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The rest of my trip, recapped...

We started our last day in St. Petersburg early and headed straight to the Peter and Paul fortress. Our St. Petersburg tour guide, Oxanna, gave us a walking tour through it and we got to see Peter and Paul Cathedral where many of the Romanov rulers of Russia are buried. It was very beautiful. We saw the statue of Peter the Great, where his head is much smaller than his body, and I guess legend has it that if a person touches his hand they will return one day to St. Petersburg. I touched it, so I guess I’ll be returning to St. Petersburg someday.

While we were on our tour, we were also trying to figure out how we could go see the Church on Spilled Blood and the market right near it. Our schedule was so fully booked that there was really no free time, which kind of sucked. Due to this lack in free time; some of us opted to skip the tour of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Instead we walked briskly to the Church on Spilled Blood and the market behind it. It was amazing up close and the market was pretty cool too, even though it was mainly filled with souvenirs. Everyone was pretty nice, for the most part, and instantly began showing you their merchandise and offering things to you. There was one booth in the market with a man who ignored Josh until he began picking out pins he was interested in. Then when Josh asked how much they were the price was outrageous for the individual pins, so Josh began to put them back where he found them. As he did this, the man began rambling on about how his pins are the real thing and if Josh wanted to go spend his money on the street for fakes that was fine…etc. He kind of frightened me and we got out of there as soon as possible and headed straight to the Hermitage, where we were supposed to meet up with the rest of the group by 1 p.m. for our tour.

The Hermitage was huge and Josh, Edwin and I wanted to see as much of it as we could. So, we broke away from the tour and proceeded to give ourselves a so called tour on speed! We walked briskly through as many rooms as we could and we were able to see quite a bit. The lay out was confusing though and we got lost and therefore visited some rooms multiple times. We weren’t able to see all of it as it has 1057 halls and rooms, but I was happy with what we did see. After the allotted time given to us for the tour, we had to return to the bus. I was feeling slightly faint because I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so in the courtyard Josh and I bought Cokes. The Coke was just the thing I needed to raise my blood sugar, so we took a couple more pictures and headed to the bus.

From the Hermitage we drove through the city and headed for Pushkin which is located approximately twenty-five kilometers from St. Petersburg. This is where we would have our farewell dinner and tour the Catherine Palace. At the farewell dinner Mike wasn’t feeling very well so he looked really sick the entire dinner and I was worried he was going to puke all over Greg, who was sitting across from him. There was wine and Russia vodka for people to try. Nate, Dana, Josh and I did very small shot of the vodka to try it and it was very strong and not very good! We didn’t have anymore. The wine was good though, even though it was red and I like white better. Other people were taking multiple shots of the vodka and it got kind of annoying after a while because they were getting tipsy and loud. We were presented with live Russian entertainment which made the evening fun. At one point, we were able to play along with them using wooded handmade instruments! The dinner was a pleasant way to end the trip.

When we returned from Pushkin, Josh and I decided to stay up until we had to meet in the hotel lobby at 2 a.m. We packed, watched the Eurovision finals, and hung out. At 1 a.m. we decided to go down to the lobby because we were all ready and didn’t know what else to do. We sat in the lobby and played mini Uno and waited for other people to arrive. Other people opted to stay up as well and were hanging out in the bar until we had to go. The bus was a little late, so when it arrived we had to rush to load and get on it. The reason we had to leave by 2 a.m. was because all the bridges in St. Petersburg go up at night and there are only a few opportunities to cross so we had to make sure we didn’t miss our chance. If we missed it, we would miss our flight. We made it across and headed to the St. Petersburg airport. When we arrived it wasn’t even open so we had to wake the security people and they didn’t seem very happy about that. After going through security we had to wait around for a few hours until they opened the rest of the airport. It was a long wait, but at least the hotel provided us with a breakfast to go. We also were able to watch a little Columbo in Russian, which was entertaining for a little while.

The rest of the day was spent boarding planes, going through security, and flying back home. We were met at the airport by Josh’s dad and sister. We drove to Crystal Lake and my parents came down later for dinner and then they took me home.

It was an amazing experience.

Home again...For now!

Josh and I returned to the states on May 22nd after a long three days in St. Petersburg. I was unable to get to any computers there due to the fact that our schedule was so packed. Therefore I will recall my last few days abroad from the comfort of my home. Something is better than nothing!

After Tallinn, we drove toward the boarder heading for St. Petersburg, Russia. The same procedures we had been having to go through all the days before still applied as we had to go through 2 borders. First, we had to leave Estonia and then second we could enter Russia. It seemed to go smoother entering Russia this time since we had just gone through the process a few days prior. We all knew we would have to get out of the bus in order to get our visas and passports inspected, so it made things move faster. This time it only took us about an hour and a half to get through, instead of about 3 hours. Also, we didn't have any problem with nuclear radiation women...a.k.a. Lorraine, one of the women in our group!

Once we were in Russia, we had quite a bit more driving to do until we would reach St. Petersburg. Hours later, upon entering the region of St. Petersburg, we headed for Peterhof where we would meet our guide, who would be with us for the rest of our trip. I can't remember where we met our other guide, but somehow we ended up with three guides for part of the day on the 20th. When we finally got to Peterhof, it was raining and we had to go on the tour of the palace first before exploring the grounds because it was closing. It was beautiful and after we toured the palace we were guided through an area with many old artifacts and it was interesting, but since he was stopping at every one it began to get long. When he was finished, he lead us to an area where we were to eat lunch and use the bathrooms. He then parted ways and we were left with the two guides that would be with us the rest of the trip. The food wasn't anything great. It was hard to tell what you were actually going to get since it all looked like something you recognized but it turned out to be something completely different. I got some rice that was cold and spiced and what I thought was chicken, but turned out to be fish. Then Josh went to the bakery and got us some pastries. The first one I ate was ok, but the second one was really really really great! Since Josh ate the really great one first it made the ok one seem not that great at all!

When everyone was finished eating we all loaded back up on the bus and headed to St. Petersburg. On the way we made a slight detour and stopped at this open air museum of a wooded village. It was special because no metal was used when the housed were built. It was a last minute addition to the trip and therefore admission was not included in the trips cost, so if people wanted to go in they had to pay. It wasn't very expensive and Josh didn't want to stay on the bus, so we went in. We looked around and then I shopped in the little stores they had inside. I got a cool wooded barrette, a wooded necklace, and an awesome wooden bracelet. The only reason we had made the stop was so that our professor's wife could sketch and paint a scene from inside. It wasn't that bad and we enjoyed ourselves.

When we returned to St. Petersburg, the local guide had to get off at Nevsky Prospekt in order to get home so she invited all who were interested to get off with her so they could explore the main drag. Josh and I got off, because we wanted to find the store that Josh wanted to go to. Greg (our main guide) took us to the metro station and showed us how to buy the tokens and told us what we needed to do to use them, so we could all find our way back to the hotel before midnight when the metro stopped running and all the bridges rose to allow boats through. We walked up and down the main drag and couldn't find Josh's store, so finally we gave up and headed for the large department store on that street. It was set up very odd. Instead of having a large open area to walk and then being able to chose which stores you enter, in this department store they set it up so you are walking through all the stores. This means that periodically you are walking through security areas as well...When you leave one store to enter another right away. Josh and I had walked through many of these and as we were reaching the end of the line of stores, we walked through the last security bars and I set off the alarm.

I was really freaked out, because I did not want to mess with the Russians and I didn't take anything! There was a security guard was standing right there and motioned me to come to him. He didn't speak English and so to compensate he used a lot of arm gestures and tried to speak slower Russian. I wanted to prove to him that we hadn't bought anything, but it was difficult to get across. He asked me..."Book?" and after I understood he was asking if I have a book I said Yes, and pulled out my St. Petersburg guide book. He looked excited for a minute as though that was what the problem was, until he moved the book through the sensors and the alarm didn't go off. Then it was back to square one. After a little more of this, he called on his walky-talky and then seemed to motion to us that we could go. We were a little confused and turned around and didn't want to leave if that's not what he wanted us to do, so we slowly started to walk, but when we saw another guard come...This one was more like a police officer...We started back toward him. The newly arrived guard came up to me and asked if I spoke English and I got excited and said yes...But that's all he said to me! Then he motioned me to follow him and he took me to the dressing rooms in the nearest store. He then motioned me to take off my coat, so I did and handed it to him. He handed it back and motioned to show him what was in it and I hung it up and pulled the empty pockets out so he could see that there was nothing in it. Then he took it and walked to the detectors and I heard the alarm go off, so we knew it was the coat...But I was confused because there was nothing in the coat! So when he came back by me he hung up the coat and searched it. He ran across the tags and hidden among those tags was a tag that said, "Please remove after purchase." I had never seen it before and I had been wearing the coat for a while now and it had never caused me any trouble before! So, he got a scissors and motioned like he was going to cut it as though he were asking me if it was ok...And I said yes! Cut! After it was cut off and I walked back out of the store the alarm didn't go off...So everything was fine again! BUT, what luck huh! The coat causes a problem nowhere else but in Russia of all places it decides to set off an alarm!! It was an interesting experience!

After that we decided to go to the market to get some food and then go back to the hotel! We found the really good beer (Edelweiss dunkel - dark) we had in Kalliningrad, so we got some of those. We also got some candy and other snack type foods. Then we walked to the metro and ran into Greg as we were trying to figure out where we were supposed to go...Nothing had English on it. We had to ride an escalator to the third platform and then we found our right train. Both coming out of the metro and going into it was awesome. We had to ride an escalator down (to get in) and back up (to get out) because it really deep underground...It was really steep!

We got lost walking back to the hotel that night, so we ended up walking the long way while carrying our food...It was crazy. By the time we got back all we wanted to do was just sit in our hotel room and relax, while eating random food we had bought. It turned out to be nice.

I have to go...So I will write about my last day in St. Petersburg later.

Shannon

Tere from Tallinn!

Today we actually had a very interesting local tour guide who took us around the old town in Riga. Rita from Riga is how she introduced herself to us...it was catchy. So as we toured Riga we were able to see all the things we didnt see the night before when we didnt ventur out. It was a cute little area and we had some free time to walk around and look at the shops and eat lunch. We chose to shop first, which left little time to eat so unfortunatley most people ended up eating at McDonalds. Josh and I decided not to because we had no local money and they didnt take credit cards (weird!), but Harlan (the director of the international travel study programs at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater) brought us both back a meal because he didnt want us to go hungary as we would not be stopping for food for another 4 or so hours... so that was nice.

Getting through the borders has been easier and easier...but it will probably be difficult again when we leave Tallinn and head for St. Petersburg.

We got to Tallinn around 6:30 pm and had a little room mess up, but after we straightend that up Josh, Edwin and a guy named Jon took the bus into the old town here. We were a bit confused as everything is written in either Estonian or Russian, so we didnt know where our stop was. We got off when we noticed that the bus was returning to stops we had just seen a little bit ago!! We had a little bit of a treck to get to the old section, but we made it and walked around looking for a reasonably priced resturant. The exchange rate here is pretty great (about 12.5 Estonian EEK to 1 US dollar) but things are priced to compensate for that in most places.

Things are good and we are here for 2 nights so we are able to head back and see more things tomorrow and we dont have any long bus rides, at least not until we leave for St. Petersburg.

Love ya.

Now in Latvia...

So, now I have a bit more time. We just arrived here in Riga. It is 5.30pm and we will probably just eat in the hotel cafe since we are a ways outside of the downtown and the World Hockey tournament is taking place here...which makes it pretty hecktic. Riga is a pretty large city and with large cities comes some poor places. There are remnents of the communist era, our hotel is in that category! There are large run down apartment complexs behind the hotel and we are located in more of an industrial area.

Everywhere else weve been has been pretty nice though. Our first night we stayed in a castle and got a tour of the grounds. In the middle of the night I was woken up by 2 men waking the grounds while singing very loudly in a foreign language. It was a fun night and after our welcome dinner everyone pretty much crashed due to jet lag.

On the second day, we were unable to see the Amber mines which was a shame, so our local guide took us to an amber museum instead which wasnt as cool. I didnt buy anything, but got a sense for what type of things to look for elsewhere on the trip. I did not care very much for our local tour guide as she was not very helpful at times and seemed to not know what she was doing most of the time. It was a crazy experience getting into Russia from Poland later that day as well, which is where she meet up with us. It took three hours and one of the women on the trip had recieved a stress test which involved isotopes before the trip and therefore set off the radiation machines so that delayed us even more! It was quite an experience and Russia does not mess around.

In Svetlegorsk, we were able to walk along the Baltic seashore and watch the sunset, which was beautiful! We combed the beach for interesting rocks and tried to find amber peices...I think I found a very small piece but I cant be 100% sure! I still think it is cool though. Then we had dinner in town at a nice resturant where only one waiter spoke very broken English, so by default he was the one to help everyone in our group of 25 people who decided to eat there...poor guy. I could tell he was embarresed at times about his English...but we were successful at ordering something and were unsure exactly what we would get...so it was an adventure and the food turned out to be excellent.

Lithuania was very nice too. It was a long bus ride to get there as my last entry states, but we were able to meet up with our local guide...2 or so hours late...and still get a small tour of Vilinus. We ate dinner at a very nice Itallian place because the Lituanian place stopped serving food by the time we got around to eat. I was ok with it though cause we got pizza and pasta and all good things! Mmmm...cold pizza for breakfast!

Now though...I am going to go eat dinner and hang out around the hotel. I am excited for Tallin, Estonia tomorrow...We have 2 nights there so I will try and call.

Til then, Goodnight.

Hello from Lithuania

It has been exciting, but I am unable to go into very much detail at the time as I am on the front desks computer. But I wanted to write a short blip to say hi and to also say Happy Mother's Day! Today we spent about 9 hours on the bus traveling from Kaliningrad to Lithuania. Finally we arrived and took a breif tour of Vilinus (where we are now) and then ate...we were all starving at this point. I must go now...it has been a long day and I don't want to use this computer for a long time. It is almost 11pm here and we must get up early tomorrow to head to the next country. It took us about 1.5 hours to get through the boarder today which has been one of the fastest...if you can imagine that! Anyway, goodbye for now and I will try to write more again.

Love You.

Departing on a jet plane...

I am leaving on my second trip overseas today.

Last summer I was able to travel to France, Spain and Portugal and now this summer I am headed to Poland, Kaliningrad, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia (St. Petersburg). I am excited and nervous, the two most common emotions accompanying any large event in my life.

I created this blog to keep in touch and to share some of my experiences abroad with my loved ones back at home. Who knows how much time I will have to make entries while I am there, but if I do have time, now at least I have a place to post updates.

So…here I go!