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St Petersburg - Russia
Aussie beer in Russia!
Shane & Evonne Russia - the land of extremes!
At the border crossing between Estonia and Russia, our first thought of Russia was, "What have we got ourselves into?" as we tried to fill in our customs cards (which were only in Russian) at 2am. This thought once again came to mind as we stepped off the bus and walked into the metro station in "commy" St Petersburg when an animated woman came out of nowhere and asked us for money, in Russian (just what you need after a night with no sleep). Of course, we had no money nor any way of getting it until we saw the ATM "machines" and then were very guarded about getting the money due to the very close proximity of each machine. Once we navigated the ticket booth and turnstiles with our packs, we stepped onto the escalator and travelled to the centre of the earth. Well, it seemed like that as St Petersburg has one of the deepest underground train systems in the world. At a guess, I'd say the escalator was 40m long.
Anyway, two metro stops, a bad Macca's coffee, an egg & "something" McMuffin (cringe), a few wrong turns later
St Petersburg - Russia
More pancakes & hot chocolate (Russian style) and we finally made it to our apartment (all before 7.30am). A lovely gentleman gave us our keys & led us up a very scary stairwell (again "what have we got ourselves into"- see pic) and to our surprise the apartment was a lovely renovated space, with all the modcons.
After a much needed shower and rest, we decided to venture out. Armed with courage, photocopies of our passports and visas (It is drilled into us by the guide books that police question anyone that looks foreign) and dressed up to the nines (so that we look "Russian" and less likely that we get questioned) we hit the streets of St Petersburg.
The main street, Nevsky Prospect was packed both on the footpath and the road. The road was bumper to bumper with cars, trolley buses & the most dodgie looking trams held together with gaffer tape and lead paint. As we wandered and looked at the very grand (understatement) but run down bulidings, we were also graced with a sense of home; Fosters (see pic). For dinner that night we ended up at a lovely Russian caberet themed, 1920's restaurant (the 1920's was a prosperous time for
St Petersburg - Russia
Chariot of Victory (celabrating Russia's win against Napolean) the Russians). They even had a caberet show and the thickest hot chocolate (taken as "hot chocolate", literary) and really yummy pancakes. Whilst walking home, most people on the street whether walking or otherwise, were drinking beer. You can't drink the tap water in St Petersburg so drinking beer is the next best thing and at only A$1 for a 500ml stubbie, EVERYONE drinks beer. Obviously, we decided to join the locals...
We overslept the next morning and missed our WWII walking tour 😞. The defeat of the Nazis by the Russians at St Petersburg is prominent for Petersburgers, so we attempted to go to the museum ourselves. We didn't end up making it due to our oversleeping and the various shops and sights along the way. Instead, we walked to some of the other islands (the city of St Petersburg is made up of many islands). On one island, there was at least 8 wedding parties having their photos taken at once on this tiny bit of green space looking across the water, with some really whopper wedding dresses on show (think marshmellows, with the puffy sleves). We also stumbled into a fish festival at Peter & Paul's
St Petersburg - Russia
Hitting the streets of St Petersburg fortress which, in it's own right is a spectacular fortress originally set up to defend the city from the Swedes (which was never required).
After another day of walking around, we heading back to our apartment for a home cooked meal (first one since Sweden) and settled in for the Eurovison Song Contest final. It was funny, the more we watched Eurovison, the less enthusiatic & more upset Shane got, as the voting system was politically motivated (each country votes for their neighbour, not for the one with the most talent). (Shane - very frustrating and yes, the signing/performances, if that's what you can call them are no better than what we get from Santo when The Panel is on. It was great comedic value until the voting!)
Sunday greeted us with blue skies for our bike tour through the crazy streets of St Petersburg. It was fantastic to give the feet a rest from walking. We had three guides and three tourists. A great ratio. We saw many sights in a short period of time which we might not have seen otherwise. Unfortunately for us, Peter and Catherine's city has an incredible number of things to see
St Petersburg - Russia
Hitting the streets of St Petersburg but are spread out and take a lot of time to cover including the most famous St Petersburg landmark, Church on Spilled Blood which has the most amazing design and use of colours. Quite incredible!
We decided to day trip to Novgorod on Monday. The weather was a bit overcast and the three hour trip on a very old raggidy bus with skinky patrons, was a little too much. But we survived! Novgorod is a town renowned for it's old kremlin (it's surprising that it still exists considering the Nazis invaded) and it's picturesque river. It actually has a real beach! We visited the Novgorod art gallery where we had constant shadows (the old ladies who never smile followed us the make sure that we would steal anything). A funny moment was when Shane & I were in different room and I heard the alarm go off. I Knew that Shane had done something (he go to close to a picture), as I walk into the room, the old lady looked so angry.
The following day after we tackled the ladies at the train station (no one speaks English) to buy our tickets to Moscow, we were off
to the Hermitage to spend our last couple of hours in St Petersburg.
After being dazzled by the wonders in the Hermitage (famous paintings, really old coins & artifacts, etc.) & the grandure of the building itself (mainly the Winter Palace), we made it back to our apartment where Sacher (our transfer guy) was waiting. Sacher was a funny man. On our way to the train station we witnessed police pulling over a car, Sacher's comments "Ahr the police, pulling someone over for some road rule that no one knows about". With that, we bid farewell to St Petersburg and were on our way to Moscow.
Moscow, completely different to St Peterburg with it's big skyscrapers, lots of expensive cars (Shane was in complete admiration for the brand new Austin Martin that was parked near our hostel), big advertising and lots and lots of lights (think Vegas). In fact I couldn't think of two more different cities in one country. Although, you couldn't escape the wild dogs and gypsies.
Besides the sights of the colourful and breathtaking St Basils Cathedral, the Red Square and the Kremlin (with it's big bell and whistle police who'd whistle at any
St Petersburg - Russia
Punchers, the pleasures of cycling! tourist that set foot out of place, or in Shane's case a bum, i.e. sitting in the wrong place), the highlights of Moscow were the underground stations (they were more like art galleries), the Kremlin Armoury (lots of jewels and treasures from around the world owned by the Russian monarchy) and meeting our new Dutch friends Angela & Peter, who shared our frustration of finding a decent restaurant. Still couldn't find strogonoff.
After the fiasco with our train tickets (they were delivered to our Hostel with half an hour to spare!!!) and spending five days in Moscow, we were glad to boarding the Rossya for the Trans Siberian leg of our journey.
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Wombat
non-member comment
Russia
When you see Russia in movies it is always full of snow and dark, but it looks so bright and colourful in your photos Fred is alive and well- Shane put him out side today It has been cold in the office with out you putting the heater on- I have had to steel it from you desk and put it near my desk so i remember to turn it on Wont be long till your in the office tell travel stories- enjoy the last part of your travel