside! That was the warmest I have ever experienced in Russia...and over-dramatically believed I was going to melt to death. It took me about a week to acclimate my mind and body to the fact that when it gets hot in a place like Russia...I will be deprived of my beloved air conditioning.
-Gina
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