St.Petersburg

Ok, so we’re finally going to update our blog starting with beautiful St Petersburg (known as Leningrad during Communist times). We were so lucky to start our journey in such an amazing city,  the cultural capital of Russia. One of the first things we noticed about St P were the many canals and the elaborate and colourful architecture of just about every building in the city. 

Our hostel was very central and we could easily walk everywhere. The hostel was amazing, and easily the best hostel we have stayed in . You can check out Sav’s review of the hostel here

 

 
On our first day we climbed St Isaac’s Cathedral, which after about 100 winding stairs provided superb views of this amazing city. 



  
Inside, the Cathedral was both ornate and elaborate with paintings, mosaics and an incredible iconostas. This Cathedral interior was our favourite in St. Petersburg by far.

St. Petersburg is one of the cleanest cities we have ever visited. 

We noticed that cleaning of the streets took place daily, which we had not seen before in such a major city. This really adds to the welcoming feel of the city, which is evident throughout.

We later went to the Hermitage Museum, which alongside the British Museum (and possibly the Louvre) houses the most rich collection of treasures.

 There probably are no words in which to describe this museum that do it justice. The interior is like a palace, with the Jordan Staircase and the Golden Peacock Clock (designed by British clockmaker James Cox) rooms being two of the loveliest spaces there (pictures).

 The artworks in the Hermitage are astounding: Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse and even Michelangelo’s sadly unfinished sculpture ‘The Crouching Boy’ are housed in there. 

The low points were the cafe, which was tiny, crowded and sold horrible food, probably the worst tasting tuna ‘salad’ sandwich I’ve had for about £5 . 

 The other funny/sad part were the hordes of tourists (which we fondly call ‘Walkers’ after the zombies from the series ‘The Walking Dead’), that swiftly passed through rooms and rooms of priceless art, only told by their guide ‘This is the Van Gogh room’ and slowing down enough so that they could snap a picture or ten. 

The highlight of the next day was our visit to Peterhof Palace and Gardens, which did not start very smoothly. We were told where to queue for tickets for the 40-min boat ride, and ended up in the most disorganised “sardine-factory”-like queue that would have left most British people in utter dismay! We were squashed from every direction for about an hour, while just trying to purchase two tickets, with people constantly trying to push in. Once we obtained the evidently much sought-after tickets, we then walked freely for about 5 meters, to then once again be squashed into another queue to actually get on the boat. This is when we met a hilarious, pushy, and entitled Russian woman with a mullet haircut who proceeded to shout and push her way through approximately 100 tightly-squashed people to the front of the queue. This was all well and good, however although she achieved her mission eventually, her husband and child remained at the back of queue, looking helpless and embarrassed. This only got worse as she then proceeded to shout and wildly gesture at them to do the same, and did not stop until they meekly followed her to the front! Everyone was shocked at this behaviour, even the Russians, who are quite used to similar shenanigans!   

We have to say that the mad queues actually were completely worth it, as Peterhof Palace was out of this world.

I think the word palace is sometimes thrown around lightly, but Peterhof really does live up to it. It is one of the most lavish and beautiful places we’ve visited, and certainly with the most exquisite fountains. The gardens were also very pretty and surprisingly peaceful. 

 

 

In the evening, we also visited the world-famous Mariinsky Theatre to see the ballet (‘Le Corsaire’). Although we booked two of the last remaining and cheapest seats, which were quite far back, we loved the experience, the dancers were so talented and elegant, the music was first-rate, and the costumes were amazing!    

On our last day in St P, we visited the State Marine Academy where my grandfather completed his Navy training. It was an emotional experience for me, but I could really see why he always spoke so highly and lovingly of St Petersburg, which completely exceeded our expectations in every way!