The trip to Russia was the very first time I had ever been outside of the United States or even on an airplane period. I completely HATED the plane ride there and back. I flew from L.A. to Paris, Paris to St Petersburg. Being on a plane for 10.5 hours straight gave me severe motion sickness. I even threw up as we were landing in Paris. I started to feel horrible after about 5 hours of being in the plane, and from there it felt like I was trapped. You simply have to endure the pain. What else can you do? When I got off the plane, whenever I stood still I felt like my body was still moving. This lasted for 2 days after getting off, there and back. Now that I know I get bad motion sickness, I won't be so willing to travel for more than 5 hours ever again... unless of course it's for Japan. (Like a LONG stay in Japan).
The reason I decided to visit St Petersburg was simply to visit my brother who lives there and meet his wife and newborn baby. I hadn't seen him for over 2 years, so I thought it would be nice for him as well to see some familiar faces. Hopefully next time I see him will be in America. :D
The very first thing I noticed when I arrived in Saint Petersburg was the driving. Everyone drives FAST. Not only do they drive fast, they also change lanes abruptly and often (cutting people off), tailgate, park in lanes that are meant for driving, park on the sidewalks, run red lights, almost run over pedestrians, and so much more that would scare the living daylight out of me in America. In one particular intersection near the Galeria mall, I saw one crazy tangled up traffic jam with cars going every which way in the intersection. There were so many cars that entered the intersection at a red light and got stuck there, and the cars with the green light still tried to weave in and out through the cars stuck in the middle. It wasn't a typical 4 way intersection either. It was a rounded one with more than 4 cross streets. If that had happened here in the U.S., I'm convinced there would have been accidents and people freaking out, getting out of their cars, not knowing what to do. Yet I didn't see one accident in the 2 weeks I was there.
Let me say how dead TIRED I was the whole 2 weeks from the enormous amount of walking that was done. Before I got to Russia, I was under the impression that my brother owned a car. He never told me that my sister and I would have to take the metro everywhere and walk. He also never told us that he lived about 15 miles away from where we were staying and that it takes about an hour and 15 min to travel that distance. Walking to the metro station, taking the metro, getting off and taking a 16 passenger van called a Marshrutka, and then walking to his apartment. Although the worst part of the walking was going up and down Nevsky Prospekt, and especially when we visited the Hermitage. I never thought my feet could hurt that bad. Every single step I took was a surprise to me. Mind over matter? I don't know, but it felt like the opposite because my mind was screaming, "STOP! ...NOW!... WHY AREN'T YOU STOPPING!?" x.x
Over time I was able to get a little bit used to all the walking. My feet didn't stop hurting, but they were used to walking and they were able to turn the screaming into "I'll just have to deal with this (-.-)". Luckily my sister and me had each other to take turns massaging our feet.
Now whenever I walk a lot and my feet start to hurt a little bit, I now know what 100x worse feels like. I can be grateful to that. I have NO idea how Russian girls walk around the city all day in HIGH HEELS. And they strut their stuff well, too! Mad respect to Russian women.
The reason I decided to visit St Petersburg was simply to visit my brother who lives there and meet his wife and newborn baby. I hadn't seen him for over 2 years, so I thought it would be nice for him as well to see some familiar faces. Hopefully next time I see him will be in America. :D
The very first thing I noticed when I arrived in Saint Petersburg was the driving. Everyone drives FAST. Not only do they drive fast, they also change lanes abruptly and often (cutting people off), tailgate, park in lanes that are meant for driving, park on the sidewalks, run red lights, almost run over pedestrians, and so much more that would scare the living daylight out of me in America. In one particular intersection near the Galeria mall, I saw one crazy tangled up traffic jam with cars going every which way in the intersection. There were so many cars that entered the intersection at a red light and got stuck there, and the cars with the green light still tried to weave in and out through the cars stuck in the middle. It wasn't a typical 4 way intersection either. It was a rounded one with more than 4 cross streets. If that had happened here in the U.S., I'm convinced there would have been accidents and people freaking out, getting out of their cars, not knowing what to do. Yet I didn't see one accident in the 2 weeks I was there.
Let me say how dead TIRED I was the whole 2 weeks from the enormous amount of walking that was done. Before I got to Russia, I was under the impression that my brother owned a car. He never told me that my sister and I would have to take the metro everywhere and walk. He also never told us that he lived about 15 miles away from where we were staying and that it takes about an hour and 15 min to travel that distance. Walking to the metro station, taking the metro, getting off and taking a 16 passenger van called a Marshrutka, and then walking to his apartment. Although the worst part of the walking was going up and down Nevsky Prospekt, and especially when we visited the Hermitage. I never thought my feet could hurt that bad. Every single step I took was a surprise to me. Mind over matter? I don't know, but it felt like the opposite because my mind was screaming, "STOP! ...NOW!... WHY AREN'T YOU STOPPING!?" x.x
Over time I was able to get a little bit used to all the walking. My feet didn't stop hurting, but they were used to walking and they were able to turn the screaming into "I'll just have to deal with this (-.-)". Luckily my sister and me had each other to take turns massaging our feet.
Now whenever I walk a lot and my feet start to hurt a little bit, I now know what 100x worse feels like. I can be grateful to that. I have NO idea how Russian girls walk around the city all day in HIGH HEELS. And they strut their stuff well, too! Mad respect to Russian women.
And now a series of pictures with captions:
Reads: Sex with Friends
Sailor boys.
Church of spilled blood. It's cool inside, but the outside is cooler.
Inception.
Two famous bridges on the NEVA river.
Me walking up St Isaac's Cathedral.
View from St Isaac's Cathedral
(Lots of construction going on in that area).
Me and my bro walking to the fountains at Peter the Great's summer palace.
At the fountains aka Summer Palace in Petergof (Peterhof).
In Russia, everyone has to get married at a government building, so couples like to get married and then take wedding photos at cool places of their choosing.
In front of the Hermitage (the Winter Palace), where millions of pieces of art work can be found.
I thought this guy was pretty cool.
In the Hermitage, hungry and dead tired of walking. We only had the energy to see a portion of the art. Of course you can't see all of it in one visit, but at this point the only the thing I wanted to see was food.
On one of the days that my sister and I weren't able to spend time with the bro, we decided to visit this amusement park. It was like a tiny knockoff Disneyland. But I had fun. :3
Posing as a statue at Peter the Great's summer home.
Peter and Paul Fortress, where the tsars' bodies are.
A jail room, where they kept political prisoners in Peter and Paul Fortress.
T.G.I. Fridays! I've never been a huge fan of TGI's, but I was so happy to eat there. <3
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