Day 58 (Sunday). May Day.

As we were finishing up breakfast at our hotel, we looked out, and the May Day parade was getting underway on Nevsky Prospect...Photos through the window on the second floor of our hotel...












After finishing our coffee, we walked down to get a close up view...












May Day is Russia's Labour Day. Any political party...pro-Kremlin/anti-Kremlin...or trade union or whomever has an issue they want to support applies to be able to march in the parade, and to then hold a rally in support of their specific cause or party position.....





There are still supporters of Stalinism...





...and others...











In the paper earlier in the week, we had read that a couple of the groups were denied participating in the main event on Nevsky, and were relegated to a lesser location, but that they were appealing this decision. One of those groups was the Bolsheviks, and it looks like they won their appeal.....





Yikes...they were scary looking folks, and their flags gave you an idea of who they were. Right when they were passing, the helicopters starting hovering overhead...





...and the riot police were lined up behind them...





Some of the riot police were capturing the event themselves...





Cynthia took some videos so that you could get a sense of being there so I tried to upload one to the blog...but it asked me to log onto my you tube account, and then it wouldn't accept my you tube login, so will try to figure it out again another day.

As an aside, some of the discussions in the newspapers reminded us of what is going on right now in Wisconsin with the teachers unions.

After enjoying the parade, it was a day for shopping. We started off at the oldest "market" in the city which has been converted to what I would call kiosk shops. Amber is a big item here, and of course the fur hats, another is porcelain....as well as the matryoshka (or babushka or nesting) dolls...






It was drizzling rain, and the weather had been changing from wonderful to a little damp, chilly and dreary. So after taking a rest, we headed to a cafe in the Radisson Hotel, just a couple of blocks away, where I tried borsch..Cynthia had already enjoyed it several times. I was pleasantly surprised...it was quite good with veal stock, and lots of veal...in addition to beets, of course. Not bad!!

One more day to go in St. Petersburg, and so much more to see.....

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