Some B&W images to transition us from Novgorod to Peterhof, somewhat of a suburb of St. Petersburg, which was built for Peter I and is.... fit for a Tsar, I guess. It's my favorite area near St. Petersburg.



Still in Novgorod, in an open-air museum of wooden buildings.




Our bus got caught in some sort of traffic from hell on the way back to St. Petersburg. It took us something like 9 hours to go 120 miles. This past weekend 9 hours on a bus got me to Helsinki, and that included two stops for border crossings.




Peterhof.






We got to go on a tour of the 'backstage' workings of the fountains. They work without pumps, or something impressive like that.




A trick fountain that we couldn't figure out how to get to turn on.








This is Peter. If you land some coins on the platform near his spur-heeled boots, something good happens, maybe?




I invented this thing called a "Notpose" that is kind of actually a pose. Two of the people in this photo are pulling it off and one seems to have not grasped the idea.

Novgorod. Like, "New City," maybe? There are two of them in Russia; this one was the old and historical one.








I was at an exhibit with photographs from the 1800s and some of them showed this monument and it kind of blew my mind.




Pushkin and Gogol are hanging out here.
















This last one's a result of my forcing two photos when there was only enough film for one.

The view from my bedroom.














This Red Bull can was there in the stairwell for FOR EVER.




Lots of buildings.

Back in Sep./Oct.



This would have been a good shoe picture. Man, why didn't I get my shoes in there? I don't think I was wearing the right shoes.

Seeing the wonderful sunshine in these photos from the summer makes me realize what a ridiculous lag time 5 months is, especially in a place with four distinct seasons.











The color pallet of St. Petersburg is different. It seems like a simplification to think that everything here is all pastels and candy colors, but it's also kind of hard to not think that way.