Did you know that you can get into St Petersburg without the dreaded process of applying for a Russian visa? Jump over to St Peter Line and book yourself in for a 3 day extravaganza of museums, sightseeing, eating and drinking in one of the most beautiful cities in the world! That is exactly what we did. And Chewy and I were lucky enough to completely coincidentally be over there at the same time as six of our friends from Perth - the world is crazy small.
After a night time crossing of the sea from Helsinki in Finland to Mother Russia, you arrive in St Petes in the morning. We went straight to our hostel (Cuba Hostel for those of you that are interested) to drop off our things, in the pouring rain, and then headed straight for the world famous Hermitage Museum. It really is something else. The sheer volume items in the Hermitage is mindblowing. Give yourself at least 3 hours to be able to take some of it in, but don't expect to be able to see everything as we found that our brains sort of turned to rubber after a while. It is absolutely beautiful though, and although the entry fee was a little pricey, it was definitely worth it.
The above number is a sleigh, and portrays St George slaying the dragon. Macabre, but somehow amazing, and at the very least incredible craftmanship!
Oh the rain on that first day, it was truly miserable. It was cold and wet, and none of us were really prepared for this sort of weather.
Luckily for us, our friends at Tripadvisor had a killer cafe recommendation that we hunted down. We waited approximately an hour for a table - yes, it was that popular, but boy was it worth it. The food is all incredibly fresh, very delicious, and reasonably priced. Oh and the apple pie is one of their most popular numbers. I completely forgot to tell you what it was called, Zoom Cafe is what you're after. I've given you the link to the Tripadvisor site purely because their actual website in only in Russian and I can't find the button that translates it into English, but I don't think there even is one!
I've kept the best until last - at Zoom Cafe they give you A3 sized bits of white paper and colouring pencils to draw on while you wait. Ah-mazing!
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