Excuse me, I'm afraid I'm becoming ridiculous.

Forgive the absurdity, but everything that happens to us here is crazy.

We are now in St. Petersburg, the second stop of the trip! Can't believe how fast Moscow went; even though the days seemed long because we did so much, I wasn't quite ready to go. Luckily we'll be back there for the night after Helsinki, so we'll have a little bit more time.

Our last few days in Moscow we spent wandering around, seeing as many corners of the city. We went back to the area where the cosmonaut museum is, because we'd found a few more things to see up there, especially a Friendship of Nations fountain, dedicated to the close ties between the states of the Soviet Union. When we passed through the gates leading to the park, we were met by cartoon characters, and found that we were actually in a soviet amusement park. We strolled a while, looked at fountains, wandered through carnival games, bumper cars, a petting zoo tent, one tent that curiously said something mysterious about crocodiles, and lots of buildings competing to have the most hammer and sickles, and eventually came to the end of the park, where a path led off into a farm-looking area. Knowing that we had the whole day to explore, we followed it. We found some huge hedge animals. Unfortunately they were behind a gate, but they were incredible. We realized we were in an apple orchard and we were starving, so we picked a few, but the trees came to life and started attacking us. Not really, they were also fenced off. But we did find a little church that was singing to itself. When we got out of oz, we went back toward the park to see about riding the Ferris wheel. Got a pretty good view of the city, and spotted a few of the other sights we'd been looking for. Then we engaged in some pretty spectacular people watching (Russians love to pose for photos like no other group of people I have ever come across) by the fountain, and decided to head to the southern edge of the city where we could walk along the river and maybe get into a sculpture garden. We couldn't find a way to get to the road that runs by the river, so in the end we found another park (Gorky Park) and wandered there for a while before heading home. Later that night, we decided to try some Moscow street food, so we walked around the block near the hostel. We found a little shack called bistro, and successfully ordered shwarma and beers. The guys working at the counter thought we were incredibly amusing and fascinating, and watched us the whole time we were there. I guess American tourists don't frequent bistro at 10:30 at night. Our train on Monday didn't leave until 9 pm, so we had just about the whole day. We decided on tsaritsyno park, where there is a palace, a fountain, and a walking trail. We spent the day getting somewhat lost there, then took a sunny nap outside the palace. Around 4, we headed back to the hostel (we had checked out but left our bags for the day) where we sneakily used the kitchen, had dinner, and lurked in the hallway (there's a couch there) until it was time to head out. We had some trouble finding the train station- a sign we found pointed to every station nearby except the one we needed, and it was only when we went to the ticket office of a different train station and showed the woman our tickets with a sad "we are so lost" look that she pointed us back where we had come from. Turns out the sign didn't advertise leningradskaya because it was literally right outside of it. Luckily we were still about an hour early, but we found the train and our car and soon we were boarding! We were riding 3rd class to save money, but this meant there were no doors on the compartments. We were also on two top bunks next to each other, above two older Russian men, and across from two more. We must have looked helpless and lost, because one of them grabbed our backpacks and threw them up to the shelves. Then he immediately started speaking English to me (the whole time we were in Moscow, we had not met a single English speaker, and the guy I'm sitting next to on the train will not stop talking), telling me he's a sailor and has been to 65 countries. So when Ashley said she was going to have a cigarette before we left, I jumped at the chance to get off for 5 more minutes. When we came back, all 4 men surrounding us had taken off their shirts and made up their beds. So Ashley an I jumped up onto our own beds, where we stayed pretty much silent for the next ten hours:

I actually slept pretty well, and even though I woke up occasionally when we stopped, as soon as we started moving again I was rocked back to sleep. I woke up around 6:15, about a half hour before we were supposed to arrive. I peeked down below, saw that everyone was dressed and all the beds made up, so I figured the coast was clear to jump back down. I was instructed by the English speaker to wake up Ashley, so I did, and we pulled up to St. Petersburg! Everyone got off pretty quickly, and we took this picture:

Hint: if you are planning to take the night train from Moscow to St. Petersburg, pay for 2nd class.

We found the hostel via bus and a very helpful conductor. Did I say it was pouring? I have never seen so much rain. By the time we arrived, we were both soaking. It was only 7:00, but we figured we could at least drop off our bags for the day while we explored. The girl working here also let us shower, which was absolutely necessary, and then said we could stay for complimentary breakfast at 8. One shower, meal, and power outage (oh hello there Nairobi) later, we headed to the hermitage, which turns out to be right around the corner! 

We saw as much of the museum as we could (nearly all of the 3 floors of the winter palace) and then, when we could not possibly walk another step, went outside, where the sun had come out, and it had become a beautiful day. We picked up our swan lake tickets (for later tonight!) and some essential groceries, and then headed back to the hostel to plan the rest of the day. We decided to follow the river to the summer gardens and palace, and spent the afternoon there (and by afternoon I mean until 8:45, because the sun didn't set until 9:45), then walked across a bridge and followed the river back from the other side, where we had a great view of the sunset as reflected in the windows of the hermitage. I have never slept as long or as well as I did last night.

Today we went back to the hermitage, with the intention of doing it all (we had bought a 2 day ticket). Unfortunately, we were defeated after the first floor of the small and large hermitage (the half of the property that is not the winter palace), finishing the part of the winter palace we skipped yesterday, and seeing the room of armor. Then we went to St. Isaac's Cathedral, which was indescribable - so much gold! - before heading back to the hostel to relax a bit and get ready for the ballet tonight! Very, very excited to be in St. Petersburg!! Oh, and because I just looked up and saw them, let me tell you about the stair in the hostel. First of all, the hostel itself is on the 5th floor of a building, and that staircase is huge and winding and never ending. But up to our bedroom is one more flight of stairs, in which every step is only half a step, so you have to use the right foot for the right step (does that make any sense?) and if you are not paying attention you have probably fallen back down to the first floor, and if you happen to be carrying a heavy backpack you might as well sleep in the living room.