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The Bronze Horseman
The snake is not so visible in this pic.After the trip from Athens which lasted all day we had a good night of rest at the Vesta hotel. The day before when we arrived it was very very hot in SP but our first day sightseeing was a mix between warm and cold. We did need our jumpers. After breakfast we were greeted by Svetlana, also from the Trans Siberian group, for a three-hour walking tour of the city. Svetlana is a very charming Russian girl who spoke English with an Australian accent and is very proud of her city. She also had with her the train tickets for the St Petersburg-Moscow leg of our journey. More on that later but we were very excited to have them. She advised us on some safety precautions which did not amount to anything more than the precautions people have to take in London. We were a bit apprehensive to start with but she made jokes about it and really made us relax. We made our way to Nevskiy Prospekt where she really started her work. She provided us with an overload of historical facts about people, buildings, events. More than we could register nonetheless everything sounded really interesting. What was good
St Petersburg
In the Dekabritov Square. Just in front of the statue called The Bronze Horseman. about the tour was that she made us stop at some parts and we read lots of signs which gave us a grip of the Cyrillic alphabet. After that Ben and I felt more comfortable reading signs and oriented ourselves better. We strolled along the famous road and she made sure we memorized some landmarks so we could find our way back. We crossed the first bridge over a canal. There are monuments all over the city but I guess this bridge is quite special as there are palaces all around it and the statues of the Gods on it are incredibly beautiful. We then started turning corners and seeing other places of interest. We passed by the Church on Spilled Blood built where Alexander II was assassinated. We passed by the Russian Museum which I think holds the greatest collection of Russian Art and is located at Arts Square where there are three theaters also. We saw more buildings, monuments and squares until we arrived at St Isaac's Cathedral. A little bit further there is the square where the statue of Peter the Great crushing a snake which we were told symbolizes his enemies. We finally reached The Hermitage
and our tour with Svetlana finished in the square just in front. From there Ben and I went to a restaurant that she recommended where we could eat some Russian pies. The place is called Stolle and is close to the Hermitage. Even though it seems oriented to tourists as English was easily heard around us but it is by no means a tourist trap. It seems locals also eat there. The good thing was that we could order half a portion of pie so we were able to try two dishes. I had borsch and spring onion pie and Ben had borsch and fish pie. We really enjoyed. It was our first day and the walking tour helped us to relax.
We then set off to visit the sites we had walked by. Our first destination was the Church on Spilled Blood. An amazing thing was that with my student card I could enter all the sites with 50% discount. The normal entry to a museum costs about 320 to 370 rubles. The Church on Spilled Blood was used as a vegetable storage during the Soviet era and then ammunition storage during WW II. It is hard to believe
what happened during the Soviet years when you enter the church. Apparently it has taken years of restoration work to bring the mosaics back to their 'original' state. After that we also visited St Isaac's Church. The building is massive with 48 one-piece granite columns surrounding it. We climbed to the dome and had stunning views of the whole city. We could also see in the distance the more modern part of St Petersburg. A few high rise buildings and saw how far the city spreads itself. We also visited the inside of St Isaac's church which is no less beautiful than the one we had seen earlier. After the pilgrimage we walked back to the hotel to rest. The distances in this town are huge. We were tired by then. In the evening we went for dinner to a cheap and cheerful restaurant where we were told we could have good beef stroganoff. It was really bad. A real trap. I do not remember the name so you could know where not to go. Above it there is a sign for a cafe called Maxim. Somehow tourists are not recommended to wonder on their own in St Petersburg at
night and we followed the rule. It is hard to imagine that it can be really dangerous given the ease to move around during the day but after all the walking we had done it was better to rest.
Day 2 -
Today was the day of the Hermitage. I got free entry with my student card. The Hermitage is a complex of buildings but the main one is the Winter Palace which was built to exhibit the works of art given to or acquired by Catherine the Great. Even if one has time I guess it is impossible to see everything on display. It is a maze and every room is not only interesting for the displays but the rooms themselves are attractive. This day we did not walk much. We adventured on a local bus trip. We guessed which bus would more or less bring us close to the Hermitage but actually the no. 7 brought us right there. We took it at the metro station Mayakovskaya. In the evening we chose a place to eat a bit further from Nevskiy Prospekt and that was the right thing to do. A restaurant called Piter. The food
was great, really really reasonable and we got 10% discount as we had the advert from a guide to St Petersburg. We have been eager to try a lot of Russian dishes but even the starters are big so we decided that from now on we will only have either a starter or a main course each. Pounds are piling up in every sense.
Day 3
Fantastic weather. We went for a boat trip on the canals. It was sunny and warm. I got discount for the trip with my student card. Hard to believe eh!! After that we sat at a sushi place and had a beer and toasted under the sun. Sushi somehow is very popular in Russia. There are sushi places all over the place. This place where we were on Nevskiy Prospect had a great terrace and a good plate of sushi costs 99 rubles (£2.20). From there we wondered the streets a bit as it was our last day and ended up in the Russian Museum. It was a good way to end the trip to the city. It is an impressive building 'again', and another maze full of works of art. Our
Church on Spilled Blood
The inside of the church is covered with mosaics. train to Moscow was at 10 pm so we had time to spare also. We spent a couple of hours in a cafe near the Arts Square and had tea. We collected our luggage at the hotel at 8.30 and made our way on foot to the train station called Moskovskiy which is ten minutes walk from Hotel Vesta. We walked down Nevskiy Prospekt. The entry to the station is quite narrow and when Ben entered with his two suitcases some men blocked his way from the inside while others got in his pocket from the outside. We had everythingh tucked away inside our clothes though and as Ben swung his ruck sack in their faces they got off balance. Apart from this shocking 5 seconds experience all went perfectly well in St Petersburg. As everywhere be aware of thieves especially at train stations and airports.
Even though St Petersburg is city that is not so old it still inspires history. The only thing is that it is hard to believe that such a city has been planned not so long ago. The only evidence of that are the streets which are called 'prospekt' as they are far too
large and geometrically designed to belong to an ancient past.
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