St. Petersburg

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Geo: 59.6868, 30.784

Good start to the day with brekker in bed on the train and arrive in St Petersburg at 9am, met by a local guide Olga who was a cocky little cow and had a bus tour of the city til midday stopping at Palace Bridge with view of St Peter and Paul fortress, the hermitage (winter palace) and stock exchange etc. Then drive over to said fortress and wander around this for a hour or so. Then we boarded the cruiser aurora which heralded the October revolution and is now a museum ship. Then went to St Nicolas' catherdral where there was a funeral on - why its a good idea to bring tourists in at this time is beyond me so we left. But we also saw 2 weddings and St Petersburg iconic church St. Issac's, Church of the saviour on the blood (now a mosaic museum but looks like St Basil's in Moscow), St. Catherines (catholic), St Micheal's (lutheran) etc. Had lunch on the main drag Nevsky prospect and finally checked into our hotel the Shelfort near the river Neva at 2.30pm.

Later we went back down the river (and saw 4 more brides) to St Isaac's (closed on Weds thank God) and Kazan catherdral which is dedicated to our Lady of Kazan - a Russian Knock I gather. There's a good market behind the 'bloody church' as they call it. Then it time for beer in the sun and a look in some designer shops and dinner 'The Idiot' on Moyki 82 which named after Dostoevsky's novel as he frequented this establishment, and it had yummy vege comfort food. Then we had lovely romantic walk home across the river in 'white night' 11pm sunset over St Isaac's which was fabulous.

St Petersburg is called the 'Venice of the north' but it just reminds me of Copenhagen. Very scando-european looking. Day 2 We had a 3 hour guided tour of The Hermiage (would take 7 years day and night to see all exhibits) it's an amazing place and has a fab art collection - Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse etc. and even it's square Palace Sq is amazing. Spent an afternoon in the KGB musuem too which was interesting esp. the way they can gloss over things they don't want to talk about. Georgian food is the one to try here and God it's fattening (pastry things) but lovely.

Went to a cultural show called 'Feel yourself Russian' in the fabulous Nevinsky palace which was good but am thinking it's the Russian equivalent of Riverdance, which is fine too.

Had last bevvy with our aussies mates and then said goodbye to them and to St. Petersburg, I prefer Moscow and C prefer's here, but it's all good, Russia rocks!

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