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Published: June 15th 2012
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Saint Petersburg is just a short 8 hour ride away from Moscow, which meant a nice quick trip, but also a restless one as I couldn't think how litte time I had to sleep. Stupid brain! Nonetheless, we rolled into St PB (to give my poor typing fingers a break), where it was sunny but chilly. This weather would be repeated nearly everyday, with bonus afternoon rain every single day. Summer in St PB, you're doing it wrong.
First up we tried to do one of the free walking tours on offer, only to have it cancelled. So instead it was a relaxing, brisk, free canal ride. A excellent introduction to the lovely city of St PB, particularly for those of us feeling a bit weary from the train. Next up a bit of a walk and some lunch, at a cafe aiming to be just as hipster as Brooklyn, NY. Except without the preteniousness and the expense! Two courses for 300 roubles, things were looking up from the rouble binge that was Moscow.
By this time we were finally able to check into our hotel rooms and have a shower (by this point on the tour showers have
been an optional activity, I bet my colleagues are hoping I break this habit by the time I get back). Then a thwarted attempt to climb the collonade at St Isaacs Cathedral. Thus rejected, it was off to see the Church on Spilled Blood more closely. Built around the location of seventh and successful assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II, you can still see the blood on the cobblestones inside. As well as some wonderful mosaics instead of the usual icons.
I found out later about the hijinks of Tsar Alexander II and his wouldbe assassins, and it is really enough to make a hilarious comedy movie. My favourite is the one where someone chased the Tsar around the square in front of the Hermitage with a pistol, firing at him 5 times and missing each time until he ran out of bullets.
All these chuch expeditions were in an effort to stay awake for our included canal ride that same night, which luckily followed a different route to the morning boat, instead being a "night" time ride to see the bridges opening on the Neva River. I say "night" because it started at 12.25am (so called sunset)
and finished at 2am (sunrise), with the darkest part of the night inbetween. As you can see from the photos, there is not much difference in any stage of the night. Over the days spent in St PB this was both amusing and dangerous. For example, it is very easy to get carried away with giant beer when it always looks the same outside. At least if the sun sets sometime you might know its time to lay off a bit. At least the giant beer helped me fit in with the Russian tourists, who took beer with them everywhere. On the boat! To the park! To the Peterhof!
After a minor amount of sleep, it was off to the Hermitage. Where we weren't even allowed to bring water in, let alone beer. There were many sad looking sober Russian tourists inside. As well as what became the scourge of visit. No it wasn't monkeys this time (though saying that, there was some monkeys hanging around for tourist photos outside), instead it was elderly cruise ship tour groups! Shuffling throught the Hermitage, blocking up narrow spaces, just generally getting in the way. Luckily though the Hermitage is an amazing
building even with all those obstacles and has some pretty tops art inside to boot. Though at religion-pacity after all the churching we'd done in Russia, there was several rooms of impressionist art to try to offset all the jesus.
Several hours and one visit to the internet cafe
inside the Hermitage (the only one i had seen in weeks), a stroll to recover was in order. Towards the Saint Peter and Paul Fortress on the otherside on the River. After getting rained on, seeing another church and visiting a good museum about the history of St PB (it ended with WWI, and photos of people who died in the years after, with a (under)statement of how things were never the same again. Talk about anticlimax), it was time for a visit to the beach! Not that I think you'd want to go swimming. Though that didn't stop some locals.
After farewell dinner for the end of our tour that night, we were beginning to get in the home stretch of our time in Russia. Time for some dot points, this blog thing is exhausting! Over the next couple of days we:
• Attended a ballet (La
Bayerde) at the ye olde Mariinsky Theatre - chaotic as usual with the ticketing, but fantastic.
• Visited the Peterhof (summer palace for the Tsars), filled to the brim with crazy Russian Tourists and giant green Mosquitos, but still great.
• Had a couple of lunches of mainly Macarons (whoops) at a fancy bakery/patissery/deli/cheesery
• Shopped.
Finally on a rainy Tuesday it was time to leave St PB. Relieved in the taxi as we thought we'd left the crazy behind, instead we arrived at St PB airport, for unimaginable chaos. First they scan all your bags as you walk in the door. Then you go through customs. Then only 16 check in counters, 8 on each side facing each other, with lines stretching all the way to the counters on the otherside. Finally once checked in, you have to line up for customs, in a line that goes down the middle of the check in counters, intersecting the check in lines. Then another security check, before a line for a bus to take you on the plane. Good grief.
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Karin
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Looks amazing!