hello from St Petersburg, a little late...

*** This posting was composed while we were in St. Petersburg, but when we went to an internet hot-spot the last night we were there, there were some technical difficulties. So here it is, a little late! Another post will be following shortly with more details on adoption news as we learn more. We visited Meredith today (Thursday) and she was a little cranky but it was good to see her anyway, of course! We will hopefully see her tomorrow and then get custody early next week. Until then, enjoy this older blog entry that I have finally been able to post...

Hello from St. Petersburg!

It’s hard to believe we are already leaving here tomorrow, but our tired legs are telling us it is probably a good idea! In the last four days, I bet we’ve spent over 40 hours on our feet. It has been fantastic. We’ve been inside four magnificent churches, gone on a 5-hour walking tour, seen several museums, done a little shopping, and just generally enjoyed the sights and skylines of this beautiful city.

Right now it is near the time of year dubbed the “White Nights” here in the far north. The sun doesn’t go down until very late, and even then it brings things only to dusk for a while and then it is sunrise again. Last night (actually this morning) we took advantage of the opportunity to go on a boat ride to see the bridges opening up over the main river here – the Neva. Since this happens around 1:45 a.m., now is the time of year to do it because you can still see the sights on the early part of the tour (which begins a little after midnight). Our camera has been acting up lately, but here is a picture taken around 1:00 a.m. of the Peter and Paul Fortress – it is a little fuzzy but you can tell that the sun is just setting.

By about 1:45 it is fairly dark, and we could then see the bridges open up for the night traffic of barges. Notice that the one in the background opens from both sides and the one in the foreground just goes up on the one side. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay to watch the barges come through since little tourist boats are way too little to be hanging out with those big guys on the river!

Yesterday was also a special day because it was Meredith’s birthday! We can’t wait to get back to Yaroslavl to celebrate it with her (I think it’s OK now for me to list the city name). Today we got a book of fairy tales by Pushkin (Russia’s most famous poet) and we are still watching for other things to get for her that will remind her of her Russian heritage.

Since we had a rather late night last night (!) we took it a little easier today and didn’t get out of the apartment until about noon. We went to Dostoevsky’s flat (where he lived in the final years before his death) and then to St. Isaac’s cathedral, which is the second-largest in Russia. The largest is one we already saw in Moscow on our last trip! We also bought a lovely watercolor painting from a street market that is focused on paintings and prints, so you can all see that when we get home and get it framed.

Tomorrow we leave on an evening train, but not before spending a day at the Hermitage. We found a tour in English that isn’t horribly expensive, so we decided to go for it tomorrow even though our day will be shortened a bit by our need to head to the train station. We will at least get a taste of the museum with a 2.5 hour tour followed by a couple of hours on our own. According to someone’s calculation in a tour book, if we looked at each object there for one minute, we would be there for 5 years. So we will definitely need to skip some things :)

We found an internet café so that we could post this to the blog and check email. We think our hotel in Yaroslavl will probably not have internet, so we will try to get to a café every 2-3 days to update you on what we’re up to. (Moms and Dads, we had asked our facilitator in Yaroslavl to pick up a phone card for us but she didn’t get it to us before we left for St. Pete…once we have it we will try to give you a call.)

Thanks for following us on our journey!