St. Petersburg Day 1

Right now, Russia is enjoying a 4 day weekend that lasts until February 23, which is Defenders of the Motherland Day (Men's day). I decided, along with Nathan and Sam(wise), to go to St. Petersburg for the long weekend.

The waiting room at the Moscow train station.

Our train left on the 19th at around 12:30 at night, so we were able to sleep through the majority of the ride. And sleep I did. I woke up at around 7:30, got ready with Nathan (we got bunks right next to each other, and got my backpack ready to exit the train. Once the train arrived, we headed for exit, expecting to see Sam along the way. As it turned out, Sam somehow slept right through all of the announcements and music that went on at the end of the ride, meaning that we had to wake him up and wait for him to get ready.

We eventually exited the train and got our first experience of St. Petersburg. It didn't look all that good. And it was pretty cold.

We wandered around for a while, looking for the Apple Hostel, which would be our residence for the next three days. After 20 minutes (that becomes worse when you realize that the hostel is about one block from the train station), we found the big, green sign and made our way up the stairs to our new abode.

After getting set up and asking the attendant what some good sites are in the city, we set out for the Hermitage. Now, the distance looked must smaller on the map. It took up about an hour to walk from our hostel to the Hermitage, but eventually we found it (it's kind of impossible to miss, being bright green and yellow and gigantic). We made our way in, found the ticket window, and got our free tickets (it's nice to be a student sometimes).

I also bought a ticket that allowed me to take photos, and boy did I ever. My sim card can hold about 870 pictures when empty. By the time Nathan and I (because we lost Sam about 10 minutes into the ordeal) made our way through the whole museum - which tookd 2 1/2 hours - I had taken something in the neighborhood of 300+ photos. Yes, there is really THAT MUCH stuff there. Here's just a taste.











After the Hermitage (in which we were unable to find Sam), Nathan and I headed back to the hostel, where we waited about 5 minutes before Sam walked in. After drinking some free tea, we checked in and set off again to find the Bronze Horseman - the statue of Peter the Great made legendary by a Puskin poem, in which the Horseman comes to life and chases a man through St. Petersburg.

The Bronze Horseman.

We made it there without much issue, though the cold was starting to be an issue. After a few pictures and stumbles, we spotted a church across the street and decided that we would check it out. BAD IDEA.

The area around the seemed to be a catalyst for insane winds and so we were pelted by snow and had our faces almost burned off by the wind. We fought our way around the church, trying to find the ticket counter, at which point we just decided that it's not worth it and headed back to our warm rooms. The wind didn't subside too much and we suffered for the entire hour.

I never thought I'd wish for the divine warmth of Moscow, but boy do I ever. Only two more days.