Finally, today we arrive in the "other" St. Petersburg, the home city of our program director, who isn't shy about extolling his love for it. When Peter the Great laid it out in the 1700's, he wanted a Venice of the North. As Evgeny says, "Wow!" This St. Petersburg has as many canals and bridges as ours and traffic is worse, but it's worth adding to anyone's bucket list.
Church of the Spilled Blood - Did you know what we call "onion domes" are meant to represent candle flames?
St. Isaac's Cathedral
St. Isacc's dome
Today was Mother's Day. Program Director Evgeny did a first and invited his mother to join us. He interviewed her and interpreted. She misses the old ways under Communism, when things were stable; she works three jobs now, having lost a business in the 90's under capitalism; her marriage with Evgeny's father suffered from the cramped space they lived in with her parents and divorced; her greatest accomplishment is Evgeny, an only child! He said he was only interpreting, not putting words into her mouth :)
Evgeny is a 29 year-old newlywed who has a penchant for American slang and sayings. One of his favorites: "Ready, steady, go!"
As a trade-off for having missed Kizhi, we were treated to a Russian Folklore performance. The penalty was having to go up (and down) 80+ stairs. Russia is not handicap friendly, but the show was outstanding!
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