The wedding, Part 2 & the trip home

At long last we are back in the United States and have time to post the rest of the story regarding the wedding! Once we arrived at the reception site, the entertainment provided was just unbelievable (literally).

First, there was a band of gypsies to greet us -- while they played Jamie and Victoria had to drink from the same glass of wine and then Jamie had to break the glass. Around this time we met our hosts for the night -- one man speaking Russian and narrating the chain of events, and another man who translated the Russian into English. Neither of us really remember the order in which each show was put on, so we will just describe the ones we remember.

At one point there were two tests of sorts for Victoria. One of them started off with a tribe of people dressed as Native Americans -- with headdresses, feet stomping, howling, feathers, the whole deal. Some of the Russians actually asked the Americans if the Indians were brought straight from America!! They danced around for a bit, and then Jamie's father came out wearing a headdress to present the "babushka" (grandmother) to them to help them with cooking, etc. The woman came in dressed as an Indian and riding on a platform. She hobbled to the stage, and Victoria was called up to prove she didn't need the babushka's help. She had to correctly identify the things needed to make a soup. After the Indian tribe was dismissed, all of the men in the room were welcomed to come to the stage and kiss Victoria on the cheek. Jamie was to be one of them, and Victoria had to correctly identify her husband. She managed to do this (we later learned they had a secret code planned), and then handed candy to each of the guys who came to kiss her.

Throughout the night we also had several dances by different groups -- Russian dancers, clog dancers, unidentifiable (by me) dancers, and two dances by children of some of the Russian guests (about age 12). The kids were phenomenal -- they did ballroom dancing and were just really really good! Also, put up at the beginning, were three HUGE fans (like, the accordion style paper ones that open), about 15 feet tall, that had pictures of Jamie and Victoria on them. These were on the stage outside.

At one point we had grape stomping, to make fresh wine for the couple. There was a big (15ft diameter) vat which large amounts of grapes into and people from the party hopped in barefoot and stomped on the grapes. In the mean time, surrounding the main barrel, there were several smaller barrels with scantily clad women (see through costumes, thongs, etc.) swaying back and forth -- in the barrel.

We also saw a group of people dressed as Eskimos singing and dancing. At the same time a large ice sculpture was brought out, and Jamie had to chisel it open to find food and vodka. He and Victoria then had to pour the Vodka on a fire (the fire was wheeled in with a fake tree) and cook the fish (I think).

There was a probably professional redone debate between Obama and a Russian guy up on the projector -- instead of what they were actually talking about the debate had subtitles discussing the marriage of Victoria and Jamie, and how good it was for the cooperation between the two countries.

There was a cooking competition (David joined in and got stabbed by a knife while cutting cucumbers). Russia vs. US -- they were given a bunch of salad ingredients and had to stand up on stage and make a salad in the allotted time. Victoria and Jamie then tasted each salad and chose which one they liked better. Russia won.

Jamie and Victoria also sawed through a log at some point in the night. There was a large fireworks show (as big as Randolph 4th of July apparently) just for us, set off from across the river. At the same time there was a large group of dancers with drums and two fake pianos dancing by the river.

While all of this was happening, the 100 or so guests were enjoying a multi course meal with various meets, fish, caviar, bread, potatoes, wine, vodka, etc. The main dish was a choice of salmon or beef, we both had the beef. There was a fruity cake for dessert. The entire "reception" went on from about 5:30pm (when we left the hotel) till about 1am. You would think the night was over at this point, but it was most certainly not!

At 1:00am we boarded two coach buses and were driven to ANOTHER boat. This boat was much bigger, and fit all of the guests. There was more food, more wine, champaign and vodka. There was a band. We toured the rivers on this boat waiting for the draw bridges to raise at 1:30am, they are only raised for 2 hours each day. We watched this happened while we continued to celebrate.

At 3:00 am the boat dropped us off and we had a 20 minute walk back to the hotel. Diana and I actually more accurately hobbled back because wearing heels for that many hours made both of our feet quite sore. Once back at the hotel we packed up our stuff, and crawled into bed around 6am. We'd had a fun night, but we were both incredibly disheartened because the Russian maids had thrown out David's special Czech beer bottles. We are going to try to replace them, but its not the same because we can't ever have the bottles we drank from.

We woke up at 10:30 in the morning and thankfully had hot water. We had a quick breakfast, hopped in our taxi and headed to the airport. The trip home was mostly uneventful, though by the time we hit Boston David and I were both feeling tired and sick of unhealthy food. On the plane we both watched "The edge of darkness" which was not a very good movie, napped some, and ate two meals. After landing in Boston we took a taxi back to the apartment, unpacked, did some laundry, and went to the store to buy some pita chips and fruit.

And that concludes the awesome trip!

St. Petersburg Day 4 (the wedding) Part 1

To preface this post, we need to put in a disclaimer. Nothing we can write in this blog will accurately describe the extent of this wedding celebration. The wedding ceremony was actually back in May, but this was the "Russian Celebration" hosted by Victoria's parents. We will do our best to accurately depict the night, but we are sure to come up short.

Keep in mind, nobody (other than the parents) knew what was coming at the start. Everything (except that we were getting on a bus) was a suprise, even to the bride and groom.

The night started at 5 PM with a bus ride to a large party boat. The groups were split in to two, so there were actually two boats, but we didn't see where the other boat took off from (we had different busses). We found later that there were technically three boats, as the wedding party (bride, groom, best man, and maid of honor) had their own boat as well (much smaller). The boat was very flat, but seated around 50 people, and was decked out with a disco theme and a guy in the corner playing accordian. Champagne, vodka, crepes, stuffed rolls were served as appetizers as we started to tour through the rivers of St. Petersburg. Our host for the night was a magician who spoke no english so the boat had an interpreter. It was pretty funny seeing the guy crack a joke, break out laughing, and then have to hand the mic to the interpreter who most certainly lost some of the humor in translation. Still funny, but the magician was seriously cracking up at his own jokes. I was part of the grand finale, where I was put in a trick coat and the guy used his hands from behind my back to do tricks. The hightlight and grand finale was him tucking a handkerchief in my pants and then pulling it out with a pair of panties attached. You should check out the video to see it all!

At an interlude, we got satches of food, because "when you start on a journey, you have to have some food!" They contained bread, cheese, some pickles, and an onion. We stuck to the crepes. Girls were given sailor things for their necks, and men were given sailor tee-shirts (sleeveless, white with blue stripes like popeye). We didn't all put them on.

We caught up with the other boat and were greeted by six people on bicycles with whistles and angel wings. Small fireworks set were set off and then we turned away. We heard the angels go past (blowing their whistles), but thought they were going away. It took us a few minutes, but they were followinig us! At every bridge, they would put on some sort of show, including dancing, small fireworks, and other hilarious things. They were basically mimes with whistles, and their show (going from bridge to bridge) lasted about 30 minutes. No pictures of this, but you have to try and imagine 6 people with overcoats and angel wings racing past us on bikes to get to the next bridge and then performing a show while we passed. Total shows were probably around 15-20.

We went out on to the main river (the Neva), and set up with the other boat across from us. We were instructed to retrieve a white pidgeon (a "dove") from a box and hold it (yes, they were alive and pooping). Caroline and I declined the honor. We were also told to step away from the cannon, as it was going to go off soon. Yes. A cannon. The wedding party boat showed up and headed between the two large boats. When they were between us, they were given a 3 shot salute from each boat and all of the "doves" were released from each boat at the same time that Victoria (the bride) and Jamie (the groom) released theirs from the middle boat. It was pretty neat, all of the birds immediately flocked together and circled the boats. We continued our boat ride as a group of three.

We continued on, and then were asked to go out to the top of the boat so we could see the celebration site as we approached. The whistling biker mimes were there and had changed costume. They were waving stick like flags at us and smiling enthusiastically. The welcoming show was insane - there were these women IN tables -- standing in the center like a centerpiece, or like the table was a large skirt. There were also women standing in the top of these super tall domes, we don't even know what they were. We got off the boat, and headed inside.

To see enough for yourself to know we aren't exaggerating, click here.

Part 2 will come later!

St. Petersburg Day 3

Today didn't start so well for me because I was totally tired. I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that we seem to have a bit of a hot water issue in our room. Once again today we didn't have any hot water in the morning, so I only ended up with a partial shower. I did thankfully manage to get clean for the most part. The extra time it took to get any water made me late to breakfast, which made it hard to eat in time to leave. I was pretty exhausted from the day before, so fell asleep for every single bus ride. We drove 15 miles south of the city to another Palace. This place had something to do with Pushkin, which is interesting since in Prague we stayed at Pushkin apartments. Pushkin is a famous Russian poet. The picture above is a room that contains 16 lbs of gold just for that room. It was pretty insane. I actually almost fell asleep in the palace!

After the palace tour we went to lunch at a traditional Russian restaurant. Most of the food was great -- the soup above is borsch, a beet soup. Considering I don't particularly like beets the soup was pretty good. David of course loved it, and had two big helpings. Lots of free vodka too, though after a tiny sip from both David and I we stuck to water, it tasted pretty terrible. We then had an hour drive back to the city, during which we both fell promptly asleep. Finally, after this longer nap, I started to feel more alert.

We went to St. Isaac's cathedral next, which was also quite ornate and had lots of granite. We learned it can hold up to 14,000 people, and it contains no musical instruments or seats. After this cathedral we visited the palace of an aristocrat, which was less fancy than the palaces of the Tsars, but was still pretty nice! It was also the place of the attempted assassination of Rasputin (spelling?). He was first poisoned, then shot three times, and finally dumped in the frozen water. One person in the group read he eventually died of hypothermia. We got back to the room with just enough time to change for dinner hosted by Victoria's parents at a German Pub. At the pub we ate lots of meat, fried food, and drank beer brewed by the pub. We then started for a walk outside, guided by Olga, but got stuck in a thunder storm and had to sprint back to the bus. We didn't quite make it, as you can tell from the picture below.

Despite being wet, the Cornell crowd stopped for apple strudel on at the bar across from our hotel -- a good way to end the day! No touring plans for tomorrow, so we are going to sleep in and then go souvenir shopping. Tomorrow night is the big deal -- we don't know much about it (I think its possibly a surprise even to Jamie and Victoria), but we do know that we will be taking two boats to an island for the event.

More photos here!