From Russia, with love

We've made it to Russia! I woke up this morning, opened the blinds, and there was a guy just outside the window walking his dog on the island we were passing very closely by. We haven't had to worry about changing by the window for days! We docked at 8am and were let off the ship around 9:30. The city is absolutely gorgeous. Our docking place is pretty far up the Neva River, so we had amazing views of the skyline and some major buildings on our way in.

The Neva River in the morning

St. Petersburg from the ship

We took a combo walking tour and visit to the Hermitage Museum/Winter Palace trip this morning through Semester at Sea. It was a great way to start to see the city and orient ourselves. The Winter Palace was beyond opulent, but my favorite part was probably that the security guards in the museum rooms were very polished babuskas (old women) in full makeup and clutching their purses. At least, it was my favorite part until one rushed up to me and started yelling at me in Russian. Apparently she thought I was going to either touch the painting or use my flash, neither of which I had any intention of doing.

Security guard babushka on duty.

The Gold Room

Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood - aka, the Dr. Seuss Church. The domes are blue and green!

It's really difficult being somewhere where not only do you not speak the language, but you also don't even know the alphabet. I'm working on figuring out the Cyrillic/English equivalents but it's tough. Hopefully we can figure a bit more out in the next three days that we're here.

Jason's taking a nap now and I'm thinking of following his lead. It's hard work being on land!!