White Nights in St. Pete's

May 27 - St. Petersburg

A long travel day, we took a 2am flight to Vienna where we had about a four-hour layover. Luckily we had the lounge pass, so we were able to read the newspaper and catch up on some email. When we arrived in St. Petersburg we were surprised at how sparse the international terminal was - not exactly a bustling place. There is some sort of taxi racket so we really got hosed on our trip into the city. Wound up with a $75 cab fare because we hadn't arranged for the hostal to pick us up - ouch! Of course, we soon found out that this was just the beginning as everything is expensive in St. Pete's.

It was raining when we arrived so we were only brave enough to venture out for some dinner. Then it was back to the hostal where we both crashed pretty early.

May 28 - St. Pete's

We lucked out and got a sunny day. The weather forecast had said there would be rain every day while were in St. Pete's! Since the weather was nice we scrapped our plan to tour the Hermitage and headed out on a walking tour. Our first stop was the beautiful Church on Spilled Blood, which was resurrected on the site of Alexander II's assassination. It is a fabulous church in that style of architecture that we associate with Moscow. Very cool. Then we crossed the Neva River (freezing our butts off as we did so) and headed to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The fortress was built by Peter the Great and marks the founding of the city. Inside we visited the SS Peter and Paul Church, where several tsars are buried. We also toured the Commandant's House which is now a great museum of St. Pete's history. We also visited the Engineer's House which has similar historical exhibits.

After all of that touring we had worked up an appetite so we stopped at a Russian eatery for some traditional food. I had duck and Matt had beef stroganoff and they were both delicious. We weren't sure what to expect from the food but so far it has been really good.

In the afternoon we stumbled into a parade after walking past the Admiralty (naval school) and the Hermitage. I'm pretty sure it was a military parade as there were a lot of men in uniform and also it was St. Pete's "birthday." Matt was hoping to see some tanks rumbling down the street but no such luck.

After that we headed to Mollie's Irish Pub to put our feet up - St. Pete's is a big city and we had covered a lot of ground. We saw a lot of interesting things too, like tons of people carrying beer around in the street. We even walked past a couple ladies pushing strollers and chugging a brewski! It definitely seems to be the norm to drink on the street as we've seen it every day we have been here. Smoking seems to be pretty popular here and most restaurants have cigarettes on the menu. Also, the "look" here is very 80's inspired. Sure they have their big sunglasses and low-rise jeans, but mullets and bad perms abound. There's also a strong contingent of punk fashionistas in the young crowd.

While we sat at the bar we lamented the fact that our journey will soon be coming to an end. The last two months have really flown by and it's hard to believe we only have one month left. We've seen some amazing contrasts over the past few weeks...traveling from China to Singapore to India to St. Pete's. Each country is so different it reminds us of how there are so many places out there to see. We hope that the traveling and exposure has made us more tolerant toward other people, and that we'll try harder to help people in our own country who are lost or unfamiliar with the language. We've had a lot of help from strangers along the way and it has made us appreciate how a very small effort can make a big difference in someone else's day.

May 29 - St. Pete's

In the morning we wasted an hour looking for a place to do laundry. The sad thing is that we had an address but just couldn't find the place. It's a real challenge to get around here as Russians don't use the same alphabet as us. I feel illiterate and trying to read all of these signs that don't mean anything to me gives me a headache. There is very little English here, which is a big contrast to both India and China. Yes, China was tough but in comparison it was much more user friendly! We gave up on the laundry and headed to St. Isaac's Cathedral, one of the city's landmarks. It was built in 1858 and during the Soviet era was converted to an atheism museum and remains a museum today. It was worth the hefty entrance fee to see the beautiful ceiling paintings and to enjoy the city views from the colonnade.

Afterward we walked down "Millionaire's Street," took in the Summer Gardens and Palace, checked out the Grand Hotel Europe (St. Pete's most fancy hotel). It started raining and was nasty cold out. When our feet got tired and we were done with the cold we did as the locals do and headed to a pub, where even though I couldn't read anything I could at least listen to Aerosmith! After a couple drinks we had sufficiently dried off and were warm again so it was time to head out into the miserable night. And miserable it was, we had a long walk back to the hostal. We were able to take the metro part way, which was interesting (all signs are in Russian) but still were soaked by the time we got back.

May 30 - St. Pete's

We have had some interesting breakfasts here. Lots of spam type meat and raw bacon is very popular. Pickled stuff is also very common. Quite interesting. I'm sticking to the yoghurt.

Since it was another rainy day we scrapped our plan to see a palace outside the city and instead headed to the Hermitage. It is a huge museum housing Catherine the Great's collections and other artwork from around the world. The building itself is magnificent with part of it made up of the Winter Palace. The architecture is amazing with lots of gilding, beautiful arches and quite a bit of Italian influence. The wood floors are like nothing I have ever seen before. Each room we visited was more spectacular than the last - it was pretty incredible. The art collection is not so bad either - da Vinci, Picasso, Rafael, etc. There is quite a bit of nakedness in the museum...statues, paintings, figurines, etc. - certainly Russia is not as modest as India was. I got too close to some of the nude statues and set off the alarm a couple times. Haha, well that's not exactly true. I did set off the alarm twice but I was trying to get a closer look at fabric and furniture, not nudies. After several hours at the Hermitage we were worn out and we headed to a Mexican bar for margaritas and nachos. Things got out of hand and we ended up staying there for quite some time....

One of the coolest things about visiting St. Pete's right now are the "white nights." It stays light out until about midnight. It's pretty crazy to look up at 4:00 in the afternoon and see the sun in the noon position!

May 31 - St. Pete's

We had to sleep in a little to recover from the night before but by late morning we were off to Peter the Great's castle on the Gulf of Finland. Peterhof is a beautiful palace but we were most impressed by the wonderful grounds. Everything is really green right now and the tulips have come up and are everywhere. I have totally fallen in love with them and have taken an abundance of pictures. I'm sure I'll have my "Spring in St. Petersburg" montage on the blog in the next couple weeks. We were lucky to have another sunny day as most of the time was spent wandering around outside checking out the impressive fountains and enjoying the flowers and fresh air. The palace was built by Peter the Great and was later expanded by Tsarina Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. It is beautiful and over the top in the manner we have now come to expect from a Russian palace. The only downer for the day was the expense of the excursion...St. Pete's is really expensive (this is coming on the heels of India and China so of course everything feels costly). The entire Peterhof trip probably cost us around $100. Foreigners pay two to three times the local's rate. I can understand that, but when I pay $40 to get in a museum and then you also charge me to use the bathroom there I do get grumpy. Food is also pricey....lunch for two in a restaurant can easily cost $75. We've been trying to stick to cafes or cheap eats and even then we usually spend $25. Oh well, I should probably get used to it as all of Europe will be expensive. Besides, it's not like we are unemployed or anything....

The trip to Peterhof took most of the day and when we came back we hung out in a cafe for a while, then did some interneting and had a quick dinner.

June 1 - St. Pete's

Today is our last day in St. Petersburg. It is another cold, rainy day. We spent most of it bumming around seeing the last few sights we wanted to hit, souvenir shopping and hanging out. We ordered hot chocolate in a cafe and it turned out to be a crazy pudding type thing. It was like what you might expect to see in the center of a chocolate molten cake. It was too much even for me! Still, very tasty in small quantities.

Tomorrow we head to Istanbul. We have a very early flight and have to leave the hostal at 4am. Ugh. Hopefully our connection in Frankfurt is on time as we need to hit the ground running - only 3 and a half days to take in all the sights in Istanbul!