Best/Not So Best

I always end a trip thinking about what surprised me, delighted me, or irritated me. I was pleasantly surprised by Russia. Don't know where to put "walked 5-7 miles most days on cobblestones" - best or worst?
Best:
In my first couple days I dropped 4000 rubles ($150) on the ground - fell out of my purse I guess - and a guy tapped me to return it - no English!
Our guides and drivers - the best and sweetest - always on time or early and asking us what we think of things.
Brown speckled hard cooked eggs for breakfast - tasted like farm eggs - mmmm good.
Tchaikovsky Conservatory young director competition - a life's moment and FREE.
The cheeseburger and fries in Helsinki:)
Not So Best:
Paperwork, metal detectors everywhere, "dragon woman" guards everywhere.
Traffic nearly as bad as Cairo.
The toilet paper - not much to it - little squares.
New to Me:
Hearing about Stalin, Lenin, Kruschev, and Gorbachev who started "glasnost" (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) which I always thought was a good thing but was somewhat of a failure for Russia - led to poverty, crime and chaos. The other side is now the Russian people finally found out some truths about their country - corruption, hiding of the facts about Chernobyl and other things. Overall the Russians are stoic - they have had to be with hundreds of years of assassinations, overthrows, wars etc. In fact they are also very delightful.
I was also surprised at the number of women guards - mostly women in fact. Also the mayor of St. Petersburg is a woman.
Miscellaneous Pictures:


Red Square at Night - St. Basil's Cathedral, Kremlin walls all around.

Saw these families on a Sunday outing - many others like these everywhere including at home!

The restaurant Teplo that had my favorite waitress. This couple was so cute - it was her birthday and he brought a big bunch of roses (seen behind him), ordered a piece of birthday cake and the waitresses sang Happy Birthday in Russian. In the background is a playroom for little kids.