Jun 18, 2013 - Novgorod to St Petersburg

Off by 8.30 toward St Petersburg in our coach. On the main road between Moscow and St Petersburg - trucks galore; the little villages with very dilapidated houses - possibly now used as dashas. Our new guide Alle, an economics graduate, gave us a good run down on the impact of the various regimes and the impact on the people; now the aged pension is 10000 roubles per month about the equivalent of $300 and people without family to support them are in desperate situations. This perhaps indicates why the museum rooms have so many elderly...

Jun 8, 2013 - Hermitage

Everything about St. Petersburg seems so big, huge actually. The buildings, statues in parks, monuments are all enormous and this includes The Hermitage. It was once part of the winter residence of the Russian Monarchs. As time went on it grew and grew and still continues to expand. Because it was home to the Monarchs the interior is extremely opulent with building materials of semi precious minerals like Jasper and Malachite. The ceilings and floors are detailed and works of art themselves. Catherine the Great purchased whole collections...

Jun 7, 2013 - St. Petersburg

Together with our driver Nicholas and our tour guide Irina we set off to explore some of the iconic St. Petersburg sites. Our first stop was St. Nicholas' Cathedral. It is beautiful blue and white church. Next we went to St. Isaac's Church. It is one of the largest in the city. It is quite ornate with lots of gold trim. It was built in honor of Tsar Peter the Great because he was born on St. Isaac's Feast Day. Next stop was the Peter and Paul Fortress. this is the cradle of the city. it houses many different buildings including a church and...

May 18, 2013 - have things changed??

The stop in St. Petersburg is the pinnacle for most folks on a Baltic Cruise. There is so much to see and do here that the ships stays for two nights. We think ships should do so more often, but spending so much time in one place on a cruise is unusual. The rubles we brought from home were issued by the Soviet Union, so it’s been a while since we were here and we were curious to see how things had changed under new management. We docked at a new terminal which not only looked good from the distance, it looked like it was built to last - a...

Feb 25, 2013 - Friends hostels in St.Petersburg

Хостел Друзья в Санкт-Петербурге. Friends hostel in St.Petersburg Named after the famous TV show, the hostel chain “Friends” offers budget & cool accommodation in the center of St.Petersburg. All four locations are great: Friends on Griboedova, Friends on Bankovsky, Friends on Nevsky, Friends on Vosstania. Almost all the major sights of St Petersburg are located within easy walking distance of the hostels. Range of comfortable private and dorm rooms, clean bed linens, free wireless as well as computers for guest use, free national and...

Jan 4, 2013 - Smoking, Prostitutes and Fur

I wake after only 2 hours of sleep. I get in the shower and prepare for my day. I'm heading to the inside of the church of spilled blood, the cathedral and shopping down Nivesky Prospekt to shop. St Petersburg is known for its shopping. Fourth learning after freaking cold weather, prostitutes and smoking. Lol. And ... I must say the furs here are GORGEOUS. I mean one after the other is more stunning. I was shopping for a white fox babushka. But the coats were calling me in. Fur was attached to every coat, somewhere. These Russian men and...

Jan 3, 2013 - Dark and frozen tundra of St Petersburg

Well didnt matter that I fell asleep at 5:30 the night before. The sun doesn't rise until 11am. Yes 11am. And sets at 4:30. Only 5-6 hours of daylight. Well you can't really call it daylight. It's dark and bleak all the time. I wake at 930 and actually do my hair. I head out at 10:30 toward the hermitage. It's breath taking. Absolutely gorgeous. It's cold and windy and negative 3. I didn't care. I was so excited to see the worlds most famous museum. I must not have cared. I stood in queue for 2 hours waiting to get in. At one point I was...

Oct 11, 2012 - Metro Palaces of St Petersburg

When tourists come to St. Petersburg they want to see St.Petersburg of Peter The Great, The Cultural Capital, The City of White Nights and Moveable Bridges. But the history continues and the city saw many things, underwent many changes and now it is a mixture of times, places, people and it has so many images and faces. Peter the Great founded St.Petersburg in 1703 and wanted to make it much more beautiful than other European cities. And now what set the history of St Petersburg apart from many other cities in the world is its Communist...

Sep 14, 2012 - Saint-Pétersbourg en Russie

Lundi le 10 septembre 2012 Nous prenons le vol de Copenhague en avant-midi vers Saint-Pétersbourg avec la compagnie aérienne SAS. La durée du vol est de 90 minutes. Il y a un décalage horaire de deux heures avec le reste de l'Europe et de 8 heures avec Montréal. On s'éloigne de plus en plus... Saint-Pétersbourg est la plus grande ville de Russie par sa superficie et la deuxième ville la plus peuplée (avec plus de 4,5 millions d'habitants en 2007), après la capitale Moscou. Première impression en sortant de l'avion...il faut se mettre en...

Jun 30, 2012 - Russian Cruise

The first few days in Russia have been wonderful. The weather could have been more cooperative, but there is so much to see, it doesn't matter really. St. Petersburg is an amazing city. It really is the "Paris" of the north. The wealth and opulance of the place certainly rivals other European cities. We spent 3 days in St. P. One could easily spend a whole week. The Hermitage museum is of course, a masterpiece. Started by Catherine the Great, it now has a collection of over 3 million pieces. They say it would take 10+ years to see itall....

Sep 4, 2011 - St Peterburg accomodation

Our apartment was great, it was was metro stops away from the historic heart but less frantic than the centre. The Austrian Yard was very quiet, good value, free breaky and the staff where wonderful. It got a good wrap in Trip Advisor and Lone Planet http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g298507-d613575-Reviews-Austrian_Yard-St_Petersburg_North_West_Russia.html

Sep 4, 2011 - Metro leaves ours for dead

St Petersburg is very big and crowded but transport works really well. We where amazed at the beauty of the central metro stations, marble bronze and art deco lights. The stations are so deep underground that it takes a full three minutes on the escalator to reach the bottom which you can barely see from the top. The metro is cheap, trains come every 1 to 2 minutes, arriving in perfect timing to cross and change lanes