Russia Part VI: St Petersburg II

Our second day in St Petersburg began with an early rise and a trip on the metro to the centre of the city, from where we walked to the Hermitage.

Scenes like this make it clear why St Petersburg is regularly compared to Venice

We were heading to the Hermitage for a guided tour arranged for our group. Many people didn't make it due to the early start - the partying the night before had been quite intense. I'm glad I made the effort to go because the others missed out on the museum - we were lucky to get there just in time to miss the queues which by midday stretched for up to 3 hours. The wait was mainly down to a lack of cloakroom space (coats and bags are not allowed inside) rather than a particularly large amount of visitors.

The large square outside used to be home to military parades

The Hermitage is one of the largest, oldest and most important museums in the world. Spread across six buildings, the largest being the Winter Palace, the collection includes works by Michaelangelo, Van Gogh, Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci amongst others. In fact the da Vinci collection is considered to be enormous, with a grand total of two paintings - which makes sense when you consider there are only a handful left anywhere in the world.

The palace is also an attraction in itself

The winter palace is enormous, featuring over 1000 halls and rooms, all intricately decorated. A former winter residence of the Russian tsars, the assault on the palace is considered to be the official milestone of the October Revolution. Thankfully today it is a little more peaceful, with the exception of the chaotic cloakroom queues.

Back outside the palace

We then walked across to the other side of the rather wide river, taking several bridges on the way, to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress. A large fort on its own the island, it houses multiple museums including the museum of St Petersburg, which charted the history of the city from its early days to the present, including the monumental 300-day siege of 'Leningrad' in WWII, during which over 1,000,000 residents died.

Resting place of Peter the Great

An attractive church on the island holds the resting place of the city's namesake, Peter the Great, as well as the remains of the last emperor of Russia, Alexander the II, who was murdered by terrorists. His body, along with that of his wife has only recently been interred here, due to the Soviet attempts to delete that particular era from history.

There was a great view from the island at night

Exhausted, we took the metro back to the hotel and after a quick rest the entire group headed out to a Russian restaurant. While my experience was pleasant, again we had problems with some of the others only being told their food could not be cooked due to lack of ingredients two hours after they had ordered!

Taking a break in the club

Afterwards a group of us went out with our guide, who took us to some very strange 'alternative' bars in a rather scary looking part of town. It was an interesting experience but I really wanted to try clubbing in Russia, so we ended up going to a place called Revolution. It was clearly a very trendy place - we had to queue outside for quite a while and pay a rather hefty (by Russian standards) entry fee. It was also quite an ordeal to even get through the door - I had to empty everything from my pockets and was very thoroughly searched, more so than at any airport. Still, it made me feel a bit safer once inside. The club itself was great and one of the best I've been too, with multiple dance floors and a karaoke area. It was here that we finally met some very friendly Russians - the young ones. Whenever I mentioned I was from England they seemed very impressed and wanted to shake my hand. This was the opposite reaction we got from anybody else during our stay!

Our guide...and the Russian taxi

By the early morning it was time to leave so we did something else I had wanted to do since arriving - take a Russian taxi! how does it work? Well, you simply hold your arm out by the street, wait for any car to stop, make a deal with the driver on the price and then he takes you. There are few official taxis in Russia and even then they are unmetered so this is the best way to get around and also very cheap - just a couple of euros to go across the city. I was also happy that the particular kind of old Russian-made stopped for us - it was great fun to ride in, especially as our driver didn't seem to regard red lights as any kind of an obstacle. Once back at the hotel we got some much-needed sleep, ending our final night in Russia.

The early morning view over the city

We got up quite early again, tired but wanting to make the most of our last few hours in the city. I took the metro with a friend back to the centre and we climbed the long staircase to the top of a church for a great view of the city. After eating, it was time to head back for our 3pm coach departure back to Helsinki.

Yes, we stayed in the Hotel Moscow...in St Petersburg

The trip back was fun, with us stopping just before the border to spend the last of our Russian money on cheap goods. I bought a 1 litre bottle of vodka for just 3.50EUR (~£2.00), as did most of the others along with enormous quantities of cheap chocolate and snacks. The border was quite a process - we had to get off the bus twice for passport checks (once on each side), as well as a couple of searches through the bus. In all, my passport was checked six times just to leave Russia! Once we finally crossed the border our guide shouted out 'Welcome back to glorious Finland!' and everyone cheered and clapped. It was great to be back, although I had an amazing time in Russia. For a while we all unanimously agreed that we had fun but would never go back again...ever. However, I find my opinion changing slowly and in a way I miss the sheer hectic craziness of Moscow - St Petersburg was nice but to me wasn't nearly as interesting. So I get the feeling I'll be back...one day!