Cyrillic Signage at Catharine’s Palace, I just thought it was cool.
Peterhof’s Palace, the goal was to surpass Versailles. Talk about over the top!
That ain’t Disneyland gold paint, also Peterhof’s Palace. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the ridiculously gaudy interior with so much gold. It never occurred to me it was real until the guide explained how it was plated, and suddenly I realized it was all actual gold.
OK, this is a heater. I realized that seems boring, but it is a hand painted tile heater on gold feet and there was one in every room. It being Russia and all, they like heaters. (They also had old fashion double windows; the ones where there is a window, and then outside of that is another window.) The walls are yellow silk.
The vast horizon between this opulence and the reality of daily life in Russia remains quite evident today, thought perhaps marginally less extreme.
And yes, "We take dollars, ten dollars. You have Euros, I take Euros, eight Euros. Oh? Pounds? Yes, I take pounds five pounds. Not enough pounds? I take four pounds, two dollars, or eight dollars one pound. Or two dollars, one Euro, six pounds and 10 Kroner. Ruples?"
He checks his pockets. "No, no Ruples." You start walking away, "No, wait, I take seven dollars twenty-five Ruples."
(By the way, mixing currencies is something you get used to on a ship. I gave someone 200 Swedish Kroner, just today, and they gave me $20 and three Euro. You don’t even try to figure out the exact exchange rate after a while.)
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