First day in Mother Russia

Day one of our four week journey started with a bang aside from the jetlag of course! After our two hour flight from Frankfurt, we got off the plane to be picked up by two Russian gentlemen from the local travel agency who drove us to our hotel (with no visible front lobby). The hotel is in the City Center, as we were corrected by our driver, it's not downtown.

We spent the evening walking around and found a little bar that can only be described as Russian kitch at its best. We dined on our first borsch and straganoff while listening to nostalgic 80's music (which one member of our group enjoyed very much) played/karaoked by a one man band sitting next to a stripper pole. Despite the jet lag and strange lone dancing bar star (also a patron though) we enjoyed every minute of it.

After dinner the gang walked back and hit the pillow pretty hard.

Eastern Europe is brand new to me as well as to the group. It's a great feeling. New air, new people, and new sites. Day's are longer here, it's about 10pm before the sun goes down. It's also a little chilly. Getting to know the streets has been an adventure on its own but fortunately no one has gotten thoroughly lost. Russian can be a challenging language, especially since at first it looks like english until you get to the backward Rs.

We've got the rest of our stay in St. Petersburg all planned out with a boat tour, church visits and more walking around. So, stay tuned for more to come! Paka for now!

(Blog Contribution also by Joh. C.)