St. Petes.

Over the weekend we went to St. Petersburg. Here is a bit of the good & the bad...

Disclaimer: My camera stopped working so only about 50% of my pictures are in focus. So bare with me.

We finally got to take a sleeper train. 

Good: They are my absolute favorite. You fall asleep in one place & wake up across the country. It's a beautiful thing. 

Bad: I hardly slept. On the way there my cabin was located next to the bathroom & Bailey was snoring & on the way home I fell of my bed in the middle of the night.

We stayed in the hood & the owner of the hostel spoke zero English. 

Good: It was such a hilarious experience & the owner actually ended up being a total sweetheart. She also spoke Spanish which was so strange. So I got to stand in the shower with Bailey & this Russian babushka who spoke Spanish, while Bailey tried to speak spanish to her & tell her that the water was burning my skin off. 

Bad: There were rats & I don't do rodents. 

Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. 

Good: It was awesome & tied with St. Basils for best cathedral. 

Bad: There were like 50,000 men from one of the stans there. Well I'm assuming. I've never seen so many men swarming one area in my life. Let alone so many that all looked the same & who enjoyed creeping hard. Turns out there was some big Muslim holiday so they were all coming to the mosque but either way it was overwhelming. 

St. Petes is located right on the water. 

Good: This aspect makes it ever so charming & fun to stroll around. 

Bad: The humidity makes it feel ten times colder & your face almost freezes off from the wind. 

It's a city with a rather western/European feel to it. 

Good: Who doesn't love walking into a restaurant & being greeted with a smile & a friendly hello!? Nearly everyone speaks English & it's awesome being able to communicate with people. 

Bad: I came to Russia for a reason. I wan't dark, mean people not these frilly bilingual folks. 

Winter Palace/The Hermitage. 

Good: So beautiful & awesome. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed walking around the hermitage. 

Bad: A lot of nudes. I don't know if I'd necessarily clump that in with the bad stuff but if I throw it on the good list I look like a total perv. So here it is. I've never seen so many paintings & sculptures of the human body in my life. Kind of rad. Kind of strange. Whatever. I also can only look at paintings of funny dressed old guys for so long before I start to loose interest. After a couple of hours I was ready to run. 

Went to Kunstkamera. 

Good: It's a museum full of weird stuff, which is a dream come true. I was fascinated by nearly everything in there. From the deer with two heads to the giant's skeleton, I was all about it. 

Bad: They had a room full of dead babies. Like tons of them. It left me feeling pretty gross. 

We found the best pizza pasta place. 

Good: I had delicious pizza/pasta two nights in a row

Bad: We may or may not have all ordered our own pizzas. I also may or may not have eaten the whole thing. I then wanted to die & went into a temporary food coma. 

Peterhof in the fall! 

Good: THIS WAS THE MOST AMAZING PLACE EVER. Definitely my favorite part of the trip. Words or pictures could never properly depict how stunning it really was. Talk about a serious game changer. Also we got super lucky & all of the fountains were still on. 

Bad: It was colder than cold. I know I am going to kick myself for saying that when winter really comes around but holy smokes it was chilly. Especially when we hit the ocean. I was concerned my fingers might start falling off. I'm such a sissy from all my desert dwelling. 

& that's St. Petes for ya! 

Lithuania.

Saturday morning we hopped on a bus to Lithuania. It was only a four hour ride but holy smokes it was rough. The bus was like a furnace & I thought I was going to lose my mind. As soon as we got there we headed for a little café that I had been recommended. Cozy's was the name & man it didn’t disappoint. They served me a bacon cheeseburger & fries (for only six bucks), had nudes in the bathrooms & poked fun at Russia’s political situation. It was the greatest place.

The rest of the day we mostly just wandered around every part of that town. We hit all the must see buildings, went to the best coffee shop/book store, got amazing homemade ice cream, went up to the Gediminas’ Tower, The Three Crosses & much more. 

The crosses got my vote for best activity! Even with the 200 stairs it took to get there. 

They had diet coke & coke zero there, which is hard to come by in Russia. I don't even drink soda but just the fact that I can't get it in Russia made it enticing & exciting.I love that Coca Cola rocks this marketing strategy everywhere.  

Jess would buy a whole baguette for our bus rides & that made me love her even more than I already do. 

I wish I had more in me to give exciting details but it's safe to safe Lithuania was awesome & deserving of another visit. Farewell!

Latvian Love.

Right now I am driving through the forest in the middle of nowhere Estonia looking out over the beautiful trees that have been consumed by fall. The sight of uninhabited land is healing me. Seriously the last four days have been a breath of fresh air. Metaphorically & literally.

It all started on Thursday night when we boarded a bus for Riga, Latvia. Sixteen hours baby. Seriously not that bad. They have wifi, free hot chocolate & big, soft seats on these buses. How can you complain about that? So we arrived in Riga hungry & stoked. We made our way to our hostel where we were warmly welcomed. We quickly fell in love with that cozy little place. Cinnamon Sally’s Backpacker Hostel for those who care. It’s located right on top of a McDonalds. Which is the most fortunate & unfortunate thing ever. (Refer to previous post for McDonald’s redeeming qualities).

We spent most of that afternoon wandering around Old Town. That place has it going on. I can count on my hands the number of places I've been that are simply magical. Riga is one of those places.

We went to the top of St. Peter’s cathedral & caught a nice view of the quaint city. This was easily my favorite part of the day.

We also did some shopping & I bought another ring. Central Market was the place for all your shopping needs. They had everything you could think of. 

That night we all met up for dinner & decided we were going to try out this authentic Latvian place. We were in that restaurant for about one minute before we smelt dill & decided to try a Mexican food place we had seen earlier. It wasn't very good but the people were ordering tequila shots by the hundreds & there was a little boy dancing in a window sill. So I still enjoyed it.

Later we walked around the city, bought some post cards, & I fell on my face in a dark alley way. Something special happened that night though. I was introduced to Lion Bar. Often referred to (by Bailey & I) as the Tiger, Bear or Oh My bar. I’m obsessed. I won’t tell you how many I ate in just one weekend. It’s like a kit kat laced with caramel (& maybe crack cocaine). Holy smokes it’s yummy. The awful news is they only sell it in the Baltic countries. Needless to say I may be coming home with a whole box. 

The other day we spent in Latvia was just as successful. We woke up & ate at the most delicious crepe/blini café. It was great & super cheap.We then wandered around the city & hoped on a bus to Sigulda. It was a beautiful area.We walked alllllll over the country side. Down sketchy roads,over bridges & just everywhere. It was so refreshing to be amongst the trees. We checked out some important cave, ate caramel in a giant cone & then walked around an old castle.

Later that day we went to McDonalds & Subway. Judge me & HOLY FREAK SUBWAY WAS SO GOOD. It was unlike any Subway I’ve ever been to in my life. I don’t even think it was the same food. It was a game changer. Obviously or I wouldn’t be writing about it. You know what else is a game changer? European chocolate. Just keep that in mind next time you’re in the area. Also who's excited to see the new Breds Pits movie!?  

Anyways the ride home went by much quicker than the ride there & they even let me through customs with my food (because heaven knows if they would have taken my lion bar I would have lost my mind).Bailey & I kept having giggle fits & I’m pretty sure everyone on the bus hated us. We were just too slap happy for our own good. Either way The Baltics rocked my world & would most likely rock yours as well. Do what you’ve got to do to get there!