Has a bad rap in the news, but overall an interesting country
Russia is one of the most interesting countries I have run across in my travels. I have been there twice and the second time I lost my camera (with many non tourist pictures) in a McDonald’s of all places!!!!! It has a fascinating history, too much vodka, and the food is descent at best, but the sites I saw there made up for everything.
As we entered Russia from Finland by bus, our first stop was the tiny border town of Vyborg….(not that impressive, oh well it gets better)
As we drove down to our first stop St. Petersberg, all of us were in awe of the sites. The countryside looks exactly like it did 100 years ago, however as we got into the city things quickly changed…
St. Petersburg is what I think about when I think of Russia. I like this city a lot. It has art and culture as well as a very long history. You will not run out of Vodka (just like the rest of Russia) or Champagne. Matter of fact I loved the hermitage and also going to the Peter and Paul Fortress. One of the nights we went out to a Russian Folk Dancing show and I had the embarrassment of getting dragged up on stage and making a fool of myself.
Another night we got to go to the Nutcracker Ballet and see a nice ballet show which was amazing!!!!
Oh and dont forget about the deformed baby in the jars in one of the museums…. 
So many things to do, in so little time……Moscow was on the horizon, but first a stop in Novgorod
Novgorod is the fifth biggest city in Russia. It has a lot of history to it as this is where Ivan the Terrible basically slaughtered a bunch of the residents (supposedly) for going against him. Taking a nice jaunt around town, you will see a lot of Medieval buildings including Orthodox Churches. We decided to go into a nightclub while we were there which looked something out of a Mafia movie, but we still had a great time!!!! On the way we stopped at a McDonalds and also went to see Tchaikovsky’s house that he wrote his symphonies in:
Now it was onto Moscow!!!! This city like the rest of Russia has fascinated me practically my whole life. I was about to be fascinated more. We stayed in a typical Communist style hotel that is a few decades away from being renovated, but when in Russia…….so we checked into the hotel and not five minutes later we were already at the supermarket getting vodka. I am not just talking a few bottles, I am talking about a shopping cart full of vodka for the hotel!!!! You can liken this to how much cereal there is in the United States in Wal Mart. This was like the Wal Mart of Vodka with so many different kids. So we had some good times drinking. We did a lot of sightseeing in the day. Red Square, Lenins Mausoleum (get there early because a line forms), The Kremlin, and of course the subway. In our hotel I ran into a Russian guy who perhaps had too much to drink and was passed out on the floor face down in the lobby. His friend and I managed to carry him to a couch where he cops picked him up. I will let the pictures speak for themselves as this is one of those places that pictures speak louder than words…..
On our way to Belarus we stayed in a dodgy town called Yartsevo. We stayed at a small hotel with dancers and alcohol and probably prostitutes. There was the local mafia leader that we had to buy stuff from in our group or the group leader had to pay him off or the next time a bus came by, bad things may happen to it. The next morning on the way out to Belarus we stopped by Borodino in which there was a famous battle during the Napoleonic Era between Russia and France. Truly magnificent…..
