The main reason for us going to St Petersburg in July was for Nika’s baptism as mentioned in my previous post. Little Nika joined the world on the 14th of November 2012 in sunny South Africa where Craig and Natalia were living at that stage. They have subsequently moved back to Natalia’s home city of St Petersburg to setup a new life. With me being the godfather, I handed over the camera to Debbie who did an excellent job of capturing a few photos of me at the baptism.
The day itself started off in the morning with the main event, the baptism. This being the first Catholic baptism I have attended, it was even more interesting by the fact that it was in Russian. Fortunately I managed to follow with a few prompts from family able to quickly translate for us English speakers. Nika played it cool throughout, and always had a smile on her face. Well, almost all the time, the water on her head did come as a surprise, but fortunately did not spoil her mood.
After the baptism, we had a few hours to kill before we set out on a three hour river cruise as a celebration and made our way to the to the Mariinski Theatre so that the girls could book some tickets. Once done, we all made our way down to the boat and got settled for a nice relaxing afternoon of cruising around St Petersburg. Natalia prepared a great selection of food which we all enjoyed. It was a really great afternoon of seeing the sights from the river, having a couple of drinks and with the broader family and friends.
Thanks to Natalia and Craig for organising such a special day to celebrate the baptism of Nika. We all have a great time and will cherish the memory of the day forever.
