From RUSSIA with Love!!!!

Hello hello hello.
Well... It's currently our last day in Russia, and we only just got some Internet in a pub. Haha, as our hotels Internet died. Maddys sister MEL is here with us, so it has been extremely fun! The weather has been beautiful everyday and the people have been surprisingly friendly, but don't speak any English..haha
Well here is how our 3 days have gone!!!!
We flew in from prague and got the hotel taxi into the city. On the way into town we were thinking this might not have been a very idea to come here, as the place was so scummy. We drove through areas where I would not have gotten out of the car!!! If we would have, we probably would never been found again!! Maddy and Mel were thinking the same..haha but eventually the streets became cleaner and stuff as we got into the city.. So our 1st sights were not the best intro to what is actually a beautiful city with beautiful buildings and parks.
We felt very safe on the streets walking around. Funny enough though, it wasn't the police that made us feel safe, they are actually pretty scary, and seem like they would demand money off us. Lucky it hasn't happened yet!!!!! Fingers crossed we have no run ins before tomorrow morning!!!!!
Our hotel is in the most awesome location! It's like 100metres from the hermitage and everything else is so close. We thank maddy for it everyday. But the hotel room is tiny, and we have all 3 of us to accommodate. The hotel staff thought the was only 2 of us coming and stressed out hard..haha it has worked out, but it's a tight fit. Fun though!! The 1st night Mel and myself slept with our heads 30cm apart, but last night it was maddys turn. Haha our snoring orchestra must have been nearly as good as the one we heard at the ballet!!

Our first day we settled in fast and got out and saw most of the sights, but we realized some places were shut on Wednesday's!!! Damn!!other we went around to places like the church of the spilled blood but couldn't get in..errrrr but we did manage to get into the back door of the Russian museum..haha maddy go us in free being royalty here. And later that afternoon we visited the hermitage which was amazing. We also got in free because of maddy, and were shown secret parts of the winter palace reserved only for royal eyes! Haha the rooms were beautiful, and I even got yelled at in Russian for taking a picture of something I shouldn't have.. Very scared! Haha
Lunches and dinners were our saviour though. Everyone said it was expesive here, but we found retaurants that were awesome and cheap. Some we have paid as little as 5 Aussie bucks for a decent plate of food. The chicken here is the best!!! That night for dnner though, we went to the supermarket and got some food which we ate at the park.. It was a nice park, but the pidgins again had maddy on their radar. We aren't sure why, but they always go for her.. We ended up moving on from the park at her demand!! It was funny!! She is terrified of them!(note: Mel wanted all to know that maddy is freaked out by pidgins, and none attacked her!)

Our second day on the town we got out early! But it all fell apart in our adventures to post a package home. We wanted to go to this hotel that the guide book said had a courier service... Blah blah blah... So we walked in the stinking hot sun up nevinksi prospect looking for it, looking at the building numbers. We even got on a bus which was fun. Little did we know that the stupid book had the address wrong, and we were looking on the wrong side of the road. Haha so we got off the bus and were about to give up when we saw it! Haha so we went in, and the hotel people were funny. It turns out they didn't send packages at all. They did say we could try russian post, which when asked how long it would take, responded hesitantly saying in their Russia accents "it can maybe take a month or longer" Hahaha Bloody guide book!!! Seriously don't use guide books! So we ended up sitting in this fancy hotel and paid 1000 rubles for 3 drinks. Hahaha my fanta cost $10.... hahaha what a rip, but it was worth sitting in the air conditioning in the foyer of this beautiful hotel.
After this failure we were stuffed, and ended up getting a nice lunch and falling asleep in the hotel for a little longer than we planned..hahaha we were a bit stressed that we might miss the ballet at the meriinsky theatre!!! Well we got there on time, and got our tickets. The theatre itself was amazing. It was so old and beautiful. Type it in on google and have a look. The ballet was the best too.. I thought I would maybe like it a little as I'm up for anything, but it was actually awesome. After each scene the crowd would go nuts and the dancers were loving it! Bravo bravo etc and clapping, our hands were sore after a few scenes. Our seats were great. Mel did a great job picking them. The ballet was a pirate theme. Really cool. After the ballet we went to this Georgian restaurant that we had been eyeing off.. It ending up being amazing, with delicious food! The dumplings we had were the best ever!!! Was a great night all together.

Well I'll end it there, but Russia has been beyond anything we could have imagined. Maddy and mel have been running round like crazy. Buying cool things and all the fun stuff.
Petersburg has been great. It's so good having so much daylight. We have been out each night late, and it only gets darks at 12:30pm. Very different but cool.
WeLl we are off to London in a day or so, so we will check in again then!
Love jay, maddy and Mel