SANKT PETERSBURG 6.24.08 – 6.27.08

The last few days have been intense. They have been filled full of political emotion for me, not to mention tired feet, weird foods, and lots of long lines, although to be fair, we have skipped our fair share of uber long lines as well, due to ye ol’ Russian bribery ;) (our gracious host here is fluent in the ways of greasing the wheels and getting us past the “common” folk)

We’ve spent the last few days going around to Russian palaces that have been around during the last few centuries. They are huge, intense, filled with unimaginable wealth, and most have had to be reconstructed after the fires and looting of the Nazis in WWII. These palaces are very beautiful and massive at the same time, and they exactly mirror the palaces that are often shown in movies portraying ye old King & Queen days. While George and I haven’t exactly been ecstatic about the tours inside these massive palaces, at least we can now say that we’ve been there, and I guess that makes us more cultured or something.

I have to say though, that I have felt mostly uncomfortable being there, because all I can think about has been how much money and power has been spent on luxury and fancy things for the szars and the emperors while the Russian populace has starved and suffered. But I guess that is pretty much the story for any “advanced” society..

Otherwise, here in this city of 5 million, we’ve been chauffeured around by a private driver who is the craziest and most fun driver I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving with. He mashes like a mofo, but I haven’t felt unsafe with him yet. Apparently he not only was a cabbie here for fifteen years, but he actually received an award from the city government for being “The Best Drive in St. Petersburg” He’s an incredibly safe driver due to the fact that he has never been in any one accident and has an incredible driving record.

The other sites we have seen here have been the Hermitage – which is one of the biggest museums in the world, rivaling that of the Louvre. We saw the Petersburg ballet company do Swan Lake in the famous marine opera house here, and today (Saturday 6/28) we are going to the Russian museum and then taking a boat ride through the river upon which we will see the raising of the bridges. St. Petersburg has over 300 bridges, and the big ones (approximately 30) are raised every night so that ships can get through. Since there are islands here, the people that get stuck on them have to stay there until the bridges are connected again in the morning.
..we’ll try not to get too drunk tonight so we don’t get stuck on the wrong side..

Next stop – Moscow!

Leaving Tallinn and off to St. Petersburg..

Our last night in Tallinn we had a blast. We went out with our newly found friends and drank until 4 am. The bars closed at 3 (only because it was a Sunday night – usually they go until your wallet is empty) but we continued to party. It was light as day the whole time (White Nights) and people were still up and about shouting and cheering because of the soccer games going on.


The last thing we did before we got on the train is go up to the top of the old town – the enclosed castle town that is old Tallinn, and checked out the place as well as the view. It was pretty awesome!! The view was that of the Baltic sea, the whole town, and the never-setting sun. Despite all the preserved buildings, churches, and government palaces, some of the really old buildings were actually private residences and a couple were up for sale. Oh to live in a cobblestone street in a palace-like shell on the outside and a modern home on the inside atop a big hill in a walled off castle town…someday.

That night we hopped on the train, but me and George couldn’t sleep. We stayed up until 4 am watching Battlestar Galactica. At 4 am we arrived at the border and were first checked out by the Estonian border patrol and then the Russian border patrol. I don’t know why the Estonians had to check us out – we were leaving their country, but it was chill. It was the Russians who were scary. They were intimidating, sleazy, shady, and questioned us for a while. The scariest part was that none of my IDs actually look like me. My passport and driver’s license were both taken when I was like 16 years old, had a pony tail and shaved sides, and no beard! They looked long and hard at my IDs, at me, scanned them all with ultraviolet light to make sure they weren’t fakeys, and then gave us this look which seemed to indicate that they wanted bribes. I think we played dumb pretty well and tried to play nice and talk our way out of it. I think it worded since we got through, but those 10 minutes my heart skipped many beats, while George and my mom were amused. That is one experience I don’t want to repeat again..

Finally, .. we're here!

Hey all, thanks for staying tuned to our crazy little sneaky Russian trip :D

This is the first thing we did before we went on our trip. It is a Russian tradition, and is meant for a safe return to where we started.



Wow, that was quite a trip. I think it was the longest we've been on a single journey of traveling to a destination by airplane.
hey, when in Rome.... drink a lot of scotch!cheers!
finally got off the main plane trip in Frankfurt. waiting for a flight to Estonia
we learned one thing:
...booze + lack of sleep + complicated german menus = one confused and tired Vlad

We literally spent more than 24 hours, approx 30 hrs straight in a plane or waiting for a plane. I think we slept a total of like 2 hours in intermittent little wisps of rest, and even then...how well can you rest on a plane..?

Anywho, check out some of the videos we made during the trip. We .. were.. delirious, ..to say the least. We had a very "out of it" layover in Frankfurt before proceeding to the mother land.

Having fun with foreign words :)



later on that day in the Frankfurt airport..



After we got in we were greeted by my mom's old friends that used to live in the same building as us in Tallinn, and they were very friendly. They have two daughters our age so we're gonna hang and go drinking tomorrow night at this place called "The Beer House". ..I think its pretty indicative of what is to transpire :)


We checked in, and went out to a quick dinner..


and now we're off for some sleepy bye bye time now, thanks for staying tuned, we'll keep you on the up and up as we explore this next month =D

Almost Take Off

So I'm chillin here in JoJo's office, waiting for him to help me unload my truck full of stuffs I gotsta move into his tiny room..
..just thinking of what lays ahead of me in the next 36 hours..

• chaos
• madness
• all-niter
• packing
• ..and then 8 am drinks at the airport..
• oy, wheres the Valium?..