tikistitch

A highlight of every tourist's trip to St. Petersburg must be a visit to Catherine the Great's famous pencil collection, the Hermitage.

A highlight of every tourist's trip to Mother Russia is a lot of standing in line.

( and so... )

Good Stitch day. Can't download pix as our hostel is WiFi-impaired, but found internet cafe across the street. Only, now I want a mocha. Spending money like water here, only it's still way cheaper (and BETTER food) than London. London sux dude!!!

Found a bunch of silly learn English books featuring Dsney chara yesterday, including CDs, which included Lilo & Stitch. It's Лило и Ститч, isn't that cool? This morning found cyrillic Leroy and Stitch DVD and then Mr. Tikistitch found a Lilo & Stitch video game (he so cheated, he asked, when what you're supposed to do is wander around the store wildly and sift through all the Bambi books). Also found one of those fake Harry Potter books with the girl Scary Trotter or whatever.

And no Stitch Matryoshka. The vendors were very strict about that.

St. Petersburg is insane--can't believe we're in Russia. They have Prada and Kenzo. Also a bunch of beautiful buildings that the silly Commies didn't raze. Heard Stalin hated this city, meaning he was one silly, silly person. Also, they don't seem to grok that you need to add chocolate to your mocha.

Spent the morning getting our train tickets to Moscow. Will have to upload pictures, it's like a scene out of the 7th circle of hell. You get in line. And stand there. For hours. It seems about half the people end up being in the wrong line, so they're sent away as they get to the front. Also, nothing can be done inside the teller's booth--they inevitably have to go away to another booth to complete something. Also, you have to show your passport to do anything--we mean even Russian citizens have to show their passport and have all the numbers copied down.

The city could also stand to have some torts lawyers move in. The sidewalks are quite dangerous with all the construction. They had us on the way from the train station, in our backpacks and hauling luggage up little wooden grates, and we've nearly broken feet on sidewalks that suddenly end in staircases. Oh, and also, cars are out to kill you here.

Mr. Tiki and Duncan asked at our hostel about where to find good shopping. One thing they asked, that we haven't been able to find, is propaganda posters. Our little hostel clerk asked if we meant all the Communist stuff, and we realized that she wasn't old enough to remember the Commies here--it was all kitsch to her.

So far, saw the Onion Dome church (it's actually called something like the church of the bleeding heart of Jesus or something like that, we were too tired to pay attention) which Mr. Tiki maintains is like a Russia-land theme park--you almost expect little Russian dollies to come out kicking and playing the It's a Small World song or something by Tchaikovsky. L'Hermitage had line too long to get in. They had a bunch of people dressed as cut rate Marie Antoinettes and pirates out front to take pictures with. They also had an art project like the Cows, only it was lions, and looked like it was completed by 3rd graders.

Dinner time now. We're introducing an Ozzie friend into the joys of walking places, so need to make sure he's well fed. No eucalyptus leaves here, so we have to settle for pizza. He wants us to all come to Australia soon, and asked what we'd most want to see. "New Zealand!" we piped up. And Mr. Tiki specified that no koala bears are to attack him. Then he told a story about Australian bats and made us scream and cover our hair. Oh, and if you're ever in St. Pete during the summer, the mosquitoes here are big as bats. Oh, and don't drink the water--we forgot and brushed our teeth and now are fated to die of somethign horrible.