Russia!

So, we land in St. Petersburg. I had arranged for the company from which I had rented the apartment to pick us up at the airport. A man with a sign with my name on it greeted us and piled us into the back of a single car. He spoke no English, and seemed unable to grasp that we spoke no Russian, as he would speak volubly regarding sites we passed. The courtyard of our building was slum like, but the entrance to the apartment was positively scarey. The woman who provided us with a key spoke no English (are you starting to see a pattern here? Virtually no one speaks English in Russia). Then, our bank card stopped working and no one takes credit cards. But, the next day the card started to work and the sun came out and we came to love St. Petersburg. It is a magestic city. Huge buildings, wide streets, canals, palaces and churches with lots of onion-capped spires.

In Russia, they use the Cyrillic Alphabet. So, not only can you not communicate by speaking, you can't even read the signs. We are getting better at it, as the letters are very similar to the Greek alphabet--and Kim, Ross and I have taken enough math classes to learn some of the Greek Alphabet. For instance, here is a sign I'm sure you will recognize. We learned today of the McDonald's index. People can gauge the cost of living by the cost of an McDonald's burger in a country. Well, the Beattie Index will judge livability by the cost of a commodity far more frequently consumed by the Beattie's--beer. Pivo, in Russian. In England, a pint was about $5. In Norway, beer was $12 (and out of our price range). In Sweden, a beer was down to $6. And, happily, in Russia, beer is about $1. Bonus, it is really good, too.

Perhaps even more challenging is that the letters that are familiar are usually pronounced completely differently. Can you read the name on this boat? We took the picture for Siena's friend Sophia, as that is what the name reads in Russian ("C" is s, "Phi" is F or ph, and the backwards "N" is I). Wild.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is the second largest museum in the world. It contains almost 4 million pieces of art, housed in the former palace of Catherine the Great. This is the Hermitage museum, specifically, the Winter Palace. We spent 4 hours and saw most of the main part of the museum. The State Rooms that have been restored to their original condition are unbelievable. The word of the day was "opulent", and the Hermitage was all of that. Amazing to go to a museum and have the rooms be the focal point much more than the paintings, even though the collection of paintings was unbelievable. There were so many Rembrandts and Matisses, Picassos and Monets, you couldn't even count.

In keeping with the opulent theme of St. Petersburg, we visited the summer palace of Peter the Great, the founder of the city. As we are a bit tired of touring gorgeous, over the top palaces, we contented ourselves with exploring the gardens. At the rapid Beattie pace, we walked for almost 3 hours and covered only part of the gardens. The fountains were particularly spectacular, all 150 of them! Amazing engineering for the beginning of the 18th Century, too.

It is wild to be in Russia, especially for Kim and me. We grew up as children of the Cold War. In New York, we frequently hid in the closets at school for air raids, and had villains named "Natasia" and "Boris". "Today, we walked through Red Square, and experienced just how much Russia has embraced capitalism. Nice cars, huh? And, they charge for everything, the bathroom, the subway map, entrances to churches, even the Lenin's Library!

And, one more Where in the World are Ethan and Siena?

Isn't this an amazing church? This church sits in the middle of Red Square. It was built in the 1500s and rebuilt in the late 1700s (by Catharine the Great, again!). This is St. Basil's Cathedral (This reminded us of our great friend Catherine's dog Basil)

Vosh strovya!

The Beatties