First day in Russia.....

Russia...what comes to mind? Communism? Snow? Super hot chicks? Well, communism ended in 1991, it doesn't snow in here in july (unless you're in the mountains), so if you said super hot chicks, you were on the money! Let me tell you, although what I've seen of the monuments so far is beautiful, it's hard to keep my eyes off these northern beauties....but i digress....Upon landing in St. petersburg, i really didn't know what to expect. I had set up accomodation through couchsurfing with Elena, and was off from the airport to find her boyfriend Oleg, who was to meet me at a certain bus stop. Using my basic knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet, I was able to read the street signs that led me to my destination...after having taken about 10 steps off the bus I passed a person meeting Oleg's description, and I guess I met mine, as we both turned simultaneously towards eachother, saying one another's name. A great start, I'd say, especially learning that he had never received my phone message advising him of my arrival! My first real experience was taking the metro. If the soviets did anything right, it was certainly building amazing subway stations, each one is uniquely decorated with paintings, murals and mosaics, chandeliers and extremely long escalators to reach depths of what seem like middle earth.
After a shower and a cup of tea (boy, do Russians love their tea), we (oleg, his friend sasha and I) headed off to the city center....A massive blue mosque caught my eye first, rising above the 3 and 4 story apartment blocks (think of them as a cross between victorians and brownstones), about 200 meters further up we ascended a bridge that led to the old city center....Walking acroos the bridge, I immediately realized the sheer beauty of St. Petersburg. You see, the city is trasversed by the Neva river, which splits in two as it arrives at the center, creating a series of small islands, and then breaks off into a dozen or so canals, which spread out through the city. The view from this particular bridge allows one to see the fortress of peter and paul in one direction, and the hermitage (winterplace) and other victorian age buildings lining the riverside in another. We crossed Mars field, and came into view of the totally cool Church of spilled blood(see my photo link for a pic), thusly named because it was built on the site in which Alexander II was blown up in a terrorist attack in the early 19th century....Later that evening we met up with some other of their friends for foosball and beer in a bar in the city center. At that point the realisation that I was in Russia came to the forefront. Growing up during the cold war, Russia was always 'the enemy', now being amongst 'the enemy' became a quite surreal experience, as I could not distinguish any difference between a night hanging with them, and a night hanging out in centrefields with my oldest, dearest and nearest friends....like the Disney song...it's a small world afer all....My hosts lived on one of the islands of St. Petersburg, and bridges are the only means to reach them, however St.petersburg is also a busy seaport, and cargo ships need to make some deliveries further inland...so what happens? Every night at 1.30 am the bridges rise to allow the ships clearance. This lasts for about 3 hours, and means whoever doesn't make it back across the bridge is stuck! Did I mention that St. Petersburg in this period never sees darkness...the famous white nights! This makes it ever harder to understand what time it is. So, controlling our watches intently, we wait until the last possible moment to leave the bar, and make a run for the bridge...being the very last ones to cross. All in all, a very exciting and interesting first day to my long, long trip......