{"id":887,"date":"2014-05-15T15:47:47","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T19:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=887"},"modified":"2014-05-15T15:49:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T19:49:42","slug":"red-herring-red-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/?p=887","title":{"rendered":"Red Herring. Red October."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ballroom\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"tubaplayers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"towerbulbs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"boatworkers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"stissacs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Russia is a completely infinite conglomeration of existences.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how to else to put it.\u00a0 The young meets the old.\u00a0 The new meets the ancient.<\/p>\n

The Soviet Union has gone through so much since Stalin\u2019s consolidation of power in 1917 to the dissolution of the union in 1991.\u00a0 Since that time, there has been an exploration in expression.\u00a0 Not like in the USA.\u00a0 But the Russians are a little more\u00a0 demonstrative than ever before.<\/p>\n

Well\u2026 not like I have EVER been here before.\u00a0 But this is information I gathered from our Private Tour Guide.\u00a0 Helen.<\/p>\n

Helen the Queen of Gumption.\u00a0 Helen “I know where you live” Tour Guide.\u00a0 This woman KNOWS her way around St. Petersburg.\u00a0 And because of this, we were able to see things that most tourists will never see. Eating in restaurants that only the locals are acquainted with. \u00a0 She gave us the ins and outs of churches.\u00a0 And incredibly\u2026.. a tour of Catherine\u2019s Palace also called Elizabeth\u2019s Palace\u2026. with virtually no other people present.<\/p>\n

But Helen would slap somebody down\u2026 anybody\u2026 who gets in the way of her job.\u00a0 I was accosted by security when entering the Hermitage yesterday.\u00a0 Helen jumped in, intervened…..\u00a0 grabbed my arm…\u00a0 and off we went.<\/p>\n

Today, she nearly decked an able bodied door guard outside of an old pharmacy.\u00a0 She really wanted us to gain access.\u00a0 Helen gets what she wants.\u00a0 She wanted to give us two days packed with Russian Culture and heritage.<\/p>\n

I truly enjoyed every morsel of St. Petersburg.\u00a0 It was exploration like I have never encountered before in my life.<\/p>\n

But I must admit.\u00a0 I was glad to get back through Russian Customs, and back on board.\u00a0 I still say there is no place like home.\u00a0 Even if home is on a big boat.\u00a0 So. \u00a0 We are now back out to see.\u00a0 To see what we can see.<\/p>\n

Next.\u00a0 We are in Helsinki.\u00a0 (It would make me feel a WHOLE lot better if it were called HelFLOATY… and not… Helsinki.)<\/p>\n

\u201cRespect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it.\u201d – B. Bradley<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Russia is a completely infinite conglomeration of existences.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how to else to put it.\u00a0 The young meets the old.\u00a0 The new meets the ancient. The Soviet Union has gone through so much since Stalin\u2019s consolidation of power in 1917 to the dissolution of the union in 1991.\u00a0 Since that time, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nowyouseeit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":898,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions\/898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gollypolly.com\/30473\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}