Update

Hello, just wanted to write a quick post to apologize for not posting a new message sooner. Since leaving Berlin we haven't had a stable internet connection and so haven't been able to post sooner. After leaving Berlin Leah and I spent a number of days in Paris, then flew to Iceland where we spent 6 days, then we made our way to the UK where we met up with Leah's parents. We stayed with their friends Mike and Diana who live outside of London, spent a couple of days in London, and then went to Bristol to visit Leah's cousin Mika. Now, we are in Denmark and staying in a little summer cottage. We have visited some of Marian's family so far, spent two days in Copenhagen and will see a few more family members before we leave Denmark on Sunday. On Monday, we fly to Spain, where we will spend another week. After this, we are still deciding (Jeff and Marian are off to Barcelona and then Paris) we may go to Geneva or possibly to Barcelona or Paris . . . we have too many options.

Sorry about not posting more frequently, but we have gotten a little lazy and are just enjoying the couple of weeks that we have left.

Berlin - Back to the DDR

The outside of our hostel

Me, when I lived in the DDR (inside the DDR museum)

Brandenburg Gate

Leah in front of the Bundestag

Inside the Holocaust Monument/Memorial/Museum

Section of the Berlin Wall still intact

TV Tower standing on the Alexander Platz

After touring around Vienna for three days, Leah and I were then bound for Berlin. Unfortunately it took us over ten hours on a train to get there from Vienna, but we knew that we wanted to visit the capital of Germany. Other than a few of the major attractions, we didn't really know what to see and so booked ourselves only one full day in the capital. However, almost immediately after arrival I knew that I loved Berlin. In fact, Berlin is easily my favorite city of the trip so far (I know I keep saying that, so don't judge me if it changes again). Berlin blends historic buildings with ultra modern architecture, shopping and convenience flawlessly. The two museums we did see, the DDR Museum and the Holocaust Memorial and Museum are easily two of the best museums I've visisted. Once we arrived and looked at the map and saw some of the tours and attractions; we certainly had many options to choose from. Since we arrived quite late in the evening (around 8:00pm) we grabbed a quick dinner at the main train station and then onto Berlin's metro system to the stop nearest our hostel. The directions given by the hostel on the website had changed slightly as, instead of a parking lot there was a massive building, but after asking two very nice Berlin ladies we were shortly on the correct route again, and after less than five minutes walking from the metro station we were at our hostel. The hostel was in a superb location, within walking distance of the major attractions, while also being less than five minutes from a metro station. It is in a converted factory and was very clean and modern, furnished almost entirely with Ikea (or Ikea wannabe) furniture. Having learnt our lesson in Krakow, we again had a private room with very comfy beds and fluffy duvets. The only downside which we found on our last night there was the noise from drunken backpackers crawling in around 4:00am from the organized pub crawls, but this is to be expected when one stays in hostels.

The next day, and our only day of touring started quite early, as we wanted to make the most of the day. The weather for the whole day was gorgeous, bright and sunny around 20-25 degrees. We ate at a nice little cafe, near the hostel and then made our way to our first attraction of the day - the DDR Museum. DDR in German stands for the German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany from the time of 1949 - 1989. It was the DDR who erected the infamous Berlin Wall, and was a seperate country supported by the Soviet Union until its collapse. The museum we went to was amazing as it re-created life as it was in the DDR (not all bad) by showcasing everything from the infamous Trabant car, what school was like, commercials, music, parties, the Stasi (secret police), the wall, products and my personal favorite part was a recreation of a DDR apartment. The museum was unique in its approach as you could touch and look at everything. In the apartment portion you could turn on the tv and flick to different channels, which played programs from the DDR period as well as open the drawers, sit on the couch etc, it was great! (Ask to see the book that I bought on the museum). This of course was all housed in a sleek, modern concrete building right on the water. Oh, in Germany (at least in the former DDR areas) you can still buy some of the products that were available in the DDR period such as their own brand of Cola, pickles, coffee, candy as there are many people who are quite nostalgic for the DDR. After the DDR Museum we walked along one of the major streets to the famous Brandenburg Gate, walked under the gate and to the German Bundestag (like our parliment building in Ottawa), and then south to the Holocaust Memorial and Museum. The Holocaust Memorial and Museum is a fairly recent sight in Berlin, constructed not long ago. It is located on the former no mans land, the area that existed between East and West Berlin near the wall, and is on the sight of the former office and bunker of Goebbels (one of Hitler's close associates, who was the propaganda minister of the Nazi regime). The monument is almost impossible to describe with words, but it is on an uneven square, very large, covered in grey cement blocks, of varrying sizes, some come up to your knee, others are quite massive, which are arranged in rows. It's quite incredible once you're in the middle, as it is supposed to give an oppressive feeling to it. Near one of the streets on the outskirts of the square is a staircase which descends down to the holocaust museum. Again, it is quite difficult to describe, but it has a very cold, modern feel to it and chronciles the Nazi attrocities committed before and during the Second World War. Near the end of the museum it has a number of personal accounts, letters, postcards and pictures of individuals which make the holocaust much more personal. Of the eleven million Jewish people living in Europe at that time, around six million were murdered by the Nazis. We walked from the Holocaust memorial to the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, which was the most famous border crossing between East and West Berlin. We chose not go into the Checkpoint Charlie museum, but had a delicious lunch nearby. After lunch we walked to the war monument and took the metro back to our hostel where we deposited our coats and souvenirs. Leah and I then journeyed to an area of the city called the East Side Gallery, which is the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall. Some of the paintings and graffiti on it are original to the time of the wall, but other sections are used as art projects and so are the host to modern paintings and murals. We walked the whole gallery and then took the metro to the Alexander Platz, which is the host of the massive TV tower in Berlin (you can see it from almost anywhere) and then went out for nice late dinner at one of the restaurants. After a long day of walking we then headed back to the hostel to get ready for our next adventure...to Paris!

Vienna

Day I
We left Krakow, Poland before 7am on May 28th making our way to Vienna, Austria on the next leg of our adventure. Luckily, we were able to get on a direct train, so we did not have to bother with making connections and risking missing our next train. Because we left Poland so early, we arrived in Vienna in the early afternoon (our train from Poland was about 8 hours long, but given that it was passing through 3 different countries, this can be forgiven). Since our experience in the Krakow - Tutti Frutti (have a laugh now, its quite a funny name) Hostel sharing a room with 8 other people, some snorers, and knowing that we prefer to rise earlier in the morning so that we can visit the attractions of the city before they close, we decided not to stay in a dorm hostel again. Instead, thanks to the marvelous expedia.ca we were able to find a fairly inexpensive hotel (about 110$ CAN a night as opposed to paying 40$ CAN each a night in a hostel) which conveniently included a great buffet breakfast everymorning. We decided that paying a little bit extra to get a better night sleep, have our own bathroom, and to get the included breakfast everymorning was worth the extra 15$ each a night.

Once we had dropped off our things and checked into our hotel (our room even had a kitchen!) we decided to spend the evening wandering around the city centre so we took the tram from the station right across the street from our hotel and got off at VIenna's Opera House. One of the only downsides to our visit to Vienna, was that much of the city centre was currently being refurbished, some of the streets in the central shopping and tourist areas were being redone, and many of the churches and older buildings were being restored and so were hidden behind scafolding. We snapped some photos of the Opera, visited the tourist information to get a map and a listing of the city's attractions, and then just strolled through the shops. At one point we passed a massive cathedral located right in the downtown of Vienna called the Cathedral of St. Stephan. Sadly this was one of the buildings which was covered by scafolding on the whole front side, but since it was one of the major sights mentioned on a walking tour map we had picked up we decided to visit the inside of the church. It is a Gothic Cathedral which was built in the 12th century, its roof was destroyed during the Second World War but is considered the primary landmark of the city. It is, like many of the other churches we have seen, impossible to describe in words, comparable to nothing I have seen before. After seeing the cathedral and visiting a few souvenir shops, we ate dinner and returned to the hotel for the night.

Day II
We enjoyed a great, massive breakfast early on our second morning, and then took the tram back to the city centre to begin our first full day of sightseeing in the Austrian Capital. Following a map which we had picked up that outlined a route that would show us the majority of the attractions, we passed by the St. Stephan Cathedral again before making our way to the Hofburg Palace (on the way we passed but did not visit the house of Mozart in the Hofburg Palace we saw a room in which at age 6 he played for the royal family). Consisting of around 2600 rooms, this palace was the home of the Emperor of Austria who was also, during a considerable portion of the Hapsburg line, also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Inside the palace we visited an exhibit of the staterooms, a section on the history of one of the last Empresses (Elizabeth, or Sisi, who is very popular but who led a rather tragic life), and the palace's collections of Silver, Porcelain and the Treasury. Again, the Hapsburgs were a very lavish royal family (although not quite as lavish as the Russians of course) having collections of dinnerware for every occassion which took up several rooms, gold detailing on much of the mouldings in their staterooms, and of course collecting all manner of gold, jewlery, icons, silks, etc.

Unfortunately appart from the first half day, and the afternoon of our third day, the weather while we were in Vienna was quite rainy and cool so after seeing the palace, and the exterior of it and the famous museums just across the road, we decided to visit the Butterfly House behind the Palace. Since it is located in a greenhouse, it was very nice and warm, and it was certainly more cheerful inside with the butterflies, plants and flowers, than it was outside fighting with our umbrella and dodging puddles. After the Butterfly House we took a detour off of our walking tour and found a cafe where we had Viennnese Schniztel for lunch, then we continued on our way to see first the Parliament building and then the Rathaus (City Hall). By this time the weather was getting quite cool and rainy so we grabbed a tram back towards our hotel, stopping to get some groceries in order to make dinner and some sandwiches for the next day.

Day III
After again enjoying a great breakfast buffet, and grabbing the umbrella which I had purchased the day before, Ross and I headed out for a somewhat soggy sightseeing morning. Having seen many of the cities major landmarks the day before, we took the tram past the Opera, the Parliament and the Rathaus until we reached the Votive Church. This building too was sadly undergoing reconstruction, and it was raining quite heavily so we didn't get any photos of its exterior but instead bought a few postcards so that we can show what it was like. This is one of the newer, historic cathedrals of the city, having being built in 1879. It was dedicated to the Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elizabeth for their 25th wedding anniversary. After the church, and seeing as it was still raining, we decided to abandon the rest of our walking tour route that we had not finished the day before and opted to take the metro out of the city centre to the Schonbrunn Palace. This palace was first used as a hunting palace for the royal family as it was then located in a thickly forested area. It also includes a famous zoo which like the palace was built in the mid 1500's. The palace was renovated and finally completed in 1700 and is an absolutely stunning baroque building (it rivals some of the palaces in Russia). The palace is made up of 1441 rooms including 139 kitchens (!). By the end of our tour of the interior of the palace, the weather finally turned cooperative, the clouds had been blown away and it was warm and sunny again so we decided to spend a few hours walking through the palace gardens.The park, our guide book tells me covers 197 acres, and is strewn with fountains, hedges and roses (which were blooming when we visited) and also has a zoo, a hedge maze and Roman ruins. An entire day could probably be spent in the park itself, but we took in only a small part of it before returning to our hotel where we cooked dinner and then packed our backpacks since we had to catch our train to Berlin the following morning.

Sadly, the poor weather made our visit to Vienna less than ideal, and I am sure the city would have been higher on my favorites list had the sun cooperated with us, but we have otherwise been lucky with the weather so I can't complain too much. Vienna is a very pretty city, and learning about the history of the Hapsburgs was very interesting too!

Still to come: Berlin and Paris!

Poland - Part 2

After seeing most of Krakow's major sights the day before, Ross and I had a more leisurely second full day to spend in Poland and having really enjoyed our tour of Auschwitz the day before we decided to take another tour with the same company. This time we visited Krakow's famous Salt Mines - I know sounds a bit silly - but the mine is actually very interesting.

It is located in a smaller village outside of Krakow, so we took all took a bus from the city centre to the mine. Once we arrived, our group was split into two groups - one group was intended to be the faster walkers group, and the other for slower walkers but it didn't really turn out that way. Our group, intended to be the faster walkers, but including some elderly people with canes, were shown the mine by one of its own guides. The other group was led by our tour company's guide and while I am sure his tour was equally interesting our guide was hilarious! He kept making these great jokes throughout the tour (I wish I could remember some of them) as well as being very informative.

A bit about the mine: It was first explored and excavated in the middle ages, consists of nine levels underground and its tunnels cover an area of over 300 kilometers. We walked for over two hours, and saw under 1% of the mine's total area! The tour takes you down an initial 370 odd stairs to level one, and eventually travels down to level three. Along the way we were shown numerous caves, all extremely large, which were at one point filled completely with salt! In some of these caves, there are now sculptures, lakes, and underground cathedrals. Mom, you would have hated this place, deep down underground (at least the tunnels were well lit and not cramped), gnomes in several of the caves, and at the end a freaky metal elevator with two levels each holding nine people tightly fit behind a grated metal door! However going up in the some what questionable elevator was defnitely preferable to climbing back up the hundreds of stairs to the surface. The mine would be nearly impossible to describe to you, especially the massive caves which now have huge cathedrals carved into them, so I will put up some photos and leave the rest to your imagination.

After a day of touring the mine, we strolled the streets of the city for a while, and eventually ate dinner in a great little Indian restaurant which we found on one of the many little streets between the outer ring of the centre and the busy central courtyard.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for Vienna, Berlin and upcoming Paris!
Love Leah and Ross!

Poland Part 1

Our Street in Krakow

Auschwitz 1

Auschwitz - Birkenau (note all of the chimneys, and there was another side too)

The castle on Wawel Hill

Early Monday (the 25th) morning Leah and I packed our bags, walked to the metro then boarded the train to Poland. Poland turned out to be the most surprising country that we visited. I have to admit I wasn't that excited to visit Krakow at first, but Poland and Krakow more specifically turned out to be easily one of the highlights of the trip so far. There was one minor snag in our journey to Poland however; as explained in the Czech blog we had boughten our tickets from Prague to Krakow in the Czech Republic a few days earlier. The problem was that the lady gave us tickets from Prague to Krakow connecting through the Polish town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz), but gave us an iternerary that said we were to connect through the city of Katowice...we realized this mistake once we were already on the train in Poland and the ticket inspector pointed it out. This meant having to re-buy the correct tickets on the spot, which cost us more money and also meant that we went needlessly out of the way to get to Krakow (taking the long route over the short one). With that said, we got to use our Russian again as the ticket inspector didn't speak English very well, but could speak basic Russian and he turned out to be a really really nice guy. Our first impressions of Poland were very good, as the country side is very green, and unlike Russia, garbage, and delapitated dacha free. What we saw was little clusters of very nice, well kept houses. Once we arrived in Krakow, 8 hours on the train from Prague (going through Katowice) we booked our next set of tickets from Krakow to Vienna (so we wouldn't have to go back to the train station until our departure). The other thing that really struck us was how open and friendly the Polish people were. Of the three days that we were there we didn't once encounter a rude or hostile person, on the contrary they smiled, said thank you and tried to help us in any way that they could. Luckily for us train stations, unlike airports, are generally located in or near the centres of the cities, and this was again the case with Krakow. A god send when you are backpacing with backpacks that weigh twice as much as you do. After booking our tickets we made the small trek to our hostel which was, like Prague, in an excellent location right downtown almost on the historic square. Our first impressions of the hostel were quite good as well. It was very clean, the service was friendly and we didn't encounter any problems. We had booked 3 nights in a 10 bed room and so we claimed a set of bunks (Leah on top, me on the bottom) and then headed out into Krakow. Krakow is a very beautiful old city, rivalling Prague. Like Prague, Krakow was spared extensive damage during the Second World War and so many of its old buildings, castle and forts still remain in excellent condition. We strolled around for a bit, getting ourselves acquainted with the city and then found a delicious restaurant. The other great thing about Poland is that everything is very inexpensive, especially when compared with the Czech Republic. Since only recently being admitted into the EU, Poland has yet to adpot the Euro and still uses the Polish Zwoty, and prices remain quite low. For example, Leah and I ate at a very nice restaurant, on the historic town square having a beer, two ice teas, an appetizer and two main courses, which cost us less than $30 Canadian all together. Our server, carrying on in the Polish tradition was also extremely friendly and Leah liked his Polish accent. We then continued to stroll around the historic town centre, before retreating back to our hostel to rest. When we got back we also made sure to book a tour for the main reason we went to Krakow - Auschwitz, and when we went back to our room where we met some of our roommates who happened to be from Canada also. Unfortunately I don't remember both of their names, but they were two guys who were cousins, one from near Edmonton and one from near Calgary and we hit it off right away. That night unfortunately we experienced the downfall of sleeping in a 10 person dorm....around 2:00am the other two roommates showed up after drinking most of the night and stumbled their way into their beds and unfortunately the one began snoring so loud that it turns our roommates through the wall could hear him. This meant that even with earplugs and headphones Leah and I could still hear his snoring which made sleep a bit of a challenge.

We woke up early the next morning as we had booked a tour to Auschwitz departing Krakow at 8:15am. We quickly got ready and enjoyed our free breakfast at the hostel before hurrying our way to the designated meeting point. There were enough people for two seperate groups, and so we took two large coach buses to the Polish town of Oswiecim (renamed Auschwitz by the Germans) which happens to be around 1 hour and 50 minutes away by car. To keep us entertained and give us an overview of what we were going to be visiting, a film, produced by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial, which lasted just over an hour, was shown to us. It explained the history of the camp, as well as the current efforts of the museum to maintain and preserve the area. Shortly after the film ended we arrived at the camp. Auschwitz is actually divided into 3 main camps, Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Auschwitz Monowitz. The tour that we were on covered the first Auschwitz camp, as well as the infamous and massive Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. We had an excellent tour guide who was very informative, describing various photos, objects and stories on top of the actual tour. We extensively toured through the first camp, seeing the living conditions that prisoners were kept in, saw the "wall of death" where the nazi's executed over a thousand people, walked through one of the gas chambers, saw the notorious prison within the camp that included a suffocation cell, 4 standing cells (4 people had to crawl into the cell and stand up all night while working all day [the guide likened it to four people standing in a phone booth]), and more, the gallows constructed to execute prisoners publicly, as well as the gallow which they used to execute Rudolph Hoss, who was the director of the camp. They took us into one of the blocks that they had converted into a museum, which explained the history of the camp, as well as housing many of the objects and possessions that had been confiscated from the prisoners. This is also where you walk through the hallways and see 80,000 shoes, thousands of suitcases with peoples names stil on them, as well as 2 tons of human hair that had been shaved off which had been used during the war to replace textile fibers. We also walked through the infamous gate which reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" or Work Will Set You Free, to enter the camp. After concluding the tour of the first camp we had a bit of a break to get something to eat, and then continued our tour at Auschwitz-Birkenau (about 3 km away.) This was by far the largest concentration camp, which was the location of the sorting platform where Nazi doctors would decide who was fit to work (the rest were sent to the gas chambers immediately). It is so difficult to fathom how many people died here as they were killing so many people that they needed over 4 gas chambers and crematoriums, and each block house (see picture, each chimmney was a block house), had around 700 people living in them. Over 1.1 million people were killed here. It is difficult to know the exact number because the vast majority of people sent to the camps, were not registered, given documents or photographed, they were simply marched to the gas chambers immediately upon arrival. Our guide mentioned that about 75% of those arriving in the trains were immediately sent to the gas chambers. These were predominately women, children and the elderly. After our tour of Birkenau, we went up the main tower over the railroad tracks and got a birds eye of the sprawling camp.

Once we got back from Auschwitz, (around 2:00pm) Leah and I decided to see another one of Krakow's Jewish sights, the Oskar Schindler factory. But, on the way there we decided to see one of Krakow's most famous and most visable attractions, Wawel Hill, and the castle situated on top. We decided to forego the interior of the castle as we were quite tired of viewing state rooms but we did opt to view a really interesting side attraction on the hill called the Dragon's Den. You descend down a very deep spiral staircase into a very large, natural cave underneath the castle. The exit leads you back out down the hill near the river, and it was this cave that gave rise to myths about a dragon living under the castle during the middle ages. After the cave we took a long walk to the Schindler Factory. Immortalized in the film Schindler's List, the factory is situated just across the river from the historic town center in an industrial area that was the sight of the former Jewish ghetto. On the way back to our hostel we took a stroll through the Jewish Quarter and then treated ourselves to some delicious Polish cuisine for dinner.

Prague - Mrs.Hemming, this is for you.

After spending almost a full week in Germany, Leah and I were now set to travel to Prague in the Czech Republic. Originally, we were planning on training there from Leipzig, but instead, Mila knew someone who was planning on driving through Prague and offered to take the three of us with him to help pay for gas. Mila was planning on going to Prague anyway to meet another set of friends from the US. So, on the 22nd of May Leah, Mila and I set off to Prague. Mila's friend picked us up a
short distance from Leipzig in a German city called Halle and then we took off for Prague on the famous Autobahn! It was amazingly smooth and we were travelling at a speed of about 160-180 km/h for most of the trip. The time to Prague from Leipzig took a mere 3 hours. He dropped us off at a major shopping mall just on the fringes of the city so we took the metro downtown and to our hostel. Our hostel was located right downtown, in the historic section of Prague and a mere
stones throw away from the famous Charles Bridge, which we could see from our window. This was Leah and my first experience in a hostel and it turned out to be a great place. We had a private room with our own little kitchen, the beds were very comfortable and even had fluffy duvets. We arrived in the early afternoon and so Leah and I spent the rest of the evening strolling through the very picturesque cobble stone streets, and had a delicious dinner at a Czech restaurant. The next day we were set to meet Mila and her friends around 10:30 at the Metro station, but only Mila arrived. Her friends had gone out the night before to a few bars and were unfortunately too hung over to go to sightseeing with us, but Leah, Mila and I had an awesome day none the less. We took a trek across the famous Charles Bridge and up the hill to the Prague Castle, which was the seat of the Kings of Bohemia. Prague is easily one of, if not the most, beautiful city that I have ever seen (I have to concede that exclamation to Mrs. Hemming). It is situated on the bend of a river, with beautiful medieval buildings, old churches, cobblestone streets and even a castle on a hill which overlooks the whole area. Prague also escaped being destroyed in the Second World War, and instead of being restored and rebuilt, like in the case of Dresden, Prague retains its original buildings. We then went to the Jewish quarter, which was unfortunately closed (as it was Saturday), but the three of us took another stroll through the historic centre of the city and then to the train station where Leah and I bought our tickets to Krakow, Poland. There is a side story off of these tickets that will be explained in the next blog entry about Krakow. Tired from walking all day, the rest of the afternoon was spent lounging on some grass outside the train station until supper time when we went to one of the massive malls for some cheap food at the food court. The second day, and the last full day we had in Prague we met Mila, and this time her friends, at the metro station again. The first thing we did was go to the Jewish Quarter, where they had a magnificant memorial to those who died during the Holocaust, as well as a number of synogogues and a very beautiful Jewish cemetary. The Jewish Quarter was a part of the Prague Ghetto during the Nazi occupation and many of the exhibits in the buildings were dedicated to this time. I overheard one of the English tour guides who mentioned that Prague, after Israel, has one of the largest collections of Jewish religious items because Hitler had planned to open a museum of extinct people in Prague after he had killed all of the Jewish people. After seeing the Jewish quarter we all had lunch and then split off to see our own sights. We said our good byes to Mila and then Leah and I ventured back into the centre of the historic part of Prague and up the old town hall tower which awarded us a magnificant view of the city. This tower also has a unique feature, an ancient and extremely accurate astronomical clock on the side of it. Leah and I finished a bit of souvenir shopping, got some breakfast for the next day and then had a very nice dinner right on the old town square and watched the sun set before heading back to our hostel for our last night in Prague. We were set to catch a train to Poland the next morning.

Dresden

On the 21st of May, Mila and her roommates had the day off of school, and so we decided to go to Dresden together. We met up with a friend of Mila's, who lives in Dresden, and who was nice enough to show us around the city. She met us at the train station, and we walked to the centre
of the city where we saw the Zwinger Palace of August the Strong, who was a Saxon King. It is a beautiful building, that you can walk all along the outer walls. The Zwinger Palace also looks into a beautiful open courtyard which contains a number of small gardens and fountains. After the palace we walked by the Dresden opera house, and then visited the Catholic Court Church now called the SS. Trinitatis which contains the remains of a number of Saxon princes and kings. From there we walked into the central square of Dresden, to see the Frauenkirche (The Women's Church). This church is very symbolic to the people of Dresden, as it is a reconstruction of the church that was destroyed in the Dresden bombing campaigns of the Second World War. All of the buildings surrounding the square were also heavily damaged
if not completely destroyed. Since then, however, these buildings have all been reconstructed to look as they did prior to the War. We stopped to have a drink at one of the cafés near the centre of the city before strolling along the banks of the Elbe river, where we eventually walked Mila`s friend home before catching our train back to Leipzig.

Germany - Lovely Leipzig

After settling in with Mila, her two roommates and their two cats, we were already feeling re-energized and relaxed. They were all very welcoming and cheerful to be around. On our first evening, Mila took us on a little guided tour of the city centre, pointing out the major places and buildings and introduced us to the city trams which could take us from her house to the centre. As Mila still had classes throughout the week, Ross and I planned to do some sleeping in in the mornings before getting ourselves to the downtown to meet up with Mila. On our first full day, Mila met up with us around noon and took us to one of Leipzig's main sights the Battle of the Nations Monument which commemorates one of the most significant defeats of Napoleon in 1813. It is the tallest monument in Europe standing at 91 metres tall, and to reach the top we had to climb over 300 stairs. But it was worth it! The full 360 degree views of the city were well worth the climb. After the monument we walked for a bit through a nearby cemetery before heading back to have dinner with Mila's roommates.
Mila had one longer day of classes during the week, so on this day, Ross and I went to the Leipzig Zoo to spend a sunny day with the animals. We both agree that it is the nicest zoo we have ever visited. Wanting to take in more of the history, the next day we opted to visit first the Stasi Museum (which we returned to later in the day with Mila as our translator for a few things - it was free so no worries) and then visited two of the city's famous churches St. Nicholas which is where peaceful protesting began which eventually led to the collapse of the DDR, and the Thomas church which was actually the church where Bach led a choir and performed until his death.
We very much enjoyed visiting Leipzig, it is a very charming city; a good mix of the old and the new. As a side note, on our last night there, we joined Mila and some friends to watch a football match (soccer) in a local pub. Mila's team - from near her home city in the northwest- sadly was defeated by a team from Ukraine, but nevertheless we decided celebrating was in order (we were after all in Germany for the first time) and so we headed to another bar - an interesting gothic one, in which we did not quite fit in - so that Ross could taste his first Absinthe. I abstained from this taste testing, but Ross reports that it tastes something like liquid Vicks cold syrup (a licoricey flavor - yuk!) only with better presentation.

Victory Day Hurray! and our last weeks in Russia

Our last few weeks in Russia were jam-packed with school, studying and last minute sight-seeing so we feel pretty relieved at the moment to be relaxing in . . . Germany (more about that later)!

May 9th - Victory Day is perhaps the largest holiday in Russia apart from the Christmas/New Year season, but is unlike any holiday I have seen before. It commemortates the end of the war with Germany (part of the Second World War) in Russia called the Great Fatherland War or the Great Patriotic War - in other European countries this same event is celebrated on the 8th of May because the armistice was signed at 11:01 pm on that day however, because of the time difference, it was already the 9th of May in Moscow. Today this holiday has lost some of its intensity since the collapse of the Soviet Union and likely as a result of the younger generations feeling somewhat detatched from the meaning of the holiday. Nevertheless, it is still celebrated nationally and in the major cities is marked with military parades and fireworks shows. We woke up very early that morning and made our way to Palace Square to latch ourselves onto the metal, fence dividers that held the spectators back off of the square (we were determined to get a front row seat) and waited 2 1/2 hours for the parade to begin. Thousands of people filled the section of the square designated for onlookers, and lined the streets around the palace to watch the parade. We were able to hold our positions at the front of the croud quite well (apart from the woman who elbowed her way in next to me so that her six-year-old could see and caused me to stand sideways for the rest of the morning). The parade began with different regiments marching into formation on the square, and following several speaches and the saluting of their commanders as they drove their jeeps around the square, they all marched their way around the square and into the streets making way for the military vehicles to follow their lead. We saw tanks, amphibious assault vehichles, armoured personelle carriers, artillery units, rocket launchers . . . all number of military equipment (although our Media teacher informed us that because of the bridges and narrow streets of St. Petersburg the most impressive equipment cannot be brought into the city - the Moscow parade for this reason is apparently more impressive because as well as being in the capital and therefore being more ellaborate, these vehicles as well as jets, are included in the celebrations. Following the parade we spent the day relaxing and enjoying the sunshine, talking in a nap in the afternoon just in time to avoid bad weather - the wind picked up so quickly and blew in storm clouds that poured rain for a while. Luckily however, despite remaining windy and quite cold, the rain stopped long enough in the evening for us to watch the fireworks. We made our way again quite early to the tip of Vasielevsky Island (the island on which we live) which justs out into the river opposite the Hermitage and the Peter and Paul Fortress Island which they happened to be shooting the fireworks from. It was pretty cold, standing in one place (dancing to keep warm) along the wall above the river, and it was still quite light at 10 o'clock when the fireworks started, but because the fireworks were shot out of artillery cannons it was quite the experience. The sound echoed across the river making it sound like a second shot was being fired from the Hermitage. Dozens of boats collected in the river below us, and thousands of people were crowded along the banks of the river and across the bridges. All in all a great first Victory Day.

In our last few days before leaving on the 17th, we were busy with regular classes and prepping for our test as well as starting to pack, doing laundry, mailing home excess clothing and items which we wouldn't need in the next few months so we didn't really do much sightseeing except for a day to Peterhof. Peterhof is yet another of the many palaces surrounding the city but is special because of the dozens of fountains on its grounds, and because it is a copy of the Versailles Palace in Paris. We waited to go and see it until May because the fountains are not turned on until May Day, and they are most certainly the highlight of the grounds. We took a hydrofoil boat, from the banks of the Neva right by the Hermitage, out into the ocean and then to the palace where we also toured the palace. Unfortunately, because we had a late start, not going until after our classes ended at 1 o'clock, and because the last boat left the palace at 5, our visit to Peterhof was quite short. It would have been nice to wander around the gardens for a full afternoon, but I am happy that we were able to see it.

Now, after finishing up our last classes, having our 'graduation ceremony' and spending our last days in the Russian Federation, Ross and I have made it safely to Leipzig, Germany where we are visiting our former roommate in Russia, Mila. We flew into Frankfurt on the morning of the 17th after camping out overnight in the St. Petersburg airport (we had to get there super early because our flight was leaving at 6am . . . but because the bridges which connect our island to the rest of the city are raised from about 1am to 5am we had to leave the island at around 12:30 and stay in the airport until our flight left at 6). Mila had predicted the train we would be arriving on (we had no way to contact her but had planned to phone from the train station once we arrived in Leipzig) and so was waiting for us at the train station when we pulled in. It was great to see her! I will save the stories of Germany for the moment and hopefully will be able to post more soon but here is our plan.

17th -20th May in Leipzig with Mila; 21st going with Mila and her roommates to Dresden; 22nd leaving with Mila and a friend to drive to Prague, Czech Republic; spending 22nd-24th in Prague; 25th-27th in Krakow, Poland; 28th-30th in Vienna, Austria; 31st May and 2nd June in Berlin, Germany; 3rd-5th Paris, France; then a week in Reykjavik Iceland before meeting up with my parents in London for a week; then heading with them to first Denmark (yay!) and finally a week in Spain. It is going to be quite the whirlwind trip! But we have found some great hostels to stay in and thanks to suggestions from Mila and her roommates have some fantastic attractions on our list. Thanks to them for their advice, as well as them graciously inviting us to stay these last few days - it has been wonderful to have these last few days to relax, plan, and detox in a way after those last four months in Russia. I still cannot really fully believe where we are, but Germany, and the people here, have been a welcome change. It feels so much more comfortable, cheerful and welcoming here. Russia is certainly a beautiful country, mysterious and historically fascinating, but there is something to be said for bright sunny weather, smiling people, clean streets and diversity.

Gatchina

Still enjoying sunny weather, and wanting to take in a few more of the St. Petersburg sights before leaving Russia on the 17th of May, Ross, Laura and I headed to the Gatchina Palace on May 3rd. The Gatchina Palace, which was at one point was a military training ground and where many military parades were held, more recently, it was where Nicholas II grew up. Like many of the other palaces around St. Petersburg is located a few kilometres outside of the city, so it is necessary to either take a tour bus or the train to get to Gatchina. We opted for the train, since it is so much more reliable . . . schedules of trains aren't bothered by busy traffic during "chas pik" (rush hour). We found our train and seats very easily (we are becoming quite profficient in Russian train travel it seems) and settled in for the 45min ride to Gatchina.

Conveniently, the Gatchina Palace is situated very near to the train station, so it took us only minutes to locate it. I was, for some reason, surprised at the size of the palace. I had seen photos of it before, and it looked so much smaller in person than I had been imagining it. Regardless, it is still an impressive looking building, with a large square at its centre which has situated on both sides of it, the two square wings which break off from the central building. The Gatchina Palace, as a result of being outside the city, has very large gardens which spread out from behind the palace, around a lake and several smaller ponds so we decided to first visit the palace museum and then spend the rest of the afternoon wandering across the many bridges and paths of the gardens.

The Museum in the Palace unfortunately does not cover many parts of the building, it is confined to the central wing of the building likely because as of yet the other sections have either not been renovated, or are being used as office space for the museum's staff. What we did see however, spanned all three floors and included rooms which were redesigned in a similar fashion to how they would have looked when the building was lived in. I enjoyed this palace much more than some of the others because (like the Alexander Palace) of how complete the furnishings were it was easier to envision how it would have been lived in. In many of the other palaces we have seen like the Hermitage (which contains mostly art and is not furnished in most sections) the Yusupov Palace, and the Catherine Palace we would be see rooms which were supposedly bedrooms yet there would be no bed in the room. Likewise, we would have seen room after room with just a few chairs, maybe a couch and art on the wall - it is difficult to comprehend why anyone would need so many "sitting rooms." It is to the Gatchina Palace's credit that it is decorated in such away that you can tell just but looking around a room how it would have been used. It was definitely far more interesting to me this way.

After visiting the interior of the palace we decided to walk the grounds before heading back to the train station to go back to St. Petersburg. The gardens of Gatchina surround a lake behind the palace and include many paths and bridges which cross over onto the little islands in the lake. It was a very sunny and warm day when we visited, so people were everywhere! Families were having picnics with their kids, young people rented row boats and paddle boats to puddle around in the lake, and others were out walking their dogs. The only downside to the beautiful scenery of the park, is that Russians for whatever reason don't seem to care about where they toss their garbage. Around all of the benches, in the water, along the paths in the grass were tossed wrappers, bottles, beer cans - really it is quite grose how people have in a way destroyed the most beautiful places in their country by littering all over the place.

We walked a loop around the lake, and then popped into a cafe for lunch (great milkshakes - really bad meal, at least for me. I think both Ross and Laura were satisfied with their lunches) before heading back to the trainstation and back into the city.

Canals and Retail Therapy

Apologies to everyone for not posting a blog sooner. But between the gorgeous weather that we've been having, as well as rolling into our last week of classes and exams, we've all been rather busy. On Saturday, May 2nd we had quite a pleasant day. The weather was nice and warm, and the sun was shining so we decided to take a boat through the canals with Laura. St. Petersburg very closely resembles Amsterdam or Venice in that it has miles of canals snaking through the city core. In the summertime the canals are full of sightseeing boats and private motorboats. We'd always wanted to go on one of the tours that take you through the canals, while also pointing out the historic buildings along the way and so we decided to go on Saturday. We took the metro downtown, made a quick stop in one of the bookstores downtown to buy a map of Gatchina (see next blog), had lunch at McDonalds and then decided to go on our boat tour. Our roommates had been on a boat tour a few days before, but we found a tour which was slightly longer than the one they had taken and which even went out into the Neva from the canals right near the Hermitage and the Peter and Paul Fortress. We were the first people to get on the boat, so we chose the seats in the back row on the open deck at the back of the boat. This worked out perfectly, since although we had people's heads in our way if we took photos forward, we could simply turn around in our chairs and take pictures off the back of the boat as we passed things. Our seats were also lucky because we happened to be furthest from the loud speakers of our guide, we could understand some of what she was saying, but not all of course, so it was nice to be a bit distanced from the noisy front of the boat. Over all the boat trip was a great way to see the city and a great way to spend a sunny afternoon.

After our tour of the canals, and since we had all been getting a bit stressed with school work and upcoming exams, we decided to venture to MEGAmall for some retail therapy. Having not brought many clothes for summer, and since our trip post-Russia continues until July we decided to purchase some summery clothes. Ross was able to find a pair of shorts, some sandals for the beach, a new shirt, and I bought a pair of shorts, and two t-shirts. A very successful day of retail therapy!

Trouble in Russia!

As the last blog entry stated, all was going well on my dad and his friend's (Mr. Ewing) trip to St. Petersburg, until the ride on the metro back from the war memorial to our gostinitsa. While we were transferring from the one metro line to the other, in downtown St. Petersburg, Mr. Ewing was targeted by pickpockets. He managed to protect his wallet, but unfortunately they grabbed his passport and then ran off of the metro car, just as the train started moving. While having your passport stolen is not a pleasant experience at any time, or in any country, this particular situation was complicated even further by the fact that my dad and Mr. Ewing were set to fly out of Russia to Frankfurt early in the morning, the next day. Also, to visit Russia one needs to be in posession of a Russian travel visa, vaild for the duration of the trip; and traveling without one is illegal and punishable by a prison term, even if you have a vaild passport, and both of their visas were set to expire the very next day. The situation was even more stressful as the Canadian Government decided to close the Canadian consulate in St. Petersburg and transfer all duties to the Canadian Embassy in Moscow...which is a convenient 8 hours away on a train. While we were in a bit of a shocked state, a nice younger Russian guy approached my dad and Mr. Ewing on the metro train and told them that the same thing had happened to him before. He suggested that we contact the local militsia (Russian version of the police) and that they might be able to find it. I asked one of the metro workers where the nearest militsia office was located, and after getting the directions, the four of us proceeded to the building where they were located.

To get to the upper floors of the building (the militsia post was located on the 3rd), you needed to go past a set of turnstyles manned by workers. We weren't 100% sure of where they were and so in the break of asking them we decided to try phoning the Canadian embassy in Moscow to see what they suggested to do in the situation. The number one thing they said was required, was a police report from the militsia, but unfortunately for us both Leah and my cellphone died while in the middle of conversing with the secretary there. After this occured, I explained the situation to the one of the workers at the turnstyles and she led us upstairs to the 3rd floor where the militsia were located. She buzzed the door and after we were let in, we were greeted by a large militsia officer holding an AK-47, and told to sit down in a side room until someone came for us. A short wait later, a really nice middle-aged woman came and after we explained the situation to her she told us what they would do. She said that the vast majority of times, pickpockets are only after money, and simply grab everything they can from a person and throw the rest of it on the ground. Seeing as how they only got Mr. Ewing's passport, she was quite sure that they would realize it didn't have any monetary value and simply throw it somewhere, in which case someone else would find it and turn it in. After waiting for about 45 minutes it seemed unlikely that the passport was going to show up, so another militsia officer came and gave us a police report, recording what had happened and what was stolen. We explained to him that my dad and Mr. Ewing were supposed to be leaving the country the very next morning, but he assured us that, with the police report and a photocopy of his passport and visa, Mr. Ewing should be able to board the plane. We thanked him and left, amazed at how helpful and patient both he and the woman were, having heard horror stories about the militsia. That evening we were supposed to eat dinner with my Chinese friend Xiefei, but instead, after having a stressful afternoon we decided to just eat some pizza at our place. That night we gave them our phone numbers in the chance that security wouldn't let Mr. Ewing on the plane, and said our goodbyes.

At about 5:30am Leah's phone rang and it was Mr. Ewing explaining that the airport security would not let him on the plane. Because my dad's visa was going to expire and he still had his passport he had no choice but to leave Russia on his scheduled flight leaving Mr. Ewing behind in the airport. We told him to take a taxi back to his hotel, and Leah and I quickly got dressed, ordered a taxi and met him at his hotel to figure out what we were going to do. We quickly discovered that the Canadian Embassy wasn't overly helpful as they only work during buisness hours (8-5), we couldn't find an emergency phone number for them, and their main comment was "you should have left for Moscow yesterday." They eventually told us that Mr. Ewing needed to have a copy of his biological page and microfiche sent to the Moscow Embassy, and he needed to arrive in Moscow Monday morning, with a copy of the police report and a photocopy of his passport and visa. We then had to phone Canada to request it, but Canada told us that the Embassy needed to request the information, and after running through a bureaucratic circle for about 15 minutes it was finally sorted out. He was also told on the phone that he needed to change his flight from St. Petersburg, to being able to depart from Moscow, which in general you are not able to do. After being told from the Lufthansa people that it was not possible, we eventually contaced his travel agent from Drumheller and she worked her magic and got them to change his departure city to Moscow. Leah and I, not wanting to let him go alone to Moscow as he doesn't speak any Russian, had to also contact our school to see if our passports were ready, as we had gone to Finland the previous weekend, and it usually takes about a week to re-register your visa in the country. We phoned our coordinator and luckily we were able to go into the school and get our passports back allowing us to go on the train to Moscow and stay a night in a hotel if need be. Mr. Ewing was also able to contact his travel insurance company to ensure that he was at least mostly covered during his delay. Later that day Leah and I took him to the Moscow railwayway station and bought 3 platskart (3rd class) tickets to Moscow, departing Monday morning at 1:00am, and arrving around 9:30am.

We arrived at the train station around 11:30pm Sunday night and waited there for our train to arrive. We were initially worried that they may not let Mr. Ewing on the train as he did not have his actual passport on him, but the lady didn't seem to mind at all that he used a photocopy and a police report. Once we arrived in Moscow we quickly grabbed a taxi and took it straight to the embassy, which happens to be situated on the same street as the Cambodian embassy. You know you are a valuable and respected country when your embassy is graciously given a spot next to the Cambodian Embassy. We were very glad that we finally reached our destination and I think both Leah and I felt relieved to be in the hands of Canadians, or so we thought. Little did we know that our experience in the embassy would be one of the most stressful parts of the whole ideal.

Once inside the embassy, instead of being met with understanding and a resolve to sort out the problem at hand, we were met almost immedietly with hostility. Poor Mr. Ewing was told on the phone that he simply needed to bring himself, the police report and a photocopy of his passport and visa, however the women he had been talking to on the phone happened to be sick that day, and her replacement instead bombarded him with questions like "why don't you have your pictures taken? Why don't you have these forms filled out, why didn't you get here sooner?" and perhaps the most helpful phrase "You're going to have to face the consequences!" She was yelling at him as if he WANTED to have his passport stolen. Despite trying to explain to her that no one mentioned any forms, or pictures, he finally started to dutifully fill them out. At 1:00pm we were told we should leave the embassy as it was going to close for lunch, and that at this time we should get his pictures taken for the new emergency passport that was going to be issued to him. We were told the photo store was "down the street to the left." So, we began walking and walking..and walking and eventually found a sign on a side street all in Russian, leading us into a courtyard, down a flight of falling apart cement stairs into a basement that looked like it belonged in a horror film where there was a photo place. This consisted of a man, his computer, a digital camera, and the photoshop computer program. We got the photos and returned to the embassy where finally a really nice Canadian lady, one of the foreign affairs people, looked over his application and forms and was the only person who was reassuring and told him that things could have turned out a lot worse. We ended up waiting until the embassy was going to close because they had to have a letter signed by the Russian Foreign Minister, which would then allow him to be granted an exit visa from the consular affairs section of the Domodedova airport. Unfortunately another delay occured and, because they could not guarantee that the letter would be completed by the time the embassy closed he was told he had to reschedule his flight for Tuesday as opposed to Monday evening. At the last moment it turned out that the letter was completed on time, and all we had to do was go back to our hotel (luckily Leah and I had already booked a hotel as we had planned on staying in Moscow the night to rest, and luckily it had room in it so Mr. Ewing had a place to stay) and then catch our flights the next day. At the last moment just before the embassy closed we asked if they could order us a taxi to our hotel since of course we didn't know any taxi companies in Moscow, and we were told "No, I'm leaving in two minutes and the embassy is closing, you'll have to do that yourselves."..What a nice bunch of helpful people the Canadian Embassy has working for it! We ended up phoning a taxi company ourselves and then going to the hotel.

The next afternoon Leah and I checked out of the hotel and made sure that Mr. Ewing had all of his instructions and information. He was supposed to arrive at the airport early and ask the Lufthansa people to take him to the consular services section, where he would have to be issued an exit visa. We also made sure he had our phone numbers in the off chance that something went wrong again, but we were pretty sure it would all work out this time around! Leah and had a good 7 hours before our flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg, so we took a taxi from the hotel to Red Square and saw....LENIN! The last time we were in Moscow his mausoleum was closed as he was being re-pickled, but this time Leah and I were able to see him. It was a very interesting experience as it's very very heavily guarded, you have to check all of your bags, phones, cameras, and video recorders, then walk through a set of metal detectors. You then walk around to the front of the mausoleum where there is a guard at the entrance, you walk inside to be greeted by another guard, turn left and walk down a set of stairs where there is another guard. Turn right down a set of stairs where there is another guard, and finally you come into an open room where Lenin lays on a raised platform in a glass box, inside a very opulent coffin. When inside the mausoleum you are not allowed to wear hats, talk, have your hands in your pockets or have gloves on. After you exit the mausoleum you can walk behind it where you see the graves of other Soviet leaders including Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko and Stalin. Following Lenin we then walked across Red Square to the GUM and hung around there until we took a taxi to the airport. After we had gone through security and were waiting to board our plane, Leah recieved a phonecall from Mr. Ewing's brother who told us that he had made it through security! We were very relieved and glad we able to help him through the whole ordeal.

We were however extremely disspointed in the Canadian Embassy who really didn't seem to care one way or the other what happened to him. Not once did they ask if he could speak Russian or if he needed help, without Leah and I it would have been near impossible to buy the train tickets to Moscow, and also nearly impossible to find that photo store. Despite being in an already stressful situation, when we finally made it to the embassy we were met with hostility when all we wanted to hear was "don't worry, we'll do what we can to help you." Bah!

Visitors from Canada!

My Dad and Mr. Ewing

Manly photo #1 Me and a tank

The four of us out for dinner at Baku, the Azerbaijani restaurant

Manly Photo #2 Me and the Aurora

The war memorial

Statues of Soviet Soldiers

Apologizes to everyone for not posting a new blog in awhile, but Leah and I have been busy playing tour guide to my dad and one of his friends from Canada who came to visit us in Petersburg.

They arrived on Saturday the 11th of April and were set to fly out on the 17th (Friday). Once they arrived and checked into their hotel, Leah and I orientated them with the city by giving them a bit of a walking tour of the major attractions. After showing them the outside of the Church on Spilled Blood, the Hermitage, Palace Square, Kazan Cathedral, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Bronze Horseman and the Admiralty we took them to a good Georgian (not the State) restaurant and had some delicious Shashlik.

Sunday the 12th, Leah and I took them to the Artillery Museum which is one of the attractions that we had yet to visit. It was quite interesting to see as the entire courtyard is full of Soviet Era tanks, missile launchers and artillery pieces. It was a very manly place to go and all the guys at home will be proud of me getting my picture taken in front of all the big weapons. We then took them across the water to the Peter and Paul fortress, showing them the burial place of the Russian Tsars (including and following Peter the Great), the Russian Mint, the Trubetskoy Prison and the Museum of St. Petersburg. We then walked through the Field of Mars and through the souvenir market to the Church on Spilled Blood. By the time we were finished sightseeing for the day we worked up quite an appetite and decided to go to the delicious Indian restaurant that we had gone to for my birthday dinner.

Monday the 13th we decided to tour the Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral, where Mikhail Kutzov, the Russian Field Marshal who is credited with defeating Napolean's Army is burried. Inside the cathedral you can see numerous banners that were captured by his forces and the keys to many of the French fortresses that he took over. After the Kazan Cathedral we took my dad and Mr. Ewing to St. Isaac's Cathedral, and up to the colannade at the top for a great birds eye view of the city. We then walked along one of the canals to the Yusupov palace. The Yusupov's were a very wealthy family in Tsarist times (rumour has it that they were even wealthier than the royal family themselves). In the basement of the Yusupov palace was also the location that Rasputin was killed. The palace is in great condition and is easily the most elaborately decorated of any of the palaces that we have been in so far. For dinner, Leah and I decided on taking them out to the Idiot, which is easily one of the best restaurants in St. Petersburg. The entertainment for the night was watching numerous huge Russian men talking on cellphones going in and out of the restaurant, not ordering anything or sitting down. (My dad and Mr. Ewing were convinced they were Mafia.)

Tuesday the 14th was spent inside the massive Hermitage. You can easily spend multiple days inside looking at the various collections spread over three buildings. Extra attention was paid to all of the famous paintings that my dad had wanted to see. Before he became the principal of Leah and my high school, he was an art teacher and so had studied and saw all of these famous paintings in books so I'm quite sure he was excited to see them in person. After touring the Hermitage all day, I took them back to our Gostinitsa to show them how and where we lived and to meet our roommates. We then went out to one of our usual dining spots - Yaposha Sushi, where we had a nice meal, albeit without salmon; as for some reason they had run out of salmon for the evening....

As if the art collection located within the Hermitage wasn't enough, on Wednesday I decided to show them the Russian Museum. Unlike the Hermitage, the Russian museum's collection of paintings are solely by Russian artists. I then took them to Gostiny Dvor, the large mall that used to be a bazaar when St. Petersburg was founded, and then we met up with Leah downtown on Nevsky and decided to try a new restaurant called Baku that serves Azerbaijani food. It was an excellent choice as the food was absolutely amazing, very flavourful and the restaurant itself had great atmosphere. The inside was decorated as a mosque, and was very colourful and comfortable.

The 16th was the last official tour day of their visit as they were set to fly out of St. Petersburg for Frankfurt at around 6:00am the next day. With so many attractions left to see we decided to go to the Cruiser Aurora, our school at the Smolny Cathedral and the War memorial. The cruiser Aurora was a very interesting sight, moored in the river it is a free attraction that not only makes for great pictures but you can also go on it and even into the free museum in the inside of the ship. The cruiser was comissioned in 1903 and served in the Russo-Japanese War. Then, in 1917 a blank shot, fired by the Aurora, was the signal for the storming of the Winter Palace (Hermitage) where the Provisional government were seated in the dining room. We then took a taxi to our school at the Smolny Cathedral and met up with Leah and proceeded to the St. Petersburg War Memorial. It is a massive memorial that is difficult to describe in words. It consists of a museum under the memorial, and a huge stone pillar with the dates of the Second World War at the top. The memorial is also decorated with sculptures and carvings of Soviet soldiers. After the memorial we were set to head back to our Gostinitsa where we were going to meet my Chinese friend Xiefei for supper, but unfortunately we ran into some problems at the metro station. A group of pickpockets managed to steal the passport of my dad's friend and so began another adventure for us, but that will be described in our next blog entry.