St Petersburg - Days 5 - 8

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Day 6 - St Petes
On arriving in St Petes as usual I got last and ended up flagging down a car to take me to the hostel, as before it wasn't a taxi!!

I was a bit jaded due to lack of sleep but netherless decided to hit the Hermitage as it would be closed the following day (Monday)and I couldn't wait 2 days before seeing arguably the best museum in the world.

The collection was originally started by catherine the great and was firstopen to the public in 1852. But the museum came into its own after 1948 when the art collection of the aritocracy were seized by the state -that's communism for you!!. The Hermitage actually constitutes numerous buildings over the city but the main buildings are a combination of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage itself and it was littered with priceless works of art - may highlights were the French impressionists, loads of paintings by Monet, Matisse, Cezanne etc, a room devoted to Picasso and numrous Paintings by Rubens. I spent nearly 5 hours walking round the place and its a must for anyone wiviting St Petes.

Later that night I ended up in the obligtory ex pat bar that the city seems to be populated with - this time it was Mollies which I really liked. As in Moscow you could get a local beer for 150 Roubles, around 3.2 pounds but the majority of the beers were over 5 pounds - can't wait to get to Estonia at these prices!!

Day 7 -

I went on a little walking tour of my own today and visited the Church of the saviour of spilled blood. The church got this rather macabre name as it was built on the spot were a Russian Tsar was blown up by the People's Will terrorist group in 1881! It took 24 years to build and once it had fell int disrepair it took 27 to restore and was re-opened in 1997. The whole interior of the church is made up of mosaics.

As I was walking round there are always sections of the pavement sealed off a s gangs are working on the roofs above shovelling off the snow and ice onto the pavements below. It can get a bit dangerous whilst walking around as there are always bits of snow and ice falling from the roofs above. And if you don't get hit by falling ice then you are bound to slip on the ice on the pavements. So far I've lost my footing on a regular basis but haven't ended up on my backside yet.

Later that night I visited a good old fashioned British pub called the Dickens and spent most of the night chatting with the barmen who was from England. Most people in Russia smoke and cigaretters are incredibly cheap over here. Also there is no smoking bans in place so if you are averse to the smell then you are going to have to get used to it fast if you want to visit many restaurants and all bars and clubs.

Day 8
Today I crossed the river Neva to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was uninspiring and I didn't bother to visit any of the museums loated in its grounds. Being a bit of a war buff I looked round the Russian Artillary museum opposite the fortress and finished off by walking nearly the whole length of Nevsky Prospekt, which is the main thoroughfare of the city, a bit like Lord St in Fleetwood:-).

It was now time to leave Moscow and I thought I would mention that although I have heard many things about how dangerous this country is, the only trouble I saw was 2 drunks fighting each other outside a metro station. Also I had heard that the police were even worse and yet I never had any bother with them and often approached them asking for directions. I must admit they weren't very good at giving directions but that have been because they didn't speak much English.

I must temper this though with the knowledge that the 2 English ex pats I met had both been mugged, but ultimately I think Russia is a lot safer than what it used to be.

Moscow is not at all tourist friendly, all the sings are in Cyrillic and few people speak English, St Petes was better but I liked Moscow the most probably because of this, it was a big challenge to get around which is what I like:-) Its also a bit more of a party town especially at weekends.

dosvidanya.



Boring Bits
Hermitage closed on Mondays and open 10:30 - 18:00
Hostel - stayed at Marmalde Hostel which was fantastic, its only a small place and doesn't have a party atmosphere, but the place had proper single beds, power showers, yes I said power showers plus breakfast included. Also its 5 mins walk from the hermitage, has a bar opposite and is next to a mini mart, and a subway sandwich shop and a McDonalds is in the next street - what more can a backpacker ask for?

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Photos

Madonna and child
By Leonardo Da Vinci