Russia, Saint Petersburg

31st July

Our last day in this great town before the long bus ride to St Petersburg tonight. For some reason I was feeling very apprehensive! We've read about and heard so many stories such as the corrupt police targetting tourists in order to work a bribe, the border control procedures and what happens if you don't have the right paperwork [money declaration forms, immigration forms, proof of invitation etc...], the visa registration procedures and of course the language difficulties. We had all our documentation ducks in a row, so after a fond farewell to all our Funky hostel friends, we moved onto to the most challenging part of our trip.

Russian Border Control in the Middle of the Night

The bus left at 9.30pm, a really comfortable Eurolines coach. At 1.30am in the morning we arrived at Narva, the border. Leaving Estonia was fairly easy with border officials coming on board, taking away everyones passports and returning them 15 minutes later. The bus then continued on across the river into "no mans land" and then came to a stop. We waited here for about 10 minutes in total silence, with nothing at all happening. Eventually a Russian customs official boarded the bus, walked slowly up and down, eyes searching, and then left the bus. Then another 5 minutes of nothing. The official hopped on again and did another slow stroll up the aisle, eyes still searching and left. You felt like you were being scrutinized!! Again, we just sat in silence for about 10 minutes until the driver told everybody to take all their bags including luggage underneath, and go into the customs office. A real sclepp especially as it was 2am and we were all sleepy and bleary eyed!! We finally reached the custom officials window, where they took our passports, checked the visa, stamped it and handed us the most important document that is required for all non-Russians, the immigration card! We were shunted over to one corner to complete it but had to decipher the English/cyrillic translation of the form pasted to the wall! Fun and games in the middle of the night!! When the official saw we were struggling, she came over and helped us, much to our surprise!By the time we'd figured it out and had everything stamped, it was 2.45am. Us and 4 other non-Russians were the last to climb back onto the bus, which had now been thoroughly searched whilst it was empty! Trying to get some proper sleep tonight had been impossible so we arrived in St Petersburg at 6am feeling like death warmed up.

Tuesday 1st August

Now we had the next challenge, to get to our pre-booked hostel on the metro underground, but the map was in cyrillic! We knew the 2 lines we needed to use but making sure we changed at the right one was an interesting exercise. Buying a ticket each was also "fun". Davids dad had given him a heap of Russian coins that he's had, so together with that and other change we had, we approached the kwaai looking tannie in her hokkie! She refused to take half the money and David couldn't understand why! Turned out that most of the coins from his dad were not valid tender anymore which obviously highly amused the ticket tannie!! We managed to scrape up enough for 2 metro token and also managed to find our way to our destination. Not bad for our first experience with the cyrillic alphabet! We arrived at the hostel so early that we couldn't check in until lunchtime! What were we to do?? All we wanted was to get some shut eye!!They said we could sit in the kitchen/common area and relax until people checked out of our dorm but really didn't manage much relaxing in there!! Eventually we got into the dorm and literally passed\out from exhaustion for about 3 hours. Slightly refreshed, we went for a walk around Pobedy Park which is right outside the hostel and turned right around when the hoardes of mozzies made a beeline for us!! St Petersburg is built on a swamp, has many rivers and ponds, hence the summer being prime time for our favourite pests!!

Wed 2nd August

We started the day with some more metro underground antics. We decided to buy a multiple-trip metro card and as you can guess, the 1st obstacle was how to ask for the correct thing at the counter! The first lady just threw her hands up and garbled something at us in the fastest Russian she could manage. We tried a different counter and somehow we were handed the correct card! Now to enter the underground itself. Easy - just swipe the card across the magnetic strip and in you go! David went through first and handed me the card so I could get in but guess what - the turnstile produced a horrible piercing alarm - I couldn't go in!!? Obviously I wondered why 'cos the card we'd just bought has a credit of 20 journeys on it, irrespective of how many people use it. I tried again - same alarm. After a few minutes of standing there with a confused look on my face, a young Russian chap approached me, having seen the problem, and explained that we have to wait 10 minutes before using it after the 1st person swipes. So with David on the one side of the barrier and me on the other, I just had to wait... but then another young Russian chap, also having seen the predicament, rushed up to me and gave me a single-trip token!! Before I even had time to say "spasiba" [thanx], he had disappeared into the crowds! I dropped the token into the slot and in I went! I was taken aback by the kindness of both these guys and immediately had a slight change of heart towards the up 'till now, hard and almost rude mannerisms of the Russian people. We continued down into the underground and the length of the escalators have to be seen to be believed! I thought that some of London's tubes were deep but St Petersburg's are awesome. It takes at least 1 and a half to 2 minutes just to go from street level down the escalators, which move at a pretty fast pace too. Surfacing at the other end is the same and looking up the length of the steep moving stairs is rather daunting. You're not supposed to take photos in Russian stations but we slipped one or 2 in anyway. Above ground again, we walked through the Yekateringburg Gardens on the famous Nevsky Prospekt street and generally just oohed and aahed at the huge, grand, majestic buildings all the way up this affluent street. Absolutely everything around you is on on enormous scale. It makes you feel so small and insignificant.

Thursday 3rd August

The Hermitage, set in the magnificent Winter Palace. This was our objective for today. Here are some facts about this magnificent musuem/art gallery. The palace has 1,786 doors, 1945 windows, 117 staircases, 1057 halls and rooms, 3million works of art comprised of 15,000 paintings, 12,000 sculptures, 600,000 drawings, 600,000 archaeological artifacts, 224,000 objects of applied art, 1million coins and medal. And this isn't everything on display at one given time. If you stood in front of each of these pieces for 1 minute, it would take nearly 5 years to leave the Hermitage. Then... there's 20 times more than this in the basement archives...!!! Neither of us are huge art gallery boffs but this place defies explanation and impressed us both. The Hermitage's collection began with Catherine The Great and she has been attributed as being one of the greatest art collectors of all time. this overpowering place bears witness to that. The day was exhausting so we returned to the hostel to relax and prepare ourselves for a visit to the Chinese Embassy tomorrow - to attempt to get a visa...

Friday 4th August

With completed visa applications, photos, passports and money, we left the hostel early to seek out the Chinese Embassy. On arrival and after waiting for about 20 minutes outside on the pavement, we were shown into the embassy. Having already completed all the documentation we were able to jump the queue inside. A great start. We patiently waited, went through to the official looking clerk, only to be told that we also needed an invitation [a la Russia]. Everything we've been told so far makes no mention of an invitation. Even Chinese people we've spoken to, say it's not necessary. Anyway, Russia being Russia, they want to make it as difficult as possible!! The only way to get one is to go via a travel agency [with a commission fee involved] or pre-book accommodation inChina! We decided that we'd abandon the idea of visa hunting in St Petersburg or Moscow and try to do ti in Ulan Bataar in Monoglia instead. We don't need an invite, so why go through the unneccessary Russian regimental procedure and waste precious time and stress!!

Next mission for the day: to purchase a train ticket to Moscow. Not so easy! I went to one info counter and David to another and we both came back with totally different and equally confusing information. the main problem - trying to get our requirements jacross to a non-English speaking Russian teller. What fun and games. We bumped into a couple of other backpackers who advised us not to book anything anyway until we had jconfirmed our hostel in Moscow. Apparently they'd found that there was hardly any budget accommodation available and what there was, is hells expensive. So... 2 objectives of the day had come to null. Next we went to the only English bookshop in St Peterburg to purchase our Lonely Planet China, only to find it was out of stock. Missionnumber 3 failed. Final objective was to go back to the hostel and do some research for accommodation in Moscow. All of the budget places we'd heard of were either fully booked or way too expensive... Failure number 4 of the day!! What to do??? We paid for some internet time, searched the web for hostels in Moscow and actually managed to find one but it mean't staying in St Petersburg a day longer than planned. By about 9pm we'd secured a dorm room and paid a deposit! Now we can proceed with the train booking to Moscow!! Seems sometimes that all we do is plan and arrange transport and places to sleep. I know this is the nature of the way we travel but sometimes it feels such a schlepp!! We rewarded our one little victory of the day with a few Russion ales and a gourmet dinner of 2-minute noodles!!

Saturday 5th August

A visit to the multi-onion domed catherdral on Spilled Blood - a church built in the likeness of Moscows famous St Basils. It's name comes from the fact that Tsar Alexander II was blown up by the people on this spot in 1881. Morbid but true nonetheless. The church is made up of thousands of coloured mosaics - inside and out and is considered to be one of St Petersburgs most stunning landmarks. We were spellbound by it's beauty. We now cannot wait to see St Basils in Moscow with it's colourful concoction of onion domes and odd shapes... Behind this cathedral we visited the Souvenir Market where you can bargain away for Russia's prized Matryoshka dolls, soviet memorabilia, cheap fur hats and wonderfully designed chessboards! A small but fascinating collection of goods. Next to the market, on a bridge facing the Spilled Blood Cathedral is a prime spot where just about every Russian bride come to be photographed. We've never seen so many wedding parties all in one place simultaneously!! The entire wedding entourage is in tow, complete with umpteen bottles of champers. The main objective apparently is for everyone to wander the city, the bride in full white wedding gown, getting as sozzled as possible. the parties end, so they say, only when the bridal couple have their first arguement. A fascinating Russian tradition to watch! Country wedding festivities can continue for 3 or 4 days!! We returned to our hostel having had a pretty successful day and having won the battle of purchasing a train ticket to Moscow. Not an easy undertaking. We patted ourselves on the back and celebrated with... you guessed it... a beer!

Sunday 6th August

No peace for the wicked in this city. There's just so much to see and we don't have too much time left. So... off we set for the Peter and Paul Fortress, set on a small island peninsula across the river. The oldest building in St Petersburg was mainly used as a political prison for famous names such as Trotsky and Lenin's older brother. Also here is the Cathedral of Peter and Paul with a magnificent baroque interior. To cut a long story short, today we walked and walked and walked. We walked from the hostel to the tube. The tube, all the way up Nevsky Prospekt [main street] to the Hermitage. Across a long bridge, then another one, and finally we reached the Fortress! When you walk anywhere in St Petersburg believe me, you walk a very long way. the city's streets are kilometers long... We walked in and around the Fortress, back out across another bridge then around the entire peninsula island that it's on. By the time we'd retraced our steps back up Nevsky Prospekt we were history and the freet were complaining bitterly. We could have taken a metro train back but en route there is just so much to seethat going underground seemed like a sinj!! We passed by an exquisite blue mosaic-decorated mosque, somehow out of place here but amazing to see. We stopped to watch St Petersburgs first floating musical fountain which danced and sprayed huge jets of water, perfectly choreographed to the music. by the time we'd hobbled back to the hostel, I didn't want to stand up again for a few hours as the pains shooting through the feet were rather "aina"!! Why do we do this?? Crazy travellers that we are!