Well we found our way to Prague today and have
survived thus far.  Had a great time in St.
Petersburg.  Hmmm, so much to say in so little time.

Here are some highlights:

Exhausted ourselves sightseeing around St. Petersburg.
 We saw alot of churches and spent half a day going
through The Hermitage.  This is a huge musuem in that
is partially contained in the Winter Palace which is a
huge impressive and ostentatious building.  The works
of art were quite amazing.  Whole rooms of Picaso,
Matisse, Van Gogh, and many Rodin sculptures.
Unfortunately we woke up late so didn't get the whole
day there.  Seems that we are still on American time
;-).

We went out again with our friend Puja.  We ate Irish
food with him and went to a disco on the main drag in
St. P.  It was cool.  I (Chris) danced alittle believe
it or not.

We also went on a day trip to Pavlosk and Pushkin
about 30 kilometers south of St. P.  We had to take a
comuter train out.  It was really crazy.  I almost
didn't make it on the train pushing through the crowd.
 Than was in the main car barely able to stand and I
was crowded in the entry way of the car.  I have never
been so tightly packed.  People pushing their way in
at each stop.  I had to hold one hand up because you
couldn't lift your arms if they were down.  The crazy
part was that some kid threw a rock at the train and
it crashed through the window in front of Than and the
rock hit a little girl in the head.  She was okay just
bruised.  The train never stopped.  But we made it
fine.  Actually the city seemed pretty safe other than
that incident.  We hear Moscow is another story
though.  In Pavlosk we saw the palace of Paul son of
Catherine the great.  And in Pushkin we saw
Catherine's palace.  That was the only day it rained. 
Not too bad though.  By the way Mom, the rain coat
works beautifully!  I was totally dry, while Than's
wimpy little coat soaked through.  He should have
listened to me :-).

We rested Saturday mostly and ran errands.  Tried to
mail postcards but couldn't get stamps below $1 each
so we will mail them from Prague. 

Oh yeah, I did get alittle bit of a stomach virus the
last 2 days in St. P.  We haven't been drinking the
water but somehow I got something.  Anyways, it is
better now.  Had to happen sometime I suppose.  It
wasn't too bad though.

St. P. was a great time all in all.  It wasn't like we
expected in some ways.  Whatever corruption is going
on is pretty hidden there and things are quite
accessible.  The people were not very willing to
communicate much.  Okay some were but mostly looking
for money or girls looking to marry American men. 
Some Siberian girls asked to take a picture with us
last night so we bought them a drink.  They spoke very
little English and were both extremely shy so it was
interesting trying to communicate.  Anyways, we went
home and slept and prepared for the travels today.

We arrived in Prague today and are doing fine.  We are
staying in Prague with a school buddy of mine from
MIT.  Actually I had never met him but knew him
through other alums.  He has been very nice to put us
up in the city center of Prague in a very very nice
apartment here.  Tonight we ate greek food with him
and some friends and had a great time.  Now we will
decide what comes next.  We are still not sure what
our plans are for the next few weeks.  We will keep
you posted though.

Okay, that's enough for now.  We miss you all very
much.  I can say that all my dreams each night are of
home still.  Hope all is well with everyone.

Cheers,

Chris and Than