Russia Part V: St Petersburg I

The overnight train journey was much more comfortable than the previous and we arrived in St Petersburg early in the morning relatively well-rested and awake. A tour bus met us at the station ready to take us around the city, helping to give us a good feel for the place. The weather had not improved since Moscow - it was still very grey but not too cold. My first impressions were that the city seemed a lot nicer in comparison to Moscow, with better architecture and more historic buildings.

This is probably the most edible-looking building I've seen

We stopped at a couple of churches, which were very impressive from the outside but both were currently closed to tourists for some reason. We got to see many of the main sights of St Petersburg from the bus (which saved a lot of walking) and like with Moscow stopped to take photos every now and then.

The Winter Palace, home of the famous Hermitage museum

The sheer amount of water in the city was quite surprising. St Petersburg is nicknamed 'The Venice of the North' due to its large number of canals, bridges and interesting architecture. The bridges themselves are quite an attraction - the main river is lined by draw bridges that raise overnight to allow ships through. This literally cuts the city in two and means if you are stuck on one side of the city late at night, you have to wait until morning to get home! Thankfully we weren't caught out.

The Cruiser Aurora

One of the key sights was the Cruiser Aurora, the Russian warship that fired the first shot of the October Revolution. Preserved by the Soviet government, it is now a museum ship and can be entered. The shot fired was actually a blank, being symbolic rather than a shot in anger, aimed at the royal Winter Palace which now houses the Hermitage Museum.

An all too-common sight

While the city was much cleaner than Moscow, it was still relatively dirty and the cars filling the streets were the same filthy grey mud-covered colour. The people were also nicer and more open to foreigners (and we even found some that spoke English!), yet we still unfortunately encountered a lot of rudeness.

The city is very colourful at night

After a day of sightseeing we went to the hotel to leave our bags and then headed out with our knowledgeable guide to a rather obscure underground bar/club where we watched a string of live acts. The first in particular was very good and we had a great time listening to the Russian music.

It took us a long time to realise that this band was singing in English

Afterwards many of us went to another bar, quite a distance away on foot down the immensely-long main shopping street. It was packed with students, most of them international-looking, so we didn't exactly get the Russian atmosphere there but at least the beer was cheap...

I think we had drunk one too many by this point

We took the long walk back through the night to our hotel where more partying occurred before heading to bed. Our last full day in Russia was approaching!