More pictures of Peterhof

Here's a couple more pictures of Peterhof. The first is taken from the level of the palace, looking out over the canal that leads to the Bay of Finland. The fountains hadn't been turned on yet, when I took this picture. The other picture is of the famous pyramid fountain, one of the many, many cool fountains. Enjoy the pictures!

What's a Pskov?

This week saw our last out-of-town excursion. We visited the 1100 year old city of Pskov near the Estonian border, staying there Thursday-Saturday. Most interesting to me was the Kremlin (fortress) built on the confluence of the Velikaya and Pskova rivers. It felt like an older, smaller, Russian version of Belgrade. Besides the mandatory fortress tour, we spent some time with the local members exploring other areas of the town.
In addition to Pskov, we saw Mihailovskoe, where the poet Alexander Pushkin spent time on house arrest; and also an old fortress in Izborsk and a monastery in Pechory.
Yesterday was also my last Sunday at my little branch outside the city. Next Saturday I'll be travelling with my parents so I already had to say goodbye to them. It was sad, and actually reminded me of when I had to leave my wonderful friends in Serbia. But even in that thought I found some consolation. At the end of this farewell, there awaits a reunion or two...

Peterhof HO!

This past Saturday was our last free day (meaning a day w/out class) of the program, excluding Sundays. We decided to use the day to visit Peterhof, Peter the Great's palace resort, just outside of St. Petersburg. We splurged a bit and payed extra to ride a hydrofoil out of the city and through the Bay of Finland over there.
The area consists of a canal leading through a gigantic lower park, up to Peter the Great's palace. On the other side of the palace is another Imperial park. The lower park is full of the most amazing fountains I have ever seen in my life, the crowning one (captured here by yours truly) is a gilden statue of Samson ripping open the lion's jaw, symbolizing Russia's victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War. Saturday was Peterhof day, a holiday which they celebrated with a beautiful fountain and firework show, along with 18th century costumed dancers and ballerinas. It was impressive like the surface of the Sun is warm.

Pavlovsk, Moscow, Novgorod and soon Pskov

That's the list of all the places we've visited since my last entry.
Moscow was great. I spent a l

Moscow Right Now!

I'm back from Moscow. Actually, our train arrived this morning at 5:30am and I'm not home yet. It's nearly 7:00am, and James and I stopped at an internet cafe after fighting just to get most of the way home. The empty city buses wanted to make us pay extra to transport our luggages, but I didn't have any money. I finally bullied a ticketer into letting us ride for the normal charge and we were able to use our regular passes.
You probably want a traditional picture of me at Red Square. Well, you just might get one later. I think I'm going to go home and sleep first.