St. Petersburg Crazy........

Hostels you have to love them. Last night as I was going to sleep I had some guy peeking into my bunk so I asked what was up. Turns out they overbooked the room and thought I wasn't supposed to be there. Had a brief pointed conversation and he went away, but they dumped this poor guy on a bed in the middle of our little room. So basically between him getting set up, lights going on and off, Chinese girls talking on their phones etc I had a poor night's sleep. Got up and decided to go to the Fortress. About a 20-30 minute walk. Started walking and the street started to get really crowded. Turns

out there was some kind of military parade today. Hundreds of thousands of people. Couldn't get to the fortress right away because the bridges across the river were closed. Didn't know what was going on, just knew that I was in the middle of this crowd and not going anywhere fast. Couldn't get close enough to the river to see the ships go by, but did see the jets go over top. People waving flags and cheering. Quite an event. Don't know if I have ever been among so many people. Gives you that claustrophobic feeling. Eventually they opened the bridges and I was able to go to the Fortress. Not as spectacular as I thought, but everything can't be awesome all the time. Spent the rest of the day wandering around the fortress and meandering back through some parks. Was kinda tired so got back around 3pm. Had a bit of a rest before heading for a bite to eat. Taking a night train to Moscow tomorrow so one more part of a day in St. Petersburg. Have a few more places I want to check out before

leaving tomorrow.