Engage-amoon!
June 29th, 2016
It sure feels like first class!
Our engage-amoon began in the most perfect way. After quickly checking in and then having no security line, we flew through and had over 2 hours to wait for our flight. During this time, Chuck decided to try our luck and see if we could be upgraded since we just got engaged, and low and behold, we got Business Class! Who knew that would actually work?! We knew we were in for a treat when we arrived to our seats to a pre-flight champagne and hot towels. Chuck was just excited that we were flying in a 747-8 in the upper deck! We spent the flight pampered with the best flight food we’ve ever had! A three course meal including scallops, charcuterie, and filet mignon. We proceeded to try to sleep for the rest of the 8 and a half-hour flight in our chairs that turned into beds, and decided that there is no other way to fly ever again…except for every other flight we take because there is no way we can ever afford these tickets. Also, neither of us could actually sleep because it was still about 8pm our time so we spent most of the flight trying to sleep and then periodically telling the other how excited we were to be in business class.
747-8, beautiful plane!
After a quick layover in Frankfurt, where we tried to be upgraded again and were sadly declined, but we finally made it to Saint Petersburg! Although we completely expected the lack of English, it was still a shock to only hear Russian and see the Cyrillic alphabet everywhere.
Our first glimpse of St. Petersburg, before we got on the river boat.
We were also quickly introduced to the insane driving that occurs in Russia. There are apparently no speed limits and cars fly in and out of lanes and at the beginning of green lights like we have never seen before! Even Chuck is baffled by the lack of road manners!
After quick naps, we decided to take a city canal boat tour to take in our first sights of the city and not kill ourselves on our first day. We found the boats and quickly realized all the tours were only in Russian, so we took in the views instead of getting a true tour. Anna ending up spending most of the ride fighting sleep, while Chuck spent it taking pictures (a true shock of course).
The bridges of the city are beautifully ornate, especially seen at 9:30 at night!
We found a local restaurant for dinner, Teplo, which is designed like you are sitting in someone’s house. The food was so fresh and incredible and cost so little! We had two appetizers (mozzarella salad and a salmon crostini), two glasses of wine, and our meals (steak and fish) for about $30.
We were both a bit in shock when at 9:30pm the sky was still bright and the sun was still partially up! Although we had heard to expect the "white nights" it was still such a different experience than we had ever seen. Unfortunately due to this being combined with our time zone adjustments, we were both awake by 3am and unable to fall asleep again for the rest of the night. And, at 3am the sky was just as bright as it had been at 9:30pm!
