Public enemy Number one

According to the local news a state in southern Russia has banned the sale of Soda to Children.... standing by for legislation preventing cigarette smoking indoors, or in public, or anywhere for that matter....

Click Here for the News article....

I wonder if I should get a lock on the refrigerator to preserve our Cola?

Winter's last stand...

The weather had been looking glorious here the past few days,

Our commutes were almost entirely Icy sidewalk free..... and there were signs of summer happiness all over the city.

Complete with brides and grooms venturing further out into the city squares without fear of being dirtied by the ever present snow piles....

Then today we wake up to more snow and snowing fast... I hope this doesn't last, we are supposed to have 12 Hours and 45 minutes of sunlight today... certaintly not conducive to SNOW?

Long Days....

We have been so busy enjoying taking trips around town, that we have neglected to notice the passing of the equinox. For our recent accomplishments we now know how to get a picture framed, and of course Nikki's favorite how to buy Porcelain from the factory and have discovered a couple new great restaurants. But I submit to you the most exciting news of today is on the weather page of the news!!!
Check out our sunrise data for today!!! Things are getting brighter here in ST Pete's, long gone are the dark and dreary days of January when we arrived....

Date / Sunrise / Sun set / Day Length / Change from previous

25MAR/ 6:45 AM / 7:25PM / 12H 40 Minutes / +5m 27s

One of my favorite things about Russia

What else could I be talking about besides Lomonosov Porcelain. A month ago one of my friends took me to a china store to shop for my sister's bridal shower gift- I immediately fell in love with the Lomonosov Porcelain. They make the most incredible, delicate, and colorful china I have ever seen. Lomonosov was founded in 1744, by Empress Elisabeth 1st. They created china for the royal family and other nobles. Today you can visit their factory and take a tour to watch how the china is still handmade and hand painted today. While I have not yet had the opportunity to take their tour, my wonderful husband treated me to a trip to the factory store this weekend!

I had no problem finding many things that I could picture perfectly in my home. But, after a few hours of contemplation we happily decided on the traditional Cobalt tea pot set and some special tea cups. I am pleased to report that Josh actually enjoyed him self and even picked out a tea cup that he wanted to purchase- I am so proud!

Busy Ballet Week

Sorry for the delay in postings- we have had a very busy week. Our weather has not warmed up much but we have enjoyed a few sunny days this weekend, a nice change to the snow that we slouched through this work week.

This week was an International Ballet Festival here in St. Pete's. Famous ballerinas come from all over the world to perform their favorite dances. Each night different ballerinas and ballets were featured. I was lucky enough to attend twice! This event was held at the beautiful Mariinsky theatre, which is a landmark in and of itself.

On Monday night Diana Vishneva danced in three different pieces. I am not normally a big fan of modern ballet but she was an incredibly talented dancer and I enjoyed the evening very much. On Thursday night Ulyana Lopatkina was the featured ballerina.

I had been told that she is one of the most well known ballerinas of today. I was not disappointed she too danced three different pieces, one a classical ballet called Diamonds which was breathtaking! Here are a few pictures I was able to snap after the performance. One of the most amazing things about ballet at the Mariinsky is the elaborate set and costume designs, unfortunately you can't see either from my pictures! I hope a am able to show everyone first hand when you visit!

Vodka Museum

Saturday evening we went to a Vodka Museum, as you can imagine the Russians take their vodka seriously. I learned a lot on the tour, like....
The Russians have experimented twice with Prohibition in the past 100 years. Apparently prohibition was as disastrous for the Russians as it was for the United States.

Dolls and Vodka do mix.

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev, also famous for making the original Periodic Table of the Elements, has a wax figure display at the vodka museum because he was the first to standardise the Alcohol content of Vodka at a rich 40%. Whereas previously the content had varied from 15-40%.

A Display for one of Russia's original vodka families... Smirnoff. This causes some controversy because the American known Smirnoff resulted from one son of the original CMEPHOB (best attempt at Russian script as Blogspot won't recognize it) family selling the rights to the name and vodka, now some members of the original family consider that a mistake.

Here is the main reason for the tour, the post tour tasting! Three vodka shots and a spread of traditional vodka drinking snacks. Below is Nikki's appetizer plate, pickles, fish, and a processed pork fat on bread with mustard. As you can see Nikki loved it.......

Nikki eating her appetizers, she thought three shots of vodka was enough to convince her to eat a pickled lake fish.

Down the Hatch.

After tortuing her fish Nikki decided there was no way she would eat it, and I ended up with two fishes.