From Tallinn to St Petersburg

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We left Tallinn at what seemed like a ridiculously early hour, and headed for the border town of Narva. We soon realised that the ridiculously early start was necessary as it took hours to cross the border into Russia... getting out of Estonia was easy enough, but we had to wait for a long time to get our visas stamped and have the bus checked over before we could drive to Ivangorod, the first town on the other side of the border.

From Ivangorod, we had a very bumpy ride along a road with an incredible number of potholes to reach St Petersburg. In St Petersburg we did a lot of sightseeing, but my favourite place was the Orthodox church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood - it was the prettiest building by far, with every little dome decorated with a different design! We also went to the Hermitage and to the Peter and Paul Fortress, seeing lots boats on the Neva preparing for their navy day at the weekend.

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