The City Affectionately Known as “Питер” (Peter) Pt. 1

Друзья! (Friends),

I know you have been on the edge of your seats, eagerly awaiting the first update post-Petersburg, and I’m sorry it has taken me this long.

Naturally, the trip started out with a marathon overnight train ride, and like the Russians on the train with us, we resolved to get super drunk in order to be able to sleep on the train. I’d like to tell you more about the trip, but in the interests of time and you actually getting to see some of what we did, this post will be more of a photo essay than anything.

This is how it started, we all met up at Komsomolskaya to get on the train to Petersburg

Darcy on the train in the morning. Don't be fooled by how refreshed she might look, this is after about 8 hours on the train.

We put a liter and a half of vodka to rest between a number of us. Exhibit A, empty bottle of Green Mark Vodka (Зелёная Марка Водка), and Exhibit B a blurry Jordan.

Adam sleeping like a baby.

Not exactly a lot of privacy on this train. I'm not sure this would go over well in America, but if you want to travel cheap in Russia, it's just a fact of life.

Tre and Tiana after a long night of booze-fueled revelry and not a lot of sleep, also our new friend Masha (Маша) back left.

Jordan, Andrea, Rachel and Masha after a relatively sleepless ride to Petersburg

New friends on the train, Masha (Маша) on the left and Koctya (Костя) on the right.

Sleepless crew finally arrives in Petersburg after about a 9 hour, stifling hot, feet-smelling train ride.

Bust of Peter the Great, welcoming you to Saint Petersburg (Санкт Петербург)

We arrived at Moscow Train Station (Московский Вокзал) around 10 a.m.

As soon as we arrived, it was time to head out on a bus tour of Petersburg, the photos of which did not come out so great. The excursion wasn’t too long, and as soon as we were done, we headed to the hotel. Hotel Vyborgskaya (Выборгская) was to become our home base for the next two days.

The hotel was nicer than it looked from the street.

Mine and Trevor's room, It was comfortable, and we really didn't spend much time at all there.

This is just my favorite graffiti, it literally says "Hey!" There should be more graffiti that simply says hello to you.

I haven’t even gotten started on the numerous excursions we had during our time in Petersburg, so I hope you’ll stay tuned for those. Though this is all for now, I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is much more to come. Check back often!

Ваш,

Кевин