Petersburg

Alright, so are little deeper recap of what's happened:
We took a bus to the train station in Moscow, but the bus was SO small! We had so much luggage and so many people. The aisles were completely full, and we were all carrying stuff on our laps! It was actually pretty funny.
The sleeper-train to Novgorod was nicer by far than the couchette to Prague! Keith and I volunteered to room with some random Russian. We also ended up rooming with Bob, an ex-prof on the trip. Our Russian roommate was named Sergei, and he spoke perfect English. He talked about going on digs around Novgorod to find planes and tanks from WWII that have been stuck in the mud (Novgorod is surrounded by swamp). He showed us pictures. He was really apathetic about the catastrophe and loss of human life; he showed us a picture of a plane cockpit with the pilot's hand still holding on to wheel, but he was nonchalant about that and was mainly interesting in the fact that the plane's clock had frozen so you could tell the exact time of the crash. After talking about the digs, conversation got really freaking dull, and I fell asleep with my head on the little table in the room. I was out hardcore, and I didn't even realize it.
Bob and Sergei talked for hours and after I woke up from my short (about 1/2 hour) nap, I couldn't go to sleep again till we were only 2 hours away from Novgorod.
Our hotel in Novgorod was quite nice. We got breakfast once we got in. It was really gross, but it was free, so that was nice. We had canned peas and hot dogs. That was literally breakfast. Odd. That day we toured Novgorod. It was beautiful. Our tour guide was insane. She was this Russian lady Marc (our prof) knows from doing orphanage work in some little town outside Novgorod. She was… long-winded. Very long-winded. Very. She just kept rambling on about everything.
Actually before we met up with her, we went around the city museum, which was interesting - all kinds of artifacts from ancient times (Novgorod is the oldest city in Russia).
We did spend the night in Novgorod. I slept really well, cuz Keith and I roomed together, and neither of us snore. Plus I was exhausted, cuz I'd slept about 8 hours total the last three days.
The next day we basically did nothing till we left by bus for Petersburg.
Yesterday we went to this really strange play, which started out with some fat guy in a kilt getting naked. Strange. Then the rest of the play was the actors just yelling at each other. The acting was actually pretty good, tho.
After the play Keith, Marie and I wandered around looking for a Kofe Hauz with WiFi, but we couldn't find one ever; the ones in this city don't have WiFi. Right now I'm in "The Ideal Cup" (Идеалная Чашка), which isn't that far from the hostel and does have WiFi (100 rubles/hr - yes, I broke. I'm spelling it correctly now).
Anyway, so we did end up at a Kofe Hauz, and I had the best bliny in the world. (Bliny, by the way, is like a crepe, except Russian). Mine was covered with chocolate and had ice cream and pirouettes. Delicious and only 120 rubles.
Today we went down Nevsky Prospect, "the main drag of Petersburg," to quote Marc. I bought Anna a sweet gift. Really sweet. You'll love it! … Or else.
Anyway, it was kind of interesting, kind of boring, until Sean (the guy who was stuck in Germany), got mugged and had his wallet stolen. He's having a bad time.
That basically takes me up to where I am now. No pictures from Petersburg yet, but I'm gonna upload my pics from Novgorod in a second.

Good morning, Moscow!

I'll right, so first I'll address what seems to be everyone's question: There are approximately 27 roubles to the dollar (when you include the exhange fee).

I realize I didn't write much in my blog about the flea market. I definitely need to expand on that: It was sooo crowded! It had everything from Harry Potter nesting dolls to babushka scarves to icons to pastry filled with meet. One of the guys on our trip got suckered into buying these really gross black leather boot/shoes for 150 ... NOT roubles, but dollars! I'm posting pictures tonight, so be sure to look for one of the shoes. The flea market was just enormous. While a large portion of it was outside with no cover, I would have to guess that MOST of it was actually INside. There was a big part of the inside that I lovingly refer to as China Town. It was populated almost solely by people from the Central Asian Republics. This area sold a lot of raw meat, live carp, and pirated DVDs. Oh and rip-off Nike and Adidas hats. The entire place smelled like cigarettes and pirozhki, everyone was yelling about prices and something in Russian that apparently meant "Get out of the way, cuz I'm running up behind you pushing this giant wheeled thing stacked to the ceiling with mattresses!" Also bootlegged Indian (Balliwood Indian) music seemed to be playing everywhere. Very truly Russian experience.

My "nap" yesterday turned into about 12 hours of sleep. That was nice - God did I need that! Today I woke up at 8 to a woman screaming at the hostel staff about "sheer stupidity" on their part. I'm still not sure what was going on, but it was REALLY loud. What I gathered was that the woman was trying to get to the airport and the hostel staff hadn't gotten her a good taxi. She said the taxi driver was an "idiot". Something about she wanted all her suitcases out of the taxi. I think she had also already paid several times to be taken to the airport and the taxi just dropped her back off at the hostel?? Who knows.

Anyway, a little bit about our rooms locality that might help you more fully appreciate our morning (and nighttime) situation: We are on the main floor right across the hall from the TV room (remember how much Raspo likes the TV); next to that room is the office, in which the twenty-something women who work here play 24/7 crappy American pop from the 90s (cf. Britney Spears "Crazy"); and next to that is the "kitchen", where people eat, talk, drink, etc. All the walls are paper thin, so if the snoring INSIDE the room doesn't get ya, you still have plenty of opportunities to be woken up by something OUTSIDE the room.

Expect another post tonight WITH pictures!