Another Downtown Excursion!

Today we went downtown to some new sites that we hadn't seen before!  Sveta, who works with ILP gave us a tour and told us some interesting things about the places we visited!  She is super funny and kept pointing out that St. Pete's is better than Moscow. There is always something new and beautiful about St. Petersburg to discover!  St. Pete's is a huge city!  I took a ton of photos because it was all just so amazing!  Enjoy!

Hotel Europe

Hotel Europe

Russian art museum (for Russian art only)

Statue of poet Alexander Pushkin

(Ignore my double chin haha)

Mikhailovsky Theatre

Savior on the Spilled Blood

Jess was looking at the fish

Gates near the church

The back yard of the home/palace that belonged to Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov (Anastasia's uncle)

The Neva River

We saw at least three married couples around town.  It's tradition to take your wedding photos at important places in the City.

This was too weird not to take a picture of. She's breastfeeding a bird...

View of the fortress from the park

Battleship Aurora

Fall leaves are everywhere here! I love it!

Statue of Catherine the Great's lover at the Marble Palace

Marble Palace

So many ornate entryways here! This wasn't even a palace!

These statues were humongous.  It's tradition and good luck for newly married couples to come touch the feet of these statues.  Apparently they do it so their future children will be healthy and happy.  Cute, right?!

The New Hermitage.  That's what they call it.  I don't know why haha.

Caitlin being a goof

The square in front of Winter Palace

Winter Palace

Me in front of the Winter Palace

The Russian flag just looked too cool not to take a picture of it.

Obelisk in the middle of the square

Statues on top of the archway 

Bottom of the obelisk

This archway was huge!

Carvings in the ceiling of the archway

Oh! Cultural story from the other day!  I sat down in the grass in the park and one of the girls that works at the kindergarten came over and said, "Keeley, you're not cold?"  I was actually sweating, so I said, "No, I'm ok!"  And then I suddenly remember the crazy thing I heard about women not sitting on the grass in parks.  So, I say, "Oh! Am I not supposed to sit on the grass?"  She goes, "Well, it could be dangerous for your health."  Long story short, she made me sit on a jacket in the grass.  Haha, a rumor I heard about their culture actually happened!  They believe that your ovaries will freeze up and you won't be able to have babies.  Same thing if you sit on the concrete.  Which I did today at the New Hermitage.  Actually, I slid down the concrete so that's different...

Also, this happened.

Until next time!

-XOXO ~Keeley