St. Petersburg ~ July 14 – 17
The Admiralty Deluxe will hopefully be quite an upgrade from our Moscow digs. http://www.cityrealtyrussia.com/apartment_admiralty-deluxe-/st-petersburg-apartments.html
Today we are scheduled to leave Moscow for St. Petersburg on a 8:10 pm flight. It should take 1 hr 40 minutes.
We headed out for our last day in Moscow. Our destination was Arbat Street which we thought required a train transfer. We found the metro with ease and strolled through a farmers market right next to it. We purchased some delicious raspberries that we were all enjoying until Hailey noticed a small worm on hers. Well no one wanted to finish the raspberries after that discovery. We came across a fresh milk stand. The guy actually made the milk and had a huge stainless steel dispenser on wheels. People were lined up with their own cartons. We purchased a bottle of milk which the kids said was very good. That bottle was pre-bottled. The milkman then insisted that he fill our bottle with his fresh homemade milk and wouldn’t take any rubles for it. The kids thought this was even better than the first. Too bad he doesn’t make rounds in California!
We took the train but then got confused underground. There are multiple train lines that intersect but are quite a walk from each other. It’s all underground and in the Russian alphabet. Very confusing. A very nice Russian kid in his twenties stopped to help us. He was from Siberia and a sports journalist. He was in town to cover a Formula One exhibition race in the Kremlin. He got us to our destination. Another incredibly nice Russian came to our rescue once again.
Arbat Street is a really lengthy pedestrian street with all kinds of restaurants, bars, stores and street artists, performers and musicians. It was a gorgeous warm sunny day. We bought a few Russian souvenirs and ate lunch at a Russian restaurant. It was tasty.
We decided to take one last look at Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral ( yes our 4th time there in 24 hours). We just couldn’t get enough of looking at it. It is quite spectacular and doesn’t look real. More like something Disney made. We flagged down a “gypsy” cab and headed back to the apartment to grab our bags. We kept the same driver who took us to the airport (about an hour) in his small car. Four people crammed in the back and poor John had a full sizes suitcase on his lap. Stacy won the lotto and sat in the front seat with a suitcase on her lap. Kallin and Zoe took turns with Hailey on their laps.
Good thing we arrived early. They didn’t have Hailey’s reservation on file! We all got seats but not together. It was about an 1 1/2 hr flight and our prearranged ride was there waiting for us. When we landed it was about 9:45 pm and still light outside. The sun just started to set as we pulled up to the apartment. By this time it was 11 pm!!
As we approached the exterior of the building we could over hear John say “oh no, not again.”. It is really dumpy. You have to enter a gate, then a door and then go up two flights of concrete stairs. The stairwell stinks nasty. But once we stepped into the apartment it is small but really lovely. Just like the pictures depict. Kallin loves it. It has been rehabbed with granite kitchen top but kept its old world charm with high ceilings, crown molding and lovely decor. The only problem is that there appears to be a lot of lumber in the courtyard so there is some construction going on close by in another unit. Hope they don’t start too early.
We were famished. We left the apartment and found an Irish restaurant around the corner. It was 11:30 pm and still light out ! See picture below. Everyone enjoyed their dinner and Stacy & John enjoyed there Irish beer. It was close to 2:00 am by the time we all hit the beds.
St. Petersburg has this old world charm. Kallin is very excited about seeing the city tomorrow. It appears our apartment is in an excellent location and under a 10 minute walk to the Hermitage. I hope the weather holds out and not too much rain. 80% chance for tomorrow 😦
The Zehrens Go Global 