The Great Pete
Trip Start
May 08, 2006
1
32
108
Trip End
Mar 07, 2007
St Petersburg,
Russia
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Caught the last train of the Trans Siberian adventure. An 8 hour overnight trip from Moscow to St Petersburg. St Petersburg is so different to Moscow. It looks so European with canals and old buildings everwhere. Everything sort of focuses around one street called Nevesky Prospect. We all had the local pancake fast food joint called "Tepemok". Where you can get anything you want in a pancake from cheese to chocolate to chicken.
I visited the famous hermitage museum (Winter palace). Also on Nevesky. Yes I hadn't heard of it before either. It is a massive museuem filled with art (from Davinci to Rembrant) and all sorts of other things. Which after an hour was exhausting after getting so lost. Apperently the curator of the museum had been assasinated a few days before
1. Eddie at Tepemok
.I spent the first day (which was cloudy) walking around taking pictures only to find the second day full of blue sky. I hate that! So i went and retook some pictures of the big things. Spent most of my time in St Peters constantly walking around the streets. Every street was so beautiful. Ate some cool foods at places i wont even try to pronounce, where the service was 10 times better than Moscow (maybe because its more European) and went to some place called Propaganda. Its the little things you notice, like at a pub type place, they give you a receipt when you buy a drink. If you asked me to prounounce any of the places Ive been to in Russia, the only places i can say ive been to is a place called Cafe Zoom and Club Propaganda.
Apart from taking yet another great jumping photo. I went and checked out the Fleet Anniversary party. On this day the streets were filled with drunk russians sailors. I saw lots of GF's crying and one girl was pulled by her hair by her drunken sailor bf. I was just about to charge up and do "something" to stop this arnold schwarzenegger guy. Lucky for him!! that a big general walked up before me covered in medals and told him off.
St Peters didnt have as many guys in uniforms and to me it was definatley the pretier of the 2 cities
10. Canal
. Nevsky reminded me of George St in Sydney. The only bad thing about St Peters, was that getting back to our dodgy hotel after midnight was impossible before 2, because they raised all the bridges. On our last big night, we had to lously barter with a driver and then waited for the big bridge to go down. While we waited he showed us his porno book, asking us to choose some girls, "Only 2000 Rubels!!" he said. Its wierd in Russia, anyone is a taxi, its the same as hitchhiking but you pay. Can you imagine the chaos that would cause back home. Trying to get home drunk from Town Hall having to barter for the ride home. Even if you find a taxi there is no gurantee its not dodgy anyway. Two guys in Moscow got in one and then the driver removed the taxi sign off the roof.All in all I loved Russia. It was unexpectingly cold although it was their summer. I wore pants and a jacket most of the time. Their summer is our winter! And it didnt get dark until midnight which threw me off too. However, there was something attractive in the coldness of the people. There was a coolness to the fact that all the soviet statues and signs were up and that you could by stalin pocket watches if you wanted. There was also a beauty to the chaotic way things worked. Russia, like Vietnam, was interesting because it had that history that made it so much more fun. I will stop talking Philosophical now and bid u
Goodbye from Russia with love...
Dasvedanya Baboooshkaa!!
