Divo Ostrov

Hello, America! :)

Today has been a relatively uneventful day after this week full of activity!

First, I woke up at 7:00am Russia-time to Skype with Katie because she's getting married TOMORROW! The plan was to talk with her, Cassie, and Erin on Saturday night (Sunday night here), but we're leaving on a night train to Moscow at 12:40am, so unless I have wi-fi on the train, I won't be able to! It was good to see her before she becomes Mrs. Quinn, but one of the saddest things about going on this trip is missing her wedding. I do not regret it though, and she was happy to know that. :)

Then I Skyped with Mom! And THEN I Skyped with Dad! I was nice to be all caught up with everyone (I just got done Skyping with Grandma!).

Then I went back to bed until 11:30! haha

Julie and I had brunch, and then we headed out to the metro to go to the Divo Ostrov theme park! On the way, we noticed that a lot of people were headed toward the same destination. We weren't surprised, because it's Saturday and the weather is gorgeous. But then we got there and it was PACKED!

It's hard to explain, but Divo Ostrov is park of a larger park that is HUGE. About the size of Central Park. So in the non-amusement part of the park, there was a sort of festival going on with food tents and craft vendors all along the main trail. It was cool! I got some potholders with traditional Russian design on them for mom and grandma for only 100 Rubles ($3)!

Divo Ostrov was really strange, haha. The name was in "Disney" font, there were a few Disney themed rides like the Teacups (from Beauty and the Beast) and Thunder Mountain. But there were also Dreamworks characters like Puss 'n Boots walking around! PLUS, there was a Star Wars alien-fighter ride with Yoda in front.

We were lost at first when we went to buy tickets, but after bothering some other patrons, we found a guy who could translate part of the information. The ride names were translated into English, but not the prices of tickets. Go figure. As it turned out, you paid per ride you went on, but they gave the option of an all-day pass. The all-day was 1500 Rubles (~$50) so we decided to just buy tickets for a few rides.

We rode on the Rocket, which was awesome! It was held up by wires (check the pictures), and the rocket spun you around and turned you upside down. Then, we rode the Thunder Mountain equivalent, which was fun too! Then, we rode Storm, which was nuts! Earlier this week, Julie had seen a video posted by her friend of a "scary amusement park ride" and we saw that it was in St. Petersburg! So obviously, we hunted for it. It was wild, but not as scary as it appears in the video. All in all, I would say we hit the biggest rides.

After the rides, I bought some cotton candy (possibly my favorite edible substance --I don't think it counts as food). It was great! We watched a show that was going on; they were having some sort of talent show, but then it turned into an eating contest? We were confused, haha. But it was fun!

Then we left Divo Ostrov and walked the main trail, perusing the vendors. We saw some extremely beautiful Russian pastries, but they were like 12 and 13 dollars apiece! We went with a truck called "Grandma's House" (except in Russian) and got some pastry for like 1 dollar. It probably wasn't as good, but we got the idea.

We sat on the bank of a pond for a while and watched the rides in the park and the paddle boats in the pond. It was surprising how peaceful it was to hear people scream on the rides, haha.

After some lazing around, we caught the metro back to our Sportivnaya, and since we've been doing a whole lotta nothin'.

Anatoli is coming to collect us at 11:00pm to take us to the train station! I may not be able to post tomorrow night unless the train has wi-fi, so I'm sorry in advance if I don't! I will take notes in my journal and post two posts the next day, though.

P.S. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 82 degrees in Moscow!

P.P.S. Weird fact: On all the escalators in the Metro stations I've been in, the handrail has moved faster than the stairs part, so your hand keeps moving farther away from you and you have to move it back every so often. Why?!?