nikkiandjosh

New Years Eve

2011-02-14T08:32:00.001+03:00

Josh and I have spent the past three winter seasons here in Russia and had yet to brave the New Years Eve celebrations on palace square- until this year! I was very skeptical to take part, as I have always been intimidated by a number of factors- the first being New Years Eve does not begin until well after my bed time. Second it tends to be very cold here in the arctic and third well partying is on a whole new level here- not so much my cup of tea. So when Josh insisted that we needed to attend one of the biggest parties of the year, I put up my normal resistance but was out numbered when my mom thought that it was a good idea too.
So I begrudgingly stayed up, bundled up and headed to palace square. At this point I need to admit how wrong I was with my assumptions. The authorities have done a wonderful job of cleaning up festivities here- they set up gates around the square and inside there was no alcohol allowed, it created a nice environment. There were four stages set up with different music, and shows for various ages. Surprisingly there were tons of families with small children dancing well into the early morning awaiting the arrival of Grandfather Frost, and enjoying the light shows. One thing that we have learned from our time here is that the Russians are the best at celebrations, the light shows in palace square were second to none, the only comparable thing I have seen would be in Disney land on the 4th of July, and even that seems dull now. I was extremely impressed at the different changing colors of the buildings and timing of the spot lights, it was such a neat environment, and truly something I will never forget and really don’t know how to describe.

In a nut shell the night was very cold, but remarkable civilized and really pretty neat. As the clock ticked down ( or up here) we watched the president give a speech to welcome the new year and officially say when midnight had arrived. I was surprised how the whole crowd was silent for the entire speech. I have to say it- the best thing about the night- it wasn’t midnight until the president told us it was- so Russian. Admittedly I enjoyed listening to the president speak rather than a brainless pop star or TV host, maybe we have been here too long.

Pavlovsk Palace

2011-02-12T13:24:00.003+03:00

We have ventured out to Puskin many times but have not made it out to the smaller Pavlovsk palace. So it seemed like a great opportunity to make the trip when my mom was visiting. You can read about the history of the palace here- It is always amazing to me that even a short distance outside of the city and the snow becomes so beautiful and white. We made the trip on an exceptional clear and sunny day and the gardens looked like a winter wonderland complete with a horse drawn sleigh.
We were not permitted to take pictures inside the place but I have to admit although it is a smaller and simpler palace it is my favorite. It was very quiet inside and beautifully restored. There was even a special display showing how rooms would have looked through the ages, very cool. I can’t wait to go back in the summer and explore the gardens.

As much fun as I thought a ride in the sleigh would be I just couldn’t bring myself to torture the animals and make they pull me around- I decided a picture would be much better.

My new favorite sport

2011-01-07T15:34:00.004+03:00

Josh and I decided to take advantage of all the snow that we have here in Russia. We normally would grab our skis and take off to the mountains, but if you are a faithful blog reader you would have seen that most of the mountains around us are more of small hills and never prove to be very exciting. So yesterday Josh and I decided that we would try our hat at cross country skiing! So we went out and bought some equipment and scoped out some trails.
I could hardly contain my excitement waiting for the morning to come so we could try our new sport. Josh and I woke up at 3am ready to go, unfortunately we had to wait until 10am until it was light enough to go.

After our long wait the sun finally rose and we headed out! I quickly learned that cross country skiing is nothing like downhill skiing. Only having my toe attached to my ski was a bit weird at first but the best part about cross country skiing is even if you are terrible or a beginner it is still so much fun! Oh, and if I fall flat on my face it doesn’t hurt nearly as much! So I’m not saying the Olympic team will be knocking on my door tomorrow, but I can see us doing this for many years to come!

The next pictures are from the end of our adventure- Josh had been skiing many times before and wanted to show off so he decided to go off the trail into the deep snow. It was all fun and games in the beginning until he realized how deep the snow actually was- These pictures are Josh’s progression to the realization that he is stuck.

Then the conclusion that I knew was inevitable- the only crash of the day- (on a side note he was so stuck that he had to take his skis off to get out) Great ending to our first XC ski day.

Christmas Season

2011-01-03T20:22:00.005+03:00

My mom braved the snow and cold this Christmas and made the long trip to Russia to see us. We started her visit with a trip to the Mariinsky theatre first to see the symphony and then on Christmas day we watched the traditional Nutcracker! Two wonderful performances to start our holiday.

We have tons of snow here blanketing the city in beautiful white and setting the background for some photo opts.

Winter

2011-01-01T21:18:00.004+03:00

Winter is here and it is time for falling icicles and slippery streets. Here is a picture of a particularly large one outside of our window.
Our winter began with a trip to Moscow for Thanksgiving weekend-( it had not yet begun to snow in Moscow).

We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the sights but we happily returned home to our beautiful St Petersburg.

But not before we had our fill of Starbucks! Oh how I miss my delicious large, dark, coffee!

A good day

2010-11-01T06:56:00.006+03:00

You know when a day starts with the double yoke lucky egg it will be a day to remember.

Lucky for us we had planned a great start to Nikki's week off from school with a trip to the Baltika Brewery. They only let us take pictures of the beer factory in a limited number of places, but rest assured Josh was thoroughly excited about the beer brewing process.

Nikki was thoroughly excited about the beer tasting process!
Now here is some happy tour participants.

For the ride home Nikki had always dreamed of driving through the city in a party bus, so the brewery seemed like a logical starting point for this party.

Cooper striking a pose on the party bus.

I think Nikki is a little excited about beer tasting in this photo.

Kyra and Nick look so deep in conversation in this photo, I wonder what they are talking about, It looks like Sue is wondering as well.

September

2010-10-23T14:19:00.008+04:00

We apologize for the long absence- it seems that the month(s) are quickly sliding by. Josh and I are both back at school and back to the grind of everyday life here in St. Petersburg. September was a beautiful month here and Josh and I took the opportunity to go sightseeing and take part in some Russian sporting events! I started the month off by running in the annual women’s 10k race. It is a fun event that helps raise money for women’s health. We had a huge turnout for the race and an absolutely beautiful course to run. We began and ended in palace square and running around the major bridges of the city.

Josh had been to a few Zenit soccer games here, but this was my first one. It was an interesting experience, the fans were crazy (even with the no alcohol rule) the seats are terribly uncomfortable, and as with all soccer games it wasn’t terribly exciting. Here are a few photos of the crazy fans- they were setting off flares in the stands to celebrate, no one but the foreigners seemed concerned, even as the smoke from the flares became so thick we couldn’t even see the field. I was happy to make it out of the stadium..

On a much more fun note- we also attended a SKA hockey game! SKA was playing an exhibition game against an American NHL team and we were lucky enough to get tickets! In my opinion it was twice the fun of the soccer games- I definitely see more hockey games in my future! On a cool note, one of my student's dads is the goalie for SKA, here he is making a great save. On a funny note, they even had cheerleaders!

Trip to Tallinn

2010-08-09T21:02:00.004+04:00

We took mom to Tallinn to cross another city off her travel list. Tallinn is a beautiful little city, and the drive over is always exciting. We had a fantastic time touring the medieval city, shopping for treasures and snacking on the local cuisine.

We had fairly extreme weather when we were there- most days were super hot, but the second day was raining and super cold! Luckily mom and I had brought our rain coats!

Visit from Mom W.

2010-08-06T19:46:00.000+04:00

On my way back from Kansas I picked up my mom in Paris and brought her to Russia with me. The hot weather of Kansas followed me and we had sunny and hot weather the whole trip! We began our adventure at Peterhoff

A side trip to Kansas

2010-08-05T19:33:00.002+04:00

After touring around Europe I left the Kaser family and headed to the metropolis of Wichita, Kansas for a conference for school. I actually had a blast there, it was super hot but I loved walking by the river and eating Subway sandwiches. I of course took the opportunity to do some clothes shopping too! My conference was great, and I made a new friend, but the best part of the trip was that my dad was able to come out to see me for my birthday!

Family Time!

2010-08-04T18:30:00.007+04:00

Josh and I have had a fun filled month of mom and dad visits. First up was Josh's parents! We started our adventure here in Russia. Luckily we had beautiful weather, only a few days before they arrived we were still in our jeans and sweatshirts, but the Kaser’s brought only sunshine with them! We did all the normal touristy sights; here are pictures from a few of the favorites.
Peterhoff-

Boat touring

And the highlight of the summer- The beer garden!

We then took off to Germany to see the Passion Play! It was truly a once in a life time opportunity. While we were not permitted to take pictures during the play we managed to snap a few before the show began-

After our adventures in Germany we continued on to Lyon, France. It was a charming town full of beautiful cathedrals, and delicious restaurants. And of course, what would a trip to France be without a wine tour!

Miss you guys!

Happy Anniversary!

2010-06-02T01:00:00.000+04:00

“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”
~Winnie the Pooh

You are my best friend, my soul mate, my husband- Thank you for giving so selflessly and for making all my dreams come true. Happy Anniversary!

Victory day

2010-05-11T10:59:00.004+04:00

This past Sunday was Victory day here in Russia. It is a great holiday for us as the center of the city comes alive and we realize after the long winter that this city really does have millions of residents. Of course the military parade and all the equipment on the streets is reason for excitement. The city comes alive with banners, this one says I remember, I am proud.

Above are some vehicles from the afternoon citizens and veterans parade, sadly many of the trucks pictured below carrying the veterans were largely empty. I am afraid the poor weather kept many of the veterans away, as it had rained earlier in the day. The sign on the front of the truck has a name of the region of the city that those veterans come from. I couldn't help but think how sad it was for some of the veterans, as every year they notice less and less of their friends in that truck with them. This is our second victory day here, and I am really impressed with how the Russians treat this holiday as a celebration of their veterans and the extreme sacrifices of the generation that survived World War II.

Before the military parade in the morning Nikki and I took the opportunity to check out some of the parade equipment. As always when Nikki sees soldiers in uniform from any Army, she wants to become their "den mom."

As many of you know, we moved during the winter do to our roof leaking, well this is one of those weekends we were very happy to have moved, as this is the display for the big party on Palace square, and behind this wall is where our old courtyard is located, hence we were actually able to sleep on the night of a big city party. Some of the young party goers really do have stamina. Many were still our on the streets partying at 8 am the next morning.

I am always a sucker for a photo with a tank.

In this picture the soldiers are fueling up their equipment for the parade the next morning. I was a little surprised at their technique. We ended our Victory Day by attending the Marinsky ballet where a special performance of the ballet commemorating the end of the Leningrad blokade was performed as well as several small scenes from the some other famous ballets . It was fantastic. We do not take pictures at the ballet, but I thought it was hillarious that Nazi soldiers in the show wore little devil horns on their helmets, as if we didn't realize they were supposed to be the bad guys. You can learn more about this ballet here, if you so wish.

Our First Cruise-up first the boat..

2010-05-06T15:02:00.002+04:00

For our spring vacation we took our first cruise through the Greek islands. We started and ended our journey in Venice, Italy. Because of time restraints we did not plan on spending any time in Venice, thanks to the volcano we spent more time in Venice then we did on our cruise. But more on that subject in a later post. Josh and I were super excited for our first cruise. Below is the view from our balcony as we pulled out of port. Simply beautiful ..

Our weather was not the best in the beginning of our trip. We spent some time indoors on the boat instead of sunning by the pool.

But the weather thankfully cleared up and we took advantage of some of the games on board – here is Josh playing shuffle board.
Stay tuned –our first stop- Split, Croatia.

Deep thoughts?

2010-03-31T19:41:00.003+04:00

So if you dump snow into a frozen canal, to the point where the snow you dump into the canal piles over the bank of the canal, and the fence on top of it for that matter, is that considered a flood?
For the record this picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, but I am still pondering the question.

March

2010-03-28T20:38:00.006+04:00

So March is almost over. This has been a long winter for us. Locals and the media has told us that St Petersberg has not had a winter like this in 20 years or so. I now know why they changed the climate crises title for Global Warming, to Climate Change. :) Things are improving though, today we took a tour of a palace and wandered outside in relatively warm 40 degree weather. Well on our way home it started raining, but in saying good bye to winter a little rain can be a good thing. Here with the warmer weather as an Ally, the city is finally winning the battle of snow removal.
Which for this winter warrior, could come none too soon.

Because we are just plain tired of this... (I think that is about-9 F)

And all the time we spend indoors, because it is just too cold, icy, snowy and generally miserable outside.

But things are on the up and up, check out this clear sky!

The city can start fixing all the damage from the winter. I actually saw the snow plow run into this streetlight, but I did not have my camera that day. Surprisingly the streetlight has yet to fall down yet, and has remained for a couple of weeks.

I took these pictures on my walk to school earlier in the month, what a difference a few weeks make.

I hope we are done seeing this out our windows. Here is to a beautiful spring!

Happy Women's Day!

2010-03-08T18:39:00.003+03:00

So before I dive into my women's day I thought perhaps that some people may want to know the history behind the holiday! Below is cut and pasted from an email I received about the holiday from a gentleman at the consulate- hopefully no copy write infringement with posting it!

A Little Background on International Women’s Day

1908
Oppression and inequality spur women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.

1910
In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

1911
Following an agreement reached at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women's Day (IWD) was observed for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.

1913
On the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February,1913. International Women's Day was moved to 8 March, a day that remained the global date for International Women's Day ever since.

Now i had not heard about the Holiday before moving to Russia- but I must say it is a great day- much like our Valentines Day men are expected to give flowers, chocolate or other special treats to women. My special husband decided to partake in the celebration too! I had been eyeing/ talking about/ begging for one particular tea cup since the day we arrived- and to my surprise Josh surprised me with it today! Isn't my "Winter fairy tale" cup beautiful!

My husband wouldn't be my husband if he didn't always have an extra treat up his sleeve :)
If I wasn't overjoyed enough- Josh decided to truly spoil me and double surprise me with this beautiful tea cup and tea pot set! Happy Women's Day to me!!!!

A weekend in Novgorod

2010-03-03T18:15:00.002+03:00

I (Josh- for some reason my computer does not recognize me as a blog poster anymore, hmmm I'll think about that later.) Regardless I went to Novgorod for a couple of days with a friend this week and I was quite surprised at how friendly the people were in a much smaller town here in Northwest Russia.

At the World War Two memorial they had a tank, so I could not resist a photo op.

This is a city/ state government building, it is quite impressive.

At the end of a walking bridge in the center of town was a statue of this footloose and quite inappropriately dressed (for the weather) young woman. Speaking of inappropriate, this day was the first day since December that it had been above freezing, and the River (the Volkov river) was NOT frozen. The river in Saint Petersburg which is much closer to the Baltic sea and should be warmer then this inland river is frozen solid and has been for months. The relative lack of ice in this river was quite disturbing.

In one of the many Churches in this town (this town is almost 1000 years older than St Petersburg, which means a whole lot of time to build lots of churches) the creation story was painted on the wall. I loved the painting depicting the Adam having to go to work once they were kicked out of the Garden.

In 1862 the Czar (I think Alexander II but don't quote me on that) commissioned this statue to commemorate the 1000 years of Russia, as in 862 the first prince of Russia (Prince Rurik) began to rule in Novgorod. For comparison St Petersburg was not founded until around the 840th year of Russian history.

2010-03-01T10:00:00.001+03:00

One of the most special things for me about living in St Petersburg is the large amount of international people that I come into contact with- I feel so privileged to learn about so many different cultures. This past month I learned about “Hinamatsuri” the Japanese doll festive or Girls Day.
Here is the explanation from Wikipedia - The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi ("doll floating"), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them. The Shimogamo shrine celebrates the Nagashibina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo rivers to pray for the safety of children. People have stopped doing this now because of fishermen catching the dolls in their nets. They now send them out to sea, and when the spectators are gone they take the boats out of the water and bring them back to the temple and burn them.
The most beautiful display of dolls is set out to celebrate this holiday. There are 7 platforms set up and covered with a red cloth. The dolls are made to represent the emperor, emperors, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. Below is a picture of the display at the Japanese Consulate. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The detail on each doll was truly amazing, not only was each doll is dressed in the traditional clothing but each had hand panted faces and beautiful silky hair. Here is the significance of the doll order and decorations… to learn about the dolls click here.

Just one of those days I guess?

2010-02-26T14:40:00.003+03:00

So we knew we had a busy day full of different Russian delivery people- which can go either very well or horrible- today was a bit - well- confusing. The morning started off great our first two deliveries went well- we received our new water cooler which worked- and then our new treadmill arrived- 2 hours late- but they were very nice and patiently and thoroughly set up and explained the machine to us. Two relatively positive experiences, great!

Then all we had left for the day was our two wardrobes- the factory called yesterday and told us to expect the delivery men between 10am-5pm- a small window of time right ? So we wait... and wait.. and wait.. Then about 5pm a delivery man calls and says he will be here tomorrow ...maybe. At this point in the day everyone (meaning me) is cranky and tired of waiting- Josh now has the wonderful job of making this guy understand that he was supposed to have been at our house today, and that he took off work to wait for this guy who is now saying that he isn't coming and telling us to wait around tomorrow too. All I understand is that all parties involved are not happy.
The next phone call was back to the manager, who then calls the driver who then calls us back to assured us that he was indeed coming today but he was running late and wouldn't be there until 6pm but again promising that he was coming.
We believe that things have been straightened out and we again wait... and wait..8pm comes..no word from anyone. It is now soon approaching our bed times.. and we are really cranky. We call all the numbers again- conveniently the manager’s office closes at 6pm- the exact time that the delivery was supposed to have come-(we didn't think it was a coincidence) and when we call the driver back he again claims no he is not coming until tomorrow- and if we can't be there tomorrow- he can't come again until March 15th.
Josh then calls to the store before they close and gets a hold of someone who then tells us that indeed our delivery isn't scheduled until Saturday-
If at this point you are confused with the story- we were too.... Turns out that there were two different companies that we were waiting for- one was coming on Saturday- one was indeed coming on Friday.
In the middle of all this drama- Josh and I began to ask some questions to each other- One of the biggest questions who the hech was supposed to be coming today/ tonight? At this point it is 9:30pm and we are convinced that something went wrong at some point in the conversations, or that someone was just trying to get us off the phone and just told us that they were coming- so we decide to go to bed. No sooner then we turn the lights off- the phone rings- this is a new delivery guy who tells us that he will be at our house at about 11pm.
Only in Russia is this normal working hours.
So at 11:15pm A delivery truck pulls up and my china cabinet was delivered. Yes I said my china cabinet- not my wardrobes like we thought- a third party delivery. The best part of the story is that my china cabinet came in pieces that need to be assembled by their service men--- who are coming on Saturday. SO after all that I am left with a tons of boxes... and yet another day of waiting.
On a positive note- I love my treadmill :)

Preview time

2010-02-08T21:40:00.005+03:00

Although we are not moved in yet- we are very excited to move into our new place sometime this week! We couldn't resist posting a few pictures! Many move to come!

Living room ....

New kitchen...

One of the guest bedrooms

Front bathroom- with the rocket shower!
Master bedroom...

Back in St Petersburg

2010-02-01T19:27:00.003+03:00

We have been home from our vacation for almost a month now. I had great plans for these couple of weeks before school starts again, alas other things have become the priority. We hope to have big news soon on where we will be living in the next few weeks. As some of you know the record snowfalls here convinced our roof to give up, and we have some water damage in our current apartment. We hope to be in another one soon, more to follow. Also the past two weeks have been the coldest we have seen in our year here (yeah I know we have now lived here longer than anywhere since we got married, weird huh?). Anyhow we have seen temps in the -20's (C) pretty regularly so I was excited when it warmed up a couple of days ago, but check out our forecast, yes it is warmer, but maybe the freezing cold without the snow would be nicer.

Two signs we have left Bavaria

2010-01-06T10:59:00.003+03:00

We arrived in Berlin yesterday, after a few days in Vilseck where we got the car serviced. (An oil change, air filters replaced, tire rotation, and some brake servicing all for less than 200 dollars, compared to my last oil change and air filter in Russia that topped out at a little under 600 bucks, Vilseck was quite a deal) Anyway our first of two nights in Berlin we found a comfy bar to eat dinner in and Nikki ordered a Hefeweizen, and I noticed that the bar had the same name as many of its beer offerings, so I assumed it was a brewery and asked the waitress simply for a beer. The idea was I figured I would receive the standard hellas of the restaurant. Well I did receive the standard beer of the restaurant. As I looked around the restaurant almost every table had these beers on them. The sign you are no longer in Bavaria in Germany is when you order a beer in a bar and it is a .2L offering... It looks puny next to Nikki's weizen. It was good, but even the pils in Bavaria are at least a ,3 L offering.
Another sign I am not in Bavaria is when I ordered the meat sampler, it included raw ground beef. I am a meat lover, and I love my beef rare, but I barely sampled the raw selection from this sampler. In a side note the Cheese and other sausage selections were yummy.

We are looking forward to exploring the city today and continuing our journey towards the port of Rostock where we will take a ferry to Helsinki.

The gorge

2010-01-04T06:44:00.000+03:00

One of our favorite places in Garmisch is this gorge, everytime we have been here the ice makes different formations and the views are varied by how cold it has been, the views were amazing.

Ski Jumping

2010-01-03T06:39:00.000+03:00

Here in Garmisch they have a big ski jumping competition (I think it is the world championship, but I am not much of a follower of the sport). The festivities provided us quite an opportunity to observe this sport.

The advertisers and teams provided entertainment around the jumping stadium.

I wonder which team has this bus, some things are hard to escape.

New Years

2010-01-02T06:35:00.002+03:00

Our New Years here in Garmisch was quite a feast and festival, we enjoyed the company of friends and sharing stories of our Olmsted experiences. We hope you all had a great New Year.

Skiing

2009-12-31T08:55:00.004+03:00

We have now skied the past three days and so far are having a great time, although the weather here as turned quite warm (40 degrees F) and rain has hit the slopes, so we are hoping for one more day of skiing out of this week. Think Snow, in an ironic twist apparently ST Petersburg had a record snowfall last weekend, can't win them all. From these pictures you can see why we love this area, it is so incredibly gorgeous.

Germany

2009-12-30T10:56:00.003+03:00

So we have been here a couple of days, but we have been having so much fun that we haven't taken the time to post the pictures we have taken, so in the mean time here is some evidence that we are truly here, and our friends Peter and Whitney have joined us from France.

The culinary options here are right up Josh's alley. Apparently Peter likes the meaty fare as well

Oh Starbucks, how I love thee..

2009-12-26T21:05:00.002+03:00

As many of our blog readers are aware we love Starbucks, in fact some might say we might be addicted. So living in St. Petersburg without our great love is difficult. When we (maybe I should say I ) saw the lovely green Starbucks sign here in Prague, I was immediately overcome with the sense that order has been restored to life.

That was until I realized that my skim chi tea late cost slightly shy of $10- I love you Starbucks, just not $10 a cup love you.

A new turning point in my life- I must be grown up.

I am really hoping that Starbucks isn't as expensive in Germany!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T20:37:00.005+03:00

Merry Christmas Family and Friends! We hope that everyone had a wonderful day. Josh and I spent a fantastic day in Prague. We began our Christmas day with mass at a beautiful church we found here. These pictures don't do it justice....

I think I was meant for this church- it is a bit difficult to see in the pictures but every pew has it's own heater! Nothing short of fantastic! For the record, at our church in St Petersburg we kneel on the cold stone floor.

Merry Christmas- Warsaw and on to Prague

2009-12-24T12:32:00.008+03:00

As the sign above shows we are now in Czech Republic, and almost to our destination of Garmisch for a week of skiing and relaxing in the Bavarian Alps, but for the next three days we will be in Prague. Here we will enjoy our 5th Christmas together, although this is the second one we have spent together out of the country, but away from our families. We were remembering our first christmas together this morning, which was spent in Korea. We cooked a christmas meal that we ate together on the top of my footlockers in my 12 foot square concrete barracks room, BOY have we come a long way!On our most recent leg of the trip we saw this sign several times. We have no idea what it means. Any of our Polish Speaking friends out there we are yearning for some insight. It seems this sign was accompanied by long lines of traffic for us, which made us fear it, yet still we don't understand it. A few days ago in Warsaw Nikki went on a hunt for the Warsaw Christmas Market.

Eventually we found a Polish Pottery outlet, no translation needed, Nicole knows exactly what that sign means. Notice she didn't even take a second to pose for the photo, she was on a mission for pottery.

Eventually we found the Christmas market, yet apparently we were a little early, as most of the stands were closed.

Eventually all the stands open, and Nikki had a great time hunting for some bargains. We hope happiness finds you all this Christmas.

on the road

2009-12-22T08:33:00.005+03:00

With our day of touring and shopping in Riga complete, we spent another nite in Riga getting ready for the next leg of our drive, heading west still the next drive would bring us out of Latvia, and into Lithuania and into Poland.

We left Riga early on a snowy morning hoping to drive about 9 hours to Warzaw, Poland. As I was brushing the snow off the car I noticed the car in front of us had a very interesting license plate. I did not know that Latvians did vanity plates, but I am assuming that the owner of this car wanted that on his license plate, otherwise that would be quite a coincidence.

The Lithuanian countryside was beautiful but our drive was slow and long, with blustery snowy winds and lots of traffic, I think we averaged about 30 miles an hour. Nikki commented that she felt like she was on "Ice Road Truckers." We only saw two cars off the road, but both were upside down, so we opted for the slow route of caution. Under the snow, however the Roads had lines painted on them, and people generally stayed in those Lines... I was amazed! I didn't realize how much driving in Russia had changed me. In Poland we actually saw a road that was lit by streetlights, it was amazing, I almost stopped to take a picture.

Notice the lines separating lanes on the road. This trend starting happening regularly somewhere between Latvia and Lithuania, by the time we got to Poland every big road had lane markers on it.

We arrived at the hotel quite late in the evening, we were impressed by many things at the hotel in Warzaw, among them how the in room television knew who we were?

Riga

2009-12-20T10:22:00.003+03:00

Our semesters finished this week so we packed up the car and headed west. We were out of Russia before the sun showed up for its brief daily appearance somewhere over Estonia for us. (The train eventually showed up as well, we waited for more than a minute as we realized the lights stay red for a long time for the very slow moving oil trains)

It was a little chilly, the car thinks it was -17 at some point, but the news told us that it was -30 in Garmisch Germany right now, which is where we are eventually heading, I hope it warms up there by the time we get there.

Our destination for the first day of driving was Riga, Latvia. Driving through the Baltic states has been fun, the roads are in better condition then the Russian roads, yet are still quite small and slow going, but the scenery is very pretty.

I wonder who lives in the smokestack? Does he have to pay for his heating?
Nikki could hardly contain herself with excitement as we approached the Latvian border, having been to Estonia over the summer, Estonia was old news to her. But Nikki had never been to Latvia before, so a new country was added to her list yesterday.

There it is, the Latvian border. With no real border points the EU has made country crossings a little less dramatic.

Here is a bridge in Riga, well decorated for the season of course.

The city skylight of the Old town behind the river.

Nikki must know that word in every language, it didn't take long for her to discover the souvenir shops, and off for pottery, pictures and amber she went.

The view from the other side of the hotel. We will be here for two nights and then off to the next stop, Poland.

Turkey day

2009-11-23T08:06:00.003+03:00

So he wasn't a big bird, weighing in at 3.6 kilos. He hailed from Brazil, I suppose here in ST Pete's we are thankful for globalization.

It wasn't really thanksgiving, not yet anyhow. None the less we enjoyed the opportunity to stuff ourselves into a turkey induced coma. Hope you all have a great week!

Another visitor

2009-11-10T15:24:00.003+03:00

Old man winter showed up, I think he might stay a while this time, As I was walking home today I had to keep my head up as I wasn't wearing a very good snow hat and didn't want snow dripping down the back of my neck and I realized while looking around that I actually like the way the city looks in the winter. I think many years from now when I think about ST Petersburg I will picture it like this, what I consider its natural state.

Something else I realized today, I think today is the one year anniversary of the first day we came to the city, granted we only stayed a short while to find an apartment, and returned for good in January, but still something to celebrate.

A certain mother in law of mine asked for a picture of our block, so here it is.

Visitors

2009-11-09T10:10:00.005+03:00

So it has been a long time since we have posted, one of the reasons for this is that we have been getting ready for and then enjoying the company of Nikki's Parents who came to see us last week from the States, we had a wonderful time and miss them already. Here are some pictures of us all together around the city.

These two pictures are from later in the week when old man winter showed up, their first few days here were full of sunshine, but bitter cold.

The weather couldn't keep us from enjoying some palaces and musuem touring.

Here is a beautiful skyline from the top of St Issacs cathederal.

beautiful

2009-10-10T05:25:00.000+04:00

My favorite time here is early in the morning, the streets are usually quiet, the traffic lite, and once in a while a beautiful sunrise comes through the clouds.

Vladimir Feltsman

2009-10-09T06:56:00.000+04:00

Last weekend we went to the Marinsky Concert Hall to see a piano concert from a world famous pianist, Vladimir Feltsman (click here to learn more about him).

We have now been to the concert hall a couple of times, and we have tickets for a few more concerts in the next few months, we really do enjoy the evenings out.

We also brought along a flat Stanley who traveled here from his elementary school classroom in Illinois to see the concert, we hope flat Stanley enjoys his time with us.

A step back

2009-10-08T05:18:00.000+04:00

After the disappearance of our beer garden in front of the house, and the turn south that our weather has recently taken there are fewer and fewer reasons to be excited about going outside. Another nail in the coffin showed up a couple of days ago. Remember how excited we were to see the removal of the scaffolding and construction equipment from the building next to ours in the spring? If you don't you can read the refresher here. Well long story short, while it is not as annoying as scaffolding there is definetly something about the wood covering over the sidewalk being built next door that screams the construction is not quite done yet.

Salmon

2009-10-07T06:50:00.000+04:00

We love our salmon dinners and are so excited about how abundant fresh salmon is here But this is the only place I have lived where I remember having to scale salmon before we eat it, if I don't the scales seem to get everywhere inside the oven and on the fish.

the best from Korea

2009-10-06T07:07:00.000+04:00

On a recent trip to the really big grocery store just outside of the city, Nikki discovered something that she hadn't seen in a few years. If any of you have ever talked to Nikki about her trips to Korea when I was stationed there a few years ago no doubt she would have told you about her favorite drink in Korea, aloe water. Well low and behold guess what Nikki discovered at the grocery store.

Ch, Ch, Changes

2009-10-05T06:42:00.005+04:00

This is a picture of the square in front of our apartment. It is quite grandiose, but something is missing. Just two weeks ago it was the site of our favorite summertime afternoon hangout, the outdoor beer garden.

Seriously, our last day in the beer garden was 20Sep, it was just a couple of weeks ago.

What a difference a week makes, as this picture was taken last week, we are now waiting patiently for the city to turn the heat on, as it is just plain cold here.

Trip to Pushkin

2009-09-21T08:29:00.007+04:00

So many of you may have noticed that due to our lack of posting activity you can determine two things-

1. Nikki is back at work and Josh is back in school full time and their lives have become far less worthy of blog posts.
2. We have been having so much fun that finding the time to post blogs has been impossible.

Unfortunately the former smells like the truth much more than the latter.

This last weekend we went to Pushkin about 25 kilometers outside the city, we took public transportation there, and learned that we should probably drive there in the future as we are sure we could get there in a quarter of the time of the metro/bus combination. Regardless it was probably one of the last beautiful days of the summer and we enjoyed a great walk outside in the marvelous parks of the Czars summer palace, you can learn more about the area here.

Here are some pictures we took around the gardens.

What would a run be without a dinner to celebrate?

2009-09-14T16:00:00.000+04:00

After our race we took the opportunity to celebrate our victory with what else but a night out on the town! What is better then good food, good wine and fantastic company! We went to a new delicious Italian restaurant. You know you are at a nice restaurant when you set your purse down on the floor the waitress brings us over a stool for our bags! So fun!

And as if we needed anything after our wine the restaurant insisted that we try a special lemon drink to end the evening- Thankfully my wonderful husband took one for the Kaser team and drank mine!

10 K Fun

2009-09-13T18:17:00.004+04:00

This weekend was the 10K celebrating women's health. What a perfect way to spend a sunny Saturday. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky with a cool breeze keeping the temperatures more than favorable for running. My girlfriend and I ran together as part of the IWC group. Just to prove how small the world really is would you believe that Megan and I both went to Roanoke College! Here is the whole IWC gang before the race-

The race course took us through the city and by some of the beautiful sights. It was spectacular to run and not worry about cars running me over for once! In typical Russian style the start was mass chaos and at the first available point half of the crowd cheated by cutting the corners.

I am happy to report that Megan and I finished the race with no problems and without cheating!

Josh was unable to attend the race (because he has class of Saturdays!) But thankfully Megan's adorable family was there to meet us at the end!

Not a bad place to run is it?

Credit Security..?

2009-09-03T10:13:00.007+04:00

Translation of a conversation this morning at the supermarket cash register... (I'll leave out the repeated lines from the clerk that I didn't understand the first time, or the lines I repeated that the clerk didn't understand due to my poor pronunciation.)

Me: May I pay with a card? (Always a good question as sometimes the machines are offline or broken)
Clerk: Of course.

Clerk rings up all the groceries and I finish bagging and the clerk announces the total, I hand her my credit card. Now like many credit cardholders in the US I do not sign the back of my cards but write in big block letters "SEE ID."

The clerk inspects the card, like most of them do and then runs it through her machine and hands me the touchpad and asks.

Clerk: Insert your Pin code.

Me: It is a credit card without Pin code.

Up to this point this is a fairly normal conversation when paying by card here, most Russians (and at least a couple of years ago Europeans for that matter) use what they call Visa electron or Visa plus cards which you and I would call debit cards attached to a checking account. My language tutor informed me that many Russians also use what we would call credit cards that are not tied to a checking account but a bank loan of some sort, but even those take Pin Codes for additional security.

Clerk: Your Documents please. (Also a fairly normal question when I don't use a pin code on my card.)

I hand her my Russian drivers license and a photocopy of my passport. The Russian drivers license has my name in Russian which unless she knows english phonics looks nothing like the english letters on my Visa, and of course the Passport is a perfect match to the Visa, but most clerks prefer the drivers license, anyhow.

All seems ok and the receipt prints off and she hands it to me to sign. I sign my name and hand it back to her, she looks at my signature and picks up her phone. She calls someone and whispers something very quickly, knowing the odds are I won't understand what she says. She is right.

Quickly the security guards come over and stand behind her. I ask?

Me: Does the card not work? (I know it did as the receipt I just signed has an approval code on it)

Clerk: Your signature does not match the signature on the back of the card. (She is holding the card away from me as if it is not mine)

Me: It is not my signature on the back of the card (this causes major consternation on her face and the security guards) I backpedal- What is on the card means that you should look at my documents and compare the photographs to me and not compare the signatures.

I am sweating, knowing full well they think I am committing credit card fraud, I start reaching for my cell phone to call the US Consulate and let them know I MAY be on my way to a Russian jail, a reoccurring nightmare of mine.

I throw on the counter all the documents in my wallet with my picture on them, and some without a picture at all and two other credit and debit cards and try to explain that SEE ID means to inspect the persons documents and is not really my signature. The other customers waiting behind me all have left to other lanes by now.

At this point another clerk comes over, one who I have had many times before and starts asking what is happening. The clerks discuss for a while. The original clerk asks.

Clerk- Can you sign on the receipt exactly what is written on the back of your card? (She is still holding the card away from me as if it is not mine)

Me- Yes.

Clerk prints off another receipt with signature line and carefully observes while I write in Big Block Letters on the signature line.... "S E E I D"

She is satisfied with the transaction returns my card and thanks me for shopping there and I wipe the sweat of my brow and grab my cart to get out of there.

Hopefully I only have to tell this story to the you guys on the blog, if I have to repeat it I fear it will be to the Visa Card company explaining why there is a double charge on my account as I guess technically I did sign two receipts.

Saint Peter's and Paul's Cathedral

2009-09-02T05:52:00.002+04:00

Recently I went inside the Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's Cathedral, as the ticket wasn't comparatively inexpensive and they don't do discounts for students, or foreign residence or even for Russian citizens for that matter, I was quite surprised with myself that I actually shelled out the 7 bucks or so to get in, anyhow this cathedral is most famous for being the final resting place of the majority of the Romanov dynasty.

The ornate decorations were quite beautiful, but I suppose those revolutionaries in 1917-1918 knew what every visitor to this cathedral realises within a few minutes of entering the cathedral. That is the Romanov dynasty must come to an end as there is simply no more room for burial spots inside this cathedral.

Enjoying the last days of summer

2009-08-31T10:00:00.000+04:00

With school starting and the chill in the air it is clear that summer is coming to a rapid end. So, when Saturday proved to be beautiful, warm day we decided to have a night out! We started with dinner at a new Greek restaurant- complete with dancing! There was even a wedding party there enjoying the fun.

Then we continued on to a roof top terrace of a nearby hotel to enjoy the beautiful view of St. Isaac's Cathedral.

It was a perfect place to enjoy some wine and cheese and watch the sun set. One of the most amazing parts of St. Petersburg is how the city looks at night, every building is illuminated giving the city a magical feeling.

And finally no night would be complete without fireworks. Last night was a particularly neat show- however, as you can see in the second picture, there was a significant amount of smoke that filled the air before the show finished.

Happy Birthday Poppy

2009-08-30T20:57:00.005+04:00

Now that our precious niece has a little brother to take care of we realize that we should help out with what we have traditionally appreciated as one of Aelia's annual duties, (and again here) that is reminding the rest of us in the family that it is Poppy K's birthday. So always willing to help out, here is our attempt. And of course, happy birthday Dad.

Out and About

2009-08-29T17:16:00.003+04:00

Nikki was feeling quite accomplished after she successfully haggled the price of a piece of art she has been eyeing for a few months into the reasonable level, it was a beautiful weekend day and we enjoyed our walking around the city.

Every once in a while there are quite humorous and descriptive signs in the city.

I wonder if this tour boat had advertised a first row seat to the cities canal dredging operations? Is is dredging or drudging or neither? I don't quite know the correct term.

But I do know that is a tire. Scooped up from the canal bottom. I guess that answers the question of what happens to tires you dump in the canal. Watching this made me make sure to ask where the fish I eat in restaurants is coming from.

Yummy

2009-08-26T06:39:00.004+04:00

After 8 months of testing and tasting we think we have found our favorite dish here in St Petersburg. It is at our favorite Georgian place. The meal is a baked trout served with potatoes and vegetables (eggplant and peppers mostly). Nikki has even gotten used to the fish coming with its head still attached. (I am quite proud!) It is perfect for us as we can split the dish. This dish is not yet on the menu, the waiter was quite excited for us to try it out once and the next time we came back we asked for it specifically. We hope it makes its way to the menu soon...

Happy First Day of School!

2009-08-25T05:19:00.000+04:00

The beginning of school is always an exciting time of year, not only for students but also for teachers!

Today I happily welcomed my newest class of first graders.

No school year would be complete without a class mascot- This is Bart saying hello.

Naval Museum

2009-08-24T10:34:00.003+04:00

On Saturday of this weekend Nikki had a trip to Ikea with the school planned, which meant I had some free time to go exploring, I decided to go check out the Naval Museum here in the city.

It was a gorgeous day here in St Petersburg.

The museum housed models of every important class of Russian warship, some were quite impressive in scale and detail of the models. I was not able to take pictures of the most impressive ones as I did not pay what I determined to be the outrageous price to buy the right to take pictures (it was five times what I paid to enter the museum). Fortunately for this blog's sake there was one room in the museum where the employee whose job it is to make sure those of us cheapskates who don't pay for pictures don't take pictures, was asleep, hence I was able to snap the two photos below.

Anyhow the museum wasn't terribly impressive, but a great way to spend a morning.

Together we will overcome

2009-08-21T14:49:00.000+04:00

This advertisement was allover the city a few months ago, recently I have seen it sporadically at various spots around the city. It is sponsored by the Bank of Russia and it says that Russia is the Land of opportunities and together we will overcome all. It is nice to have a positive message billboard to motivate you through the day, don't you think?

The beer garden

2009-08-20T08:43:00.001+04:00

One of the most exciting things for us in the summertime is the presence of an open air beer garden about 50 feet from our front door. As summer closes we find it way too easy to sit outside and enjoy the sun with a frosty mug.

Heres to hoping all of you enjoyed your summer, and took some time to enjoy the things important to you. As Nikki heads back to school this week we can see the remainder of our first summer quickly slipping away.

from the water

2009-08-19T06:36:00.004+04:00

A few weeks ago we took a boat tour around the canals of the city, it was a relaxing afternoon, we snapped a couple photos of things that we just couldn't see very well unless we happened to be in a boat or walking on the canal. It makes since that a lot of the really old buildings in town were designed to be beautiful from the canals, as originally they were to be the transportation in the city.

Melon Mania

2009-08-17T10:32:00.003+04:00

As a significant majority of our posts revolve around culinary exploits it seems fitting that we share our excitement at the appearance of melons in our supermarket. Tis the season for good melons and while we can clearly identify the watermelons (although we have to be on the lookout for the yellow watermelons, of which we are just plain scared to try) the other melons that seem to be common in the store are just plain uncommon to us. Unfortunately they are all labeled the same at the store, they are simply called the Russian word for melon. Hence we have been experimenting.

It is quite a riot for us to watch the local women in the store as they choose the melons, some of them they smell, some of them they squeeze, some of them they knock, for us it is a riot as we are out of our melon element as we don't recognize the local favorites. I hope we didn't squeeze a melon that we should have shook!

Regardless from berries, to lettuce, to melons we have certaintly enjoyed the available variety that summer provides. As Nikki starts school this week and I in a couple of weeks we know that the return to darker days of winter is coming and with it the loss of our culinary variety.

What on Earth is this about...?

2009-08-14T22:53:00.004+04:00

Ok so this picture is from the beginning of the summer and our journey to Tallinn, however I never posted it at the time because I thought I would figure out what this advertisement that appeared on EVERY PUBLIC Bus stop was about besides just being interesting and disgusting at the same time. Alas 2 months later I still have no idea what this advertisement is for, but I do know that if you zoom in on some of the baby characters on this poster you will be disgusted, don't say you weren't warned.

Artillery, Signal, and Engineer Museum

2009-08-13T10:09:00.005+04:00

Earlier in the summer Nikki and I ventured into a new museum (well new for us) and many of you will be surprised that this is not the first museum I visited in the city as its grounds are littered with Armored vehicles from throughout history. It is the Artillery, Signal, and Engineer Museum, you can click here to see their english site. The display of armored vehicles and rocket delivery systems did not disappoint. I wish I could have come here as a young tank Lieutenant learning the art of identifying Armored Fighting Vehicles.

Here is an interesting display of World War II era training posters, on the best aiming points to disable the feared and fabled Nazi Tiger Tank.

That is just one huge missile transporter...

The temporary display (with his popularity in Russia I imagine it is more permanent than temporary) in the Museum was a tribute to Mr Kalashenikov, the inventor of the most successful (as in weapons produced) assault rifle ever made, the AK-47.

Now you might think that this was a completely boring adventure for Nikki, but fear not she found quite a few things to amuse herself.

Things aren't always as they appear

2009-08-12T07:31:00.004+04:00

One of the prettiest things in ST Petersburg is the amazing facades of the buildings, especially at night from a distance the views can be breathtaking.

Sometimes we notice from a distance a facade of a building that just does not look right.

When you get an up close view of the building the farce is revealed, sometimes there is construction or remodeling of a facade behind the screen, other times there is absolutely nothing behind the screen. But the screen is lit at night and from a very far distance all blends in. So all things are not as they appear.

However this is exactly what it looks like, it is a man walking his two pet bears in the park. We see various pet bears all over the city that people show off for tourists and collect tips for honey.

Traffic Troubles

2009-08-11T11:14:00.004+04:00

Nikki and I really enjoy our urban lifestyle here in St Petersburg, especially now that the weather is tolerable and even enjoyable on most days. We walk everywhere and love it. Specifically over the summer we are averaging using the car only once a week to go to the grocery store. The traffic here has been at times unbearable hence we prefer to go to the grocery store as early as we can (not quite Army early, but definitely before 9am). One of the rules of the road here that we find incomprehensible is that in the event of an accident no cars involved in the accident are allowed to move, at all, until the police investigators (not the everyday Police which stand on every street corner) and "insurance" investigators arrive to investigate the accident. As most accident occur at intersections and stop lights this causes insane backups as cars jockey their way around the accident. Thankfully sidewalk driving here is not only tolerated but expected. Anyhow on one of my summer walks I walked by an accident investigator doing his thing. Check out the pictures below and notice- 1. The accident is a front / rear collision and hardly even a fender bender, if the investigation is to determine fault I am pretty sure the guy that needed the bumper of the car in front of him to help him stop in time at the intersections red light is probably at fault, if the investigation is to verify damages at the scene I am sure a camera or cell phone camera even can achieve the desired effect.
2. In the above picture they are measuring the length of the car... yes apparently blocking traffic to determine the stock length of a mass produced modern vehicle that certainly is listed somewhere else is well worth the wait of the significant portion of the city that is waiting to cross this intersection. (And notice how helpful the cars driver is in the endeavor as he smokes a cigarette obviously in the way of the measuring, its ok the drivers behind you can wait for you to finish that well deserved smoke, I mean someone ran into you)
3. I stayed to watch this accident investigation for about 20 minutes, as I have driven by them before or walked past them but never had the time to stay and see how long they really take, I waited 20 minutes and then left, but the investigation looked no closer to done at the time I left from the time I arrived.
Rest assured we will continue to enjoy walking every place that we can in the city.

Jet Lag and other marvels of modern transport

2009-08-09T12:30:00.003+04:00

After a trip to the states for the wedding we find ourselves re-adjusting to 8 time zone jet lag one more time, but a great advantage to August in St Petersburg is that we are starting to see darkness again as the daylight is now barely 16 hours a day and getting shorter by over 5 minutes a day. This in comparison to June when we had 19 hours of daylight and the remainder of the day was duskish. The city really is beautiful in darkness. Nikki and I recently ventured out to see a famed summer tradition in St Petersburg, that being the nightly opening of the bridges to allow the big commercial ships to travel the Neva River unhindered by the city's bridges. I had seen this a couple of times earlier in the summer but I had always neglected to bring the camera, this was Nikki's first excursion to see the bridges open. They don't open until about 1:30 AM.

The sky was clear and the night was beautiful, notice we are back into wearing fleeces and long sleeves here in the Venice of the North.

We picked a spot with a good view of two of the cities bridges and many of the famous city sites.

We actually closed the outdoor bar/ boat deck that we were sitting at, as in it was only us and the bar tender brought us our check without us asking, prior to us finishing our beer, which for here is very abnormal. However the security guard allowed us to stay on the deck until the bridges opened. Somebody grew a little skeptical about these bridges actually opening.

Eventually we were rewarded with the amazing sight of the opening bridges. Notice all the boats watching the opening.

Now of course all the bridges remain open for a few hours every night, making it impossible for citizens and tourists of the city alike to cross into the cities islands or other banks, so of course many stories and family legends involve family members being trapped on one side of the river for a few hours. Most early morning walks or runs through the fields around here reveal young people who have missed the bridges opening sleeping in the park awaiting the bridge closing again to get home.

Regardless every night in the summer there is a little party at the bank of the bridges to celebrate the bridges opening. Notice the crowd behind Nikki, especially the man climbing the statue of the horse, the bridge opening spectators are quite a rowdy crowd.

Golfing Fun!

2009-08-08T13:35:00.006+04:00

A favorite pastime of the Whitmore and Kaser's is golf! While visiting the States Josh and I were lucky enough to play a few times. On this particular day my new pink golf shoes were on my side and I had my first birdie! Regardless of scores- golfing is always fun!

There was even a family of deer that came out to enjoy the day!

2 out of 4 Major Cathedrals/Churches

2009-08-08T11:27:00.000+04:00

So in St Petersburg there are 4 major Cathedrals (although most of them are not still actually functioning congregations, and some of them never actually were) recently (ok last month in the middle of our Internet outage month) I toured St Issacs cathedral (Click here to learn more about the Cathedral) with He-Devil from this blog. If you remember from Nikki and I's first month here the first cathedral we visited was to the Church on Spilt blood, if you don't that post is here. Anyhow enough of hyperlinks and on to some pictures I took from the top of, and inside the cathedral.

Below off in the distance is one of the other main cathedrals in the city Smolony, which is actually the site of the language faculty that I attend from Smolony Campus of St Petersburg State University.

Below is a picture of He-Devil from the top of the Cathedral.

Through the cranes you can see Palace Square in the distance.

Very Interesting from the Roof check out the flower art.

The Wedding Day!

2009-08-07T12:28:00.001+04:00

In the limo riding to the chruch for the big event! Saying their vows....

Grandpa and Nikki Mom and Dad

Joshua looking very handsome in his tux!

The first dance...

My speech!

Wedding Weekend

2009-08-06T11:29:00.006+04:00

Josh and I were lucky enough to be a part of Sarah’s and Barry’s wedding- it was truly a beautiful weekend full of friends and family. Here are some of the highlight pictures.
First the rehearsal…

The two grandpas

4th of July in St Petes

2009-07-14T09:47:00.007+04:00

The weather on the 4th wasn't exactly what you would expect in the middle of the summer. At least it wasn't raining (yet anyway).

The spring and fall jackets were definitely in order.

We went to the other side of the river to experience the cannon firing from the top of the wall surrounding Peter and Paul cathedral. (Click here to learn more about Peter and Paul Cathedral)
The cannon is fired everyday promptly at noon, on the 4th of July the city government agreed to allow the US Consulate General (The senior representative of the US Government in St Petersburg) fire the cannon in celebration of the 4th of July. It was somewhat embarrassing to me that almost every Russian acquaintance I know wished me a happy independence day, I found this embarrassing because I hardly know the US Holiday schedule and I certainly do not know the Russian Holiday calendar, as is evident by my twice showing up at School for class to learn later that class was cancelled because of a Russian Holiday.

Anyhow above is the view from the wall around the Cathedral and below is the CG Firing the Gun.. The explosion was unimpressive (hey I am still a tanker at heart, fixed position artillery is rather unimpressive in the shock and awe department)

Also very reminiscient of 4th of July festivities in the states there was a boat race on the Neva river, quite exciting to watch the speed boats flying by.

We also watched a military parade, which happens every Saturday, as much as we would like to think it was for the 4th of July you can see this demonstration every Saturday (at leas tin the summer, not sure about the winter) For you drill and ceremony buffs out there, yes that is on cobblestone, (ouch) yes bayonets are fixed, (scary) and yes there was a lot of rifle throwing. (Danger) I was quite impressed.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th yourselves...

Back in the....

2009-07-14T09:36:00.002+04:00

DARK AGES, people didn't have access to this crazy internet... well we just experienced about a week of life without internet, our second such week in the past month. Apologies for dropping off the face of the planet, but it was unavoidable from this end. Our landlord has graciously (ok if you knew what we paid in rent maybe not so graciously) agreed to install two seperate provider's systems of internet in the apartment, so maybe there will be an end to this on again off again not so joyous ride.
pictures and posts from the previous weeks to follow

Christmas in July

2009-07-03T20:40:00.001+04:00

If you were to walk around St. Petersburg lately you might at first think that it is snowing. There is an incredible amount of white stuff floating around the air. It takes just one step outside for your eyes to start watering, and your nose running to realize that the little white fluff balls are not snow but instead some type of tree pollen.

I have never seen so much fluffy stuff flying around it is incredible to see, there is so much fluff that the ground is even covered! But one question remains to be answered where is all this fluffy stuff coming from? There just are not that many trees in the city and the two trees I do know of are not fluffy? This would normally be something I would find really neat, but I seem to be terribly allergic to the summer snow storm.

Russian Frogs!

2009-07-01T20:16:00.003+04:00

At this point I should warn all blog viewers the below pictures are not pleasant- young eyes not advised!

Josh and I were out and about today enjoying the beautiful weather- we saw some cute ducks, and of course amazing buildings. Little did we know the day would take such a grim turn…..

All that know me are aware of the fact that I like frogs. There is something so happy about little green lily pads and happy little frogs hopping around. SO as you can imagine when I happened upon this water reserve today my first thought was – Lily pads! Frogs! Russian frogs!

I was so excited I sat very patiently awaiting my first Russian frog sighting…….

Instead I found this- not a frog- the lily pads suddenly didn’t seem so happy anymore.
On a side note I will mention that this water reserve backs up to the city zoo. Not that I am pointing any fingers…

I am not sure what type of dead animal is this- nor did I want to take a closer look to find out- but I am sure of two things- 1. there were no frogs in this water and 2. don't drink the water when coming to Russia!

Moooo, Quack

2009-06-27T05:30:00.002+04:00

Estonia really prides itself on its dairy products, so much that in order to get the same respect bestowed upon the precious cows, apparently the Ducks try to impersonate them. On a serious note, Have you ever seen a duck that dresses like a cow?

The most important part of travel

2009-06-26T10:15:00.001+04:00

The most important part of traveling is of course the shopping. Anyone that tells you anything different has never been shopping. Estonia proved to be a challenge for me- I was in search of a truly "Estonian" treasure. I found many beautiful things however most were things that originated elsewhere- and were twice the price! Not so much a great deal. I spent the first two days wandering into every shop in search of the perfect keepsake. Finally I found a little porcelain creamer- with an even more adorable cow painted on the side- Not Estonian you say- true but still cute- and therefore a must have.
However in my typical style I needed time to think about the cow creamer and in the time it took me to make the decision to buy him- the store closed. I was heart broken- our last day in Estonia- and I was going home empty handed.................. Have no fear unknowingly Josh saved the day.
My wonderful husband decided that it was time to end the shopping and head to dinner- sadly I followed him to a strange medieval restaurant. In the beginning I wasn't so happy with the food choices- little fish with eyes looking at me is not what I call yummy.

But I stuck with it and ordered a glass of wine- and my night changed- they had the neatest wine glasses you have ever seen! Hand blown wine glasses! Even better they happened to have a store right next door to the restaurant! (I'm so lucky) With this new revelation I started to enjoy dinner more.

The restaurant its self was neat- and Josh loved his man sized beer and meal. So much so that he joined me at the shop next door- and picked out two candles!

Happily I returned home with two hand made wine glasses, a painting, and the neatest :Bearded Ghost mug that is said to protect both the drink and the drinker from evil spirits. - All totally unique and the perfect memory from Tallinn!

Only in Russia

2009-06-26T07:12:00.000+04:00

I'm taking a short break from our Estonia posts to show what was our welcome back to Russia moment. On our drive back from Estonia Josh and I were commenting to each other how calm and well behaved the Estonians were- no sooner had the sentence left my mouth then I looked up and saw this...........

absolute stupidity. This ridiculous girl was sitting on top of the speeding, swerving BMW. The most preposterous thing for me what that she thought she was being sexy- just plain stupid- I wish I was a police officer. I mean seriously right now!

The Estonia War of Independence Monument

2009-06-25T10:19:00.003+04:00

This monument was dedicated on 23June 2009. That was tuesday, we were here for its opening, however until we saw it on the local television channel we had no idea that it was new as the whole city is new for us. The Official Estonian War for Independence was fought in 1918-1920. The monument is in the shape of the Cross of Liberty, an award for bravery and national service.
If you would like to learn more about the Estonian War for Independence and the new monument check out this article.

Notice the Beautiful weather, we are now back in St Petersburg and apparently we brought the good weather with us.... Life is good

To the Beach, maybe not to the Sea

2009-06-24T09:42:00.000+04:00

The views of the Gulf of Finland here in the Estonian summer are beautiful. We were tempted to head to the beach to see what we could enjoy along this beautiful coastline.We discovered the opportunity to do some row boating and kayaking at a local beach. We were excited about how easily we found the local boat rental outfit.The locals however were a little more than just suspicious about our intentions.But it was obvious some sort of boating activities were possible.We pondered whether it was worth taking the risk of ending up dunked in the local marsh...The water certainly had an interesting hue about it? Definitely some red bacteria at work here.And the available paddle boats weren't exactly instilling confidence.I was worried about a possible very destabilizing event.In the end we decided to follow the local posted warnings and not to boat was the decision. However the sightseeing was well worth the trip, here is the remains of Pirita Monastery, built around 500 years ago.

The views of the Old Town from the beach were fantastic, hard to believe that most of this cities structures are 200 years older than the structures in St Petersburg.
The yacht house you see on the right was actually the sight of the yachting headquarters for the 1980 Olympics the main ceremonies were held in Moscow, but all the yachting was up here in Tallinn.

We took the opportunity provided by the amazing scenery to take some photos.

All in all a great mornign of enjoying the Tallinn beach and weather.

the tower

2009-06-23T10:00:00.001+04:00

Tallinn is a beautiful little city with tons of little towers that you can climb to the top of. I wanted to see a panoramic view of the city so we chose this one to climb. It is called Oleviste kirk- St. Olav's church- here is what I found out about it's history on a tourist website.

"The 124-metre high Oleviste Kirik was named after St. Olav, the canonised Norwegian king Olav Haraldsson. The Gothic style church was probably the tallest building in Europe around 1500 - and the spire was used as a navigational landmark by sailors.There's a viewing platform at the base of the church's spire, around 60 metres above the ground - and the views of the Old Town from here are truly fantastic, well worth the effort of the climb..! The viewing platform goes all the way around the tower, so you'll see the port and the Baltic Sea as well. Be aware that the stairs are pretty steep, and very uneven and narrow -"
After reading the comments Nikki was excited for the climb but Josh wasn't so sure- he took a bit more convincing.

Yes, the stairs were very steep, winding, and narrow- all of which wouldn't be too bad if there wasn't people going up and down in the same set of stairs!

But in the end we climbed all the way to the top! When we arrived to the top the view was breathtaking!

Even Josh was happy we took the climb ! However, the safety standards might not have been the best? The walk way was an unsecured board laid down on the slanted roof! It was fun regardless!

In Estonia

2009-06-21T19:13:00.003+04:00

We arrived here in Tallinn safe and sound, here are a few pics of our first afternoon around the City. The sign above the knight that Nikki discovered says souvenirs, Nikki went right for the kill touring the shops of the old town.

We toured the Nevsky Cathedral which looks down on the old town, it is located across from the current head of government for Estonia, the Estonian Parliament, which meets in the pink building.

And we checked out the Museum of Occupation, as you know we are suckers for an Audio self guided tour.

I was simply amazed at how smooth the roads in Estonia are, simply amazed.

Political History Museum

2009-06-17T07:10:00.010+04:00

Yesterday I visited the Political History Museum, it is located very close to Nikkis school, it rotates its exhibits often, is chalk full of interesting old propaganda, and it is Free. I think I may be spending a lot of time there. Anyhow on to some interesting propaganda.
The text says- Women in the Soviet Union have the same rights as Men.

Here is a stained glass window of Lenin. The Museum is located in the mansion where Lenin gave his first public address from a balcony after returning from Europe to lead the Russian Revolution.

The poster on top is some cold war propaganda, the top says phrases as in words, and the bottom says bases, as in Military Bases, I assume it means the sneaky distrustful Americans say peaceful things and then make more aggressive bases off the borders of the Soviet Union.

This one I believe dates from the Russian Revolutionary era, it says Kazak (as in person from Kazakhstan) You are with Who? With Us or with Them?

This one is one of my personal favorites, which side are you one, the heavenly or the hellish side... Interesting.

This one says Glory to the creator of the Constitution of the Soviet Union the Great Stalin. Around the poster are some of Stalin's handwritten notes about the Constitution.

Here is a World War 2 victory poster, showing the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States releasing Lady Europe from the Fascist chains.

I think this one says Don't Indulge and it shows a Soviet Soldier carrying a book titled History of the great Patriotic War 1941-1945 and he is shaking his finger at a man dressed like a dark Uncle Sam who carries "Nuclear Bomb" in one hand and a torch in the other. I love it.

Smorgasboard

2009-06-16T08:35:00.003+04:00

Just like everywhere else we have lived, the highlight of our weekend continues to be our weekly trek to the supermarket, I know how lame that sounds, but we do enjoy it. This past weekends trip was particularly rewarding because the produce aisle of the supermarket we go to was overflowing with fresh produce the likes of which we did not see here in the Winter months. Cherries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, and all were fairly reasonably priced. We had seen the berries before, but at about 10 dollars a package we deemed them unreasonable, this weekend they were in the 1-2 dollar range, Outstanding. When we returned home from the store we couldn't resist a lunch of snack plates from our successful trip.

To the Burbs, Peterburg style

2009-06-14T08:46:00.003+04:00

Recently we took a walking tour to the suburbs of St Petersburg, in Russian known as the sleeping regions as we would think of residential neighborhoods. This specific one houses about 500,000 people, making it a city onto itself. Below are pictures of the residential buildings, the oldest ones dating back to the 50's-60's and unofficially named after Nikita Khrushchev as he authorized the mass building of these 30 year "temporary" housing structures. You can see one of these 5 story Khrushchevkas through the trees behind the lake.In other parts of the residential area are much newer and modern buildings, spread out amongst green areas and health clinics and schools.Of course all the kids have places to play in the urban jungle.

Here is a very soviet looking building, almost all of these apartments have balconies, must have been quite a sought after residence.

The apartment buildings stretch on for what looks like miles.

Of course, somethings in the St Petersburg suburbs are very much like the American Suburbs..Here is the foundation of a concrete Pill Box from the defense lines built to protect the city during the Seige of Leningrad, many of these still exist as monuments in the city.
Here we are under the watchful eye of Lenin himslef pointing the way to the future.

Man Candy

2009-06-12T09:42:00.004+04:00

I file this picture under the category of you never know what you will find in the local grocery stores here in St Petersburg. Nikki files this picture under the category of "My Husband will buy anything."
Under the "For Men" (in English), the Russian says "Guard from Women." I don't know why I found it so funny.

The Chunky Cheese of Russia, overpriced and medicore

2009-06-09T07:53:00.000+04:00

We have loved experiencing new restaurants here, and we have been extremely surprised at the culinary variety and quality of most all of the restaurants we have tried. We have definitely discovered some favorites that we have returned to several times, so it is difficult for us to get the motivation to try a new one but this past weekend we tried a new (to us) Italian place. Check out the Spaghetti Carbonara and Oven baked pizza, not bad but not great either. The conversational highlight for us definitely was the "Minestrone" Soup, it took us a few looks to realize that within the soup some of the noodles were definitely from your childhood favorite can of Campbell's, none other than Alphabet soup. Yes English letters none the less. Perhaps this fits in with the Childhood motif of the restaurant, upon entering we didn't notice that it was decorated in a child friendly manner, but after seeing the alphabet in the soup we took a closer look and realized that every table had a family with small children at it and their were a lot of balloons around, that coupled with the much higher prices compared with other Italian places we have been, led us to dub this restaurant "The Chunky Cheese" of Russia.

Museum touring

2009-06-08T07:03:00.000+04:00

The past few weekends we have been blessed with gorgeous weather, but this last Saturday was a little different as the rain and chilly air returned to St Petersburg. We decided it was good weather to check out a local museum, as you saw on our previous post we were impressed by the Russian State Museum. Here is Nikki in the courtyard across the street from our apartment, showing the return of her winter coat, in June.. Here is Nikki shopping for our next dining room set, fortunately for me the pieces at the Museum are not for sale, or at least not any where near our price range.

The inlaid wood in the floor is simply amazing.

Nikki is admiring the imperial head wear on display.

Like most things in Russia, there is definitely a motif that bigger is better. Here are a few exhibits that truly dwarfed us to display their grandeur.

All in all a great way to spend a rainy Saturday. We are looking forward to our next museum day, the city has many more to offer.

I wonder how many people trip over each other in the Russian Museum

2009-06-06T16:20:00.004+04:00

Mostly because you find yourself drawn to stare at the ceilings as they are practically exhibits in and of themselves.

Here are some pictures of some of the ornate ceilings, I really am impressed.

This one below is my personal favorite, this room had a picture like this along every wall.

The floors are beautiful as well.

Maybe in a future post we will post some of the displays that actually hang on the walls in the Russian Museum.

Cuties

2009-06-05T07:56:00.000+04:00

The school where Nikki works hosted their spring festival recently, and no spring school event is complete without tug of war... how precious.

Something to Celebrate

2009-06-04T07:59:00.004+04:00

I am pretty sure this sign at one of the walking bridges across the Moika Canal says, in fact orders people, not to smoke... That is a rare sight here in Russia. If only people in St Petersburg had a history of respecting street signs and local administrative rules then this would be my new favorite place to stand outside.

Another weekend, Another Parade, Our celebration

2009-06-02T09:25:00.001+04:00

As some of you may realize, today is our wedding anniversary. We celebrated last weekend, of course the city had a holiday of their own, celebrating the City, you may call it like a founders day, or the cities birthday if you wish. Unfortunately the parading marching bands were not celebrating our wedding anniversary, but we enjoyed it none the less.

What swims in the Canal?

2009-06-01T09:08:00.001+04:00

The canals are swimming with tour boats, they usually move along at a pretty brisk pace, you can imagine our surprise when we saw this tour boat doing a header with the canal wall. I wonder if you pay extra for the thrill of being in a tour boat/canal wall collision. Oddly enough yesterday we also saw a phony swan swimming in the canal.

Look who Nikki found hanging out in a new park we explored

2009-05-31T08:37:00.004+04:00

All the greenery is springing up all over the city. With the now 19 hours a day of sunlight daily the parks are in full bloom, we discovered a new one the other day and lurking in the park Nikki discovered a statue of the father of Communism himself..

I am sure there are statues of Karl Marx all over Europe especially in Russia, but this is the first that we have seen, the white stripe down his face is bird droppings. Insert your own metaphysical interpretation of that event here...

In the same park Nikki also discovered this little tyke walking his puppy, quite the cutie.
All in all a beautiful day in St Petersburg... I think it is safe to say that for next year if you are searching for a beautiful time to come to St Petes, we can say after May most of winter should be gone...

Beware what lurks in the closet....

2009-05-29T08:01:00.002+04:00

Here is a photo of one of the sections of our closet in the bedroom, seems pretty normal, unless of course you notice that there are mans clothes hanging in it (this is the first place we have lived together where I have access to the closet in the bedroom, quite a victory really!) But that is not what this post is about. Notice that some of the clothes hangers are red and yellow, we bought them here. I think the white ones came from the states. Recently I had an interview with one of the University programs I am applying to for next year, so I decided to wear a nicer shirt that I hadn't worn since we moved here. To celebrate the interview Nikki took me out for a sushi dinner that night.

I took every precaution to protect the shirt from splashing soy sauce.

So you can imagine my surprise when we get home and I notice a red line across the back of my shirt. I do some exploring and then discover the source of the magically appearing red line...

It actually comes from the clothes hanger.... I mean really, the clothes hanger? We are cautious of local fish products, we don't drink the tap water, we don't buy a lot of electronic products here. (mostly because they are too expensive) But I never would have thought that the clothes hangers would be too poor of a quality not to bleed colors onto the clothes that hang on them... foolish of me.

Around the City last weekend

2009-05-28T08:51:00.001+04:00

The sky provided us with rain, sun, and some quick moving clouds. Here is a view down the Griboedova Canal.

The side of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, (Drill down for link to learn more) we had walked along this canal many times and never noticed this. Amazing when it stops raining and snowing and you look up more often what you see.

We ate at a restaurant we hadn't been to before with some friends and friends of friends. It was the first vegetarian restaurant we have been to in St Pete's. We took the opportunity to enjoy some seafood and soups, and of course some on the house vodka shots.

Binge and Boat

2009-05-27T08:45:00.001+04:00

Notice that on this floating refreshment station where boats pick up their refreshments, the beer kegs are positioned for convenient transfer to the passing boats, maybe this explains why all through the evening we hear the sound of the boats rubber rail bumpers banging into the canal walls making the turn in front of our house....

Just Missed... Brit, Brit

2009-05-26T08:39:00.002+04:00

This summer Nikki will be the maid of honor at her sisters wedding, we are excited to see the family for the wedding and are incredibly excited for Sarah and Barry to start their life together. However one unfortunate part of traveling to the wedding is that we will miss the Circus tour of Britney Spears coming through ST Petersburg...... This scheduling conflict is tragic for one of us and a blessing for the other one of us, I'll let your imagination guess which one of us got lucky by this stroke of fate.
With that said I think it would be very interesting to watch the Russian crowds reaction to this American pop star.

Neighborhood getting ready for tourist season

2009-05-25T08:25:00.002+04:00

Since our arrival here in January the building next to ours has been adding another floor to the top and a new roof. Our building is the green three story with the 4 white columns to the right of the picture. For the first time this weekend the blue scaffolding that has been in front of our neighboring building was removed, which makes me excited for the prospect of the construction being complete. The roof looks in place and I hope the elevator and wall supports come down soon. Another new addition which you can barely see in this picture is the two white tent tops on the bridge right in front of our building, under those tent tops is a beer garden/cafe. It reminds me so much of the grand place cafes and beer gardens that My family so much enjoyed in Mons and Ath when we lived in Belgium. Nikki and I have yet to enjoy the outdoor cafe, but I bet it won't be long....

Favorite day of the week, got even better

2009-05-22T14:14:00.000+04:00

Thursday is our favorite day of the week for one reason and one reason only, it is the day our mail arrives. We love our magazines and of course our Amazon.com addiction gets fed through our Mail Box. Anyhow yesterday I went to the mail room not expecting much as last week was a big week for magazines and we have received all of our recent Amazon orders, but to my surprise there were three care packages from the states, Thank you so much Mom and Dad, thanks to you we can now make poppy seed, and our baked chickens will be a little less dry and Nikki always loves her flavored coffee creamers. Thanks!

All Things Russian

2009-05-20T18:40:00.004+04:00

The beauty of living overseas is that everyday I am able to learn and or see something new. Here in Russia many of these things make me laugh, which is totally fantastic. Below is what I am assuming is a contraption to help the tree from falling over, interesting right?

This tree saving devise looks like it is a holding the tree together- wonder what happened?

Love the Russian bird feeder... Nothing weird about this picture but I am just so thrilled that the rivers are not frozen over that this becomes a blog worthy scene. With the thawing of the rivers comes boats! The rivers are now crowded with mini boat tours. Rumor has it that the bridges are now up at night too, but sadly Josh and I haven't stayed up late enough to witness the event!

You never know what you will find when searching the local news

2009-05-19T08:07:00.000+04:00

While the rest of the automotive world is trying to create the environmentally friendly automobile apparently one russian citizen has been hard at work getting the automobile back to a more natural state, behold I present to you the wooden wheel re-incarnated. It is not just for chariots and horse drawn carts anylonger.

I have no idea if this is a hoax, I found the picture while searching the news on Pravda.ru which does have an english section as well (look for the EN in the top right corner) if you are ever inclined to scan what is making the news in Russia. I wonder how it drives?

Morning Walk

2009-05-17T13:34:00.008+04:00

Just a few days ago it was flurrying in our courtyard, I felt sorry for my landlord who had planted her flowerbeds before this snow, little did I know she knew that her timing was right. These blooming flowers beckoned us out of our apartment this morning for a walk, we took a lot of pictures. I won't bore you with the commentary, but here are some of our photos, it was a great walk and the city is looking great with the spring weather.

Everything is in bloom here in Russia as you can see from all the trees and flowers here in our pictures. In this particular picture you can't quite tell but there is actually a tree growing out of the roof of this building!

One of the funnest things to Josh and I is how much the Russians pose for pictures. It is not uncommon to see couples spending an exorbitant amount of time taking pictures of each other in public. They have no shame- So naturally Josh and I spent the entire morning walk taking pictures of each other- We were really just trying to

blend in.

These are our most dramatic shots....

Who knew 200 pounds could move so energetically? Here Josh is trying out for the Russian Dance team.

After our walk we had worked up an appetite.

Tough Guys

2009-05-12T12:45:00.000+04:00

I don't know why I find this so funny, but every few days when I am walking through the main square I see the same "gang" of young people socializing and playing hackysack. This group appears to be a tougher crowd, they wear a lot of leather, dark colors, combat boots and probably fit the international stereotypes around the "too cool for school" group of teenagers or young 20-somethings. But what I find absolutely hilarious is that they all ride mopeds , a.k.a Vespas. You know the 50-100cc vehicles that the yuppie, urban environmentally conscious young person would commute to work on in the western Europe or maybe even in some communities in the states. I almost can't look at their "oh so tough" gestures and mannerisms and take them seriously as they fire up their ride with the high pitched whine of a two cycle engine...

Victory Day

2009-05-10T12:19:00.008+04:00

The Banners were hung.

The stage was set.The facades were displayed.The parade route was blocked off.

This view below is from the front of my apartment, It took me about a quarter mile detour and 15 minutes to get to my destination to watch the parade. My destination was the roof of the greenish building on the left of the picture, no more than 100 yards from my apartment, Talk about a long detour just to cross the canal.The morning weather was glorious.

(May or may not be Mother Natures sole doing , to read what Wiki says about cloud-seeding which forces rain in certain locations to temporarily prevent it in others then click here.)The Military Equipment was staged for the Parade. We curious Onlookers assumed our positions to view the Parade.

Thanks to some Victory day parade veterans I found a perch on top of one of the hotels across the canal from our apartment, it was a great view. The Soldiers, Sailors and Public Servants of many kinds marched and proudly counted their cadence.The Veterans proudly displayed their medals.In the Afternoon the clouds threatened,and it did actually rain on our Parade.The Parade continued regardless.

The crowds chanted the words Victory and cheered the trucks of soldiers and socialist alike.

(The sign says "We remember your heroic deed , Russian Soldiers")

I even got to see a T-34 on display in the center square.

The Torches were lit.

(apparently this only happens three days a year)

The day of celebration closed with fireworks over the river. It was an intriguing experience for me to watch, I think I can only vaguely compare the holiday to the 4th of July in the states, but with a lot more emotion, as some of the veterans who experienced the suffering that the war brought to this city are still alive, and their stories resonate with the citizens of the city. If you ever get the chance to see the Vicotry day celebrations in St Petersburg, I highly recommend it.