God Goes Abroad.

I must admit that at this moment I am pretty damn tired. I made the (wonderful) mistake of staying out too late in Petersburg. Sure, you say, we have all done that before, stayed out too late and were forced to pay for it the next day. The only difference is that in St. Petersburg, depending upon the location of your residence compared to where you choose to be in the city, after a certain point you do not have the option to go home. To those who are unfamiliar with the geography of the city, it is essentially a collection of islands that are all tied together by a series of drawbridges. Unfortunately, for me, they raise nearly all the bridges in the city at 2 AM so that the ships can come through, which makes it literally impossible to return home…well, outside of boat (do not know that there even is one) or flight. Oh, and you can forget about the Metro after midnight because lord knows I immediately thought of that one. I will admit that being trapped on an island with Ksenia and Joe was a lot of fun. I finally got to experience the bar scene a bit and watch the sunset and rise which was very cool. It actually never got that dark, mostly just like twilight and that lasted about four or five hours. It definitely got me very excited for our White Nights tour where we travel around the city and end the evening watching the drawbridges rise from the CORRECT side.

Ksenia and Joe at SPB.

For the most part, the darkest is got.

And, of course, Peterhof—UTTERLY AMAZING(!!!!!!). It FAR exceeded all of my expectations and I have already decided that I HAVE to go back at least once before I leave Russia. Just absolutely stunning. I obviously included pictures with captions below because this is one thing that I must share.

Main entrance, do note the shinny structure to your left…it has a twin on the opposite side of the palace.

So…I really love the panoramic feature on my camera a little bit too much, but the back looking onto the Gulf of Finland. Pretty much the fountains everyone wants to see.

There are other wonderful things to be seen around the grounds as well.