St. Petersburg - September 27, 2005

Since I was placed at a different hotel the first night I had to move back to my original hotel. It is very nice. Although in some ways I would have liked to stay in the other room. I had my own bathroom there. In the hotel I'm in now (My original reservation) the bathroom is in the hallway. But the room with my bed in it and the entire "Mini-Hotel" is VERY clean. Despite the building condition and the entrences.

So yesterday I was up at 7:00 a.m and walked....and walked.....and walked..... I finally ended up at the Hermitage. I knew in the back of my mind that the museum was closed on Mondays. It was just as well, I did not really want to go in and "Walk" around while I was so tired. I will make a special trip on Wednesday to see the museum. But while I was right at the Hermitage I went around to the river side of the Palace and decided to take the hydrofoil to the Summer Palace (Petrovorets). The hydrofoil take about 20 minutes across the bay from St. Petersburg. The last time I had seen the palace the fountains were not working. This time they were. They are really beautiful. I decided not to go into the palace because I had already seen it and it had be restored when I was here before. The Gardens at the Summer Palace were really nice compared to the first time I was here; The grooming was much better.

After the hydrofoil trip back to St. Petersburg I walked down by St. Isaccs Cthedral and then through a bunch of side streets. I found a street called Moika Canal. This is where the school that attended the first time I was here is located. It was kind of interesting to see the bulding. I have no idea if it is still a school. I could not tell. I then found a new "up and comming" part of the city with lots of new shops. There was a brand new "western style" department store. In the lowest level of the store was a "Supermarket". I was really impressed. There was nothing like this the last time I was here. I was glad to see so many western style products. I bought some bottled water, some candy, soda, and some fruit. Something I have not had a lot of on this trip but am trying to eat.

I Finally got home from a VERY long day of walking. Basically from approximately 7:00 a.m to about 6:00 p.m. I got back to my hotel room and was going to take a nap and layed down and fell sleep until 3:00 a.m. Stayed in bed and was well rested for today. We'll see. I'm going to hop on the Metro (subway) and visit some places that I used to go to when I was here the first time.