Russia greeted us with blue skies and blazing sunshine, with the temperature pushing 29 degrees as we stepped off the plane at St Petersburg airport. Any preconceptions of ominous, dark Russian architecture disappeared as we ascended the wooden escalators of Admiralteyskaya Station and emerged into the street, having successfully negotiated the airport, bus and Metro – Elliot already convinced he can read the Cyrillic alphabet.
June is the month of the “White Nights”. The sun sets at midnight and retires for a meagre four hours, blanketing the city in seemingly endless twilight. Great for last-minute sightseeing, taking lovely photos (see above) and feeling completely safe in the middle of the night.
St Petersburg is beautiful, relaxed and pristine. Its wide streets and pastel-coloured buildings rival those of any European city and its bridges spanning the tributaries of the Neva river reminded us of the canals of Venice. Brave locals thought nothing of diving in to the Neva to cool off, despite the risk of inhaling a mouthful of ‘giradia’ (nasty parasite that lurks in the river and renders the tap water in the city undrinkable) and having to contend with tourist motor boats and even jet skiers sharing the waterways.
We’d lucked out massively with our hostel Soul Kitchen (ie well done Loo for spending a year working on the accommodation spread sheet). Housed in a 150-year-old neo-Baroc building, the former communal flat on the trendy Moika embankment felt like home, with a pretty balcony for chilling, free WiFi, Apple computers, games consoles, a huge flat screen TV, hair-dryers, shoe warmers?! and free international calls. I immediately rang my mum.
An hour or so later and we were strolling down Nevsky Prospekt (St Petersburg’s main shopping street) me soaking up the sunshine, El trying to subtly photograph stunning Russian women in tiny shorts. Gold spires and domes were everywhere, which made navigation somewhat easier – there was always the big, gold spike of Peter and Paul Cathedral to guide us home. The buildings were huge but charming. The Winter Palace – with its stunning minty-green façade was a firm fave. Best of all was the slightly alarmingly named Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, which we returned to daily to gaze up at its multi-coloured ice cream spires.
Literally no one speaks English, even in the most touristy of cafes, but everyone was kind and we managed to muddle through ordering some amazing food with a mixture of hand gestures and ‘Spaseebas’ (thank yous) the only Russian word we’ve managed to crack so far…and which we use for everything.
We ate wonderful soft, fluffy doughnuts for breakfast at Pyshechnaya, a tiny canteen-style cafe packed with locals. We thought we were being somewhat splurgy by ordering three to share, until we turned around and saw a four-year-old girl happily working her way through a plate of eight. Marketplace became a regular haunt, a trendy self-service cafe with Russian lager on tap and a mixture of the familiar (Pasta Arrabbiata) and the less so (Rabbit burger under a fried egg). Zoom Cafe was even more delish and we dug into herring bruschetta and potato pancakes with lashings of sour cream and dill.
On our final night we headed to the cosy Idiot restaurant, about five minutes from our hostel – named after a Dostoyevsky novel and done up inside like a Russian attic with antique furniture and dusty old books. Here we munched on stuffed dumplings or “pelmeni” and (yeah…it took us three days) our first shot of Russian Vodka. We also had our second shot of vodka known as Nastroika. Sipping on this honey (there was definitely no honey) and pepper (and by pepper they meant chilli, and by chilli they meant Scotch Bonnet) felt like we were swallowing the sun and we slightly regretted it 12 hours later.
Our three days in St P flew by and we soon found ourselves backpacked up to the max on the platform of Moskovsky Station, feeling much more intrepid and ready for the five-hour train journey to Moscow.
Our Trans-Siberian adventure starts here..!
Russia really interesting – is it expensive ??
Its on a par with London in the big cities but seems to be getting cheaper the more rural its getting. £3-4 a pint at the mo, so not great! 🙂
Loving the flow loo!