Russia - St. Petersburg

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Well we're here! First impressions of Russia were snow, ice and a fozen Baltic sea viewed from the 'plane! St. Petersburg loked quite industrial from above, also lots of tennement buildings. The temperature (-10) was biting on the short dash from the 'plane to the arrivals building. Passport control was the fastest either of us has experienced anywhere in the world! A very short queue and a glance at the passport and a smile and we were through - not at all what we had expected. The aiport building was amazing - a huge glass domed ceiling with sun streaming through. Russia was feeling better and better. After about 20 mins we were met by our driver called Dimitri with a name board saying Mr and Mrs McNally (still very novel) who took us to our hotel. The drive through to the centre was an eye opener - lots and lots of tennement buildings, thousands of Ladas and basically snow and slush everywhere.

We got a call in the hotel from Shezyna, who said he would meet us the following morning for a city tour. We explored on our own during the evening feeling a little bit wary and after about an hour of being convinced we would be arrested or mugged we found a restaurant called "The Idiot", which was a favourite of Dostheysky. It was really atmospheric with antique furniture , chandeliers and candlelight. We had a lovely meal. We felt more relaxed on the way back, which was slow due to the huge sheer sections of ice on the pavements. The many drainpipes were spouting solid ice drops. It really was extremely cold and we wished we'd worn more layers.

The city tour on our second day was excellent. All the bits of Russian history learned at school started to return! St Petersburg is a visually stunning city with wonderful architecture. The tour lasted three hours and Shezyna proved to be extremely knowledgable. After the tour we visited the Hermitage museum which is one of the largest and most valuable art collections in the world. It was started by Catherine the Great and apparently it would take a year to see all of it in any depth. It is spread across five buldings after all!

We had to get ourselves to the train station in the evening. It was only about a quarter of a mile, but this felt like a huge distance with the huge bags (mainly of winter clothes) we were carrying. The huge train was waiting at platform 5, a surly 'provenista' (carriage guard) took our tickets and directed us to our cabin. We were sharing with two Russians, both of whom refused our offer of vodka! This is not what we expected from the guide books (possibly something to do with the grade of Vodka - we invested a whole $1.50 on it).

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Photos

First view of Russia
Taken through the plane window. It looks cold!

Approaching St. Petersburg
The tenement buildings have a very Soviet look.

Dimitri the driver
Dimitri the driver arrives at the airport with his 'Mr and Mrs McNally' sign

Nicola at 'The Idiot' cafe
Nicola outside 'The Idiot' vegetarian restaurant. Note the icicles above the door and the frozen water in the drainpipe.

Patting the dog
Our guide, Sheyzna, told us it was good luck to pat the head of the dog at this statue. As we were just setting off our long journey, we thought it was best to do so!

Comments

[Sandrine]

- 10 degrees, I understand for the vodka !!!!!!!

[Sian & Alec]

Brrrrr
I'm doing your tour in reverse on here! Looks cold, makes me glad Ive got my fleece on watching. Merlin could do with one of those coats. Expect you're Vodka connoisuers by now (spolling?). Will catch up with other blogs and start following in right direction. ( A themed booze cruise could be good - I'll hurry up with Vodka as you'll be on Fosters by now! Luv Sian Only just seen and explored your route map - very clever, and helpful. Also makes it clearer just how vast the distances you are covering are. Alec