St Petersburg

Smolny Cathedral
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We spent 6 days in St Petersburg, and could have easily spent more time - there is so much to see. On our first evening, I went to the ballet with some girls from the tour (and a few guys too), while Richard went out on the town with his two new 'wingmen' as they came to call eachother, Guy and Shane from New Zealand.

The ballet performance was Swan Lake, and it was a great show. I think one of the things you have to do in Russia is go to the ballet, they are such graceful dancers. The theatre was in a former palace with beautiful staircases and chandeliers.

Elena outside St Isaac's Cathedral
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Meanwhile, Richard had his first experience in a 'lada'. In Russia, it is perfectly normal to hail down any old car for a ride - everyone does it. You set the price before you get in the car, and away you go. This practice originated in the Soviet times as a way for people to earn money, and it is still widespread today. Ladas are old, boxy cars and most seem to be bombs, but it is definitely a way to experience living like a local. Richard and his wingmen got picked up by an old Russian guy for their ride and found it very entertaining.

At the ballet
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On our first full day in St Petersburg, we went on a coach tour of the city, as a lot of the sites are quite spread out across the city. We saw the very blue Smolny Cathedral (which was never actually used as a church as sadly a worker committed suicide inside before it was finished), the huge gold-domed St Isaacs Cathedral, the fully mosaic-ed Church on Spilled Blood, the Winter Palace and Alexander Column which stands in front of it, the Admiralty (former headquarters of the Russian navy), Peter and Paul Fortress and many other sites. We also drove down Nevsky Prospect, the famous main road of St Petersburg which has beautiful palaces (including Stroganoff's palace - of beef stroganoff fame), bridges and canals all the way down.

The Winter Palace
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We had a great lunch of borsch (beetroot soup), piroshki (pies), beef stroganoff and jam blini (pancakes). Oh, and a vodka shot too of course. Beef stroganoff originated when Stroganoff lost an arm in battle, and asked his cooks to cut his meat into small strips so he wouldn't have to use a knife. The rest is history!

The afternoon was spent touring the Winter Palace and the Hermitage which is partly housed inside, one of the world's best collections of art. The Palace was amazing - one of the most beautiful and over-the-top I have seen on this trip. The art collection of the Hermitage is so huge that we could only see the highlights - apparently if you spend 1 minute in front of every item in the gallery you will be there for something like 3 years.

Elena outside the Winter Palace/Hermitage
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Our very busy day finished with us attending a cossack show in another beautiful palace. The cossack dances are amazing - so much boot slapping, kicking, and jumping up and down. We also got to see some traditional Russian singing, musical instruments and folk dancing. It was a lot of fun and one of the touristy things you should do in Russia!

On our second day, we went back to some of the sites we had seen the day before for a closer look - namely St Isaacs Cathedral, where we climbed to the top of the dome and saw a beautiful view of St Petersburg, and the Peter and Paul Fortress, where the city was founded by Peter the Great and later used as a prison. The Cathedral of St Peter and Paul is also situated here, where most of the Romanov tsars are buried. We saw the last Romanovs' tombs, which was quite sad. Actually, when we were in Russia the Romanovs were in the news a lot, because they think they have discovered the remains of the 2 Romanov children that were never found, Alexei and Maria.

An amazing staircase inside the Winter Palace
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We also visited Peterhof, Peter the Great's beautiful summer palace on the Gulf of Finland. The gardens here were amazing, with many beautiful fountains - including a trick fountain that sprays you if you walk past it! The Peterhof gardens are often compared to those at Versailles and they were definitely spectacular.

The day finished with a night cruise on the canals of St Petersburg, which was beautiful. The city looks very pretty all lit up at night. Then, we all decided to visit a Russian nightclub called Metro. It was huge - 3 levels of dancefloors and bars, but a bit too packed with people for my liking (and they were all about 18 years old). I headed home around 1am but Richard and some other people got back to the hotel at 6am - the bridges of St Petersburg open around 4am to allow boats through, and as our hotel was on the other side of the river, if you're still out at this time you have no choice but to stay out until the bridges reopen. Needless to say Richard was feeling pretty average the day after!

The square outside the Winter Palace, including Alexander Column
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The next day, we said goodbye to most of our tour group, as they were only doing a 7 day tour. Luckily we had another 2 days to spend exploring St Petersburg before we met up with a new tour group. We started with breakfast at Teremok, a blini (pancake) fast food style store we discovered that was SO good, and cheap too. We went back several times to try savoury pancakes like cheese and mushroom, smoked salmon, and cream and chicken; and sweet pancakes like wild berries and strawberries and cream. Richard and I then went back to the Church on Spilled Blood as we hadn't been inside it yet, and for a wander through St Petersburg where we saw the Summer Gardens and Mikhailovsky Park.

The Cathedral of St Peter and Paul
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The next day, our last day in St Petersburg, we went on a 'Revolution Evolution' tour which took us to some areas of St Petersburg that were significant during the Soviet period. It was led by a Russian historian and was really interesting - we saw Soviet statues, murals, and the blocks where people lived while their 'palaces' were being built by the Communists. We also saw a building which used to house a kitchen for workers, and funnily enough is now a McDonalds! We had a Soviet worker style lunch at a restaurant called 'Lenin Lives' which was fitted out with Soviet propaganda - bread with herrings, pickles and onion, potatoes, kikleta (meat patties) with mushroom sauce, and of course a vodka shot.

Richard at the top of St Isaac's Cathedral
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That afternoon we headed to the train station for another overnight train, this time to Vladimir.