I did manage to doze on the plane a little bit. When I landed I took a bus and the subway and got to the hostel at about 5:45 this morning. It was too early to check in but they let me park my suitcase. Then I sat in the common room for awhile and texted because I knew nothing was open yet.
My hostel is right off of Nevsky Prospekt, the main drag here, commercially and otherwise. There are 8 of us in the room. I’m glad I have a lower bunk. They all have curtains for privacy and their own lights and electrical sockets. The bathrooms and showers are close and we have lockers to store our stuff in. They also have bikes to rent. I’ll post pictures tomorrow. Across the room from me is a nice lady from China who speaks good Russian.
When I fInally went outside at about 8, Nevsky Prospekt was already like with police and military because to day is Labor Day for just about all the of the world except the US. There are always big parades here for it. One policeman told me it wasn’t going to start until 11 so first I went for breakfast and had a big bowl of oatmeal, then I walked around for awhile. I was still tired from the flight, so I went to a park and nodded off on a bench for about a half an hour. I’m glad all the policemen were busy at the parade so the couldn’t pick me up for vagrancy. The. I slowly mossed on back to the parade route and sat on a bench at the post stop with some older Russian ladies who chases people away with their canes of the came and stood in front of us. Good friends to have at that point.
The parade itself was interesting. It was sectioned off into regions, like our counties and then there was a large section for different unions. There were so great marching bands and there were several drum corps that were only made up of women. And they were excellent. Also intending for me was that there were several people there with flags from the Soviet Union, there were lots of pictures of Lenin and even a group who carried pictures of Stalin. I guess he’s not as out of favor as he used to be.
I watched the parade for an hour and then decided to take a scenic boat ride. I didn’t want to be too active today because I was still exhausted from the ride and still feeling a little weak from being sick yesterday. Of course I sat up on top of the boat and, although the sun was shining, the wind coming off the water was chilly. I was glad I had my winter jacket on.
After the boat trip, I went to a little cafeteria right across the street and had mashed potatoes and a chicken shashlik for $2.00! Although transportation is more expensive here than in Kazan, food is still very reasonably priced. And there are many more varieties of restaurants here; Greek, Chinese, Italian, French, you name it.
After I ate, I walked back to the hostel, signed him, took a shower and rested for a couple of hours. Since I was starting to get hungry again, I decided to go explore one cathedral and afterward have supper. Now the streets were absolutely packed. Bike rides weave in and out of traffic and are also all over the sidewalks, as are roller bladers and scooter riders. Since it stays light so long here, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of late night partying on this holiday night.
I went to the Greek restaurant just down the street. I had grilled veggies and pita bread. It was just enough. And now I’m in for the night. I feel the tiredness creeping up on me. So I’m going to brush my Teach and go to sleep. Tomorrow I’m going to take the bus to the beautiful castle Petersgof.
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