St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with a Western Europe feel. Very little of Russia’s communism past lives here. We started our day with a quick walking tour with our local guide Mike who is a St. Petersburg native with a strong English and Australia accent.

In four hours we were educated in numerous interesting facts from a brief history about the city to where to buy good Georgian smoked cheese. The city is

surrounded by canals and connected many little bridges which all but one go up between 1:20AM and 05:00AM often strand people from their destination. They say if you see a bridge go up, it is suppose to bring you good luck. Unfortunately, the gang was way to tired to get up in the middle of the night to catch a glimpse of this fine attraction. Instead, we started with the vast Hermitage where we caught many masterpiece artworks. The gang particularly loved going through the abstract art gallery, we all took turns sitting crossed legged in the middle of the rooms and

tried to guess what the artists were painting. We were not very good, but managed get a few right and even did our own interpretation on one we really liked.

The next day we hit the Peter and Paul Fortress. Located by the Neva River, the fortress can be spotted from miles away largely because the gold tipped Peter and Paul Cathed

ral located within the grounds. By the time Peter the Great finished build

ing this grand fortress, the war it was meant for was over. It was never used again as a fortress, but later become a political prison. After the fortress, the gang wanted to a view from the top, so we headed over the St. Issac's Cathedral. Merely 262 steps, we were up high and enjoyed a panoramic view of the city. After walking around for hours, a rel

ax boating cruise was totally in order. We hopped on a boat cruise up and down the canals. Perhaps the cruise was a little too relaxing, most of us was still very jetlegged fell asleep to the gentle rocking motion of the boat in no time! For those who stayed

awake saw the city full of bright coloured castles and palaces. The boat guide explained St. Petersburg is only sunny about 30 days out of year, so the bright colours were used on the palaces to make the place less gloomy.

After the nap in the boat, it was time for us the hit the town! We headed down to an alternative bar just two blocks down from our hotel hoping we can catch a local band. But by the time we arrived, the band was done and gone. We sat for a drink (or two, three...) anyways and chatted up the locals. Despite the stereotype, Russians were very friendly people. They were even funny! Joke of the day: A St. Petersburgerians asks another St. Petersburgerians what he did last summer, he replied "I was working that day..."

Our third day, we had an early morning despite the late night at the local bar. Tired, but excited to visit the Church of Spilled Blood, very gory name (Alexander II was assassinated here) for a colourful church modelled after the St. Basil in Moscow. The interior of this church was incredible! After a quick stroll at the flea market across from the church which included an encounter with a baby bear that someone kept as a pet, we hopped on the hydrofoil toward the gulf of Finland. More napping on the hydrofoil... then we arrived at the Peterhof which is described as the Versailles of Russia. Its grounds were massive with over 140 water fountains! All this for one dude named Peter the Great. Since it was a gorgeous and warm day, the gang took some time to sunbathed on the grass area overlooking the Gulf of Finland before catching the hydrofoil back to St. Petersburg.

Our short stay in St. Petersburg ended with us catching our first train ride on this trip! Moscow here we come!