02/02/09 On our last day in St P we decided to hit the erotic museum. Went with Michael, got the metro there and when we arrived it turned out to be a real live working sexual health clinic.. with real nurses dressed in sexy nurse fancy dress outfits. no joke. so not only did we get to look at the museum, we also got to see some real life people with STIs. joyful! the museum consisted of a hallway filled with sexually themed trinkets - candle holders, ashtrays, mantelpiece items, mugs, posters etc etc etc. quite funny and bizzare. however the main attraction was the 24 inch embalmed penis supposedly belonging to Rasputin! it was possibly the strangest thing i have ever seen in my life - discoloured, (obviously) rather large, and you could basically see where the skin had been torn off at the top? and still hairy and in a large pickle jar. utterly bizarre, we couldn't look for long.. then we decided to lighten the tone and walk to a park with a huge palace which turned out to be really beautiful tho we weren't quite sure what it was. on way played in playground and ate some snacks. came home, went to supermarket, got back to hostel and finished packing then left for train! James was on same train as us to moscow so got the metro with him and then got on the train. travelled in 3rd class which is similar to 2nd but there aren't any proper doors so you're essentially in a huge carriage with 50 other people. not too noisy tho but slept badly as beds are weird!

01/02/09 Got up about 3am after v late bedtime and everyone was just lazing on sofa etc. Went to mcdonalds (shameful again) and to supermarket to buy fizzy drinks and water then ate some pot noodle. PLayed cards and watched TV, then ordered a pizza about midnight and then had a beer to settle stomach haha and went to bed.

31/01/09 Woke up and was the first properly sunny day since we got to St P, so james suggested we go up St Isaac's cathedral where they have like a viewing terrace and take some pics. So we went there with J and M and it turned out to also be the cooooldest day of trip so far (-15ish). walked up 261 spiralling stairs (i got quite dizzy) and then a crazy metal staircase to get to top. really good views, took lots of pics etc. Came down, had planned to maybe go for long walk but was too cold so went for coffee and cake, then to river to take some nice pics and then back to hostel! absolutely frozen. We went to supermarket after a bit to buy dinner and beers and russian champagne - proceeded to get quite drunk and then decided to go to a bar/club called Dacha. left about 12.30am, got there and was 2 pound to get in, including free beer. soooo busy inside (and really quite small, smaller than lizard but perhaps more busy..! but not as hot/nasty) and we met an american who helped us buy our drinks. went into other room which had table football and was slightly less busy, james and seth played some table football. eagle eye cherry came on and I dragged Seth to the d/floor and then danced alone (with russian girls haha) to katy perry. spoke to lots of random russians, didn't see any of the others much all night except to do sambuca shots with james. got back about 6am, others stayed up and had beer but i went to bed.. however was mistakenly still awake when some sexy time started to happen in our room... after about 10 mins I got up and asked lady at reception if I could sleep on sofa.. she kindly gave me new bedding and let me move rooms for the night about 8am! crazy.

30/01/09 It's emma nowww, I have been pushed into doing some of this which tbh I don't mind cos everyone knows I like talking. Soo we woke up both feeling a bit s***, but I was feeling particularly rubbish so I didn't want to get up. Seth decided to go for a walk cos he was bored but I just wanted to recover as I felt coldy and sickish. So he went to see Summer Gardens (however decided they were probably alot better seen in the summer as all the statues were inside boxes and obv there were no flowers etc) while I stayed in and read. By the time he got back tho I was feeling quite alot better so we decided to go to blini domik, a pancake restaurant which dave recommended to me. So we walked there which took like half an hour and went to where we thought it was.. no luck. Seth decided we should wander down the street parallel to the one we were on, which turned out to be genius as we then found it. The restaurant seemed to be following a theme that they like in Russia where they make it all wooden and then dress up in ye olde style outfits. Strange, but definitely interesting. Ordered russian honey beer as couldn't see any other russian beers on the menu.. but it was really really sweet and too much after like 2 sips. Ordered our pancakes and ate the, (tasty) and then as we were finishing our drinks a cat just started wandering across the restaurant. things like this seem to just be allowed in russia.. the waitress was stroking it, not washing her hands after of course. yum. then we walked back to the hostel and went to a bar with James and Michael (australian dexter) the guys we had been hanging out with at the hostel. we walked to an area recommended by the hostel staff and went to this bar called red dog, where the staff seemed to laugh at our poor russian and they were wearing sailor outfits as the bar was decorated with fish murals. was quite cheap tho - about 1pound 50 a pint. having a nice time, had 4 or so beers, however we think it may have been a gay bar, as many same sex couples (mostly female) seemed to be taking suspiciously long times in the toilet and their were strange shoe prints on the toilet seat.. still a very funny evening!

(26/27/28/29) ok i've been slacking some what so i'll summarise the last few days quickly.
Monday - went to St Peter and Pauls cathedral (in a fortress of the same name). stunningly goldilicious... but i lost my wallet (which isnt fun). spent the evening with vodka, salted cucumber and a jacuzzi. - very messy.
Tuesday- KFC (oh dear), Church of Spilt Blood (from the outside anyway, absolutely breath taking), table hockey in the evening. a very quiet day.
Wednesday- Got thouroughly lost in the Hermatage/winter palace (this was where we spent the day, and still we couldnt see everything - a fantastic, if somewhat confusing, museum with awe enspiring rooms). annoyingly it cost 7 pounds for me (free with student card... oh well - was worth it)
Thursday - woke late yet again - our sleep pattern has been wrecked by that damn train! (we get to sleep no matter how hard we try at about 4/5am!) Went to the church of spilt blood again, but actually went inside - and stood open mouthed for a few minutes (i won't bother to explain but i will put the photos up soon), then we went for a tasty lunch of borscht (a russian soup of red cabbage and beetroot... and in this case bits of meat - beef... i think) very yummy in my tummy if i may say so. we also saw a dead man on the street, and bought a ticket to moscow.
And there you have it. sorry its not great, but i'm feeling lazy.

25/01/09 Arrived at 06.00 and Andrey escorted us to our hostel, saying goodbye we promiced to contact him, so that he could show us St.P. Annoyingly we couldn't check in yet, so we dumped our bags and wondered around for a bit (and got yelled at by a crazy street cleaner) - it is certainly a beautiful city, the most impressive i've ever seen - but we were beggining to feel rather shattered and we had to wait till 13.00 to get our room! crashed out in a coffee shop and ate pancakes, booya. when we did finally get a room we collapsed quickly and slept till 6ish, showered (the trains are hot sticky affairs and i'd been in the same clothes for 3 days) then chilled out and watched jumper. i think i might have a jaccuzi later (nice hostel =D). one annoying thing about St.P - if i drink any tap water, even by accident i risk getting a nice illness that will leave me with the runs for, litteraly, years. oh well. we spent the evening going for a walk with 2 russians, an english (james), and an oz (michael) and ended the eve in a shisha bar. whoppy.

24/01/09 yes...yes it could get more surreal. I awoke about 7am for some reason (as did the younger Russian), and about 8 o'clock Andrey decided it was time for breakfast (he left the cabin and came back with 4 beers, 1 each) - me and him then went for eggs and another beer! just the start trust me. About 1pm the train stopped in a Belarus station for 3 hours or so and the younger guy left - Andrey thought we should see some of Belarus, so we heaed to the station - where we hit the Belarussian champagne (veryvery sweet). Around this time Andrey also decided that Seth was to hard a name to remember - from now on i am called Sasha! Having finished the champagne in the snow we got in a taxi to drive around the city (can't remember the name) - extremely strange but funny experience - with the taxi driver acting as a tour guide and Andrey translating. We saw the sight where the first rocket of WW2 was fired, then it was time for some food - Andrey bought us Russian salad (cheese, mayo, ham and gherkin) and another beer... and 2 shots of Vodka. The taxi then went to a shop, where andrey gave him money to buy us vodka and apple juice - back on the train about 17.30 moscow time and out came the "Bison grass" vodka and juice, very nice, but i was feeling some what funkilicious at this point - an an open bottle must be finished. while drinking i played some pro-evo on Andreys laptop... badly (controls? it was all in Russian). Andrey told us how he'd been at sea and was now heading home to St.P to his wife... which he was dreading meeting (as she makes him fix things and go to the shops). i conked out early at 20:30. the 2 of us slept pretty poorly, but it was such an amazing experience that frankly i wasn't too bothered.

23/01/09 Last night was hilarious, being cheap and just good fun (what i remember =s). We went to tube-esque club for 1.20 (and beers 1.20... ouch). Anyway our train was leaving that evening at 20:50 from central station Warsaw, so we just crashed out in the hostel common room till about 7. ate some damn amazing kebab from a street stand for lunch (only 1.50 or so). also we met a couple of nice welsh guys from Denbeigh and played some hard core jenga. went to the train station about 20.00 - had fun being yelled at by some random Polish old lady on the platform (b***** knows what bout?) - and got on the train when it showed up perfectly on time, and luckily our train wagon stopped right in front of us (don't underestimate the length of these damn trains!). Onboard we were shown to our cabin, which we were sharing with 2 Russian men (one our age, can't remember his name - a student/DJ in Warsaw smuggling drugs into Belarus {as he later informed Emma}, and the other a 45-or-so year old called Andrey - a captain from a big merchant ship). After an awkward 15 minutes or so Andrey offered to show us a film about St. Petersburg, which turned out to be a tourist film, and very funny (not that i understood it). He then produced a bottle of Captain Morgans rum... oh dear. and guess what? once that had finished out came a huge bottle of fine cognac. Me and the 2 guys found ourselves in a moderate state after a while (opn bottles must be finished!). around this time Andrey informed us that he was a photographer, and promtley got out a portable harddrive and laptop to show us - very good. about 1am we got to the Belarus border, where we had to wait while they changed the wheels (tracks are smaller in Russia) and checked our passports - it went much more smoothly than i expected - and Andrey put on a poorly dubbed version of Oliver, his favorite film... could this trip get any more surreal?