A picture is worth a thousand words... DAY 6

DAY 6: VISITING CATHERINE'S PALACE ON A RAINY DAY!!!!

hey everyone.. :) it's Lynn here..

I'm so sorry for posting all of our pictures and not having the time to put the captions under them.. 

We have a long day here in St. Petersburg and by the time I get back to my room around 10:00pm... 

I just want to upload and pass out...

the day starts quite early every morning.. :) 

My Awesome Roommate, Rachel, and I are quite lazy during our mornings.. so I like to lay around and spend about 45 minutes putting on my face. :P  and then we run off for about 10 hours to explore St. Petersburg libraries with the rest of the gang. :) 

anyways... 

Try to bare with me as I write in detail about our adventures...

I'm writing as I'm thinking, so there may be a few slang words here and there. And there's definitely a lot of SMILEY FACES!!  ":)"... <~! SEE!? ;) 

okay.. so let's begin. 

So on this magical Saturday morning, Rachel and I dreaded the rain as we kept on checking the weather every single day before this day...

"WHY does it have to rain!??!?" :(

As we got out to complete our usual morning routine, we were greeted by RUMIA, our tour guide...

She was a very sweet woman, but she kept us in line the whole time.. :X 

When we arrived to the city of Pushkin (named after the famous Russian Poet, Alexander Pushkin), we were blown away by Catherine's Palace...  

the only thing that sucked was the rain... and of course the line we had to wait in just to get inside... :P 

The line of people waiting to get through the gates of Catherine's Palace...   NOTE: We are NOWHERE near the front... lol.

Finally!!! we made it inside the gates of Catherine's Palace... but was then greeted by another line... :P
I decided to take the opportunity to snap some shots of the palace...

the beautiful front entrance of Catherine's Palace! :) 

Our awesome Professors, Dr. Trudi and Yelena!! ;D  <3 <3 <3

SO we FINALLY made it inside and had to check in all of our coats and bags...

I recall seeing a sign that said no bags larger than 25 inches and no large coats..
The staff is afraid the visitors might steal some thing so we did as we were told by RUMIA!! :P


so after checking in our things... look at here below..  WE HAD TO WEAR LITTLE BOOTIES because the floor is kept original and our shoes will ruin it!!! :P

again.. we did as we were told by RUMIA. ;)

RAY: "Hey Rachel.. isn't this awesome?! BOOTIES!!!"...      RACHEL: "Uhh.. sure!!! ;)" 

Miguel: "Dude... I just want to check us all in on my FACEBOOK!!"   ... Joanna: "I know I'm cute! ;) " 

Here's a picture of everyone waiting to see what this so called Catherine's Palace is all about... and let's just see what kind of floors we can't step on with the soles of our shoes?!

okay.. it's looking pretty fancy so far... but i'm not that impressed yet... :P 

THAT IS..... until we enter the party room where you can rent out for your wedding for just 1 trillion Rubles!! ;)

That is a pretty awesome ceiling to be staring at all day long...

OooOh... AHhH!!

can I get married here?! ;)  

These awesome moldings can be found throughout the entire palace

WE KEPT ON WALKING ROOM TO ROOM...
and everything seemed so grand...

RUMIA says that there are over 60 rooms in the palace... but less than half is viewable by visitors and the rest are under restoration or is too fragile. :P

come... let's hang out at the cool table. :P 

I think I want to see cupid sleeping by my window.. :P

This is my other cool room where you can eat at... 

seriously... how many rooms are we going to look at today??? 

If you're cold, I can warm you up with my cool stove.. :P it will heat up the whole room.  ;) 

One of Catherine's dresses... out of her millions I'm sure... :P 

O look... another ceiling with awesome pictures on it!

a wall with just pictures... 

another sitting room.. 

and more... I know we saw at least 10.. 

a portrait of Nicolas and his wife Alexandria...

The entrance of our tour, is also the exit... :P

After our Palace tour.. (which was sooo AMAZING!!!) we went to get our coats and put away our booties...
we were rushed out of the Palace so quickly that RUMIA didn't even give us the chance to look at the gift shops...
I know that Dr. Trudi wasn't really happy about that...

but yea.. we just sucked it up and moved on to the outside. :P

ooOhh.. the outside gardens... I SWEAR it went on for MILES!! and Catherine had like.. 10 more small palaces in her own back yard!!!!! one was her MUSIC HOUSE!

The Mirrored Ponds

CHECK OUT my awesome man made lake!! ;) 

As we kept on walking, we heard jets flying around above...
I tried to snap a clear shot.. and think I got a pretty good one..

SEE BELOW! ;)

I think I have a pretty awesome camera... THANKS MOM! <3

Ooohhh.. AHHH!!!

more green stuff to look at.. 

Dr. Trudi and "the girl who cried over spilled milk"..  YELENA says "don't cry over spilled milk".  
I say, "GET OVER IT... and GO MILK SOME MORE COWS!!"

Ray and I do love to take our so called "JUMPING PICTURES"..  I think its funny.. :) 

The mirrored pond... Its so huge... what's the point of getting the other pond in the picture!! :P 

Here's our group... 

If you don't know by now...

I LOVE taking pictures... :) of people especially!

so I think at this point.. 

I'm yelling at everyone to get into a group so I can snap a picture for the pleasure of all of our viewers out there!!

WE ARE HAVING THE TIME OF OUR LIVES!!! :)

UMD baby! 

The photographer must have a picture with at least one awesome person... I can't be stealing all of the spotlight! ;) 

Here's one last view... 

and of course... A SHORT VIDEO!! :) 

you're welcome!!! ;) 

Moving on... we are exiting the Palace now... and I'm still snapping away with my camera... 

Can I borrow your gardener??? 

Gold Rooftops?!

THIS GATE TOPS THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE!! ;)  jkjk but man.. it's literally gold!! 

so we are now on our way to eat our lunch..

I love to take pictures of the food I eat...

Now what I eat may not be what my classmates eat... so I just want to put it out there..
for example.. If you see a picture of my coffee... that doesn't mean Rachel drinks coffee..
If I drink beer, that doesn't mean Dr. Trudi drinks beer...
she may be having a glass of wine!! who knows!?!?!?!  ;)

okay... so moving on..

Here's a picture of my yummy greek salad...
 (i notice that the peeps are very stingy on the cheese!!!! PLEASE GIVE ME MORE!!! GRR!!) 

 this is a very common soup that the Russians have.. it's called BORGE!!!
(i don't think i'm spelling it right.. but you know what i mean!!! :P )

Here's my beef stew with potatoes...
(I notice the Russians add sour cream to everything... So why can't I!?) ;) 

mmm.. I do like desert too!!   it's a pastry with some sort of sauce on it.. I'm assuming its cranberry! :P 

Coffee anyone?!  it was pretty TASTY!! :P  YUMMY!!

Jessica: "I'm cute!!"   Ray: "NO, I"M CUTE!!"

Let's all cross our arms!!!

Natalia and Bridgette!!

This is our tour guide RUMIA and of course... YELENA! ;) xoxoxo

That's my awesome roomie, RACHEL and Dr. TRUDI! :) 

That's Ray... ME!!! .. and MIGUEL!!! :) 

as we had finished our coffee, Rumia said it was time for us to leave, so we got up... and walked towards the door....
and was distracted by....






GIFTS!! and LOTS OF THEM TOO!! :D

Look at this cute toy!!!! :D

and tasty spices!!!

and lastly... some Russian WiNE!!! ;) 

haha. so yea.. the rest of the gang all bought some stuff..
while I went back on the bus to get comfortable.. :P

Rachel bought a toy.. :P

SMILE EVERYONE!!! :)   (Joanna: "I'm too cute to smile!! ;) "  ) 

DURING OUR RIDE TO THE HOTEL, RUMIA SAID THAT IF WE BEHAVED, WE WOULD GET LITTLE GIFTS FROM HER!! ;)
WE MADE SURE TO BE ON OUR BEST BEHAVIOR AS THE TOUR GUIDE BRIBED US WITH MARISKA DOLL KEY CHAINS AND A MAP TO THE CITY!!!
OooOh!! AHHHHH!












we got back to the hotel and rested for a bit.. then headed to dinner at this awesome place called ELKI-PALKI!!!

There was a bear that walked around the street passing out flyers and DARREL kept on grabbing them.. so it only made sense to go here..
lol..
I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of this bear! GRRR!!!

but at least we having cute dancing girls! ;)

dancing a Russian Dance?! ;) 

WOuld you like some beer!? 

How about a Sangria!!?!?!? ;) 

check out my greek salad... AGAIN.. STINGY ON THE CHEESE!!!!!!!! :P 

This is Joanna's meal!! :)  I don't know whats it in.. but it sure looks GOOD!!!!!! ;) 

Lisa and Dr. Trudi had the Salmon.. :P   

Ray's meal

Rachel's meal.... OR SO I THOUGHT IT WAS... LMAO!!
she had also ordered a beef stew, but that didn't come out till everyone was done eating. :P lame lame lame!!

My yummy BEEF STROGNOV!!!

YUMMY! FROSTY CRANBERRY "water" :D!!!

THE END...
more posts to come soon!


xoxox,
LYNN NGUYEN!