International Workers Day

Today is the International Workers day holiday in most of the world so it is a day off from school for me, which gives me an excuse to walk around (in the brilliant sun none the less) and snap a few photos. For the festivities the roads downtown are largely closed today, which it is a good thing that Nikki's school informed her of that fact early in the day otherwise I might have been trapped on the other side of town grocery shopping this morning.

First and foremost the festivities here for the holiday were marked by a very large police presence, I did not take pictures of them mulling about with their paddy wagons and get back sticks as quite frankly they scare me. But I did see these hoses set up right next to a large police presence and thought, oh my gosh they have the spray cannons ready to go, this international workers day might get messy, or at least wet....

Once I got closer to the hoses I realized that they were actually connected to these buses, and not the police vehicles, at which point I realized these were public toilets, Wow, that is surprisingly civilized. (For those of you unfamiliar with the Russian alphabet, the sign below clearly says toilet)

Speaking of hygiene one Advantage to most of the downtown roads being temporarily closed for traffic is that it gives the street cleaners a chance to get on the roads in the daylight. Check out this charge of the brush brigade....

The labor movement must have something going with the weather Gods, as I don't think I have seen the sky this clear and blue yet in St Petersburg, what a beautiful day.


Here is a picture of a public rally of some sort developing off the main square, I kept hearing the words "economic crises" over the loudspeaker and decided it not a good idea to get to close with my camera as It doesn't take too many looks at me for me to be identified as a foreigner.

Some young workers showing their pride.


Now as at most toruisty type places people like to take pictures of themsleves posing in front of the touristy destination. We have seen lots of different poses in the center square. From the routine....
To the cute...

To the a little odd,,,,

To the just plain strange... I mean really is this rollerblader trying to get his girlfriend to take a picture of the Hermitage with his legs as the border of the picture,,, I mean really?

Well anyhow I think the large number of tourboats back in the canal should be our sign that good weather is here for a while, so we will certainly enjoy it while we can...