Impressions of Russia's take on Europe - St. Petersburg!

Well I just experienced 3 of the most jam-packed days that i can remember in a long time! I will spare those of you with lives pages and pages of self-indulgent blogging, but remember that I'm always excited to share my journey with anyone who wants to grab a cup of coffee and elaborate when I get back to the states! That being said - wow. St. Petersburg! The most European-like part of this technically Asian country. We started by taking an 8 hour overnight sleeper train from Moscow that felt like a weird spaceship from the 1950's with fold-out everything and compartments to stow our overnight things. Sleeping actually didn't happen naturally for the entire trip, but I was excited about the little things all the way. When we arrived in St. Pete's early Monday morning we were given a guided bus tour that lasted into the afternoon and overwhelmed our tired brains with a wealth of information (and overworked our cameras, too!). The tour included most every site-seeing venture, including the Peter and Paul fortress where Peter the Great first established himself and where all of the tzars and royal family are entombed. We basically had the rest of the day to do with as we pleased and so a few of us ventured out to The Church of Christ on the Spilled Blood which looks familiarly like St. Basil's and was erected on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated. Full of incredible mosaics and gold leaf, it was a giant piece of art in and of itself. Then we wandered into Kazan Cathedral, the largest operating Orthodox church in the city - which had a very different atmosphere as lines of scarf-adorned women were waiting for their turn to pray to a supposedly miraculous icon of Mary. Then the bad decision to be courageous in my menu options happened. Note to anyone planning a future trip to Russia: a plate of traditional pickled stuff + sushi + carbonated water = something equivalent to food poisoning. Either that or I just got food poisoning. Either way, this was on Monday, it's now Wednesday night and I'm still feeling a little gross. No matter - the group embarked on a river cruise that took us through some of the city's Venice-like canal system from 12:30- 2 AM and it was a gorgeous tour, unlike anything I've ever done! We were lucky enough to be there during the White Nights Festival, which basically means that the sun never goes down. It was like vampire land... many hours well into the night of people walking around with no shadows! After a barfy restless night of "sleep", I dragged myself with the group for a tour of the Hermitage museum the next morning, and was glad to have done it! Pictures for days:) After the Hermitage outing I forced some food and set out with Nastya (Anastacia) - our friend and liaison from MXAT - to a tattoo parlor to commemorate my completion of the Month in Moscow training program on a more personal level. Nastya helped me translate with an artist to get a beautiful seagull - the symbol of the MXAT - on my right wrist (*see below:). I'd been wanting to have this done since I stepped on the plane and was so grateful that it happened! We wrapped up our evening with a birthday dinner out for a student on the trip (Greg - happy 20th, friend:) which involved great discussion, including some insight into Nastya's memories of growing up in the USSR. She is about my age and though I found that we had a lot in common, I was hanging on her every word, almost entranced by the foreign stories of a childhood not knowing where her next meal was coming from or when she might get to see family again. The group left early this morning from the hostel towards Pushkin - or tsarskoye selo - to explore Catherine I's summer palace and estate. It was like the Russian answer to Versailles and included the famous "Amber Room"... interesting theories on the legends behind it if anyone ever wants to grab that coffee! To get back to Moscow this evening we took advantage of a new bullet train that got us back in half the time it took us to get to St. Pete's to begin with! I enjoyed the Russian countryside through the big window of the train (which surprisingly reminded me a ton of driving through parts of southern Ohio!) on our way back. Alright folks, I told you it was a lot of info, and that's as condensed as I can manage! Only a few days left, and tomorrow we have our official little ceremony of champagne and awarding certificates of completion in the program! Ahhh!!! Of course, pictures to follow:)