So, we’ve arrived here in St. Petersburg, Russia!! FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE! I’m still not sure what that means, but we saw it on a t-shirt here. Russia is fantastic and has been a great start to our travels. We absolutely love our hostel here. It’s small, but has great personality. We have to admit that getting around here isn’t a piece of cake. We took public transport from the airport to city center and quickly realized that Russian is not an easy language to speak or much less read. With that said, we found our hostel and all was fine.
We’re staying at the Baby Lemonade Hostel in a 10 person bunk room (pretty avg for hostels) in an 18 total person hostel (smaller than avg). Some people hear the word “hostel” and they have a vision of scary movies. The reality is quite the opposite. Warm, cozy, friendly and brightly colored are some of the best words to describe our hostel here and the same goes for most hostels we’ve stayed at in past trips.
They’ve given us free breakfast, fun conversations with our bunk mates and helpful staff that offer advice on what to see. It’s also centrally located so we are only a short distance walk to all the major sites. What’s even better is the small kitchen that has allowed us to cook two of our dinners thus far. (Not intending for this to sound like an infomercial.)
The only problem we are facing is in reminding ourselves that we are traveling and not vacationing. We have been going non-stop since we’ve arrived (visiting the Hermitage Museum, Catherine’s Palace (in Pushkin), St.Issac’s Cathedral, Peter & Paul Fortress, and the Church of the Savior’s Blood). Even though the city is walkable (for the most part) we have literally almost walked ourselves to death the past 4 days. We both looked at each other and said, “We can’t keep at this pace for 1 year straight.” We have been thinking of things as we would for our standard 2 week ‘vacation’ from work, but in reality this is a whole other type of travel. We actually have time to relax, grab coffee at a local cafe and just be leisurely. We did just that as of this morning and it’s been medicinal in all sorts of ways.
Heading to Novgorad tomorrow on the train and plan to spend 2-3 nights there, before moving on to ‘Holy Moscow’.
Side note: We’ve been recording 1 minute videos every night before we go to bed, so we’ll start posting some of these in the near future.
We’re staying at the Baby Lemonade Hostel in a 10 person bunk room (pretty avg for hostels) in an 18 total person hostel (smaller than avg). Some people hear the word “hostel” and they have a vision of scary movies. The reality is quite the opposite. Warm, cozy, friendly and brightly colored are some of the best words to describe our hostel here and the same goes for most hostels we’ve stayed at in past trips.
They’ve given us free breakfast, fun conversations with our bunk mates and helpful staff that offer advice on what to see. It’s also centrally located so we are only a short distance walk to all the major sites. What’s even better is the small kitchen that has allowed us to cook two of our dinners thus far. (Not intending for this to sound like an infomercial.)
The only problem we are facing is in reminding ourselves that we are traveling and not vacationing. We have been going non-stop since we’ve arrived (visiting the Hermitage Museum, Catherine’s Palace (in Pushkin), St.Issac’s Cathedral, Peter & Paul Fortress, and the Church of the Savior’s Blood). Even though the city is walkable (for the most part) we have literally almost walked ourselves to death the past 4 days. We both looked at each other and said, “We can’t keep at this pace for 1 year straight.” We have been thinking of things as we would for our standard 2 week ‘vacation’ from work, but in reality this is a whole other type of travel. We actually have time to relax, grab coffee at a local cafe and just be leisurely. We did just that as of this morning and it’s been medicinal in all sorts of ways.
Heading to Novgorad tomorrow on the train and plan to spend 2-3 nights there, before moving on to ‘Holy Moscow’.
Side note: We’ve been recording 1 minute videos every night before we go to bed, so we’ll start posting some of these in the near future.
It sounds like you guys are doing great. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your pictures and your 1 minute videos! Even though the start of your trip has been pretty fast-paced, don't forget to chillax a little. Do nothing for an entire day... read a book... catch a movie... or play Age of Empires!
ReplyDeleteFrom Florida, with love.
Vacation more, rush less. How's my penny? Miss you Matt.
ReplyDeleteRoy
Abe lives in my pack and is speaking better Russian than we are! I'll return him to you after he completes his cultural experiences.
DeleteDUDES! Sounds like y'all are having a blast *jealous*. Is there any way we can view your tracks with Matt's cool little tracking device? Please keep us updated -- I am living vicariously through you guys :D
ReplyDelete<3
Hey JHo! :) 'Blinky' may have a website you can check out. We haven't uploaded it yet, but we'll give it a go this evening if the Internet is good. <3
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