Fall Break Day 5: HALLOWEEN

Our first full day in St. Petersburg was VERY packed. We started out ambitious with a 5 hour walking tour of the city.

Our guide showed us most of the important buildings, bridges, fortresses, palaces, cathedrals, and museums. He also showed us good places to eat. We stopped in the bakery for pastries and I returned there everyday after that. It was snowing the whole time during the tour, but we didn't care. It was really pretty and worth every minute.

My scarf hat from Tallinn kept me warm for most of the Russia trip! Here is me in front of the Church of Spilled Blood. This is the site where Alexander II was assassinated. Another part of our tour went to Peter and Paul Fortress. At noon they fired off a canon, and took everyone by surprise! We took a rest after a long tour and prepared for the Ballet in the evening! Everyone dressed up nice and we walked 45 minutes to the Mariinsky Theater to see "La Sylphide".

It was a love story about a man who leaves his bride to be for a fairy temptress. In order to stay with the fairy he is given a scarf from a witch to capture the fairy with. The scarf ends up killing the fairy and his wife to be ends up marrying his best friend. Moral of the story is don't cheat, or else you will be all alone and sad.

That evening was Halloween so I figured that would be a good night to experience Russian night life. I didn't dress up very intense though. I just wore zebra leggings under the dress I had worn to the ballet earlier that evening. After getting some advice for locations to go from the Hostel staff, me and two other students went searching. She must have given really bad advice because we couldn't find any of the locations she had suggested. We ended up finding a night club with a bar and dance floor. There was only 2 people dancing when we arrived at 11:30 (Europeans don't usually START partying until after 12 or 1) So we just relaxed and enjoyed each others company until more people arrived. By 1 there was a full dance floor and we got to see some very interesting costumes and meet some really fun people. I spent most of my night getting to know two young men from Finland, Mikko and Lauri, who are studying abroad in St. Petersburg for the year. I love how many different nationalities you can find all in one place! Continue the story by reading Fall Break Day 6: HERMITAGE.