Home Sweet Home...

The last days of our trip were spent in Dublin and Amsterdam. We were pretty much worn-out by then so we didn't do a whole lot of sight-seeing. Dublin was awesome after the fiasco Jess wrote about. Her birthday was awesome. We took a tour of Guinness and got like 3 free pints for her birthday. That was definitely the highlight of Dublin (besides the hotel). For the last night in Dublin, we booked a hotel that was really close to the airport and offered a free shuttle because our flight was at 6am (we weren't able to stay that night in our other hotel anyways because it was fully booked). The hotel we stayed in our last night was amazing. For about the same price as the first hotel, we basically got a HUGE apartment with a great view. It was too bad we only had one short night there (we think the reason it was so cheap was because it's in a bad neighborhood kinda far from the city center...but it was fun anyways). The next day we flew to Amsterdam. We basically didn't sleep at all that night and we were exhausted! We got to our hostel fine and we were very pleased with the location (very central). Of course, we got there in the morning and couldn't go to our room until 2pm, so we went and got some brunch/napped in the lobby until then. After a nice nap and shower, we explored the city a bit and grabbed some dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. We also really just walked around and relaxed in Amsterdam as well. It's a unique and beautiful city and it was a great place to end our travels. We also met up with Laura and I's friends, Chuck and Ani, from school. They flew into Amsterdam to start their trip, so we hung out for a day. It was very refreshing to see friendly faces. That night we went to a comedy show called Boom Chicago which was sketch and improv comedy. It was very fun. The next day we left for home (luckily Jess and I had a direct flight). We were all VERY ready to go home after over 2 months abroad. What an amazing trip!

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to...

Wow, it's been awhile. So, Barcelona was basically like Mexico...except for instead of Mexican people, there were Spanish people...soo yeah. Nice beaches, but not that nice of a city. We went to the beach for a couple hours and I got so sunburnt that I couldnt wear pants for a few days and had to buy a dress. That sucked. Also, in Antibes we had another bedbug attack...well, Aud was fine but Andrew and I were attacked. So, now it's my turn to look like a leper. Madrid was amazing! We had a great hostel with a private bathroom (very rare) and the city was really nice and much cheaper than Barcelona. We had tapas and sangria, and we shopped (of course). Then, we were going to Paris via overnight train, thinking we had a sleeper compartment with beds...so, we get to our part of the train and go in and WHAT DO WE FIND THAT WE HAVE PAID 40 EUROS FOR?!?! Chairs. For 12 hours. Chairs. So, that sucked. Worst sleep of my life. But then we arrived in Paris and it was lovely. We had some great food, saw the Eiffel Tower, etc, shopped...yada yada. Basically it was awesome, and the people were (surprisingly) really nice to us. Although this was the only place i've ever been to where people immediately pegged me as an English-speaker...and sometimes they would yell things at me on the street. Normally people think I speak German before they hear me speak, so it was a little weird.
We had to take a bus to the airport from Paris, so we got to the bus station and we ask this guy if its the right bus and he YELLS AT US and says, "your bus left 30 minutes ago! You're late! Put your stuff under the bus and get on, OKAY?!" So, we were freaking out about missing our flight for the hour bus ride, then we get there and had like 30 minutes just SITTING AROUND at the airport. So, that was stressful. Then, we get to the hostel in Dublin and I go up to the front desk and say my name and give them the confirmation number and they say, "ohhhh YOU'RE Jessica Wilson, this came for you" and they gave me a HUGE box from my Dad and Stepmom with chocolates and champagne, and then they told me that I have no reservation and the confirmation number was for a room July 17th...so I start SOBBING because I didnt want to be homeless on my 21st birthday. After about 2 hours trying to find a new hotel, we decided on this hotel right in the middle of the main street in Dublin which is really nice and fairly inexpensive, AND the guy at reception gave us free full breakfast because of what happened at the other place and because it's my birthday :)
Then we had a lot of Guinness. Then life was better. And now we're going to go to the Guinness Brewery for my birthday! Woohoo! :)

I know it's been a while since either of us blogged, sorry. So, the trip to Barcelona was LONG and we didn't get in to our hostel until around 11pm. We saw Laura in the lobby there and it was SO great to see her. We visited a lot about our travels so far that night (we had many stories swap). The next day we meant to go straight to the beach, but we ended up trying to find a swimming suit for Laura (she shipped hers home...not sure why). Since it was a Sunday in a predominantely Catholic city, nothing was open. We ended up walking around the city for a very long time before making it to the beach. When we got there though, it was SO worth it. The beaches in Barcelona are amazing. Needless to say, we all got burnt...even Andrew. In the evening, we tried to find some tapas without much luck. We went to this crappy place late at night and were not very satisfied by what was offered on a Sunday night. The next day we took a fast train to Madrid. Madrid was AMAZING. We all loved it (especially in comparison with Barcelona). We had the BEST hostel of the trip, churros and chocolate around the corner, beautiful sites, nice people, great shopping, unbelievable tapas and sangria, and some of the best gelato I've ever tasted. Madrid has it all. After Madrid, we went on an overnight train to Paris. We thought we would be staying in either a 4-bed or 6-bed cabin (hoping for a 4-bed)...and got a chair. Yes, a chair. Aparently, in booking everything, we booked a seat instead of a bed. And these were the most UNCOMFORTABLE chairs ever. We hardly slept at all. It was horrible. We got to Paris in the morning and made it to our hotel pretty easily. Since it was the morning, however, we couldn't check in. So, we left our stuff and walked around the city all nasty and smelly from not having showered yet. Andrew did his own thing while we ate an amazing brunch, saw Notre Dame and shopped. We saw quite a lot of the city and we loved it almost immediately. In the evening, we met my friend Anne, who lives in Paris, and my friend Danielle, who I go to school with but was here on vacation, for dinner. We had a lovely classic French dinner followed by some good ice cream. Mmmmm. We also saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle from by the Louvre! It was a really fun night. Today we had an amazing brunch once again, seriously, best food of the trip or close to it...I'm sure Jess will share more. Then we just kind of walked around, saw a lot of good sites, shopped, and just relaxed (although we walked A LOT). Andrew was with us this time. Tonight we met up with Anne again for a drink at this really classy place. That was a lot of fun too. Tomorrow we part ways with Andrew (unfortunately) and Jess, Laura, and I are off to Dublin!!!! We'll update you soon, love you all!

Audrey

Wine is cheaper than water? Ok!

Ok, so Jess basically covered Fussen...it was awesome. The next morning we went to Munich. We checked into our hostel, which was nice, ate at a cool small street restaurant place (delicious gyros...) while waiting for our laundry to dry. Next we went to Dachau, the memorial site to the concentration camp. It was eery and sad, and unfortunately we were only able to be there for about 30 minutes before it closed. So worth it though. In the evening, we walked A LOT (surprise, surprise) and went through the biggest city park in Europe to a biergarten called Seehaus (by Carrie Taylor's recommendation). It was really fun. Jess and I had a liter of beer each with a pretzel and some fries. SO good. We had some really good laughs and conversation, met up with Andrew then eventually found our way back to our hostel. The next morning we left for Antibes, France. This day was to be a travel day...and it was. Italian trains suck we decided because the German trains are super nice and extremely punctual, while the Italian trains are never on time and made us miss 2 connecting trains. Long story short, we didn't get into Antibes until almost 1am (it was supposed to be 5pm) and we had to take a taxi to the apartment we were supposed to stay in. We met our host, Romain, and he let us in and showed us around. Romain's a really nice young french guy who studied computer science in school and now works for an IT company nearby. We basically crashed and slept in the next day. Jess and I leisurly made it downtown and to a beach by mid-day. After getting a bit fried, we tried to find lunch. Little did we know, nothing is open after 3pm for lunch. This one restaurant, however, let us eat cold salads. It was SO good. The salads were very filling and we really needed the produce after eating nothing but bread on the train. After lunch and some shopping, we headed back to the apartment to meet Romain and Andrew for the evening. We decided to go downtown for a late dinner (about a 40 minute walk), which was fun. We had REALLY good local food at a very reasonable price. It of course took about 3 hours, and we didn't leave the restaurant until after 11:30pm, but it was so worth it. This morning we slept in just a little and started our laundry (we haven't had much luck thus far). Jess and I headed downtown again and just sort of walked around to get a feel of the city. We had a great lunch and a nice conversation with a German couple. Today was much hotter than yesterday so we kind of took it easy. Tomorrow morning we head off to Barcelona, Spain and meet up with my friend, Laura from school. Barcelona means more beach time...YAY!!!

Also, I only had €4, my student ID, and my camera...which was out of battery

Seriously, where are we?

Okay, so after Vienna we headed to Munich...or so we thought. As we pulled in to the main train station in Munich Andrew informed us that we had to get on another train for a "surprise" and wouldn't tell us where we were going. I was pretty sure he was taking us somewhere along the lines of a concentration camp. After a two hour train ride we ended up in Fussen, Germany. It was POURING and freezing cold, so we ran to our hostel and got completely soaked. By this time Audrey and I were really confused as to why we were there, but then we saw the view. There are three huge castles in the foot of the alps surrounding Fussen, at the end of the Romantic Road. One of these castles was the inspiration for Disney's Cinderella castle. We took a bus up to the castle, it was still freezing and raining, but it was AMAZING! I can honestly say it was the coolest castle i have ever seen in my life...and I've seen some castles in my day. The only word that can describe it is mystical. It was so cool. So, then we walked back down from the castle and found out that we had missed the last bus going back to Fussen. Great. There seemed to be a trail with signs and it said it would be about an hour walk, which was fine. So, we started off on the trail, went past this big lake with Swans, and it was all very beautiful...but the signs stopped pointing to Fussen. Since it had been raining all day there were puddles everywhere and some of the paths were flooded, so we were all freezing, wet, and hungry...IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE IN THE MOUNTAINS. We had also picked up a girl at the castle from Michigan, and she needed to get back to Munich that night...and it was getting pretty late. So, finally we came across a german family...the ONLY germans in germany who didnt speak english. But they had a map! I pointed to the direction we were heading and said, "Fussen?" the mans eyes got really wide and he said, "Nine!" and pointed in the exact opposite direction. At this point we had been wondering for about an hour or so... So, we followed where they said to go, climbed up a mountain and then down again, and suddently we saw civilization! We were in Fussen...then we left Fussen...then we got back to Fussen...then we found a Chinese restaurant...and we ate A LOT. They actually openned the restaurant for us, which was really nice... we really must have looked desperate... So, everything was fine.

Vienna is FABULOUS

So Jess basically said all that we did here except that today we saw an amazing palace and walked around the sweet sweet gardens. That was awesome. The pride parade yesterday was definitely the highlight for me because it was SO different and unexpected. It stormed really bad last night so we unfortunately had to stay inside. Also, we slept with the lights on all night because we are so paranoid about bed bugs, lol. With good reason. There were none as far as we could tell. Vienna has a ton of culture and things to do. We didn't even see a lot of the city. I definitely wanna come back here some day. Tomorrow we are off to Munich which I here is super awesome but extremely touristy (as if the places we've been already haven't been...right...). So, we'll see. It should be a good time no matter what though!

Umm... whats Wein?

Alright, so let me first start off with what I neglected to put in my previous blog post, due to sleep deprivation. The overnight train to Budapest was interesting, to say the least. I didnt think that you could get any worse than the train from Moscow to St. Petersburg... I was soo wrong. Instead of 4 person compartments, we had 6 person compartments, which were actually smaller than the 4 person compartments we had in Russia. 6 people could definitely not stand in the middle of this cabin. Luckily for us, onlz 4 were booked for our cabin...which was still a struggle. Also, the train rocked ALL NIGHT! It stopped every other hour, Im really not sure why, but it kept waking me up. Needless to say, not a very good night sleep.
Also in Budapest, we saw a real prostitute!! It was crazy!! We even saw her trying to figure out a price with this creepy guy. Pretty cool, eh?
So, we are currently in Vienna. Our first day here Aud and I stumbled upon a gay pride parade! It was fab-u-ous! Audrey and I marched in it to get free rainbow Absolute Vodka bottles (obviously empty)...we felt like we were very accepted there. :)
Today we had a bit of a late start, and walked around downtown for a long time. We took naps on the fiberglass couches in the Museumquarter area (totally normal, everyone does it), had a nice dinner, and then stumbled upon a jazz festival at the Rathaus building! The jazz wasnt very good, but it was free! Right after we left, we stumbled upon a free film festival in front of the Rathaus building! We didnt have time to actually stay for the film, but we hung out and saw previews...we felt posh.
Sooo yeah, now we are back at our hostel waiting to do laundy which will probably take all night. Tomorrow we leave for Munich!

Buda and Pest are better than best!

Ok, sorry for the lame cheesy title, but it's REALLY late and I thought it was clever. I know I haven't blogged in a while but I need some sleep so I'll keep it short. Bed bugs are the worst first of all. The bites look a little better, but I still look horribly diseased. Budapest may be my favorite city so far. It's a lot less touristy than Prague and it is absolutely beautiful and unique (pretty much what I say about every city, I know). The city park in unbelievable and the hiking in Buda is great. Budapest has kind of kicked our ass with all the walking (which is good), but it TOTALLY paid off tonight in the Turkish baths. It was insane. Jess was wrong, first of all, the bath was originally built in 1566 (it was on the wall), so 16th NOT 17th century. This authentic part of the bath house was open 10pm-4am, which is insane but fun. There were 5 separate baths with all different temperatures in the main room. Going in the 42-degree celcius bath took a lot of guts and it was like nothing I've ever felt; it's hard to describe. The steam room was insane and extremely difficult to be in. I though my skin was gonna burn off and my lungs were gonna collapse. Going from the steam room to the freezing cold bath was SO amazing. There were two differing intensities of the steam rooms and three different intensities of the saunas. This place is basically the shit and they have like 10 other different baths in this city. So cool. I also love this hostel. Amazing all around, no complaints. Easily the best one we've stayed in so far. I loved Budapest and we leave early tomorrow for Vienna!

Aud

We've been to Buda AND Pest

So, it's our last night here in Budapest and we just got back from the Turkish baths which were AMAZING! The steam room was so intense you could barely breathe, the sauna had three levels of heat, and the baths were built in the 17th century. I'm sure Audrey will be a lot more detailed about this, but it was great.
Buda is really beautiful. We went hiking this morning and saw Buda castle and some of the monuments around. We then headed to Pest for some serious shopping. And by serious, I mean seriously touristy. Pest seems to be a lot less...mountainous? It's flat. Buda is like hiking through hell. It was also hot an sunny (also my version of hell). Thus, I am (again) totally sunburnt.
When we were around Buda castle we had Hungarian Goulash. Apparently the REAL goulash is very similar to vegetable soup with a lot of paprika... No noodles. Hmph. It was really good though.
That was very exciting. Ummm yeah... not much else up in here...
Our hostel is wonderful. No bedbugs, only 4 people, right in the middle of the main street downtown in Pest, no bedbugs, great bathroom, free breakfast, no bedbugs, really nice guy who runs the place--he's like our age. Umm... no bedbugs.
Tomorrow it's off to Vienna!

We let the bedbugs bite...

So, many things have happened since we last blogged. At our hostel in Berlin, Audrey started freaking out throughout the night saying that she felt things crawling all over her. Personally, I thought it was mosquitoes and that Aud had probably just lost her mind... The next morning, we figured it out. Bedbugs. Everywhere. We found them. Gross. We think Aud had the most infested bed because she is completely covered from head to toe with bites and they hurt and look gross. We spent the majority of the day de-bugging our stuff and doing laundry...which was our only full day in Berlin. We then hopped on a train, with all our wet clothing in our bags, to Frankfurt, where my dad was waiting with bug-free hotel rooms for us. We had a really nice dinner and we left early the next morning to go to Prague. ...Audrey STILL looks like a leper with all of her bites.
Prague is BEAUTIFUL...if i could figure out this keyboard, i would totally put an exclamation point after that. We went on a long walk lastnight when we got here. We went to this skating park where there used to be a huge statue of Stalin. It overlooks the city and to get up there you have to go up about 1000 stairs. Again, if i could figure out this keyboard I would totally put a sad face after that.
Tonight we are heading to Budapest via overnight train. Hopefully these trains are a little bit better than the one we took from Moscow to St. Petersburg, but I somehow doubt that...

-Aud and Jess

1000g of Hash

Lots to catch up on. So, after Helsinki, Finland we went to Stockholm, Sweden. Beautiful place, beautiful people, very touristy. We stayed in a boat hostel on the water in the middle of downtown on an island. That was sweet. It was newly renovated too which was awesome. Jess and I lost Andrew at the beginning of our day so we went off on our own. It was ok because we shopped and he hates that. hehe. In the evening, we went to the Ice Bar which was AWESOME! It's a bar that is kept at -5 celcius because the entire bar (counter, tables, chairs, and even glasses) are made of natural ice. You are given a parka with gloves when you walk in. We had a lot of fun and we got a lot of funny pictures and videos. Jess and I stayed in that night while Andrew explored (surprise, surprise). Favorites of Stockholm - cobblestone shopping streets and Ice Bar. We had to get up pretty early the next morning to catch our train to Oslo, Norway. It took us FOREVER to get to our hostel because it was in the mountains and the metro sucks there. We FINALLY got to our hostel, which was really nice. It had a gorgeous view of the city. We went hiking our first night. We found awesome trails and stumbled upon 2 unbelievable views (pictures to follow eventually). It took us a while to get back to our hostel because the roads are SO messed up. The next morning we got up really early, got breakfast at the hostel and headed to the city center. We walked down one of the main streets to the royal palace. The gardens around the palace were great and it was cool to see regular citizens lounging on the palace grounds. Next we ventured to the main harbour and got on a public ferry to museum island. Jess and I went to the Viking museum (SWEET!) and then we all went to the Kon-tiki museum (google that shit...seriously). Following the museums, we went to the hot-spot beach nearby. It was PACKED! It was so hot out that day I thought I was going to die. The beach was amazing and really big! We also walked through the nude beach part...awkward. I mean, I'm comfortable with that kind of stuff, but you cannot prepare for this kind of nudety. I tried not to stare. We lounged on the beach for a couple hours which was really relaxing. Jess and I got burnt; Jess more than I of course. It was nice to finally get some sun and color though after not having much luck in Russia. We went back to the city center and tried to go to the castle and fortress, but it wasn't open due to a concert. So, we did what we always do, Jess and I shopped while Andrew explored. We met up to get dinner at a grocery store (that's all we can afford in Norway) before heading back to the hostel. We made an awesome dinner in the public kitchen: 1000g of hash, scrambled eggs, and lefsa - delicious! We basically passed out after dinner because Oslo seriously kicked our ass; we did so much walking up really steep hills in insane heat (at least we're burning calories...?) General thoughts on Norway - insanely expensive (Big Mac = 17 dollars), beautiful city though. Favorite part - hiking and beach. We had to get up at like 5am the next morning to grab some breakfast (they opened the kitchen early for us) and catch the first tram downtown. We made to the train just fine. We had 2 trains with an hour and a half bus ride in between; long travel day. We arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark in mid-afternoon. Our hostel was only a few blocks from the train station and it was newly renovated. Jess and I went around the huge shopping area which we were basically in the middle of. We found an amazing tea store (2nd oldest in Europe, 5 generations family-run) and lucked out at Royal Copenhagen with beautiful sugar bowls. We met Andrew for dinner and ate at this great buffet (Denmark is actually affordable)! In the evening, to celebrate the 4th of July, we went to a Queens of Denmark drag show at a gay bar nearby our hostel. It was fabulous! Jess and I enjoyed completely fresh strawberry daquiris (delicious!). The next morning, we got some breakfast at 7-11 (way nicer in Europe). We took a bus to Carlsberg Brewery (Andrew hung out in a park). The brewery was awesome! We learned a lot of cool stuff and got 2 free beers with admission. After that, we walked around the city for a while. Copenhagen is great. We walked to a nearby island which has a famous hippy free society in it called Christania; it was SO interesting. Lots of colors, unique buildings, very different but friendly and lively people, and of course a blatent drug-filled atmosphere. It was very cool to walk around. We walked back to our hostel in search of Jazz music because the Jazz festival was going on. We didn't have much luck because everything cost money. We got some dinner and ice cream anyways and heard some music from the street. We finished off the evening at a nice wine bar across the street from our hostel. Copenhagen is my favorite city thus far. Everything about is great! Today we're going to Berlin, Germany! More blogging to follow. Gotta catch the train!

Well, now I've seen both...

So, its been a few days...we have had a difficult time finding an internet cafe...and finding the time for it. Stockholm was beautiful...and by beautiful, i mean the people. Everyone there is tall, blonde, tan, well dressed, and thin...and they all ride bikes. We finally went to an ice bar there! It was -5 degrees C, and everything was made of ice. They gave us parkas to wear and a drink in an ice cup...i ate my ice cup. It was delish. We stayed on a boat! The Hostel af Chapman, which was really cool. There was this really weird German guy in our cabin...he was really nice and we were talking to him for awhile, then Aud and I left for about 5 minutes, came back, and he was in his underwear. AWKWARD. ...and he smelled bad.
Oslo was sooo beautiful! But soooo expensive! Our hostel was a little bit outside of the city, so we were able to go on hiking trails and the view was amazing. There was a strange Asian man at our hostel and I think he was really lonely and he talked to us for...ever... He kept saying "Cheerio!" and we didnt really know how to respond to that so we said, "Thanks?". The next day we hit up a few museums and wandered onto a beach...a nude beach. Mainly old men, walking around with no clothes...not exactly a 20 year old girls dream vacation... Luckily, there was a normal beach right nextdoor so we went there and sunbathed for awhile. To sum things up, I got really burnt. :( But then I saw a sign that said "Lastenfart" and that cheered me up.
We are currently in Copenhagen, Denmark, and our train leaves in about 40 minutes to go to Berlin. Copenhagen is awesome. Its not too expensive, the people are really friendly, the city is nice, and overall it feels more like a real city than Oslo or Stockholm. We found probably the only classy buffet in the world on our first night, which automatically made Copenhagen a hit for us. Also, its currently the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, so we have heard some good music and seen a few good street performers. Audrey and I found fabulous sugar bowls at the Royal Copenhagen store. They are hand painted porcelain and they match our tea pots from Russia. Fab...u...lous. Yesterday Audrey and I toured the Carlsberg Brewery! Sooo cool. DID YOU KNOW that the company that brews Carlsberg also brews Touborg AND owns half of the Baltica brewing company (anyone who has been to Russia knows how big of a deal Baltica is). Then, we wandered over to Christiania, a huge free society in Copenhagen. It was founded by hippies...obviously. You could smell the marijuana as soon as you entered. There were murals everywhere and random sculptures. It was really cool. Lots of people out everywhere, playing music, hanging out, smoking illegal substances, and the like. It was very interesting.
So, later today we will be in Berlin and tomorrow we are going to try to do a short 1/4 day trip to Frankfurt to see my dad, who will be there for only about a day. There are trains that run every hour so it shouldnt be an issue. Im excited to get rid of a lot of my stuff! ...and to see my dad :D

Helsinki, baby!

A lot has happened in the past day and a half or so. Jess and I took the overnight bus from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, Finland. It was fine, although we didn't get much sleep. Customs took a while, so that was annoying. When we got to the bus station, it was raining and cold. We found the train station which was only about a block away conveniently! It was really sketch with tons of garbage and people sleeping everywhere, but it was about 5:30am or so. We found luggage lockers for the day and managed to fit everything into 2 lockers. Being so early on a Sunday morning, NOTHING was open. We stayed in the station for a while to plan out our day using the awesome travel book Jess brought. We planned a really full day and after some much-needed coffee we set off. Here's a list:
- Olympic Tower from the 1952 games (which my uncle Hans was at because he was born here!). That was amazing because we were able to go up 11 stories to see the panoramic view of the city.
- Next we got some really expensive Subway (the dollar sucks) and wandered around some parks (Helsinki is GORGEOUS).
- A church that is completely under this rock formation with only the top dome of the church being visible. SO cool.
- The National Museum of Finland which was interesting and fun.
- From there we just walked around; we saw the parliment building, a famous mall and the great downtown area this city offers.
- The largest Orthodox cathedral in all of northern and western Europe. We also saw another really unique cathedral up on a mountain by the gulf.
- We met Andrew in a beautiful park after waiting a while
- The three of us hung out at a cafe and swapped stories of our travels so far
- We did A LOT of walking and saw some amazing views
- Eventually found dinner which was UNBELIEVABLY tasty (reindeer...mmmm....)
- Went back to the train station for some "sleep" (if you can call it that) for about 30 minutes
- Went on a late-night adventure to watch the sunrise at 2:30am overlooking a beach
- Went back to train station and had to wait outside for almost 2 hours in the cold watching annoying drunk Finnish teens
- Sending our duffels home today, enjoying Helsinki some more and heading to Stockholm on an overnight ship (hot shower and warm bed, here I come!)
I will do my best to update fairly often, but no garuntees. I can tell this will be an amazing trip and I'm very excited!

Helsinki...according to Jess

So, here we are in the beautiful Helsinki, Finland. Audrey and I arrived yesterday morning at 530am on the Express overnight bus from Petersburg. It took about 2 hours to go through customs (basically just the Russian part), so neither of us actually got much sleep. We pulled into Helsinki not having any idea where we were in relation to...well, anything. Also, since it was a sunday morning everything was closed, so there was really no one to ask either. We lugged our backpacks and duffel bags in the rain (because OF COURSE it had to be raining for this) out of the bus station after looking at the map in the guide book. We were trying to figure out what the street signs meant and how to pronounce them...or really, just read them. Finnish makes no sense. So, we were on some street called Manninheisterninshteinium or something like that. Ridiculous. My first impression of Helsinki...HelSTINKY. There was garbage all over the streets near the bus and train stations and the mall across the street. I have never seen so much garbage in my life! Horrible. We later found out that it is filthy in this area because thats where the young folks go. Finland as a whole is actually quite clean. Anyway, the train station was really close, so we immediately went over and put our bags in luggage lockers and began planning our day. We made very good time, going to the olympic stadium and tower from the 1952 Olympics, the National Museum of Finland, three churches (of course), a market, and a couple really nice parks. The nicest thing about Finland is that there are all these random parks and planted flowers around the city. One church is built into the rocks and only the dome is visible. Honestly, it was probably the coolest church Ive ever seen...and you know ive seen churches... Another church we saw was the largest Orthodox Cathedral in Northern and Eastern Europe (pretty boring on the inside). The third church was...well... it was a church.
We met up with Andrew when he arrive in the afternoon. We have basically been walking ever since. We didnt have a hostel planned because Audrey and I were originally supposed to arrive at 10pm, not 530am. So, we havent really slept more than about 2 hours in the past two days.
Some Highlights:
-Aud and I thought we were stuck in the elevator coming down from the Olympic tower...actually, audrey just pressed the wrong button.
-Audrey got stuck in a door... it just closed on her randomly and wouldnt budge.
-We met a very hyperactive American woman and had a nice conversation with her
-We found an AMAZING beach and watched the sunrise
-Finland is really beautiful and the people are really friendly
and last but not least...
-WE ATE REINDEER! and it was delish.

Dosvidanya Russia, Hello Europe!

This week has flown by! School was the usual, kinda boring but not too painful. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings were not TOO exciting; mostly we hung out and went to cafes. I did my laundry at a laundromat here on Monday. They don't let you do your own, you just drop it off, pay, and come back in like 3 hours. It was nice not to do it by hand and wait like a day and a half for everything to dry. On Wednesday, we went on a boat tour of the city, which was really nice despite the crappy weather. The water level was VERY high, so we barely made it through some of the bridges (scary!). We didn't have class on Thursday, only a really short closing ceremony of sorts. We got certificates and our grades. Jess and I of course both kicked ass (we're kind of a big deal...). In the evening, we went to the Marinsky Theater to see Swan Lake! It was UNBELIEVABLE!!! I was absolutely blown away, I can hardly describe it. Needless to say, it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Friday morning we went to our Program Director, Anna's, house for final grades, evaluation forms and of course delicious pies and tea. She has a beautiful apartment and it was a very nice way to officially end the program. After tea, some of us had a "park day" where we went to a couple very nice, famous parks around the city. First we went to Letney Sad (Summer Gardens), which was slightly different than where Jess and I had gone before. It was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. Aparently, after this summer the gardens will be closed for 5 years, so it was a good thing we went. From there we stopped at the souvenir market again because some people wanted one more thing (I just kinda people watched and enjoyed the weather). Then we all kinda split off and I went, with a friend, to these northern gardens by the Gulf of Finland. They were SO beautiful. There was a large beach at the end of the park looking out at the Gulf. I wish we would've had more time to walk around, but we had to get back for dinner. At 10pm, we all met at the bridge to go out all night for our last night together. I suggested to go to that beach and just watch the sun set and rise. Everyone seemed to be ok with that so we bought some beer and picnic blankets and headed for the beach (it's a long metro ride and walk). There was a HUGE party going on at at the end of the beach so we heard pounding, super loud music the entire night (Russians don't sleep). It was fun though. We just hung out and had a good night together, even though people were cold and tired. It never actually got completely dark which was weird, but cool - It was so beautiful. At about 3:30am, we started a fire which was the highlight of the night. Everyone was warmer and happier then. We also shared a bottle of champagne as the sun was rising. It was so weird that NO ONE cares in Russia about just hangin out at a public beach all night with alcohol and building a fire (that would never happen in America; we would probably be there all of 5 minutes before being kicked out). I got home a little before 7am and slept until about 3pm; I was exhausted! What a good night though. Today I'm just getting ready for Europe. I'm so excited!!! Jess and I leave tonight for an overnight bus to Helsinki, Finland which should be fun. I don't know when or how I will get internet around Europe, but I'll blog when I can. It's really sad to say good-bye to Russia. I feel like it went by really fast although it feels like I've been here for SO long; it's a bitter sweet feeling. I've had SUCH a great time here and look forward to more adventures in Europe!

что сейчас?!

First of all, I forgot to mention last time I blogged that I went to a respectable coffee chain (The Republic of Coffee), and when I paid for my coffee, apparently they didnt have enough change for my modest bill. So, they gave me a...can you guess?... didn't think so...an IOU. Seriously. Like, seriously. An IOU...OMG. It was kind of cool.
Well, Aud talked about what we did in Moscow already so I'm not going to get into that. Moscow is a nice place, but it's a little too crowded and dirty for my taste. It was great seeing Lenin's body --he looks good. It was nice to have a hotel with intense water pressure--it felt like a machine gun of water. It was really great when the shower head fell... ironically on my head. We went to a huge souvenir market where I put my bargaining skills to the test. Turns out, i'm not too good. Nevertheless, I bought some nice things including a beautifully hand-painted laquer box with a shell cover and a tea pot, all the things I need to become a housewife. It was a lot of fun walking around and seeing all the vendors and trinkets, and I was suprised to find out that I understood more Russian than I thought I would AND the vendors spoke to me in Russian (meaning that my accent and skill might not be so bad after all). The train ride to Moscow was lovely. We had air conditioning, a big room, nice beds, nice bathrooms, and...air conditioning. The train ride back to St. Petersburg was slightly less luxurious and slightly more... Soviet. We were basically on a really fast box car with ...no air conditioning, really small uncomfortable beds and room, and a bathroom that could have come out of a 1920s horror film. The toilet emptied directly on to the tracks and you could actually see the tracks moving when you flushed. Okay, enough with bathrooms. When we got back to St. Petersburg we had to go directly to school :(. I have never seen a class so completely out of it before...the teacher anwsering her own questions..come on now. At least I think she was answering her own questions...I was asleep. Advice if you're wondering which city is better...ST. PETERSBURG. They have air conditioning.... I still cant believe they gave me that IOU.

Moscow Nights!

Moscow was a short-lived but REALLY fun trip. We left on a sleeper train for Moscow on Friday night. It was really nice although we all had trouble sleeping. We felt like we were in a Harry Potter movie, lol. We arrived at about 8am and continued with a full day of sight-seeing. We started off with Red Square (St. Basils Cathedral, Gum, Kremlin, etc.) - it was of course awesome. We were able to see the changing of the guards (looks like a clip out of Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks) and LENIN!!! It was unreal. It was some of the strictist security I've gone through and the whole experience was slightly sureal. He looks fake, but of course it's his real body. After the Red Square, we went to a really famous graveyard (can't remember the name) and we saw MANY famous people's grave-stones, including Boris Yeltsin and Shostakovich! From there we went to the hotel to check in. It was a long metro ride. The hotel we stayed in is a part of this tourist hotel complex. They're really nice. I was SO happy for a nice hot shower and a real bed! After a little down-time, we went back to the Red Square, this time to get a full tour of the Kremlin. We saw the largest bell in the world, the largest canon in the world, the presidents quarters and offices, and of course MANY cathedrals. It's a beautiful place with a lot of rich history. After a nice dinner, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the night. We pre-gamed in the hotel and left to go out dancing at Hard Rock Cafe (aparently it's also a dance-club there). Unfortunately the entire city (and country) was stopped for the football game (Russia vs. Holand) and there was no dancing anywhere. After buying some t-shirts anyways, we found a nice cafe to sit and watch the game. Russia won and everyone went crazy (of course)! Overall, it was a REALLY fun night. On Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel, which was really nice. We toured an AMAZING art gallery (Tretskoye I think it was called) lead by a really sweet old lady. Then we went back to the hotel area for the souvenir shopping trip of a lifetime. We were staying by the biggest open-air souvenir market in the country and bought a lot of really awesome things. The weekend was extremely exhausting so most of us stayed around the area for dinner and to get ready to leave. We took another overnight train back to St. Petersburg (much crappier than the first, which sucked). Some people partied but our cabin pretty much went straight to bed because we're cool like that. We got back around 8am this morning (about 8:30 to our home stays) and had to be at school at 10am, which sucked. There were 3 people there, including me, who actually made it on time. School was ok, but we were all VERY tired. I went to a cafe after school and went to a laundromat with a friend after that. You pay to have people do your laundry here, it's not really self-service. So, I'm currently waiting for my laundry to get done. Tonight we're all staying in because we're all so exhausted. Overall, Moscow was awesome and we all had a great weekend. Less than one week left, then on to Europe!!!

Just another week in Russia...

Hey guys, so for the last couple of days we have been in school. You can guess how much fun that has been. The weather has been pretty crappy. Yesterday I went for a walk along the canal right by my apartment building and this random guy came up to my friend and I and started speaking very fast in Russian. We had absolutely no idea what this guy was saying to us, something about birds and Siberia? Anyway, we said "Da" about 5 or 6 times with a good smile and nod for good measure, and he went on his merry way--thinking he had just enlightened us on Siberian birds.
Some bad news is that there are now other American students in St. Petersburg. Apparently University of Rochester is the only American university that does study abroad in St. Petersburg in June. Now that we're nearing the end of the month, all of the other universities are shipping their students over. These Americans really suck. They're loud, annoying, and generally make me miss home. Personally, I dont consider them true Americans because during their school brake they smoke cigarettes instead of eating...like my group. My group has taken to bringing a large vat of peanutbutter to school, which we all eat with spoons (and the occassional fork when the cafe runs out of spoons). Apparently Russians hate peanutbutter. I asked a Russian why this was and her response was, "we prefer chocolate," to which I responded, "Well, have you ever tried mixing them?" and walked away. Clearly they dont get the food network here... We've been going a lot of restaurants and cafes (generally avoiding Jesus...get it? churches?). Tonight we're planning to go downtown on Nevsky Prospect and pull the infamous all-nighter. We're going to go to a club and then watching the bridges go up, which St. Petersburg is known for. The bridges need to go back down before we can go home...and they go down around 6am. Thus, all-nighter! Also, tomorrow night we set out for Moscow!! We're taking an overnight train to Moscow, staying in a hotel one night, and then taking another overnight train back to St. Petersburg.
A lot of the people from my group have been getting sick--one sinus infection, a few colds, and one food poisoning. Beware of Russian-Chinese Restaurants... Luckily on this day of the chinese restaurant Audrey and I had a magical date in downtown St. Petersburg. We walked around the Summer Gardens (the #3 most romantic spot in St. Petersburg according to the "top 10" guidebook), and ate at the Literary Cafe (the #3 best authentic Russian restaurant according to the guidebook...we actually went there because a random professor we met at the airport suggested it).
I'll update you all after I get back from Moscow! Do svidaniya!

Ok, so you all know about Novgorod and the weekend of touring we had. Since we were SO tired from the long weekend, we all stayed in a basically slept Sunday night, which was nice. Monday started with classes once again (not exactly our favorite part of the trip...I'm sure you're all very surprised). After class, Jess and I went on an afternoon date (we REALLY needed time away from the group). We walked to Letnie Sod (Summer Garden) which was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous. Then we walked around some souvenir shops on the way to Nevsky for lunch. Lunch was good and kinda fancy. We went to a cafe/restaurant that an American we met at the airport had recommended called Cafe Literaturnoye - it was a good recommendation. In the evening, we met up with about half the group and just kinda hung out by the canal. It was really nice weather and we didn't really have any ideas of what to do. Later on, when the mosquitoes started to get to us, we went to a nearby cafe for ice cream and cappuccinos. There was live music and lots of really funny older people dancing - good people watching to say the least. They all wanted us to dance and one guy even offered to pay us to dance (kinda sketch). It was a fun but chill night. Today we had class again. My class has culture day on Tuesdays where we mostly watch movies and talk about holidays and stuff. Two of five people were missing from my class because I guess they were sick of something. Then, at break, Oren, another guy in my class got really sick and ended up needed medical attention. He's ok now, but it was a little scary at the time. It was quite interesting finishing today's class with only two students...whom know the least Russian. After class, Masha took us to St. Issac's Cathedral and we went to the very top to see an amazing view of the city. I took lots of pictures/videos so I'm sure you'll all see them eventually. The group was going somewhere else after that but it's hot out and I'm really kinda sick of sight-seeing and being with the group all the time, so I split off. This weekend is Moscow, which should be a lot of fun so stay tuned for Moscow adventures. Well, I guess that's all for now, I hope you're all enjoying your summer and Jess and I will talk to you soon!

Audrey

We are exactly half done with our study abroad in Russia! Yesterday we went to the city of Novgorod, which is either the oldest or second oldest city in Russia (long story). We saw many wooden churches and also an active monastery built in the 12th century. Audrey and I had to wear skirts and cover our heads when we went in since it was still active and the walls were completely covered with paintings. The monastery was so old the domes weren't onion shaped, they were "helmet" shaped, because that is how they did it back in Constantinople. It was really cool when a true Russian monk walked by. We waved but i think he thought we were being inappropriate...we were. Novgorod is truly a city full of history, the Nazis came in and completely took over the city and burned it to the ground. which is convenient because the city is made out of wood. Most of the original buildings do not exist today but the Russians have done an amazing job restoring the city. We had a very large picnic on the beach and afterwards decided to go to...you guessed it...another church. Novgorod is not exactly close to Petersburg and the bus took 3 hours each way. Listened to basically half my ipod. We went on a nice but extremely dull boat ride that showed us absolutely nothing but water and...more churches. To be fair the church made completely out of wood was cool and made me appreciate not having those anymore.
Today, we went to another church!!! The church of spilled blood, which marks spot where a czar Alexander II was mortally wounded by a suicide bomber...yes a bomber...on the 8th attempt on his life. I wanted to know more about these terrorist in the 1800's but instead we went into the church. This church is not a functioning church and is made entirely out of mosaics because of the humidity along the river. Pictures really cannot describe how beautiful the church really is and it must be seen in person. so... get on it. A cool fact about the church is that during WWII the Nazis dropped a bomb on the church but miraculously it did not detonate. Several men risked their lives to remove the bomb from the roof of the church and detonate it nearby, thus saving the church. Afterwards we walked for about a minute and reached the Russian museum. The museum in arranged in chronological order and it begins with approximately a millennium of icon paintings!!!! Jesus never looked so good. We then moved to Czarist Russian paintings and sculpture. it was really boring and i wanted to leave...and i did. We went and ate blinis. They were good...i love ordering food in Russian. The weather is not the greatest outside but we all are enjoying ourselves. about to run out of time at the internet cafe. talk to you later!
Love,
Jess

Quick update because I'm really tired. Tuesday night Jess and I stayed in and relaxed. Wednesday we had school and went to an awesome piano concert/museum. Wedneday night we went to a local bar because we didn't have school on Thursday (it was Russia Day!). Thursday I went to "Mega" mall with some of the girls (kind of a mistake) and Jess went to Nevsky for a parade and concert I didn't know about (jealous!). Thursday night we went back to the hookah bar which was a lot of fun! Today (Friday) we went to Peterhoff, which was of course amazing. Then tonight we went to a Russian banya!!! It was really relaxing and fun. I uploaded lots of pictures on facebook, so check them out. I will try to write a longer blog next time, but I had a long day today, I have a long day tomorrow and I have to quickly catch a bus home before they stop running for the night. I love you all and hopefully I will talk to you all soon! (Jess sends her love and will update eventually).

Yesterday (Monday) consisted of another boring day of class and freezing cold weather. A group of us got some delicious Italian lunch then went our separate ways. Another Jessie and I decided to go shopping by where I live, where I'd seen a mall - basically, all the shopping sucks here, which may or may not be a good thing. It started to pour buckets and the wind was almost unbearable. I waited for a bus for about 20 minutes because I was not about to walk it that weather. When I finally got home, I slept for like 2.5 hours and kind of ate dinner. A group of us met up later and went to this sweet place by my house to have some beer, ice cream, and hookah - it's a really nice, and very reasonably priced, place and we'll probably go back sometime. I cannot get enough sleep here because I can't get over being sick (this weather is not helping). Anyways, I still got up for school this morning (maybe a bad idea) and suffered through it. My class pretty much just watched a Russian movie. After class we went to this really nice Georgian restaurant with the entire group (paid from program money). It was absolutely delicious. Then we all went to this really awesome cafe for dessert. After the cafe, we sloppily tried to find an internet cafe and were not lead very well. Of course, once we split up, I found one almost immediately. It's way better than the one by our house and I will definitely bring the group back here. It took me a while to figure things out here, but a young boy saw me struggling and totally helped me out - that was nice. Anyways, I think I'm staying in tonight, but the rest of the group is getting together to watch the soccer game on TV. Well, that's all for now, but I'm sure I'll catch you up soon (I'm pretty good at this).

Alright, I haven't talked about Catherine's Palace, aka Tsarskoe Selo, yet, so here it is. On Friday, we went there and it was gorgeous. It's a really big and beautiful palace with a lot of history. Jess and I went there in 2003, but it was one of our favorite parts of the trip so it was nice to go back. It's surrounded by a lot of beautiful gardens in which we saw probably about 30-40 brides and wedding parties; it was rediculous. The palace has been, and still is, going under a lot of restoration because the Nazis severely trashed it during WWII. We were able to see pictures of before destruction, after destruction, and after restoration - it's been a lot of work. One particular room it is known for is the Amber Room, in which is the walls are almost completely covered in pieces of polished amber - it's pretty sweet. I suggest googling Catherine's Palace for pictures, although we will be posting some as well later on. After we got back, I walked home, which pretty much killed me because I was already so exhausted. I showed Raya my photo album of friends and family, which I gave her, and pretty much just went to bed. I didn't go out with the rest of the group that night. Saturday, as Jess said, we went to Peter and Paul's Fortress, which is also really sweet. I didn't dress warm enough and ended up being REALLY cold all day; that sucked. After that, Jess, Jessie, and I split off from the group to go shopping and hang out on our own. We were not sucessful at all shopping because everything is so expensive, but it was fun anyway. After dinner and a short nap, we all met up to go out for the night. We met Masha and Sam (it was Sam's birthday) at Nevsky and did a bit of bar hopping. It was pretty fun until we went back to our respective houses. The buses had stopped running about 10 minutes before, so I had to walk. Now, normally, in tennis shoes, it takes me about 30 minutes to walk to and from my house - throw in heels and taking a wrong turn and we're talking a minimum of 45 minutes, alone, and it being pitch black by the time I get home. I've never been so tired, sore and scared thus far and I've been recovering all day. My feet were completely blistered and cut open and I could hardly walk - basically it REALLY sucked. Anyways, today I slept in, which was really nice. It took me about 2 hours or more to do all my laundry by hand (it's also very tiring). I eventually made it out to our meeting place just in time to basically say goodbye as my group took off to Nevsky (I really didn't wanna go). So, here I am. My feet are well cleaned and bandaged up (although still painful) and I'm going to head back for dinner soon. I'm really glad we had a day off because I feel like just existing in Russia is extremely tiring. I hope everyone at home is well. Feel free to email me, facebook me, etc. Talk to you all soon!

Hey Everyone!
I think Audrey basically said everything that we've done so far so I wont bore you with the details of Catherine's Palace, etc. Today we went to Peter and Paul's Fortress, and saw the places where the royal family is burried (including Nicholas II, the last tzar, and his family). Tomorrow is the first day where we have a free day!! I'm excited. Andrew Pribram put some of our photos into an album online: http://gallery.mac.com/apribram/100033
You can see my apartment, my view of the Gulf of Finland from my room, and a few other pictures. Lastnight we went to a club near our homestays and saw a wedding party (the woman was still in her wedding dress and they were all dancing in the club--super random). Also, some random guy went up on stage and started dancing and undressing. Russians are frickin crazy. Like, seriously. That's basically it here for now. Our days are pretty packed so i'm beat. Goodnight! -Jess

Ok, so I think I'm gonna try to keep my blogs shorter because days are starting to run together. Class was much better on Wednesday. We went to McDonalds after class - it was quite interesting. Then a small group of us went shopping for a sweatshirt/jacket for me because it's freezing here in the morning and I didn't bring enough warm clothes. Malls are pretty cool but very expensive here. Something I found interesting was that there was a gun/sword shop in the middle of the mall. Crazy! We were all very tired and decided to relax at a restaurant in the mall. Our waitress was very nice even though we struggled a bit language-wise. The metro ride home was the craziest rush hour I've ever seen in my entire life! It took us like 20 minutes just to get through the front doors into the station! We finally got home for dinner and met up again later on to go out. We went to Nevsky and walked around FOREVER until we finally found a place to go - we are very indecisive. On the walk, we met a girl, Sam, from England who was here alone for 2 months, so we invited her out with us. She's very cool, is 22 (almost 23!), and has a degree in Russian. At the place we went to, "Klub Sendvich" (aka "Club Sandwich"), we had beer and bought a nice bottle of Russian vodka to take a couple rounds of shots from. I feel like I'm officially welcomed, lol. It was a lot of fun there but we had to get home before the bridge went up and transportation shut down for the night. I got home just fine just as it was turning dark (still weirds me out). Class was good again today, it went by pretty fast. I feel like I'm absorbing more and more every day. We walked to this awesome blini place for lunch which took a while, but it was tasty. Then we split up and went home. Jess showed me her place (it looks like a castle compared to mine) and we went to the internet cafe, which is where I am now. Tonight we plan to see a movie at a theater (of course dubbed in Russian), which should be good. All is well here and I'm having a lot of fun. I uploaded pictures on facebook because I'm not sure I can do that on here. I love you all and I'll talk to you soon!

Well, it's another beautiful day in St. Petersburg, Russia! Audrey and I are now done with our first week of classes! Oorah! We went to lunch at a blini restaurant (Russian crepes)--de-lish. Aud and I are getting pretty good with public transportation and luckily there are a lot of different and easy ways to get around in Petersburg. We take the bus to school in the morning, and usually the metro during the day or at night. The metro stop is just up the street from me and the bus stop is literally directly across the street from my building. I have a very central location. :)
I've been getting along very well with my host family, and my host sister is learning English so we have conversations half in English, half Russian. I help her with English, she helps me with Russian.
Audrey is going to try to load pictures of us so far on facebook and the blog (if possible). That way you'll all be able to see where we live!!
That's basically it from me today. I haven't have the most interesting day so far...sorry.
-Jess

My side of the story.

Hi Everyone!
So, we've been here for almost a week and I love it! My host family is great. I have a really nice, big room with a bed, dresser, desk, couch chair and a terrace-type thing with an overview of a canal and the Gulf of Finland. The apartment is very nice and pretty big. Unlike Audrey, I have a nice shower and bathroom. My host mom, Valentina, is a great cook and she has a daughter, Olga, who is also very nice. Olga is 25 and a pharmacist. Neither of them speak very much English, but I'm able to communicate with them enough to have short conversations about my family, day, etc. I've had a little jetlag the past few days, but it finally seems to be getting better. At least I'm not waking up at 5am anymore.
School is good--we have class from 10am to 1pm Monday through Thursday at the University of St. Petersburg, which is on the Neva River. On the other side of the Neva from the University is the Hermitage Museum. We went tot he Hermitage yesterday and it was amazing! It's absolutely enormous. I was a little more interested in the actual Palace than the art, I must admit. We saw a lot of Rembrandt, two paintings by Da Vinci, and a mummy!!
I had a slightly scary incident at a cafe/bar a couple nights ago. Two old men were drunk and trying to a) force me to dance with them, and b) go home with them. Luckily one of the Americans in our group is actually from Russia and is completely fluent, so after about half an hour he was able to get me away from them and walk me home. Also, a Russian police officer asked me for my phone number and told me I was unlike any women he'd every met (...and he carried with him a loaded, fully automatic weapon). Basically, I'm irrisistible to men...
So, yeah, it's been very good so far. Our days are pretty full with school and excursions, and I cant wait until I can go explore more on my own. So, I think that's about it so far. Everything is great! Love my host family and school so far. I'll try to keep updating the blog more...i've been pretty lazy about walking to the internet cafe...which is less than a block from my apartment...
-Jess

And the learning begins...

Well, I'm just going to continue blogging and hope Jess catches up soon. I'll try to put pictures up eventually, but be patient. So, yesterday (Monday), the group met to go to school together. We were shown around, welcomed, etc. which was fun interesting. We had a surprise entrance oral test which I was very nervous for, but it was fine; I got into the highest of 3 levels of classes! From there we got lunch at one of the cafes which was quite the ordeal because of course everything was in Russian. After lunch we were given our kick-ass student IDs which we have to have on us AT ALL TIMES. Then we were free to go so Jess and I walked around the university area and ended up in a restaurant/pub called "Biergarten". Before we walked in, there was this nameless van and a group of extremely large and scary Russian men all in black with bullet-proof vests and we believe lots of money that came out of that restaurant and into the van. We were slightly taken aback, but walked in anyways. Inside was totally normal, thank God. So, Jess and I just chilled and had a beer and talked. It was nice to get out of the extreme wind and cold (yes, it's FREEZING here). We were both very tired and just went back for dinner and a nap after that. We met the group at 9pm again and decided not to venture far. We went to this karoke bar place that looked like a tent of some sort. It was very fun; we met Russian guys, sang karoke (in English!) and drank some beer. We also ended up talking with 2 policemen with huge guns for like 2 hours and they were SO cool. One was only 22 and very interested in Americans. One of the guys in our group exchanged numbers with him, so we're gonna hang out with him when he's not on duty. It was almost dark when I was waiting to catch the bus and they pulled up in their police car and offered to drive me home. I accepted and felt pretty damn awesome. Needless to say, we totally have connections now if we ever get in trouble. Today, Tuesday, was our first day of school. I got up and caught the right bus just fine. We were early to class which was great, but our teacher was late. My class today consisted of talking a lot about nationality stereotypes and drinking vodka in Russian (very odd class...) I was a bit offended how overwhelmingly negative the American stereotypes were and how amazingly positive the Russian ones were - not something I would've chosen for the first day of a class. Anyways, I already have homework and feel challenged, which is good I suppose. After class, we all got lunch and went to the Hermitage, which is just across the river from our building at the university. IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE. Google it. Seriously. Anyways, I need to go home for dinner now, so I'll blog again soon. Ya lublu vsye i shoslyeva!

Why me?

The flight to St. Petersburg was surprisingly smooth. Amsterdam's airport is sweet. Russian customs didn't take that long and it wasn't that scary from what I remember in 2003. We immediately saw two people with a sign with our names on it - Natasha and Nickolai - both speak English VERY well. They drove us to our host families right away and explained things/answered our questions on the car ride there. I was the first to be dropped off. My apartment building is very typical of Russia, slightly run-down but nonetheless cozy. I live next to a beautiful park and right by the water (Gulf of Finland and some canal) because we're on an island (check out google maps). The building is VERY scary and I have to walk up about 5 or 6 flights of stairs to get to my apartment. There are 3 dead-bolt doors with crazy keys (I have my own set) to get inside. I have a small cot to sleep on and no dresser. The bath tub (no shower) is in the kitchen - it also serves as the kitchen table when a board is on top of it. The toilet is in the smallest room I've ever seen (my knees barely fit inside the door). My host mom is a nice, short old lady named Raya. She speaks no English but we've had really lengthy conversations with minimal problems with language (I'm that awesome). Yesterday, when I got there, she showed me around VERY quick; I had to jump right into Russian (AHHH!), fed me, and took me to where we were supposed to meet my group. We took a bus and Raya wrote down her address, phone numbers and possible buses to take for me. All was good. We met the group, the students and leaders went to a sweet coffee/bar/cafe to sit and talk for a while (I had amazing ice cream and Kvas which was just ok). I went to wait at the bus stop on the way home, caught a bus that Raya said would work, talked to the bus driver and he let me off at what he THOUGHT was my neighborhood. WRONG. I had NO idea where I was. It was 11pm and totally light out, luckily. I started to freak out and asked a group of young nice Russians to help me. I of course started crying (why me?!) and they just smiled and told me to stop crying, it was gonna be ok. They called Raya and we agreed on a meeting place. They sent me in a minivan taxi thing to the stop I was supposed to meet Raya at and I got out of the van. Raya was nowhere to be seen. I waited about 20 minutes, and walked back to the apartment - Raya wasn't there. So, I left to go search for her. After another 15 minutes or so, I gave up because it started to get dark. I went back to the apartment and called her cell from her land line. Raya came back and we talked for about the next hour or so about what happened while she fed me (Russians like food a lot). She said that she told the people I was with to have me meet her at a slightly different spot about a block away. Oops. I felt bad but she said it was fine and that I would get to know the area soon. She explained the layout of the city and drew me a map. Finally, at about 1:30am, I went to bed. I was EXHAUSTED. This morning, I got up late, but it was fine. I attempted to take a bath (in brown water...) - what an experience. I got to the meeting spot today just fine by myself (early, in fact!) and had time to go to the grocery store, which was fun and very different. We went on a tour of the city today which was AMAZING. St. Petersburg is unbelievable. After the tour, Natasha and Nickolai helped me get a phone, which is great. It's MUCH cheaper than the U.S. and I can call Natasha and Raya for REALLY cheap, which is great. Overall, I've had a great experience in my first day or so here. I love Russia and I feel very independent and self-sufficient; I feel like I'm mostly prepared on the language end of things. I'm going out tonight with the group and start school tomorrow (yay!). I hope to put some pictures on here as well so you can all see what life is like here. I'll try to blog every couple days or so, so keep up! Jess will have different experiences, so this blog page should be quite interesting. I love you all, please keep in touch! Uvidyemcya!

Welcome!

Hello All!
This is a blog that Audrey and I have created so everyone can keep up with our travels in Russia and throughout Europe. For those of you that don't know, Audrey and I leave on May 30th for a study abroad program in St. Petersburg, Russia for all of June and then we are traveling around Europe on the Eurail for all of July. Our tentative itinerary is below for our travel plans through Europe. We can also be reached via email (Jess: jwilson01@gmail.com, Aud: audreyjbanner@gmail.com). We'll try to update the blog as much as possible during our trip from internet cafes, etc. Check back for updates! Thanks!
-Aud and Jess

Europe Trip Summer 2008

Eurail Youth Flexipass for one month: $779

Helsinki, Finland—1.5 days (2 nights)

· By Rail (not Eurail): $80

Stockholm, Sweden- 2 days (2 nights)

Oslo, Norway- 1.5 days (2 nights)

• Visit Kon-Tiki Museum

Copenhagen, Denmark- 1.5 days (2 nights)

Berlin, Germany- 1.5 days (2 nights)

Prague, Czech Republic-1.5 days (1 night) (this is a MAYBE)

Budapest, Hungary- 2 days (2 nights)

Vienna, Austria-1.5 days (2 nights)

Munich, Germany-1.5 days (2 nights)

Nice, France-2 days (3 nights)

Barcelona, Spain-1 day (2 nights)

Madrid, Spain-1.5 days (1 night)

Paris, France-2 days (2 nights)

Dublin, Ireland-1.5 days (2 nights)

• Tours
• Waterford Crystal
• Student €4.00 ($6.28)
• Factory Tours:

March - October

8.30am - 4.15pm

Mon - Sun

• Located in Kilbarry, Waterford
• http://www.viator.com/tours/Dublin/Dublin-Rail-Tour-Wexford-Waterford-Crystal-and-Kilkenny-City/d503-3310DC01
• GUINNESS!!!
• Tickets € 10.00 ($15.70) for Students
• http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/tickets.asp?sid=1&prid=16&l=EN
• Church, The, Bar, Cafe & Restaurant & Club
• Formerly St. mary's church
• Located at the junction of Mary St& Jervis St , Dublin 1

Amsterdam, Netherlands-2 days (3 nights)

*We fly back from Amsterdam to Minneapolis on July 31st