Day 6

Day 6 was pretty awesome, nice and relaxed tours for the day were just as much fun as they were insightful.

To start off, our school group was split in half and taken to two different locations for tours. First stop, museum of Political history. A very important building to our school course as it was the Bolshevik headquarters for a time including 1917. As well as this, we went inside and saw the offices of Lenin and the balcony from which he gave speeches to all his devoted followers. Dr Coke-Woods underestimated the delicacy of the rooms, setting off the 'do not touch' alarm a few too many times.

Meanwhile, the other group boarded the battle ship Aurora, and soaked up the enormity of both the ship and it's significance in Russian history. It managed to be one of the only surviving battleships from the Russo-Japanese war, which played a big role in the 1905 revolution - and also fired the warning shot in October 1917 to signify the beginning of the Bolshevik takeover of the Winter Palace and Petrograd (St Petersburg).

We had some free time at lunch which was expertly used for some Russian pancakes and souvenir shopping to give to the parents. Unfortunately for Lucas, it was too late before he realised that his 'traditional' Russian vinegar that he wanted to give to his mum was, at a second glance, italian  balsamic vinegar.

After this, the building which hosted the murder of Ra-ra-Rasputin in its basement, Yusupov Palace. Much to everyone's surprise, there were freeze-frames in some rooms of plastic dummy's depicting scenes from the night of the murder which were particularly unnerving.

Once it got dark, we headed to Nevsky prospect, the main street in the city for a very well told story telling tour from Mr Dickens and Dr Coke-Woods. With as much passion and vigour as Lenin in 1917, the Doctor's words rang in our ears, raising spirits and saying 'All power to the Soviets!', which at one point had us convinced that Lenin had been reborn. In sharp contrast, Mr Dickens spoke softly and intensely about the tragic affairs of Bloody Sunday, which took place outside the Winter Palace which we were in. We thank both teachers for their awesome tours and also to Mrs P and Miss Morris for our pleasant wake up calls every morning.

Off for a folklore show tonight, exciting stuff, see you tomorrow.