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Published: October 21st 2010
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St.Petersburg
Beautiful St.Petersburg! 26th August 2010
St. Petersburg
We arrived in St. Petersburg at 9am and the metro is attached to the train station so we hopped on. The metro is so much smaller than Moscow and easy to navigate. Thanks to Nigel’s sweet-talking the older ladies, we got a family room upgrade in the hostel for free. We were knackered from our midnight train and early morning, so we chilled out in our room. We pulled ourselves together at lunch time (or was it the hunger?) and we went for a walk. Our hostel was very central and 10 mins walk away from cathedrals, canals, spires- and it was all stunning. Along the main river we stopped to watch the many weddings and stretch hummers that pulled up to take pictures at statues and famous buildings. We walked for hours before returning to ‘Sabrinas’ where we met our fellow travellers.
27th August 2010
A day of doing jobs!
At breakfast we got chatting to girls from France, UK and South America and their travel stories. One of our aims today was to book a boat to Helsinki, so we walked to the info. centre by the cathedral who showed us
Saturday is Wedding Day!
One of hundreds of Wedding parties we saw on Saturday.. where to go to book the overnight ferry. On the walk to the office we came to the ‘All you can eat buffet’ in an Italian restaurant and pigged out. We found the office and booked 2 boats- St. Petersburg to Helsinki and then Helsinki to Stockholm. We walked back to the hostel along the canals- it was a really long way and Sid was knackered by the time we got there. Nigel and Sid watched the A-team while I booked our flight home from Stockholm on Sept. 5th….not long now!
28th August 2010
Our day of sightseeing
A beautiful sunny day - the best so far. We set off with the intention of catching the 11am canal boat trip which was 20 mins away. We were 2 minutes late and we watched them pull away…. Bummer as the next English tour was 1pm. We booked it and walked around the corner and happened upon Mikhailovsky Castle, a magnificent building and not far from that was the Church of the Bleeding Heart which is fabulous…. I would even go as far to say it was more beautiful than St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. Nigel wanted to go in
but we had to catch the 1pm boat trip first. We got some snacks and spent an hour going down the canals and out into the river- all spectacular. It was a bit cold in the wind but they gave us blankets. After the boat ride we walked back to the little park we had found and ate sandwiches and fed the pigeons. Then we walked back to the Church of the Bleeding Heart. Nigel went in while Sid and I sat in the park and did his school work. Afterwards we walked to see more amazing buildings and the square behind the Hermitage. The weary travellers returned home hungry so Nigel made us go out for dinner round the corner for delicious pizza and pasta. Nigel decided to go and see the famous bridges opening at 2am to let the boats sail down the river, so he left at 1.30am. He came back at 3am with tales of thousands of people out celebrating with champagne and chocolates.
29th August 2010
Our last day in St. Petersburg
Our last day in St. Petersburg so we said goodbye to everyone, swapped blogs and emails and checked out. We jumped
A Wedding party dancing!
..... there was a violinist making lovely music.... ahhhhh on a bus to the big Cathedral and bought tickets to the viewing tower- there were 211 steps to the top and the view was great. It was a grey windy day and a bit chilly up top. We took a bus back and picked up our bags. We got the metro to the end of the green line. We found a supermarket and bought food for dinner and brekkie. We then hopped on the no.10 bus to the boat not realising that it was going in the wrong direction- so a few minutes later we were on another bus going the right way! We found the boat, boarded, got our cabin and investigated the boat thoroughly. Back to the cabin for roast chicken, tomatoes and coleslaw dinner and went back on deck just in time to set sail. Sid got to stay up late for the cabaret show which was a bit risqué, but he enjoyed the half naked Russian dancers, singers and very fast violin players…… bed time ☺
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