St Petersburg!

Our first day in St Petersburg, the Venice of the North was incredibly fun. My friend from law school, Ksusha's friend Olga took us around the city. Our first stop was a first for Maddox- a flash mob armed with water guns in a square with a Lenin statute. The flash mob consisted of teenagers spraying the guns and jumping into the fountain despite the 60 degree weather. Apparently a very Russian experience and one that we certainly appreciated! Maddox can't wait to go to kindergarten and show off his photo in front of a flash mob at show and tell!

Next stop- lunch at a Soviet cafe. But first another highlight- Maddox projectile vomited an entire bottle of milk all over himself and poor Olga's trendy and adorable bright yellow Fiat. I think he was carsick and after the incident he felt much better. The soviet cafe looked just like grandma's home in soviet times complete with communist cartoons and even a goldfish tank. Olga ordered a ton of delicious food for us so we were able to try so many things. We weren't sure how much to order but she informed us the portions were not American sizes so we ordered 8 items and a Samovar tea course. I'm not sure which part of America she was talking about but when everything arrived I kept thinking it must have been Texas! We had potato salad, cold beet soup, breaded chicken, pickled veggies, dumplings etc and an entire plate of about 50 cookies with our tea. We also ordered a few shots of horseradish vodka which was also surprisingly good. It's been a few years since we have thrown back some shots but something about the horseradish infusion made them tolerable and even delish.

It was great to learn about St P from a local- what things were like in the Soviet era when "Grandpa Lenin" was a local hero and all kids participated in community service activities after school. I'll always remember my friend Ksusha telling me about what it was like growing up in Russia and how her and her mother would decide between eating meat that month or going to the ballet (they would usually pick the ballet of course).

Another plus about being with a local in a city like this is learning about what's on offer. Brett and I are always looking for unique ways to spend an afternoon when we travel and Olga told us about a cool opportunity here. There are bus tours to Finland for Russian cougars who are looking to marry a Finn. Apparently the Finnish men are eager beavers for the Russian cougs. Couple that with the fact that Russian men die young (vodka culture) and you can see why these tours are quite popular!

Yesterday Olga took us to Pushkin to see Catherine the Great's summer palace which was incredible and we learned more fun facts which I will add later!