День

We toured the city of Saint Petersburg today. Ancient beauty interlaced with Soviet societal sanctions. So much history . . . most of it involving murder. I can't wait to compare this western most part of Russia to the other, not-so-influenced reaches of the country. Our tour guide led us to the most American place in the city for lunch: Pizza Hut, or as the Russians say: Пицца Нат. But, all was not lost, we stopped for some genuine Russian морожное (ice cream), and took the most-amazing of all subway systems: the Saint Petersburg Metro. It will take me a bit to get used to all the pushing, but the efficiency of the system is ridiculous. The metro sits 80 meters below the ground, with the deepest part being 105 meters below the city. With long, steep escalators leading up and down, these cavities were initially built as bunkers against nuclear attack.
After buying some pirated music and non-alcoholic beer called Khvas (Квас), we ended the day by being the stupid American kids playing on the merry-go-round in the park. Ahh :)