We couldn't just stay in town the whole time, so one day when Kata was off school we took the buses out to Pushkin, to visit the Summer Palace. It's pretty, and would probably be even prettier in summer, in early spring, it was still a bit grey and slushy outside. Much like the blood church, the summer palace has undergone heavy restoration work. The palace was taken over by the germans during the war, and there's some picture collections from before the war and just after the war. Still, it's a pretty immaculate place, and like all great palaces, full of rooms with completely different decorations. If there was a shade of colour, there was a room. I really liked the big ceramic heaters in the corners of most rooms.

Returning home we had an invite to a non-stop house party. This was day two of a birthday party, but they weren't stopping for anything. One girl was busy baking pirozhki to keep energy levels up. The whole party had been out to a museum earlier in the day, before returning with new supplies.