Ahhh... Sleep

It is 7:30a here now (10:30p IL time) and I just woke up a bit ago.  Got a good nights sleep!  Phew!  And we are going to need it!  We are going on a guided tour of St. Petersburg today with our driver, Andrey, and a tour guide, a lady named Julia.  She is a licensed tour guide.  Our driver was telling us that to be licensed as a tour guide, you have to take a test every two years; to pass, you must know not only know a great deal of past history, but things that may have happened in just the past few years.  Toward the end of the time, we are also going to the Hermitage Museum, which is sort of equivalent to the Smithsonian in the States.  It cost 424 rubles to get in!! .... .... which is only ~$13 USD.  :-)  Anyhow, we are really looking forward to the day out.

I also looked up a map of our walk yesterday and put a pic of the map below... it was 1.8 miles one-way, so we walked nearly 4-miles.  Surprised I am not feeling it more this morning, but will probably notice it tomorrow after we add in today's walking as well.

We walked a lot, but quite honestly we STILL weren't even close to some of the major tourist sites... this city is HUGE!  Per our driver... not a licensed tour guide :-) ... the city has over 5-million people with 2-million tourists at peak season (now).  So far, we have seen lots of 5-story(+) apartment buildings, LOTS of people, and a few minor sites .... we haven't even scratched the surface yet.  Speaking of apartments, our driver is also in real estate, so if you are interested in an apartment in the downtown area of St. Pete, let me know.  He was telling us that an modest-sized apartment in the downtown area (2 bedroom, 1 bath, & kitchenette) runs about $250 to $300k USD.  But, fear not, the banks here are willing to help with a loan... interest rates run between 15-18%.  He said that the private bank system, and many other systems, are still very new and developing since the introduction of democracy in Russia in the 1990s.  He said that Russia is still a very young country with only 20yrs of democracy under their belt.  Hard to think of a country with such immense history as being "new".


Anyhow, here is the pic ... it is a satellite view, but to see the whole route, I had to zoom out.  If you wanted to see more details, you can go to GoogleMaps and type (or copy/paste) in "97 Moskovsky Prospect, St Petersburg, Russia" (that's the proximity of our hotel) and we walked north to the Technology Institute subway station.  Will post more pics later I'm sure! :-)