From Russia With Love: Boat tours, creepers, and no sleep...Our CRAZY Friday Night

Well, to say that Friday was interesting is an UNDERSTATEMENT. It wasn't all good experiences....but it certainly gave us all something to blog about. So, prepare yourself to hear about our Friday night/ Saturday morning:

So, we booked a 1 AM boat tour of the bridges opening on the Neva River. We were all SO excited about it! The city (especially Nevsky Prospekt) is all lit up at night, which made us even more excited. So, we decided to leave our apartment at 11 PM in order to catch the metro before it closed at midnight. We left our apartment all bundled up in our coats and warm clothes. And on our way to the metro we encountered a...how should I say it...CREEPER. (Try not to freak out Mom)

Here's what happened: For the first time I was actually holding my pepper spray and 2 seconds away from using it. We were followed by a guy who was suuuuuper drunk (not surprising in Russia at 11 PM on a Friday). And he looked at us and we just knew that he was not going to leave us alone. But we kept walking and did our best to ignore him. He started to talk to us and kept following us. We all just kept telling him we didn't speak Russian and he needed to leave us alone. We told him we needed to leave and he needed to just leave us alone. To be honest, we were pretty nice at first because he was being sort of funny, but after a while he started to get a little crazy. He grabbed my arm as we were trying to cross the street and I looked him in the face and said "NO." But he kept following us, so we all basically grabbed on to each other so he couldn't grab us as easily. Anyway, we kept walking and he continued to talk to us in Russian, and kept saying "please" and seemed like he wanted something...probably us! He grabbed my head teacher and started to hold her hands and she was like, "Niet, go away." Anyway, long story short, he grabbed all of us at least once and then finally LEFT. But not before he smacked Caitlin's butt. Class act, that guy. One of the girls is a 3rd degree black belt and so we are not completely helpless. Regardless, it was freaky.

Once we got on the metro we started to have a little fun and move past the creepy experience. We met the guys and walked to the river for the tour! We realized that the boat was actually bigger than we thought it would be. We thought it was going to be "roofless" which is why we dressed so warmly! But they had a cool deck outside with tables and chairs, so we sat out there! There was a group of Australians on the deck too, which was kind of fun! It's exciting whenever we encounter people we can actually talk to! The tour was in Russian, but there was a lady interpreting for the Australians, so I picked up a few things here and there. It was a bit hard to get some good pictures but it was so cool, and so pretty! Saint Pete's will always hold a special place in my heart. <3

Once we finished the tour, it was 2:30 AM, and we planned on taking a bus home, because the metro doesn't open until 6 AM. As we started walking toward the bus stop, Caitlin and I grabbed arms and walked together. As we were walking across the cross walk, we saw what we thought was a condom (there are a lot of crazy things in the ground here haha) and Caitlin goes, "IS THAT A CANDOM?" You read that right, she said cAndom, and we both just busted out laughing for about 2 minutes straight. Once we got to the stop we were told that they couldn't take us because the bridges were up! So, we realized we were going to have to wait until 5 AM to take our bus. So we ended up going to this restaurant/bar called "Biblioteca." And it was the coolest place ever! It was a really fun place to hang out for a while! Hopefully we can go back another time! Everyone ordered hot chocolates and I ordered a 7 Up. It came in this super adorable glass bottle. I decided to take it home with me and keep it! Once it got close to 5, we walked back to the bus stop, and the boys left. We waited a while longer and were told by some guy who spoke a little bit of English (he was kind of crazy haha) that our bus was not coming. So, yep, you got it. We had to wait until 6 AM to get on the freaking metro. By the time we got home and got in bed, it was 7 AM. The craziest thing was we were supposed to meet someone at 11 am for a tour of Pushkin, It ended up changing to 1 pm, but I was like, "Nope, no thanks, I am sleeping." I hadn't really felt well that whole night. The nice thing is the ended up not going to Pushkin, so I didn't miss it!

Long story short, IT WAS A CRAZY NIGHT. And it was pretty freaking fun! Oh and after carrying my 7 UP bottle for 2 hours, it broke. After I accidentally hit it against a stone corner after we got to our neighborhood. That was a waste of time haha.

Now, prepare yourself for a million photos! I'll post a couple of videos after this!