We had taken an overnight bus to the city and arrived at around 6 am, when it was still dark. 
Our first view of the hostel, I'm on the left side. We woke the guy who runs it up, but he was really nice and let us drop our stuff off and freshen up, then some of us took naps and some started exploring.
This alley was near our hostel, adorable little thing, I think the arches are holding the walls up. On the left there was a cozy little Italian restaurant, and further down on the right there were big old stones from churches that had been moved to protect them. I'm on the right, Raley is in the orange hoodie, and Pasha (Shelley) in the middle.
This is the wool market, set up in niches in the old town wall. Our hostel was right on the other side of it. We tried to figure out how to walk on top of it but this section (it's not all standing) wasn't open.
The old main gate, you can see the flags of the Three Sisters hotel (built in 1362) through it. Yes, that's me at the bottom, I was leading cause I had the map :P
We were not the only tourists out exploring the beautiful alleys (actually almost half the town is alleys, most of the streets would fit maybe one car, though cars aren't allowed anymore). On the left you see part of the town hall. I loved all the cobblestone...
View of the town hall from one of the side streets, which were full of shops and restaurants.
More to come!
The main/biggest (and mostly really expensive) mall on Nevsky Prospekt, Bolshoi Gostiny Dvor.
Russian National Library
Dom Knigi, or House of Books. Architechture is (if I remember correctly) the Russian version of Neo-Romanticism? It used to be the headquarters of the Singer sewing machine company. I think the books look great in it though :)
