Brief update, and then I’ll get back to the meaty stuff. Promise.

Today was a touristy day, that we started later – it was great. We all got to sleep in! We drove to a Museum of the Siege of Leningrad, which looked strangely familiar. And it was – I went there when I was 16. I didn’t remember all of the stuff in it, but I remember the Soviet pride that went along with it. I find it interesting that I’ve been to more WWII museums and memorials here in St Petersburg than I’ve been to any war memorials in the US. No question. But, having a city under siege for 900 days is a pretty big deal. I feel that the Soviets had to pump SOMETHING up, to make people forget that someone was always watching… just my thoughts, though.

We then went to Peterhof, which is one of Peter the Great’s palaces. It’s on the Gulf of Finland, and has amazing fountains around it that Peter himself designed. They are powered with gravity, and then the water runs out to the Gulf. There are also palaces, but that cost more and there were giant lines to go in them. There were TONS of tourists: US people, Europeans, Russians and Asians. We just went among them, and through them… it was great. Great that we had Yaroslav as a guide and could just wander as part of a smaller group, not the giant TOUR GUIDE GROUPS… blech.
Anyway, I promised meaty stuff… here we go again.
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