Third Highlight on Trip to St. Petersburg!

The third highlight was meeting up with our friends Yuliya and Harvey, who were visiting from California. We were present at the evening Harvey proposed to Yuliya, which we thought was really lovely! We also celebrated Harvey's 30th birthday on my last day there. Wow, talking about DOING IT ALL! :-)

Here some pics from the birthday dinner at a hungarian restaurant!!!

Grilled, stuffed eggplant rolls and red-beet herring salad
Carrot and apple salad with hazelnuts and hazelnut oil...

The world famous hungarian "borsch"
After dinner we stuck around and took some snapshots in the traditional kitchen style dining room...

The Christmas decorations were simple, yet very fitting... I loved the twisted raffia style garland!
They DID have a very artisan toilet...along with matching water tank!



I don't know how we had the energy to go dancing at Club "Rossi" afterwards...but somehow we managed.



I returned to Munich on Jan. 4th and Carlo stayed another week.

On Jan. 7th I was already off to Texas to spend time with my mother and organize our wedding celebration in May...

The Nutcracker at the Marinsky Theatre!

The second highlight was seeing the Nutcracker ballet at the historic Marinsky theatre. It was so unbelievably cold out and we peeled out of our onion layered style clothing as soon as we entered the theatre, which was unusually warm. The performances, the stage settings and music were superb! We really loved it.






The historic inside of the theatre....



The orchestra...
In front of the stage and main curtain...
During the intermission ... since there was a huge line at the concession stand, we decided to use the time for a few shots in front of the christmas tree...here with Anna and Luciano.

New Year's Eve!

Well, I am pretty behind in postings...I guess we've really been on the go and it's taken its toll...

Here a little recap:

We arrived on the 30th of December in St. Petersburg and pretty much cooked and slept all the next day before heading out to a restaurant with an all night entertainment programm. Carlo's brother and his wife had eaten there before and we weren't disappointed!

There were loads of typical style russian salads (chicken salad, carrot salads, things with cucumber, mushroom salad and the list goes on...also cheese and sausage platters..and of course all the "Champansky" one could consume. :-)

The highlight was when Carlo and I got picked to participate in a dance contest, which we ended up winning due to the applause by the audience! I guess it was a good way to start the new year. At midnight, the central clock in Moscow was displayed on TV and President Medvedev held his new year's speech, but we mostly celebrated with sparklers and pops and, of course, more Champansky.


Before dinner....
and after dinner....



OH, and there was our waiter who looked like the actor from "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Blades of Glory"!!!
The MC, or "Tamata" ( Showmaster) was a transvestite, who did a fantastic job! Even though we didn't understand a word he was saying, you could tell enough to where we were laughing despite the language barrier. Here he is in one of his outfits, singing...
The performers ranged from belly dancers to comedians...it was a "colorful" show in every way of the word! :-)

Heading out for New Years'

We are traveling to St. Petersburg, Russia tomorrow evening. Approximate arrival time, due to a two hour time difference with Germany will be some time after midnight.
Carlo and I usually love to take advantage of the many 24-hour restaurants once we arrive, in particular, a place called "Takao" which is a sushi place close to where Carlo's brother lives. They have an american-style diner interior with red booths and even a live band setup. It's new, with friendly service and it's right on Nevskji Prospect which is the "main drag" of the city. :-)

On new year's eve we have booked a dinner with entertainment (very typical in Russia), champagne and dancing after midnight... Very much looking forward to it, as russians really do know how to party!

We will meet up with our friends Harvey and Yuliya from California, who will be visiting the city during the same time. YAY!!!

We will have access to the internet at Carlo's brothers house, as cell phone connections are very expensive and the time difference to America is huge!

More snow pics

Before Christmas, we had snowy days off and on...so far the most snow we've seen since moving to our apartment...

Making Arrancini

Carlo was really excited about making Arrancini... a typical sicillian dish, which consists of ragu-stuffed rice balls, battered and deep fried... and VERY delicious!

Once you prepare the ragu, you have to carefully form the balls and add the ragu and cheese only to close it all up and hope that they will survive the frying intact!






PREGO!!!

Photos to come...

We currently cannot find the cable to upload our pictures to the computer! AHHH!!!
So, no new photos until we find it. :-(

A night at the Circus Krone, Munich

Carlo and I just returned from the circus! Ever since we arrived in Munich I had been driving past the winter arena of the Circus Krone not far from our apartment. Finally, last week the shows were set to begin again and I reserved two tickets. Yesterday was opening night, tonight the second day of performances! Elephants, tigers, horses, clowns, jugglers to unbelievable trapeze artistst...we saw it ALL!! What a great show!
Once we arrived to pick up our tickets, which were at the very back, the lady at the ticket counter started selling the leftover seats closer to the arena. (Tickets reserved but not picked up in time). We were able to get two tickets in the middle between the entrance and the exit. The program was amazing, varied and really fun.
Here a few shots of the same artists we saw tonight. (Taken from their website, as we forgot the camera at home!)


This guy was great. Johnny Fischer in his "Lucky Luke" performance with trained cats, goats and even chickens!


Cesar Dias from Portugal had a funny act based on sound effects!


This trapeze troop from russia was breathtaking! "White birds" as they called themselves - gave us sweaty palms - watching their acrobatics in high air. I think Carlo really liked them.





The horse shows were beautifully choreographed symphonies of black and white. At one point there were 8 black frisian stallions and 12 white arab stallions in the arena...