Russia day 3

Day 3

- Inside Church of Spilt Blood

- Meet up with VAL

- Petergof

- Pres. and Sister Childs

- Unexpected visits

Before jumping into the real stuff we did for the day- I just have to include these pics. This is outside of Kazan Cathedral again, but I just wanted to show the craziness of the Russian pigeons. They are everywhere and they think they run the place. Seriously they have no fear and basically expect you to feed them cause people do all the time. Anyway- I just loved how many were here on this pathway....

 then BOOM mall the sudden they took off at the same time! I was lucky to snap these pics (while screaming cause it spooked me real good) Classic. 

Since we missed out on going inside the Church of Spilt Blood, so we made that happen today. I'll never get over this building. (insert heart eyed emoji here)

 I'm not kidding you when I say that the entire place is covered in mosaics! Honestly it is incredible

 Heres a little sample of the tiny pieces that they use to create these beautiful pieces. Wooowwweee

 This church is built where it is and called what it is because it's where the tsar Alexander II was strolling along in his carriage and an assassin tried to bomb it and kill the tsar! The first attempt didn't get him, but he got out of the carriage to check on the wounded standers by and ask the assassin why he was doing this, when a second bomb went off and wounded the tsar. He was quickly taken to the Winter Palace, but lost too much blood and died there. So this church is where his blood was spilt. 

Ellen's sister, Val, has been working on a cruise ship that travels around the Baltic to incredible countries/cities and happened to be in port today! Woot! We met up with her at her favorite restaurant here. Pretty awesome that she was able to recommend a great place for me- I don't really know too many sit down places here...just quick snacks and meals on the go- so I was really excited about this place! It was an adorable quaint little place with delicious food! I stuck with my Russian meals but added 'olivie' which is Russia's traditional potato salad. And Val showed us this baked pumpkin that was honestly to die for. I'm not the same. 

 Val has been to the big stops here in the city, so I thought it'd be fun to go to Petergof with her since it's outside the city and a must-see. I've always wanted to go by boat, so here was our chance! We ride in these awesome hydrofoil boats that are pretty big and fast and they like...elevate up out of the water so you dont feel a single wave! Pretty awesome. 

 

 Guys. Petergof is insanely beautiful. Holy cow. There are these big beautiful gardens and some beautiful structures...but the main event are the CRAZY amazing fountains! 

 I mean come on!! The gold statue fountains?! The middle one is of Samson and he is just wrestling a lion and the fountain is coming up out of the lions mouth. Pretty stinkin awesome

 We think we're funny. This is a warning sign to be aware of your things...or someone will rob you. hah Thanks Russia.

The park is seriously huge and we didn't have a TON of time to explore, but we saw a little more of the gardens around Petergof. We saw this statue of Peter the Great and some people were throwing coins again to get them to stay on the statue for good luck. 

 We all have good luck now :) 

We were lucky enough to go to the mission home and have a quick visit with the current Mission President and his wife. President Childs was actually my branch president in the MTC, and I have great memories of them. They are so kind and sweet and I always felt like they really cared and loved each of us. Well - I didn't even understand then how much they really did cause I have no idea how, but they still remember me after being together in the MTC 4 years ago AND they had been MTC branch presidents for 4 years! That's a LOT of missionaries (they said over 1,000). Wow. They are so cute. It was good to catch up with them and hear a little about the mission. 

 On our way home we were walking through the Metro and what do you know- a Russian elder who I served with (Elder Domanskii) saw us and joined us on the ride! Crazy. He asked me how many times i've come back to visit the mission because he remembered running into me in the metro at the end of my mission when Russ was here as well! hah! 

 If that wasn't crazy enough, we were walking home and feelin like a late night burger, so went by this little McDonalds Express, saw a menu that had basically only drinks and small sandwiches but as we walked by the window I see the worker reach her arms out the window and yell "Liiiinnnndssaaayyyy" It was Nastya! A darling girl from the Center branch that I didn't actually serve in, but I'd see her on Sundays because my branch shared the building. SO lucky we ran into her! We couldn't chat long because she was working, but it was so fun running into her as well! What are the chances? 

Today was just a wonderful mixture of seeing incredible places AND being able to visit some of my people! PLUS I got Russian food and a cheeseburger. ;)

One happy girl