Radio Babies in Jars

Hiiiii!

Sorry for the gap in posts, but last night proved too late for me to keep my eyes open and type! I'll tell you about the past two days:

First, we had our last day of class in school 53. We were there on the day of their end-of-the-year festivities, known as Last Bell. Accordingly, all the kids were squirrellier than normal. Our lunch was exceptionally good too. We had chicken noodle soup, a rice pilaf with chicken and a sweet roll. It was soo good! The only draw back was that we had that thick, pink drink again. Blech.

After lunch, Anatoli offered to take us to the street right across the river where a bunch of museums are. Only 3 of us wanted to go, so we headed out and decided to go to the anthropological museum. It was really cool! It had displays of ancient and modern cultures from every continent at least. The weirdest part was a collection commissioned by Peter the Great himself. It was a bunch of malformed fetuses! I swear I'll have nightmares for weeks! And by a bunch, I mean at least a hundred; conjoined twins, brain hemorrhages, and all matter of bodily disfiguration. At first it was fascinating, but after about two rows of displays, I was very done with it.

So, after the museum, we came back to the hostel and took a nap for as long as we could, because we knew we would be out until 5am. Anatoli's friend Valentine was taking us out for a "vodka party." So, I slept until about 8 and then chatted with Andre about movies and other things.

We set out on our walk at about 11:45, stopping at Valentine's favorite view of the city, "the most beautiful view in all of Europe, must be." It was gorgeous. He helped me take some blur-less nighttime photos (which I will upload to facebook as soon as the internet is working a little better)! Then, we walked around the Hermitage, which was also lit up beautifully. There, we saw a saxophone player who had a blind in front of him so you couldn't see him. Valentine told us that this man is a very famous player who had played for all the Russian Presidents. Now that he was retired, the Governor of St. Petersburg pays him some money to play in the Palace Square. He doesn't like to be recognized, so he puts the blind up in front of him! Weird, huh?

Around 1:20, we went to a coffee shop to watch the bridges draw up. There were a LOT of people out just to watch the event! There are 13 or so that are drawn every night, and there's a gap of 10 minutes between each bridge's drawing, so that if you miss one bridge, you can hurry to the next if you absolutely need to get to Vasilyevsky Island (where our hostel is). It was really cool! We watched two go up, and then we went walking for the clubs.

Valentine took us to Nevsky Prospekt, the main drag in town, and down some back alleys until we came to the club, called Radio Baby (do you get the "before & after" in the title of this post now??). We went in, and my eyes are burning just typing about it. I should have assumed that Russian bars would be smokey, but it was a lot of smoke. We all took a shot of vodka with lemon (for 5 bucks! haha) and it started to be a little much for me. I haven't been feeling the best, and that much smoke would floor me on a good day. I had to go outside, and soon Anatoli and Inna came out with me. I apologized for putting them out, but Anatoli said he was honestly looking for a good excuse to leave the club. We walked around Kazan Cathedral (very preferable to clubbing in my opinion, haha) and waited for Valentine to let us know that they were done. They were about 20 minutes later, and we met them and walked around to another club, Punch. I decided to not even go in this one (I felt like I should try it at first, but I felt better once people said that it had been even smokier than Radio Baby). Anatoli, Inna, and I walked around again, this time down Nevsky for a while. I felt a little lame, but I just don't like clubs! They feel boring to me in the U.S. unless you're with the ideal people, and it was no different in Russia. I'm glad I tried it though! Plus, it was nice to talk to Inna more. Fun fact: she told me that her mother and grandmother told her when she was little to never sit on a rock, because if girls sit on rocks, something bad happens to them. Don't know what, but I risked it, haha).
We met them in a cafe (in Russian, kaфe) after they were done with Punch, which was a little longer, and it was 5:00 am! The time had gone really fast! The sun had risen at about 3:30am, while we were walking on Nevsky.

The sun was still rising when we walked back over the bridge, though, and it was really pretty. We got back inside, I took a shower, and then (as Grandma would say) fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Today! I woke up around 11, but then I read my current book (Mansfield Park, Jane Austen) until about 4pm. It was nice to relax again, especially with this dumb cold. At 6, Julie and I went down the block to a Georgian restaurant. It was recommended to me to eat in one while in Russia, so we had to do it. It was DELICIOUS. By far the best food I've had in Russia. I had a little roast whole chicken stuffed with nutpaste and mushrooms, with a yogurt sauce and fried zucchinis and eggplant. It was soooooo good. Julie had shish kebabs, and we split a napoleon for dessert. Mmmmmmmm.

Then, we came back here, and I skyped with Mom and Pat (and almost Dave, but I forgot that he was one hour off Eastern time, whoops). Then, Julie and I walked across the bridge to watch a fireworks show in honor of St. Petersburg's 309th birthday! They were great fireworks! We walked back just now at 11:15, and the sun was JUST setting. It's really cool to be able to be out that late without it being dark at all.

Tomorrow at noon, Anatoli is taking us out to go to some celebrations for the city's birthday. We have to check out of the hostel at that time, but we'll leave our luggage and come back for it before we go to the bus station at 8pm. Then we're going to Tallinn!!

It's so weird that we're already leaving St. Petersburg. It's been an amazing, beautiful city. I'm sad to be leaving what feels like so soon, but I'm excited to move on to Estonia and Finland, and also ultimately to be back home. That won't stop me, though, from continuing to have a great time abroad! :)