Taleon Imperial Hotel St. Petersburg

... We tried to go out for drinks in the evening with Samuel & Fabien and a New Zealand guy, but we couldn't find the bar that offered us free shots, so we bought some beer from the shop & headed back.

We headed to the Hermitage Museum/Winter Palace, which we had been warned took a long day as there are over 1000 rooms of paintings, art, sculptures and artifacts in overly decorated rooms. We got in around 11am and didn't leave until gone 4.30pm, and we did ...

So here I am with only 3 days left in this long trip. It is hard to believe that it is coming to an end. I have some museums visits and the like to write about here but today I just wanted to write a couple of lists...

Things I will miss about Russia:

1. Russian language - pretty self explanatory. I know that when I get back to the States it will be so strange to hear English around me in place of the swishing sounds of Russian and will be even ...

... which is the first Russian opera based on Russian themes and not just a copy of Italian opera. It was a challenge to stay awake after my late night beforehand although the opera was one of the most spectacular performances of opera I have seen so far. The colors and music were just astounding and in the 3rd act there was a long ballet segment which was of course amazing. The thing I love about opera at the Mariinsky is that the ballet segments are always so beautiful (most likely ...

... I hope to take care of that problem soon. Steve and I reached an agreement where he will take all the pictures (as he is better at taking pics than I am) and I will do the writing (as you all know, I am better at this than he is...) Next stop MIAMI P.S. Wishing I would be able to see the finals of the Australian Open, but Im taking Roger over Rafa in 4 sets...

... a bowed, shrouded, blanketed, hooded field-tenderer here and there, desperately attempting to eke the last scrap of life out of the soil before the impending freeze arrives again. It is mid-September, with temperatures ranging between 0C and 10C. Shallow puddles by eve carry a crusty sheen by dawn. The early warning system has been switched on: winter is coming. It is a forbidding place. And that is only at a quick look-in. But over the whole ride, the hell legend of Siberia ...

... I went to the Hermitage. It is a massive art gallery that is probably on scale with the Louvre in Paris. It is housed in the Winter Palace. The collection is so huge it could take an art aficionado days to see everything. I spent about 4 hours and I was exhausted. Some of the collection is skippable but I made sure to go to the stuff I wanted to see first otherwise you just get so tired and don't pay attention. My favourites were the State Apartments. There are ...

... was what he really wanted. He finally relented, and went and spent the last of his Yuan on his bottle. When he got back on the train he decided to have a bit of a tipple. He thought it tasted very weak, and on close inspection of the bottle, discovered that it was in fact Jack DANIEIS, not Jack DANIELS!!! We all had a good laugh, and got lots of mileage out of Jack Danieis for the remainder of the trip. All we would have to do is mention 'Jack Danieis' and we'd start laughing all ...

... size of * sm*ll house is *bsolutely enormous, stretching * h*lf mile long *t le*st. Even the ordin*ry rooms if there *re *ny in this pl*ce *re of extr*ordin*ry size. My one question though in w*lking through * pl*ce of such m*gnitude is: why *re the ch*irs so d*inty *nd sm*ll? A red velvet ch*ir re*lly only big enough to be comfort*ble for * sm*ll child in * room th*t could house * l*rge y*cht - why? The Hermit*ge Museum is one of the big de*l ...

... to the side of the road. Katya explained that they were waiting to cross the border into Russia, even though the border was still a good 40 minute drive away! There were gaps in the waiting line... but I could not believe how long a wait it was! Katya thought they'd get into Russia sometime the next day! Just before the border we stopped at a road stop to grab something for lunch. There was also a grocery store where we were told we should stock up on water for ...

... is to see. Lots of parks, churches, canals, columns and towers. Surprisingly St. Petersburg doesn't really have a communist feel to it, in fact Berlin looked to be way more communist than St. Petes. Now there aren't any skyscrapers or tall buildings, just big, old and pretty concrete buildings (I swear everything here is made of concrete or brick). Now it is claimed that St. Petes is the prettiest city in Europe. I don't know what city I would label as the prettiest, but I ...