From Russia with Love

A rabbit statue on the river just outside Peter and Paul Fortress. Apparently it's because the island is sometimes called rabbit island
see all photos »

We checked out of our hostel on the 13th of February and spent the day wandering around Tallinn.  Our bus didn't leave until 11.40pm and we were determined to pack some more in, to wear ourselves out for the journey.

We had heard so many scary stories about the border crossing and were a bit worried. I was a bit superstitous because my seat number on the bus was 13 and we were leaving on the 13th. In the event we crossed the border at 2.30am without a hitch. We had even filled in our immigration forms correctly with the help of a friendly Russian on the bus (it was all in Cyrillic).

Palace Square is huge. That's the winter palace in the background.
see all photos »

So we arrived in St Petersburg at 6.30am on Valentine's day.  Unfortunately we got off at the wrong bus station and were miles out. After a very long walk (seemed endless cause it was dark, cold, our rucksacks were heavy and neither of us managed to sleep on the bus) we hit a metro station at rush hour.  Everyone looked at us like they wanted us to die and openly stared - sometimes even coming back to have another look!  I tell you that rush hour in London is nothing compared to St Petersburg. People were really elbowing each other out of the way to get up the escalators.  I gave as good as I got anyway and practised my "I want you to die" look.

Another view of Palace Square
see all photos »

After 2 hours on shuffling along and inept navigating we found our hostel and hit the hay. We really only went to the supermarket the first day, which was an education in itself.

Yesterday we wandered around and got our bearings - it is a beautiful city. Really large spaces and impressive buildings and potholed roads and boxy cars spewing black smoke. Don't think many people go for unleaded petrol here. We went out last night with an American guy from our hostel for one drink. Typically we couldn't find the bar we were looking for and ended up in some dark bar where we were the only foreigners. We met  two lovely Russian guys and chatted and sang songs until 4am.  We had Ukrainan spiced vodka and various other beverages. The guys - Egor and Oleg were amazing singers and it was a great night.  Sore heads this morning though.

Inside the Hermitage
see all photos »

Undeterred we went off to the Hermitage and Winter Palace today which is literally at the end of our road. We had heard it was the largest art gallery in the world but that did not prepare us for the sheer size of it, nor for the amount of stuff in there. We were there for about 5 hours, with just one break and haven't seen all of it at all. It is obscenely beautiful. The palace is so decorated and stuffed with artifacts and art that you simply cannot process everything.  Total sensory overload but I recommend it to anyone.

The pavillion room at the Hermitage
see all photos »

We are loving getting frequently lost in St Petersburg.

So tonight is our last night in St Petersburg - it's the 19th today.

We have been to the Russian Museum and seen everything from Icons to Kandinsky and traditional wooden toys.  I thoroughly recommend it.

Otherwise we've done some more drinking and wandering around.

The Armourial Room of the Hermitage
see all photos »

Today we walked the entire length of one of the main avenues - Nvesky Prospect (all 4.5kms of it), went to the Leningrad siege museum, very interesting but mostly in Russian, so we didn't get as much out of it as we could have.  We also saw some sphinxes which are a monument to victims of political oppression - check out the photo. We've also seen Dostoevsky's grave along with loads of composers including Tchaikovsky's. It was a really beautiful cemetery, with various styles of memorials and some of the smaller tombstones completely blanketed in snow. But weirdly near one of the busiest intersections of the city.

Palace Square
see all photos »

Overall we really enjoyed it here, it's a great place to go out at night.  Less expensive than we thought - we were spending less than 40 quid per day including accomodation for both of us. People are friendly and interested to get to know foreigners. The signage could do with a major overhaul.  The thing that impressed us most was the number of Babuskas sitting in museums, in weird plastic boxes at the bottom and top of escalators on the metro and in kiosks. We estimate that there's a hundred thousand ladies sitting down sternly surveying those around them in this town at any one time. Where do they come from?  And don't mess with them either!