We decided to sleep in a little bit today, so we didn’t get into town until about 1:00. We went looking for souvenirs and went to visit a Russian monastery and graveyard. Not really worth visiting again, but the church was kind of interesting. Afterward we rode the red line of the subway to the end of the line, headed to Peterhov park. The red line is very interesting, because it is very old and artistic. John says it is like a series of 19th century palace entrance halls, with ornate columns, chandeliers, marble and glasswork, and other metalwork. It is really gorgeous, and interesting to find in a subway, especially in a country that is still so “gray”.
We got to the end of the line, then had to hop a bus to the park, with was another 30-40 minutes away. This was really the first time that I was a little nervous, because we only knew of the park through suggestions from the Russian teacher on board the ship. We had no idea where in the city (or country) we were, and if anything were to go wrong, we had no idea where we were. After we got off the bus at the park, we found an authentic Russian restaurant to eat at, where one of the young ladies spoke English very well, so I felt a little better. The park was beautiful, and there are a lot of fountains and manicured trees, shrubs, and gardens. We were kicked out at closing (8:00 p.m.) and started walking toward the next small town to catch the bus back. We couldn’t get on the bus until we found an ATM, as we didn’t have enough rubles to get back. Well, every ATM we found was out of order. We were starting to wonder what to do, but then we found one, so everything was fine. By the time we returned to the ship and got to our room it was 11:15 p.m. Oh, and it was still light outside!
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