April 29, 2008

Quick entry so I remember what we did yesterday:

Woke up late again cause we all slept well except Lisa who had problems getting to sleep.

Today was a long walk. We hit:
Liberty Monument: Walked along the Neva until we hit the other side of the Hermitage. Headed south and past this square that has many bones left of people that didn't get to live in a communist society after 1917.
Church of the Spilt Blood: Just a few steps away is this church that we walk past yesterday on the way to the Russian Museum. Today we went in and marveled at the mosaics and marble floors. This is a smaller church and we realized a rebuilt church (just in the last 10 years). Still it it is pretty impressive.
Souvenir Bazaar: Just across the street is this set of 20 or 30 carts. Lots of souvenirs but it turns out pretty expensive. We held our hands over our pockets and decided to wait until later in the week.
Crossed the Neva and walked to the Aurora: We left the historical district by walking across the Palace Bridge and headed to the Petrograd side. Long walk but the wonderful weather was something to enjoy. 70 degrees and lots of sun. The Aurora is the one place that we don't have to pay admission. Lenin broadcast his call for revolution from this boat and I guess Russia is still proud of this part of their history. Check out this slightly biased version of history but I think the facts are basically tru
Through the Petrograd side to the organic / salad restaurant: Hannah likes this restaurant and it is something that I didn't expect to see. Organic and natural food in the northern climes. Very tasty.
Peter and Paul Fort: This fort is under lots of construction but we decided to visit Peter I and Alexeander II tombs along with many of their family. They take up most of the floor space in the cathedral in this fort so services are not held here too often.

On the way home we walked across the across the 2 bridges that connect by the way of the tip of ??? island. There is a nice little park at the tip of this island and we saw 4 or 5 wedding picture sessions complete with snacks and champagne going on.

We got back and had a nice surprise, we got the rest of our luggage. Sam and I immediately changed our clothes!!!

After a short rest we started towards the JAFI art show and for discussion with 2 high school boys and one girl in her first year of college. This was arranged by Katia who picked us up at the airport. She works at JAFI with the young adults in various ways, this one as a mentor for a small newletter that they put out. Hannah and Sam talked with them for about an hour while eating tea, mocha coffee, beer, and sweets. They discussed the fact that although they are Jewish, they don't feel a strong connection to Hebrew or the religion. Also, one of the boys seemed very active in politics but they all seemed very resigned that nothing was going to change.

We got a ride back to our hotel so the driver could pick up the 2 large bags of ballet clothes. We arrange to have dinner at 1913 with Katia which was a fancier Russian restaurant. We all had food that we loved. Sam had a steak, Lisa had fish soup and chicken Kiev while Hannah and Katia both had the soup with potatoe pancakes. I had an appetizer of herring, egg salad, carrots, potatoe, and apples all arrange in beautiful layers. For dinner I had the Russian Ravioli. Turns out that both are what we consider traditional Jewish food for us back in the states. The ravioli we call kreplach.