This morning started early (5:45am!) and unfortunately we woke up to an apartment in Prague with no hot water. The apartment was great the entire stay except for this one small issue. We packed up and left for the airport showerless, but navigated the public transportation system successfully and made it to our flight in plenty of time. The first leg of our flight gave us the muffin pictured above for breakfast -- we took a picture because it was called "fluffy muffin" and tasted more like a piece of cake. Our first flight landed in Vienna a bit late, the customs line was super long, and the security line was no better. We had a 20 min window for when our plain LEFT, so we rudely cut everyone in line. Then in security they searched my overstuffed bag because of my billion chocolate bars, and Davids backpack because of empty beer bottles brought home for souveniers. We luckily didn't miss the flight though because it ended up thankfully being delayed by 20 min. This flight served us lunch, though by the time they got to me they were out of chicken so I had to eat "prawns" -- yuck! David was nice enough to share his so that I didn't go hungry, and between both trays of goodies we got enough to eat. We landed in St. Petersburg to find a taxi driver who spoke essentially zero english. We shared a taxi with another woman on the Victoria-Jamie trip, and made it to the hotel in one piece.
This hotel, costing us a huge sum of $170 dollars a night (ouch!) was not nearly as nice as our apartment in Prague, as you can see from the pictures. The shower doesn't drain, the water smells funny (we are drinking only bottled water) and their is a suspicious dark area in the corner of the shower that we wonder if its mold. The room is none too special, and the internet is only available in the lobby (where I am sitting now, David is reading a book and commenting on how Russian reality TV is just as bad as US reality TV). We are right downtown though, which I guess is good. At first glance St. Petersburg is busier, has more probability of car accidents (nobody seems to obey traffic lights), is dirtier, and the architecture isn't quite as stunning as in Prague (though it is cool in its own way). We met up with Diana right awawy, shwoered, dressed for the ballet and headed out.
The picture of the four girls attending the ballet above took forever to get after playing with lighting, angle, and everyone's camera. Our camera ran out of battery after this shot so we unfortunately don't have many pictures from today. We will need to borrow from the others. In this picture Kelsey is on the far left, I am next (obviously), then Diana, then Viki R. We wandered around the area surrounding the theater a bit, then grabbed a super speedy snack on the walk back to the theater (gelato and a split ham sandwich).
During the show David and I were tired from a short night of sleep last night, and most everyone else didn't sleep at all last night due to their flight. We also didn't pick up a program so couldn't quite remember the Swan Lake plot. Put these two things together and at least Viki, Matt, David and I spent a good part of the first two acts nodding off (or out right sleeping). The theatre was beautiful and the show was in fact good, we were just a little out of it. During the intermission we scarfed down a cup of tea (both now have singed tongues) and a chocolate éclair. We thankfully picked up a program so the second half of the ballet was much more enjoyable -- we actually knew what was going on!
We walked back at 11:00pm in PURE daylight -- this is normal for David but for me its a bit hard to get used to. We are exhausted and I of course and slightly hungry, but sleep is winning out tonight. I have been fighting a cold since I left Illinois -- I keep taking airborne to boost my immune system. I had no idea if it would actually work but I couldn't imagine it would hurt! I think I have warded most of it off thankfully, but after two lazy days of not taking it I did end up with a bit of a stuffy nose, though luckily I feel fine. Tomorrow morning we have breakfast at 7 provided by the hotel, then a day of touring with the group. The girls have a night on some boat, and the guys (maybe just Matt and David) are going to the bar across the street to watch the World Cup (assuming its on?). Another long day ahead!
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