Aug 10, 2008 - ST.PETERSBURG

DAY 28 - St. Petersburg This is coming to you LIVE from the Hermitage ... the former winter palace, seat of government and residence of the Tsars and Tsarinas of Russia. Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and the last Royal Family all lived and governed from this building! Today it houses the largest collection of art in the world. They say that if you looked at each piece for 10 seconds it would take you 3 1/2 years to get through the entire collection ... we are not about to try it :-) We arrived this morning at 5:30 on an overnight...

Aug 9, 2008 - San Petersburgo

Hola, comenzamos los cuentos culturales y de aventura y este recorrido en excelentes condiciones físicas y mentales, lo que va a ser muy necesario y un punto a favor durante la travesía. Llegué a la Leningrado del siglo pasado con retraso aéreo alrededor de las 7 p. m. y por esta razón tuve de una vez las primeras dificultades: fue imposible conseguir un espacio en algún hotel de la parte central, sólo a las 11 p. m. pude conseguir algo alejado de la zona más popular para los turistas; no fue un comienzo cómodo aun con el hecho de que...

Aug 3, 2008 - St Petersburg

Hey... Arrived in San Peter on Sunday night... My flight was 1 hour late and had to wait a lot in Moscow airport! Pavel went to the airport with Sasha to pick me up. So cool! Then he drop me off in my hotel. But it was already midnight! I found out that the people over there were quite strange... 5 ladys from Siberia... and another 7 or 8 Pakis... I was affraid of staying there... tryied to call another hotel, and at the end, called Pasha and asked to sleep there until I find a decent hotel. on the 4th we walked a lot around the city......

Jul 16, 2008 - Welcome to Russia!

So, here I am in St. Petersburg. Finally! I almost didn't make it here. My friend who I'm traveling with, had gone to the ladies' and they started boarding while she was gone. The flight was closing and I still hadn't seen her so I asked the lady at the counter if they would make a page, but then she appeared. She didn't have a watch and had no idea how long she was gone. YEEOUCH! But, luckily, we got on and here we are. St. Petersburg really wiped out any misconceptions I had about Russia in general! I thought I was going to see nothing...

Jun 28, 2008 - St Petersburg

Today we arrived into St Petersburg, Russia. After a taxi driver offered us a lift to the hotel for approx 50 pounds, we went and took public transport to get there which cost us 3 pounds instead. You have to look out for people trying to rip off tourists! The underground stations are so deep, we've been told they were used as underground bunkers in times of war. I've never taken such a long escalator which went down to the subway, it just kept going and going and going. There are 10 of us in our Trans-Siberian Railway tour group, none from...

May 23, 2008 - St. Petersburg

Dag 1-3 Det var ikke bare bare å komme seg til Russland. Yngve måtte stå i kø, som under kommunismen, på den russiske ambassaden 3 ganger før han endelig fikk våre visum. Flyturen tok under 2 timer, og det gikk raskt og greit å få bagasjen. Vi tok ut nesten 30 000 rubler på flyplassen (kanskje litt i overkant, men jeg tror at jeg bommet på en null). Vi bodde på Novotel Hotell, rett ved Nevskij Prospekt - fint hotell, men litt langt unna alle severdighetene. Vi hadde strålende utsikt over hele byen. Første dagen spaserte vi nedover Nevskij...

May 19, 2008 - St. Petersburg

I got to St. Petersburg ok, unfortunetly, my bag did not! I left the airport and took a bus into town and then got a taxi to the hostel. I really liked the Hermitage (supposedly the best museum in the world), it's in the Winter Palace and the rooms are amazing! I had to pay an extra fee to take pictures inside the museum, I thought that was a rip off, but they do that everywhere in Russia. I met up with the tour group on the 21st and we took an overnight train to Moscow!

Dec 3, 2007 - Russian Politics: A View from the Inside

One of the most interesting and ongoing observations I've been making during the past semester involves the various aspects of one of the most complex and convoluted subjects in today's world: Russian politics. With the general Duma elections held yesterday (basically Russia's parliament or congress), resulting in Vladimir Putin's "Yedinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) party winning a landslide victory, all of my thoughts on Russia's political climate have begun to solidify into a concrete image of how this country's government actually ticks....

Oct 8, 2007 - St Petersburg

Well i thought the Mongolian hole-in-the-ground toilet was bad (particularly when the door blew open while i was mid-squat), but the toilet at St Petersburg airport takes 1st prize. The ceiling is mirrored! Yep- you can see not only yourself, but a birds-eye-view of the people in the cubicles next to you. I had gone in there to wipe away my tears after saying goodbye to Mum (6 months feels like a very long time to be away from someone you have shared a 1.5metre x 2metre train cabin with for three weeks), but soon started cracking up when i...

Sep 9, 2007 - St. Petersburg

Just a quick update....we arrived in St. Petersburg yesterday and cleared Russian immigration and customs about 4 long hours later. It was a great moment to cross the 60th parallel as its not often that I am able to say I have been that far north, especially on a tall ship We now have 7 faculty members, 38 students (13 grade 12 and the rest GAP and 1st year university) and the professional crew. Its been a week of learning how to manage time, getting to know names, helping on galley duty, cleaning scuppers (there's one for you to look up)...

Sep 3, 2007 - St. Peterburg, Russia

There's a wonderful Russian folk tale called "Here Comes the Cat!" The only words in the whole book are the four words of the title. Mice are scurrying about preparing for the arrival of a cat on the horizon. As his shadow is cast on the town walls, horror seems to grip the mice population. We turn the page, and----surprise! We discover we were wrong, not only about the cat but the mice as well. It seems they were waiting in happy anticipation for the cat to bring them a huge wheel of cheese, and a celebration begins. The cat has...

Aug 17, 2007 - St. Petersburg

Arriving at the tiny St. Petersburg airport, we were met by Slava, our host for the festival. Only one person lost their luggage - Stan Boon's was delayed one day. During the drive into town he gave us an overview of life here, and some of the history. St. Petersburg consists of 2 cities - St. Petersburg, which was founded 300 years ago and is very beautiful - and 'Leningrad', a product of the Soviet era which started in 1917 and stopped in 1989. 'Leningrad' is not beautiful. Our hotel is located in 'Leningrad' and therefore is a Soviet...