St. Petersburg, Russia

I am finally here in Russia for the first time! It's very different. It was very hot when we arrived. The traffic was heavy and the exhaust fumes were quite overwhelming due to the lack of smog checks. The pretty girls trapezed up and down Nevskij Prospect Ave wearing everthing from sophistcated attire to fully exposed bras with shortest of short miniskirts. The smells in air in a mix of exhaust, b.o., smoke and vodka. Now, that being said, I have seen amazing historic buildings yet to explore and we did enjoyed two meals so far on the roof of our hotel that were lovely. Our sweet Russian waiter, Dmitri, couldn't have been nicer. I just returned from this evenings festivities and the sun has only just went down at 12:30 AM. It is the White Nights Festival now. Of course I never realized that meant that the sun never goes down in the summer. So no one sleeps here.... or in Scandanavia. Apparently in Helsinki during summer solstice, the women strip naked and roll in the grass....hmmmmmmmmmm very interesting! Tomorrow we do the town.