Saturday : Sunny

It was a nice and quiet sleep last night. But it was a freaky morning. We woke up and someone was in the adjacent bunk to mine, we couldn't see them just their feet because they were hidden by the sheet hanging up over the top railing. Freaky because normally I wake up to the drop of a feather and I definitely should of woken up to the door cracking open or the squeaking floor boards and bunk beds. Freaked out that someone could be that sneaky, maybe it was the drugs that knocked me out cold giving then a chance.

We were up early today trying to be quiet and sneaky ourselves, eating breakfast and getting packed up ready to go. We caught the Metro using the remaining trips on our travel cards to the airport express train.

We were flying to Saint Petersburg because the train tickets had skyrocketed. We left it too late to book the train tickets. Much like the Bolshoi Ballet, Kim wanted to go but I let her down. I don't think you can just turn up and get cheap last minute tickets here, not like the west end in London. Well I'm not a local and the locals I asked didn't know.

It was a quick easy trip to the airport we gave ourselves a fair bit of time for metro error, but once again Kim killed it. We were through bag drop off and security with almost two hours to spare.

That didn't matter we used the free wifi and got cozy in a cafe and had a couple teas. Perfect example at the cafe of how the drinks costs almost as much a meal. A cappuccino was 250p (Russian ruble) and we could of had a burger with chips for 310p? Strange no?

The time flew by and we were soon on the plane, I liked Moscow it was a nice city. Loved some of the soviet tower buildings I think I saw four, and from a distance it looked like they were positioned on each corner of the city facing in to each other. We walked up close to one yesterday, it looked like something out of the original batman movie. One of those Gothic Gotham city skyscrapers. I was expecting Moscow to be a crazy mess of a place but it was totally the reverse, very clean and everything in order. Except for some construction works, but I'm used to that sort of mess from working with them in London. There was plenty to see and do, and the metro once you can get your head around the russian writing it was very very good.

We landed in Saint Petersburg all relaxed after a perfect quick and quiet flight. The skies were clear and they looked a lot cleaner than in Moscow, which could be the cause for my cough.

We got out to the front of the airport and looked for our bus. Nope we couldn't see the bus that the hostel told us to take, so we had to figure out how to get to our hostel for ourselves.

Turned out there is only two ways to leave the Pulkovo airport and that was by taxi or bus. Well seeing buses are usually cheaper than a taxi we hopped on.

The bus took us to a main metro station, and then we found the metro station closest to the hostel on a map and away we went. The Saint Petersburg metro stations have Russian as well as English so that made things a lot easier. That's what Moscow should do, for at least it's centre ring stations.

Once above ground it was a short walk to our hostel. The place looks alright it seems fairly new, but I did notice that there are a lot of rooms and not too many places to sit down and its got a pretty small kitchen. We are in a 8 bed dorm too this time the largest one so far, and it right near the living room and kitchen, so I'm not predicting much sleeping we get down. So we will have to see how it goes, but I just need to remember that it's a really cheap bed.

We didn't hang around the hostel for long, just made our beds and booked our tickets for the State Hermitage Museum for tomorrow.

We were out on the streets of Saint Petersburg in no time, and crikey this place looks completely different to Moscow.

Walking down Nevsky Prospect, Russia's most famous street, it felt like a bunch it European cities all rolled into one.

The beautiful buildings were so colourful like in Italy, and also looked to be of French and Italian influence. We walked through the huge archways into Palace square and thats where the Hermitage was too. We were crossing canals like in Amsterdam, and a river like the Thames in London.

The river Neva which has many bridges crossing it to natural or man made islands, one even had a beach which was in full swing because the sun was out.

That island was called Zayachy island, and on it was the Peter and Paul fortress, the original citadel of Saint Petersburg. Built by Peter the Great in the 18th century to protect the capital from the Swedes, it later became a prison now a museum.

To get inside the fortress is easy because its free! You just have to pay to get inside the buildings inside the fortress, which are a bunch museums and exhibits about Russian and Saint Petersburg's history.

The main attraction would be Peter and Paul cathedral, which is the burial place for all of Russian past Tsars. Except for a few that are in the St. Catherine's Chapel next door.

We didn't go inside the church but its suppose to be a good one. We had a bit of a rest on the island and walked along the beach.

Then we crossed back over the Neva to the summer gardens. A pretty well manicured garden with lots of fountains and statues. It's a garden where you can't go on the grass, you just walk through and look at what ever catches your eye. which was a lot, we did find a bench to sit on, and had ourselves another break.

When we were ready we went through another garden, this one you could walk on the grass and and it led us to The Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood. What a title. It as down a nice street along a canal, and was definitely a Russian Orthodox Church, it too was very colourful and had spiral domes much like St Basils in Moscow.

It seemed to have a service on so we were soon back onto SP's Main Street, Nevsky. We took a little detour home along a canal, looking for a grocery store to pickup some dinner to eat back at the hostel.

We just had a few really delicious Russian salads, back at a really busy hostel. They were all Revving each other up to go out on the town, here we go possibly in for a really long night.

Well SP has made a very good first impression, very pretty and clean. The drivers are still very much like Moscow, they are not afraid to put the foot down here that's for sure.