Hello St Petersburg!

September 11th 2017

It's 6.45am and the alarm is going off....we are shattered and have slight hangovers!

We are still on the train but due to arrive in St. Petersburg at 7.55am. Before that, breakfast is served. It's the last thing I want, an omelette and some cheese and grapes....urgh! I do my best to eat what I can.




We arrive on time and our driver is waiting for us at the end of the platform. He drives us to our hotel which is literally 5 minutes along Nevsky Prospect, a great location to start our adventures. All we really want is a rest and a hot shower....but no, we couldn't check in until 1pm. The hotel did do all the registration, which is the time consuming part, but we were told to leave our luggage and come back later.

Our walking tour of the city was due to begin at 10am so we went to find a coffee shop; there is definitely a coffee culture here with shops on every corner. We had a latte and honey cake before returning to the hotel to meet our guide, Taisiia. 




We walked around the city for almost 3 hours; it was really enjoyable but tiring nonetheless. Some of the highlights were the Kazan Cathedral, which became a monument to Russia's military glory after defeating Napoleon, the Hermitage and Winter Palace, St Michaels Castle, where Paul I stayed through fear of being assassinated  (and was assassinated by a confidant 41 days later), Stroganov Palace, the family initiated the conquest and colonisation of Siberia (oh... and a famous beef stew was named after them) and the Church of the Resurrection, which looks a bit like St Basils in Moscow. Our guide also told us about a place to eat ”Soviet Donuts" so we plan to try them before we leave!


Winter Palace


Church of the Resurrection 

The weather had cleared up so we decided to do a river and canal trip; the tour started just beside the Hermitage so we grabbed a hot chocolate (you need to add sugar!) and settled down on the top of the boat to enjoy the scenery. We went out to the Neva River towards Vasilyevsky Island where the river splits and where the stock exchange used to sit. We then saw the dome of St Isaacs Cathedral, the Bronze Horsemen statue of Peter the Great, the Cruiser Aurora and the Peter and Paul Fortress where the Romanovs are now buried. After cruising along the main river, we turned down one of the canals; it is definitely a mix between Venice and Amsterdam. We were very lucky that it was sunny for the whole trip, I'm not convinced I would want to be here in winter. 

After the mini cruise, we decided to head back to the hotel, get our luggage and have a shower. The hotel is a small family run affair so there was no lift; we had to carry the bags up four flights of stairs before collapsing! We both had a shower, although they were the quickest showers ever.....you will see why from the picture below.....



We decided to go out and find somewhere for dinner as we were starving. We wandered along Nevsky Prospect until we found a pedestrian street going off it; we were looking for a Russian restaurant and came across Masha and the Bear. I had beef stroganov (spelled this way), take two! It was completely different to the one in Yekaterinburg and was much tastier! I also had a few wines, it was only 100ml measures so I asked for a double...followed by another double! I think he thought I was an alcoholic or rich.....wine is pretty expensive here given the average salary.


Beef Stroganov


Iain had Chicken Kiev


Apple Strudel for Dessert

After dinner, we wandered along Nevsky Prospect where we bought some tickets for the Hermitage Theatre for Wednesday evening; I will tell you more about this later! We then walked back to the hotel via another street that we heard had lots of bars and clubs; we ended up having a nightcap in the Dead Poet; it was a funky bar with a really mixed crowd and decent prices. We only had one drink there and decided to call it a night....sightseeing is hard work!

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