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| Erin and I posing before the boat! |
Today
we visited Peterhof! It was our last group activity besides dinner
tomorrow night, and I can't believe the trip is coming to an end so
quickly! We did something new this morning and took the trolley instead
of the Metro or walking. The trolleys here are pretty much exactly like
buses (which they also have in St. Petersburg) except they draw
electricity from an overhead wire and are restricted to one lane. We
only stayed on for a few stops and then got off at the dock so we could
take a hydrofoil to Peterhof. We were early so we hung out and took some
pictures by the water until our boat came. We got to sit at the front
of the boat, which was cool because it rises out of the water, and got
some cool photos from the boat. Then, it was open water all the way to
Peterhof.
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| A shot from inside the boat as we were traveling. So pretty! |
When we got there it was already crowded but we stuck
with our tour guide and got a good spot in line. The fountains turned on
at exactly 11 am so most of us missed it, but we went back to see them
after - getting into the palace first was more immediate because
sometimes it's so crowded you can't even get in. Unfortunately we
couldn't take pictures inside the palace, which was a huge bummer.
Apparently it was a new rule, and our tour guide said she thought it was
because the tours already take so long that they restricted people from
taking pictures to speed up the process, but she didn't know for sure.
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| Peterhof! |
We
had to put on plastic socks over our feet again to help preserve the
original wood floors. The palace was just as impressive as the others
we've seen; everything was grand and gilded with gold, and there were
two Chinese rooms, which were decorated entirely in Chinese art and
fashion, which was unique from the other palaces we saw.
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| A view of the fountains from the top! |
After
the tour of the palace we went back out for a tour of the grounds, which
was in some ways more impressive than the palace because of all the
unique fountains. The main fountains in front of the palace were
gorgeous, with giant gold statues and many tiers of water raining down
from different heights. The fountains on the grounds were more for fun,
such as the one that had a dog that was chasing ducks and one that was a
tree sprouting water from different branches.
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| Jumping in front of the fountains :) |
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| A dog chasing ducks... for three hundred years now! It means don't reach for something that is unattainable! |
Unfortunately we
were all really tired at this point and were glad for a break for lunch.
The cafe served us cod and potatoes, which looked better than it
tasted, but the ice cream after really hit the spot.
After lunch
we all took the hydrofoil back to the city and split up to do our own
exploring. I took a nap because I was feeling my cold coming back, but I
know a lot of people finished up their souvenir shopping.
At
7:30 most of us met up for dinner to go to Cat Cafe, a Georgian
restaurant (the few that didn't come went to Soviet Cafe, which also had
fabulous food and decor from the Soviet era). Cat Cafe was very good.
I've never had Georgian food before but between the traditional cheese
bread, lamb and house wine I fell in love. I also tried some of
Bridgette's mutton since that's harder to find in the States and it was
also really good. On the walk home we stopped for some ice cream and
then headed in for the night.
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| Some of the group with our waiter at Cat Cafe, who looks suspiciously like Antonio Banderas... hmm. |
Here I am sitting across from Miguel having our breakfast... It's not often that we get a window seat in the hotel.. so this was nice! 
Here's a picture of everyone on the bus... lol. BUS NUMBER 7-10- 11 will get you to the shore! ;D 
This is the Hydrofoil!! or so we thought!! lol. i mean.. I KNEW it wasn't a hydrofoil.. but we had to walk through this boat to get onto our boat.. it was kinda cool because a cute boy held my hand so I wouldn't fall into the water... LOL!. 
