Thank You, St. Petersburg

The past few days have given me a once in a lifetime opportunity. I have visited St. Petersburg, Russia, which is something few Americans are able to ever say. This four day rotary organized trip opened my eyes to a whole new culture. It's no secret that our two countries aren't getting along right now, and to be honest, I was quite worried about that going in to the trip. This trip has once again proved that you can't judge 144 million people on the actions of a few people who happen to run their government.

As getting a Russian visa can be difficult and expensive, it was a rather small group of exchange students. There was about 60 of us, which was quite nice. Sixty is much easier to handle than 160. Here's some photo's to walk you through my trip.

The Hermitage, a huge art museum started by Katherine the Great

Central States Exchange Girls <3

I believe this is the General Staff building of the Hermitage

A Monument that sits in front of the Hermitage

Hermitage from a distance. Its huge and more buildings are included in the museum!

Inside the hermitage, it felt like everything was embellished with gold.

A throne room in the Hermitage

A painting by Leonardo Da Vinci 

The Great Gottorp Globe 

Chamber of Curiosity- Peter the Great's collection of weird things. It's a real baby.

We saw so much, I honestly don't remember what most things are called. This is a really beautiful building though. 

I don't remember what this was either, but its a great picture.

St. Nicolas's Cathedral

Touching the phoenix's forehead is suppose to make your wishes come true. 

Church of the Savior on Blood

The detail is amazing.

The Gang

A Cathedral inspired by Roman Architecture. 

We were shown all of this by a wonderful tour guide. I learned so much about Russian history. Most of these buildings are older than the United States which never stops amazing me.

It wasn't all educational. Of course we fit some shopping in.

Nesting dolls make great souvenirs.

 One really unexpected thing, Russia has more American things than Finland does... or at least it seemed that way. For example, Burger kings and Starbucks were everywhere. Both of which you hardly ever see in Finland.

Our names in Russian. 

The crazy thing about Russian is that most things sounds similar to the English words. They just aren't written anywhere near close. 

Gotta Love the Hats

Spaghetti for Breakfast? 

Tha gang at the Ballet

We got to see The Nutcracker

Some other things:

Russian people ( at least the strangers we begged for directions) were so nice. People spoke more English and better English than I was expecting. They had no problem stopping to help us when we got lost.

As to be expected, I also experienced some odd things. I was told "Putin is god" by a 12 year old in an elevator. I saw a t-shirt with Putin punching Obama that said "Goodbye America." I ate spaghetti for breakfast. While strange, all of these things turned out to be quite funny. Lots of laughs were shared.

Bus 1 is the best. FYI

I love this group of people.

So thank you, Russia for a great adventure.