The Idiot

Today we had our regular Russian class in the morning (after a mad rush to get our homework done that nobody felt like doing when we got back last night!). Class didn't start until 11:45 AM. Katherine and I both overslept and missed breakfast, but made it to class.

After class we ate lunch here and then met Masha who was bringing us to the Russian Museum for our art history class. The museum was beautiful and the icons were breathtaking. But, like everything else in this city, it is depressing how much the Germans stole or destroyed during the war.

After class (at 4:30), Katherine, Ally Tricia, Melissa and I all headed over to a thrift store called "Second Hand" on a street off Nevsky, right opposite Gostiny Dvor. It had been really cold out for the past few days. I got a sweater and a scarf. Some of the girls got long skirts, too, to go to the monastery the next day at Novgorod. Everything was really cheap.

After that, Melissa went home and the rest of us headed up to the market behind "Spilled Blood" so that I could buy a head covering (which I did). By this point, we were all really hungry so we decided to go to this trendy vegetarian/literary coffee house further South down the Moika (No. 84) called "the Idiot," for the Dostoevsky novel.

The food there was Russian (but really good). I had fried potatoes and mushrooms and red wine and fried farmers cheese with honey for dessert. We were there for a really long time. (Service was slow and we all had tea and dessert). We finally headed home (exhausted) around 9:30 PM.

We stayed up really late talking, etc. We finally got to bed at around 3:00 AM (which was terrible, because the next day we had to wake up for Novgorod!)