Tuesday, January 26, 2016

St. Petersburg Pt. 3

Pushkin, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Friday, January 8, 2016

We spent Friday by taking a day trip to Pushkin. We felt like we accomplished something by navigating the metro and bus system to get there. On the way we stopped by a Lenin statue and I was so excited to add another selfie to my #selfiewithvlad collection. The first place we visited was Catherine's Palace. I, honestly, wouldn't suggest going on the tour. It was really pretty, and it's awesome to see how they are restoring it, but the tour was in Russian, and it was super quick. Although, I would suggest bringing a college student ID with you because sometimes you can still get in to museums in St. Petersburg for a cheaper price. Sometimes!

Katherine said that the grounds are really pretty, but it was just too cold to walk around. Plus, there wasn't much to see since it was winter. I think it would be a good trip just to walk in the parks in the spring and summer.

We were both hungry and we were going to eat at one little restaurant but there were no tables so we turned around and went to Bake'n'bards located right next to the palace. I was in love with the interior of the cafe, and the food was really good too. I think I had blini and borscht, and it was really good. We sat there for a while trying to warm up and decide what to do. We wanted to go to another place but it was closed so we decided to head back to St. Petersburg. It was just too cold to be outside. (**If you do make it to Pushkin the matroyshka's are cheaper than those in St. Petersburg).

When we arrived back in St. Petersburg our sweet tooth kicked so we went to Ëгурти. I couldn't find a link to it but the address was Griboyedov Canal Embankment, 26. The frozen yogurt was really good. Katherine got Nutella on hers and he put so much on! It was really funny watching her try to eat it. It looked like she just ordered a bowl of Nutella.

Since the first night we arrived in St. Petersburg we had a roommate in our room that was ALWAYS there. She was always there and always sleeping. She was super weird, and it was really annoying because you had to be quiet at 9 o'clock at night because we didn't want to be rude. Well, after yogurt we arrived back to our hostel and she was going on and on to another roommate about how her president (China) was a great leader. Then she asked where we were from (she was also from the USA) and told us basically that we were going to die if we went back to the United States within the next two years. Apparently, her brother works for the Pentagon and "they" are taking over. Still not sure who "they" are. She said Putin is the son of God, and that we shouldn't go back to the USA unless we want to die, but we will probably be deported from Russia. So, makes a lot of sense. I was trying to calm the Chinese girl by telling her this woman was psycho. I felt bad because she was too nice to say anything. But Katherine said the crazy girl knew we didn't believe her so she basically left us alone the entire time. But she was telling everyone she was not only American but Russian because her grandfather or something was Russian, which I guess by the standard I am Slovenian and Scottish. She also kept telling us, "You know that movie Carrie? I was named after her." We thought we were going to die.

We wanted to go to a bar while we were there so I found a site that listed the best bars in St. Petersburg, and they all happened to be near our hostel. I am sure the bars are pretty good but there was NO ONE around. Granted, it was about 8 or 9 on a Saturday night, but by the time we left there was still no one around. Apparently, Russians like to go out late. We just had one drink, but I was getting tired so we just headed back to our hostel where we risked dying in the hands of Carrie...

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