We had to wait to get our tickets because, as you can see, the ticket office is closed to foreigners for 2.5 hours. I thought that sign must be wrong so I walked up to the window and handed the lady my money. Nope, she wouldn't give me a ticket until 2:30. Not only did I have to pay almost $20 to get in, while Russians get in for about $5, but I also couldn't buy a ticket when I wanted to. Gotta love the double standards. 
The palace was really beautiful, but a lot of it isn't what was here originally. The palace took quite the beating during WWII, as did most of Russia... but its been restored pretty remarkably.
After the palace, we went to the Lower Park to see a bunch of fountains. The palace grounds are enormous, so we barely just covered them even though it felt like we were walking forever.
There are a few "joke" fountains, like this one, above, which looks like a spruce tree. There are some secret fountains hidden behind some benches near the tree that go off when you step on certain rocks apparently.
All of the fountains in Peterhof are gravity fed by water from some hills a bit away, which seems to be a pretty remarkable feat.
Also, interestingly, Catherine the Great (prior to being great) lived at Peterhof with her husband Peter III in a smaller home called Montplaisir (pictured below). She was hanging out there in 1762 when she got the news from her lover, Alexei Orlov, that her coup against Peter III was being carried out. So she quickly headed for St. Petersburg to rally her supporters and by the end of the day, she was in charge! (Peter III soon met his end).
After looking at the fountains, we caught a bus to a metro station. It was about a 45 minute ride in ridiculous heat, but the metro station was so beautiful it was worth it. Stalin was super into building really elaborate metro stations, so a lot of them are very pretty, but this was by the far the best. I don't think you're allowed to take pictures, but I snapped one real quick because I'm so dedicated to my readers... That Stalin really had his priorities the right place - starve the Ukraine, build pretty metro stations. Good work.
On another note, Magdelena returned from her Dacha today and kindly told me that I'm too pale and I need to eat more so I'm redder. I wish I had a picture of her so I could show you, but you'll just have to take my (and Tom's) word for it, but she is far from a picture of health. It bothers her so much that I want to eat yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast, but the only other stuff she's given me have been frozen bliny (like a pancakey roll) filled with potatoes and fried in butter. Not really a healthy start to the day.Anyway, I think she's leaving again tomorrow or the next day. I hope so. But hey - at least I'm getting better at understanding her when she's insulting me!
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