7/8 St. Petersburg, Russia (part one)
.....As Do Sunsets
The first memory I have of today is my mother telling me to breathe through my sheet. WTF?! She’s paranoid about strange smells and was convinced the ship had been gassed. There’s a factory (several, actually) near the port and the fumes put out are what she smelled. *sighs*
I actually had spare time this morning. I got to go online-no one was on, of course, but my mother ALLOWED me to, and this is what counts. Perhaps the fumes went to her head. XD
Our first tour of the day was to the Hermitage Museum. Lots of elaborate ceilings, gold, jewels-finery of all sorts. For all intents and (my) purposes, boring. The street vendors are vicious, though. >.< They flock after ya and don’t back off. Dad bought something from one guy and they others were swarming in a flash. It was really frightening.
We came back to the ship afterwards-well, we stopped at the port shop, first (again). Lots and lots of stuff. What I really wanted was to find a postcard that said “My friend went to Russia/St. Petersburg and all I got was this postcard”-in Russian, but I didn’t find one. XD Josh shall get a misspelled bookmark instead (I swear I didn’t notice it was misspelled until we were back on the ship). So then we were back on the ship and stay until just after dinner.
We went to see Russian dancing. The thing was three hours long, the chairs were hard as rocks, there were small children surrounding me, and the dances didn’t do anything for me. The only thing that saved it was the sword “fights” at the end. They dimmed the lights really low and you could see the sparks when the swords connected. ‘Twas neat.
We left there about ten and the sun was JUST starting to set. By the time we got back to the ship, it had sunk low enough to light the sky on fire and I spent a good chunk of time taking pictures as the sky changed. It was absolutely bloody brilliant.
Then I stopped by Fuel and went online for a few minutes, just long enough to say heyo to Edo (who was away) and determine that no one else was on. C’MON, PEOPLE! NOON ON A SATURDAY! SOMEONE! CAN’T-oops, never mind. ‘Tis still Friday at home. *curses time difference once again*
*emos* Perchance tomorrow, perchance tomorrow. GAH! I’ve got eight postcards to write. Tomorrow’s going to be really busy (or so says my mother). *writes quickly, as it is now going on midnight*
Nighty, folks.