We took a bus from Tartu to Pskov, which is a little town right across the border. The Russian border was the most complex border I have been through. It took us about an hour to get all of us through. We had to take everything out of the bus as scary Russian men came through the bus looking at us. Then we had to go through and give them our passports to look at. I was very nervous because Russians are not so fond of Americans, so I didn't want to show them my passport. However, they decided to let me through!
Our first adventure was to a Pskov-Pechora Monastery. All women were required to wear skirts and scarves.
Holy well water. It tasted great!
You are not supposed to drink the water in Russia, so I had to stock up while I had the chance. You would never guess that you could actually buy vodka for less than water. No worries, I stuck with the water.
We took a 12 hour night train from Pskov to Moscow. The train ride was the WORST yet funniest experience I have ever had. This train was SOO cramped and we had to share a compartment with 4 people. Luckily I was with my friends, but still we had NO room. This train was SOOO hot and SOOO loud. We made stops about every 30 minutes so when we stopped you could hear EVERYONE snoring. I'm not kidding it was like a choir of snoring. It was horrible. Now here is the hilarious part, because Sean and I couldn't sleep, and because we were so tired, we thought everything was hilarious so we were laughing all night long for no reason. It was a miserable night but hilarious. However, I am not planning on taking any night trains anytime soon...unless I have the whole car to myself.
When we arrived in Moscow we headed to the Kremlin. The Kremlin is the government area of a city and most Russia cities had a Kremlin.
Cathedral within the Kremlin walls.
Another church within the Kremlin.
The largest bell in the world, The Tsar Bell, weighs 216 tons and has never been rung.
The office of the President of Russia.
The State Historical Museum in the Red Square.
St. Basil's Cathedral!
The Moscow subway.
The Church of St. John the Baptist in the former royal estate-Kokomenskoye.
We had a guided tour of the Kokomenskoye Mansion and the tour guides dressed up like the nobel women of the time.
It is a Russian tradition for newly married couples to put a lock on these trees on a bridge and then they throw the key into the river below. There were brides EVERYWHERE. We saw numerous brides at every site we stopped at.
The Church of Christ the Savior.
The most important building in this photo is the white building because that is the building where we bought Alaska from Russia. Very important.
We took another night train from Moscow to St. Petersburg. This train was much better because we were only on the train from 9 pm to 5 am...so there wasn't enough time to suffer through the choir of snoring.
Peter and Paul Fortress established by Peter the Great.
Aurora Warship where one of the first incidents of the Russia Revolution began.
The Hermitage is third largest museum in the world. It contains over 3 million works of art and it would take over 3 years to be able to see everything in the museum.
The Hermitage was the winter palace of Catherine the Great. The wooden floors were made from 12 different types of wood.
The Hermitage had famous paintings from Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso and Monet.
The throne room.
The Cathedral of the Resurrection.
Can't leave Russia without a Russian hat.
They had SUBWAY in Russia! Of course it cost $10 but boy was it worth it!
St. Isaac's Cathedral took 30 years to construct and was the largest church in Russia when it was built. This dome influenced the dome of the United States Capital.
Inside the dome.
The famous golden arches in Russian. Russia has their own alphabet and nothing was in English. It was very difficult to order food or find the restroom. However, by the end of the 5 days I was able sound out some of the words from the symbols. This sign phonetically says McDonalds.
The summer palace of Catherine I-the second wife of Peter the Great. This is the palace with the famous Amber Room.
The entire palace was lined in gold.
The dinning room.
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