Russia anyone?

I'm blessed with friends who like to travel and have been able to travel to several (21 at last count) countries myself over the last several years.  However, in all that time I've never felt a particular interest in going to Russia. Today though, I got to see pictures from a friend's recent trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg.  In my mind I tend to see Russia as grey toned and cold.  This is probably based on remembered black and white news casts from my childhood.  So I was surprised when my friend said it was really hot while he was there.  His pictures were very exciting.  Like me, he tends to take lots of pictures of architecture.  We both like old interesting buildings.  Of course he had lots of pictures of the colorful 'onion' domes that top many churches and other buildings.  Such a variedy of patterns and colors.  You can imagine architect/artists competing to see who could create the most stunning designs.  And the gold!  So many architectural details inside and out on several buildings appeared to be coated in gold,  There were also swarms of tourists everywhere he went.  I may need to think about going to Russia one of these days. My friend suggested that I could just slip over to St. Petersburg while I'm in Finland next year but I'll be there in March and I suspect that at that time of year Russia might seem grey and cold.  Ah, well, the Faberge museum would be warm.