18 дней в Петербурге: Днем 5.12

The day of all things Russian started with stumbling upon…

  

…a zombie (or other monster) bust, and a little man sporting wild facial hair perched on the walls of a kafeBar

 

…where we ate bread sticks (crumbs) the staple of barKafes while sipping tea and waiting for the…

Russian Vodka Museum!

More wild facial hair greeted us…

Making us wonder:  is untamed facial hair and a heaving bosom a requirement of being involved in Vodka’s history?

 

Leaving questions of facial hair and bosoms to long que’s at the post, we stumbled upon a room of delights! 200 varieties of Vodka!

 

When in Russia, do as the Russians!  3 different shots: Regular, Ginseng/Honey, Extra fine.  3 different chasers: a pickle, toast with herrings, toast with horseradish/lard.

 

2 down, 1 to go!  My favorite was the Gingsing/Honey.

 

I had a moment of silence for the no-longer existing ‘Vodka Dispensing  Machine’.

 

Not having gotten enough of Russian culture, the next destination was obvious: Church of the Spilled Blood.

 

The столовая next door for cabbage, baked cauliflower and сок.

 

Next, due to a serendipitous error on my part, we ended up at the gala celebration of an opera compitition at the Philharmonic-and sitting in the very front row.

After all the gum flapping, the singers got down to business and we heard 8 different artists sing 8 different opera pieces.