Russia - St. Petersburg

Hello dear readers, 

So (like many other posts) I must start this one with an apology. Recently, I went to Russia. And I told you about the trip beforehand, so the fact that I came back a week ago today makes this particular post long overdue. It's just that I've been (not very successfully) revising for my GCSEs, which are looming in the way too near future. 

ANYWAY, you came here to hear about/ see pictures of my trip to Russia. But I think its story is best told with photos. 

So we started off the trip in St. Petersburg, and this is one of the main squares, with me and my friend Helen (who featured in another recent post) in the middle of it. This one's a cutie, if I do say so myself!

Part of a cathedral we saw the next morning. 

 

The city has always been known as the 'Venice of the north' and you can kinda see why

A slightly creepy, sneaky selfie of a selfie

This whole trip was for our GCSE history, so if you do the same course as me you'll understand our excitement at the claims of this ship being THE Aurora Cruiser, which sailed up to the Winter Palace during the Bolshevik Revolution. If you're a history fanatic you'll find that exciting, and if you're not... I ask you not to dwell on my nerdiness.

SO MANY RUSSIAN DOLLS

 

I mean, LOOK 

#cray

Sorry, I got a bit carried away with the photog here...

That evening, we went to the theatre to see a ballet. I bet you want to know what it was called/ what it was about/ who starred in it. But sorry, my answer to all those questions is I have absolutely no idea. We all enjoyed it though!

The theatre was so pretty (also don't know the name of that either - hopefully tiredness is a good excuse for my incompetence)

 

Lots and lots of dancers (A* in obvious captioning over here) 

I think the gist of the story was that it was a dramatic, tragic love story. It was just that no one knew what the ending was all about - I have theories, believe me, but they would take explaining far beyond the patience boundaries of most humans, dear readers, so I hope you'll forgive me in excluding them from the post.

You've now been magically transported to Catherine the Great's palace

This is a slightly blurry photo that doesn't quite do this hall justice - it was essentially a ballroom/ extravagant thing, covered in mirrors and gold, complete with a slippery floor - perfect for sliding across and getting consequently told off by your teacher

One of the main things I'll say about this trip is that the Russians know how to make a bloody good chandelier, as demonstrated by basically everywhere we went to 

I'm sure this beautiful amazing wondrous writing desk will call out and fondle the hearts of the authors amongst you. It certainly fondled me, if you'll pardon the euphemism 

The cold never bothered me anyway *cue piano interlude*

Cute sign we saw from our extra-touristy coach (yep, you've guessed it - we did the whole guided tour on coach, get off for ten minutes to take selfies and group shots, get back on coach, leave and go to next spot thing - how wonderfully irritating) 

Getting artsy with cups, saucers and hot chocolate at the hotel. Am I the only person who finds hot drinks machines equally fascinating and exhilarating - I mean, what could be more exciting than your favourite, warm liquid coming out of a machine at the press of a button?! And it knows when to stop so your cup doesn't overflow. GENIUS.

Yet another thing I found exciting (you've probably picked up that this is a recurring theme for me): the light. Golly. 

The Church of Spilled Blood, which was built around the very place where Tsar Alexander II fell down after he was assassinated

Sorry to be so factual, but this church was so interesting: its insides were covered with 7065 square metres of mosaics, each carefully made and presented. The fact that it should in theory take someone a year to make a single sqaure metre of this mosaic type shows the pure manpower that went into making this church... 24 years it took them, not 7065; and that's extra impressive. 

 

That's right, it's the Venice of the north 

Cute group shot outside the Winter Palace/ Hermitage museum. There's a little huggy photobomb going on on the right there

Inside the very grand palace. To be honest, we saw so much gold in the buildings on this trip that it kind of lost its impact, and eventually we'd walk into a room covered with gold and just say "oh, another one"

We like our chandeliers we do

Little memorial of paintings of all of the officers/ important Russian army people who fought against Napoleon

There were so many chandeliers in this room. Imagine how I felt, considering my new- found little obsession 

One of the two Raphael paintings they have in the Hermitage museum/gallery. It would take you 23 years to see everything there, it's so big 

They even had a Michaelangelo. This was heaven for the art students amongst us (that includes me!)

What else do you buy when it's freezing cold outside? ^

The way this was translated/ worded made me chuckle... "Lavatory pans"

Again, it was crazy to think know much important history had happened on this very square 

Where Tsar Nicholas II and most of his family are buried (we're now at a church in a fortress) 

And now we're at St Isaac's Cathedral 

The view from the top of the cathedral after climbing up 300 steps or something 

The friendly countdown to the bottom 

The snazzy, but traditional restaurant we went to on our last night in St Petersburg

My favourite part of the trip was the folklore show we went to that evening. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the show itself, but here's one of my friend and I looking like the perfect couple at the palace where the show was (what do you mean, they're cardboard cut-outs?! Never!). It was an eccentric place - they played bird noises in the toilets, which as you can imagine was slightly distracting. The show itself was amazing - they had the classic costumes and dance moves, and the stories behind the dances were hilarious. They got people to come up on stage, I befriended an Irish woman called Ann who sat next to me, and it was all together a lot of fun. 

To get to our next destination, Moscow, we went on the 'midnight train'. It was more like a 2 in the morning train, judging by the time we got into bed. I don't think anyone slept at all - we were, as forty girls would be - unsettled by the fact that we all shared a loo, the taps didn't work, and the flush was on the ground, which was very confusing. Aside from toilet difficulties, it was definitely an experience! 

I think I'll end here, and make another post about Moscow, because it's taken me an hour to write this one and I worry about how long it will take to upload, considering the huge amount of photos... Uh oh ;) 

Thank you for reading, be lovely to one another, many hugs

The (very tired and) happy blogger xxxxxx

Friendly reminder

Hello dear readers, 

I broke up from school today! This would be a really YAY moment if it wasn't for the fact that I have to revise over Easter for my GCSEs, which isn't so YAY. But YAY for going to Russia next week - I'm so excited!!!!

Another thing: sorry this post is late.. I've been incessantly busy and tired this week, which is never a good mix. 

So, for anyone who feels a similar way currently, I have a little message for you. I found these wonderful words on tumblr, and I think they just sum up everything anyone ever needs to know/ think. 

I'll sign off now - many hugs 

The (exhausted and) happy blogger xxxx

And now, dear readers, you can fully take in the beauty of this text post (creds and cudos to the amazing author, whoever they may be):

Sunset walk

Hello dear readers, 

Last night my friend and I snuck out onto the golf course next to my house whilst the sun was setting and it was beautiful. I have a few photos which explain everything far better than I can do with words at the moment: 

It was so lovely to just run around (I recommend running around in circles, it makes you feel very.. Free) on the golf course and pretend we were ten years younger than we are. 

I would post more pictures but some didn't come out very well, and we had a few issues with the self timer app.. ;) 

Sorry this has been short, but the main purpose of this post was to share how pretty our world can be, despite the problems that may arise within it. 

Wow that got kinda deep.. 

*got to get the scuba diving kit out for this one then*

Many hugs from

The (very) happy blogger xxx

Ps: maybe I should make Sunday posts a regular thing?

Escapism

Hello dear readers, 

So today, I've got a bit of a different post - something a bit deeper. 

You know when things seem so hard or stressful, and you just can't find an easy way out? Don't turn to the worst solution,  maybe just use this little technique. 

Ok, so I'm not a therapist or anything, and definitely not a doctor (check with my science test results if you want clarification)... But I find that the best way to get out of these situations just for a bit is through escapism. That sounds kind of weird and complicated, but it's not. 

Take, for example: me (sorry, slight lack of creativity currently). Right now, I've got something like 9 weeks (!!!!!!!) until my GCSES start, which is utterly bewildering and kind of scary, because I haven't started revising yet and don't know whether I should. I have so much art coursework, and having extra tests, papers, essays, friends/family issues and just general teenage problems (like *cough* the wrong time of the month, or just the wonderful hormones exagerrating every single situation - ugh) on top of that really doesn't help. Guaranteed, there's no easy way out of that all completely, but it's nice to just get away from it briefly, and focus on something else. It may seem obvious, but sometimes just a little music or reading, or online/real shopping (retail therapy is SO useful, even if you, like me, just put everything you like in the virtual/literal basket but then just leave and chuckle as you realise that all costs way too much) really hits the spot. 

I love music so much, and listening to it, and focussing on it, helps to just get my mind off all the stressful things, and I can relax for a bit, at least. Then, reading is great too, because if your mind and world seem too overcrowded and overwhelming at the moment, escaping into someone else's world (and as awful as it sounds, it will make you feel better if their situation is worse than yours!) then you're, even just for a brief time, someone else, without your problems. And then there's shopping, which kind of speaks for itself, so yep. ;)

I'm a teenager, so naturally, you must be shouting at your computer/whatever device, saying "why haven't you mentioned going on your phone/whatever device yet?!" Well, that's because, to be honest, I find that my phone, and the wonderful worlds of Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, etc, stress me out more than they calm me down. Take, for example, Tumblr. Don't get me wrong, I literally adore this website, but sometimes it just won't help you, and will possibly wind you up even more, if you spend your time looking at photos of seemingly perfect people with seemingly perfect lives - which, of course, may not be the case, but in a flush of anxiousness, self esteem issues isn't another thing you want to add to your list of problems. 

This has been long-winded, agreed, but I really hope it's just reinforced the idea to you, especially if you're also an emotional wreck/teenager like me, that there are ways to momentarily escape your stresses, and although they may not directly provide a solution, coming out of them with a clear head can make you approach a situation better and more effectively. 

So, yes, please just know you can escape if you need to, because not everyone always remembers in the heat of the moment that that option is there. 

Thanks for reading, many hugs

The (thoughtful and very) happy blogger xxx

Contacts

Hello dear readers, 

So, judging by the title of this post, you can probably tell that I recently got contact lenses. Well, they're not official yet, but I've got the starter, try-outy ones. 

THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT IN. 

If you wear contacts or have ever tried them out, you'll understand what I mean here. They're just so stressful (yes, I admit, I've only worn them three times, but this is a point which we definitely need to gloss over)... Everyone says that they get easier the more you use them, but it's just so hard for a teenager to have to wake up twenty minutes - twenty minutes - earlier than usual to have to put them in before school. 

So they come in these intimidating box things, and as my friend very creatively described, the packets inside look oddly like condom packets (I don't know either). 

So you get them out, and they look like this (sorry about the photography, they're not easy to capture haha).

Then you have the five minute battle of positioning them at the right angle and place of the right finger of the right hand, the right way round (they go inside out, another inconvenience). 

Then you pop them in. 

^ talk about things being easier said than done... 

(Here's a selfie I took after my second successful application, in an attempt to show my friend that your eyes look slightly shinier with them in... And don't worry, I was actually wearing clothes under the dressing gown, no cheekiness here, what do you take me for! I was just really cold - three cheers for British weather! - jokes, I'm as patriotic as a tea-flavoured scone served in a country pub with the queen arriving in a black taxi next to a red double decker bus... With David Beckham in- sorry, got a bit carried away there.)

<ANYWAY> So... The moral of the story is that contact lenses are stressful. Although, some are worse than others. Some people have the monthly ones, which you have to keep in pots with special moisty fluid in overnight to keep them from drying out. The ones I'm hopefully going to have are less permanent: you throw them away at the end of the day, and have three a week, which is plenty. This means I'm able to go to spontaneous sleepovers (I'm trying to sound like this happens often and that I have a generally riveting and marvellously spontaneous life, when really I get stressed over any unexpected surprises or human interaction - weird I know, soz), but still rules out spontaneous pool jumping. Damn it. *wink, wink* ehe

Well, I hope I'll get round to writing another post soon, hope you enjoyed this one and sorry it was so overdue. If you have any requests about posts or a little rant about contacts (or indeed some positivity, for this supposedly happy blog) then it would be scrumptious if you could leave them in the comments. Honestly, feel free. 

Until next time, thanks for reading

From the (slightly disgruntled [GOOD WORD ALERT] and) happy blogger xxxxx

PS: I have precisely 14 minutes left of Tuesday, 4th March 2014. Which means 14 minutes left of my food (especially pancakes day) and (now) 13 minutes until Lent, where I'm under some annoying social obligation to be healthy and fit. Let's see how that goes... I may even make a post about this if I have any workout tips! (Um... Think this is more of a case of 'fat chance'... Hahahhaha , 'fat' chance , hahaha, because fitness.. Pancakes.. Nope, sorry, not funny. I'll just go then...)