NuBe gang's first day in Mother Russia

It's now been the end of a long day and betwee jet lag, 5 hours at the Hertmitage museum, walking the lenthg of Nevsky, the main road here, talk about sensory overload and lack of ability to construct cherent centecnes.. i mean sentences.. now that we're learning the russian alphabet, sorry if it's interferring with our english. (wow.. that was a long sentence)

Day One of our four week journey started with a bang! After our two hour flight from Frankfurt, we got off the plane to be picked up by two russian guys who drove us to our hotel (with no visible front lobby). The hotel is in the City Center, as we were corrected by our driver, it's not downtown. Our driver wasn't able to tell us what was going on the next day and after a playing charades with the lady in the lobby, we figured we'd be better off to figure it out the next morning at breakfast.

We spent the evening walking around and found a little bar that can only be described as Russian kitch at its best. We dined on our first borsch and straganoff while listening to cheesy 80's music (that johainah enjoyed) played/karaoked by a one man band sitting next to a stripper pole. Despite the jet lag and strange lone dancing bar star (also a patron though) we enjoyed every minute of it.

After dinner the gang walked back and hit the pillow pretty hard.
It's been a while since either of us have traveled anywhere new. It's a great feeling. New air, new people, and new sites. Day's are longer here, it's about 10pm before the sun goes down. It's also a little chilly. Getting to know the streets has been an adventure on its own but fortunately no one has gotten thoroughly lost. Russian can be a challenging language, especially since at first it looks like english until you get to the backward Rs.
We've got the rest of our stay in St. Petersburg all planned out with a boat tour, church visits and more walking around. So, stay tuned for more to come! Paka for now!