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!