{"id":38,"date":"2012-08-25T08:14:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-25T08:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/25\/me-no-zpeek-rushkan\/"},"modified":"2017-03-16T09:03:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T09:03:58","slug":"me-no-zpeek-rushkan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/25\/me-no-zpeek-rushkan\/","title":{"rendered":"Me no zpeek Rushkan…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5781082498115770818\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scott and I decided to take a quick trip to St Petersburg Russia. It sounds like a long and involved trip, but in reality it is only about 3 hours from England. Involved, though, it is. We had to have Russian issued visas in order to go for the four day weekend. That in and of itself was “involved” and fairly expensive. We were eager to see if the trouble would be worth it.<\/p>\n

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We arrived on Friday afternoon. The Grand Hotel Europe<\/a> was simply amazing. We were impressed with just the size of the place as well as the service. For 300 rooms, there were 500 employees which was a pretty amazing stat to me. We weren’t sure what to expect from St Petersburg since we didn’t have time to research it before going. We had a fun four days while there, but that was certainly all the time we needed to be there!<\/p>\n

Pussy Riot was arrested during our trip for “hooliganism” (speaking out about Putin), so we made a point to have a beer in the local pub called O’Hooligans. St Petersburg is a beautiful city, with little to no crime. The fine arts are what one would go to see in this very European (versus Russian) city. The Hermitage is the large art museum (large doesn’t really do it justice) that everyone knows. I realize some people could spend days in this building, but I was done in about 30 minutes. Admittedly, I am not very cultured!<\/p>\n

It is expensive to eat and drink and the food… leaves a little to be desired. Borsch soup: looks better than it tastes.
\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5781083536946988594\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5781082518054207042\"<\/a>
The one thing I was hoping to see and we did was one of the “ice cream top” churches. The Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood was a beautiful building. It was massive inside as well with the entire inside being decorated with only mosaics<\/span>. Without question, it was one of the prettiest interiors, and most labor intensive, of all the churches I have seen. Each of the ice cream tops on the outside seemed to correlate with a small dome inside where a face had been mosaic’ed onto the ceiling.<\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5781082507528216850\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

The video highlights:
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Scott and I decided to take a quick trip to St Petersburg Russia. It sounds like a long and involved trip, but in reality it is only about 3 hours from England. Involved, though, it is. We had to have Russian issued visas in order to go for the four day weekend. That in and…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[49,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-micha","7":"category-russia","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8k10v-C","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":981,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/10\/penang-malaysia-an-island-of-culture-fun-and-food\/","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":0},"title":"Penang, Malaysia: an Island of Culture, Fun, and Food","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"May 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We headed to Penang Island from KL. 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Even after eating really well in KL, I was excited about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Malaysia"","block_context":{"text":"Malaysia","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/asia\/malaysia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4290044.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4290044.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4290044.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4290044.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/P4290044.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":657,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/25\/tuk-tuks-temples-and-thai-food\/","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":1},"title":"Tuk Tuks, Temples, and Thai food","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"March 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Bangkok was a great time. We arrived after being in Halong Bay and checked into our AirBnB. The apartment itself was pretty okay, but the location and the swimming pool at the hotel were unbeatable. (We were staying in a private residence inside the Ascott Hotel.). Our first night we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Micha's Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Micha's Blog","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/blogs\/micha\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_6857.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_6857.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_6857.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_6857.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/IMG_6857.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1514,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/09\/a-sad-trip-to-nashville\/","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":2},"title":"A Sad Trip to Nashville","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"September 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The kids and I flew up to Nashville the day after Scott's mom died to meet him. 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We hadn't seen them in a couple\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Micha's Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Micha's Blog","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/blogs\/micha\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_9275.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":105,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/05\/the-trip-continues\/","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":3},"title":"The trip continues…","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"March 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Whale watching off the coast of Maui - check. Snorkeling off the coast of Maui - check. Doing them both on a $3.5 million catamaran - priceless. So it's clear to me that we have been given opportunities and adventures of a lifetime while we are on this trip, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hawaii"","block_context":{"text":"Hawaii","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/hawaii\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/03\/a-trip-to-hawaii\/","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":4},"title":"A trip to Hawaii…","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"March 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Since Scott and I sat on a plane and tried to list all fifty states without consulting the Continental Magazine (hey, I never said I was good at geography), I have been tracking which of the fifty states I have been to and how I will get to mark the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hawaii"","block_context":{"text":"Hawaii","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/hawaii\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/07\/exploring-iceland-an-outdoor-family-adventure\/","url_meta":{"origin":38,"position":5},"title":"Exploring Iceland… an outdoor family adventure.","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"June 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a very exciting six day trip to Iceland last weekend. 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