Nashotel St. Petersburg

... absolutely insane, and I lean over and yell, "What? How much?"
She growls. "Forty roubles."
Hehe, I got the Russian price.

The park is beautiful. Once in, I forget my earlier frustrations with Russia and Russians, and I feel so good about myself that I send a text message to follow up my "tell me again why I like this country?" one. Even the awful reply - "you're a hero. If you weren't so lazy and got a driver's license, you could rent a car ...

... bridge. The Neva river is spanned by several drawbridges, which are opened at night. During the "white nights" celebrations in summer, it's common for both locals and tourists to make a tour of the bridges as they open, toasting each one with shampanski as they go. It isn't time for the white nights now. It still gets dark at night, and it's relatively cold (though in Russia I ...

... vendors set up at this popular stop, we headed back to the van to continue the tour. The van circled past the university buildings on the island and then brought us back along the palace embankment past a series of heroic statues and monuments. They included Peter the Great on his horse trampling a serpent, the Decembrists' Square's arch, and Tsar Nicholas I riding a horse at the center of St. Isaac's Square. Here we stopped to ...

... you are free to
walk around the towns on your own if you want, just carry your passport with
you. Even on the organized tours, they review and stamp your passport and give
you a little red card that identifies you as a tourist on an organized tour,
which they charge you $50 if you lose their stupid card. More of their
paranoia - believe me, I don't think many people are trying to sneak into
Russia.

... and is now one of the world's most impressive museums full of incredible art from various eras. Luckily for us, Alexi queued for an hour to get the tickets while we were on the boat ride so we could walk straight in, which was really wonderful of him. It was hard enough dragging the kids around the Hermitage, let alone getting them to have queued for an hour first! Anyway, we tramped through incredibly decorated rooms, looking at amazing art ...

... lost but eventually I ended up seeing everythign I wanted. I took over 200 photos over 2 days so get ready! I bought my 1st matrioshka doll and learnt the story behin these dolls. I can tell you about them later but I need to shoot for the restaurant now. Just to remind myself, the story I know is about the snow maiden. Maybe tomorrow. Until then - wih me good luck on the train! If it is awful, I am in trouble as I have 4 more journeys left! Kat

... Synagogue, had a walk along the famous Nevski Prospect and went up St Issacs Catheral which offered good panoramic views of the city. Most of the next day I walked around The Hermitage which has one of the biggest and finest collections of art in the world, if the arts not enough then just the building itself is a masterpiece, as itis sistuated in the huge Royal Palace. I wondered around for hours inside, never seeing the same room again, it was so big you needed a map ...

... back in London, very strange.. but as a great Vladimir says "Russia is Russia.. Life is Life" And the Hermitage.. 2 hrs or lapping it.. wow.. tooo much stuff, can imagine people have died in there.. Next stop.. the train ticket office, armed only with very basic Russian and scribble of notes from the hostel translater I manage after many stern looks and huffs to complete the task.. Москва will be my next home..

... bad at all. Today was definitelly a day of adventures. Manami and I tried to conquer the SP subway, and failled miserably in our first attempt, we paid to go in, took the world's longest escalator ride to the depths of SP, walked trying to find which train we needed to take, and since we couldn't figure it out, I decided, hey, my Russian is pretty good, let's ask, well not such a good idea since we were looking for the train that would take us to Nevsky Prospekt ...

... a lot of photos here, but my fatigue is setting in and I don't bother to photograph anything after leaving here. Eva, Svetlana and I share a coffee and pastry in the coffee shop during the free time we have given the group to wander the gardens and take photographs. We decide to speed up the afternoon by taking the hydrofoil back to the Hermitage, thereby knocking off about a half hour of bus travel time. After returning to the city we make a brief stop at a large souvenir ...