St. Petersburg

There is a lot to see and do in St. Petersburg and our five days there just scratched the tip of the iceberg. The things we loved the most were,

1. The Winter Palace/ The Hermitage. Make sure to see the Impressionist collection that is located in the building across the square from the palace, the entrance free covers both. Also we had to miss the Gold Rooms as they are by tour only, and we had not timed our visit appropriately. Check the schedule as they sounded incredible.   

2. Saviour on the Spilled Blood, make sure to go inside as the tile work is amazing. 

3. Peter and Paul Fortress. This fortress dates back to the time of Peter the Great and includes the church where the Romanov's are buried. Sadly all the buildings were closed the day we were there so we could only walk around the fortress, but definitely worth seeing.

  

4. Faberge Museum. This is a small museum that has 9 of the 43 Faberge eggs still around today, including the first Faberge egg created. As well as the eggs it also houses other creations made by Faberge and some impressive art as well. It is a small museum and well worth visiting. 

5. Mariinsky Theatre. I throughly enjoyed seeing the St. Petersburg ballet, Ben had other feelings on the subject. 

6. Peterfhof. Just outside St. Petersburg is Peterhof, an amazing palace that will be covered in its own post. 

7. Catherine's Palace. Also outside of St. Petersburg, also known as the summer palace, this incredibly restored palace is very grand and well worth a visit. 

Our hotel was just across the street from St. Isaac's Cathedral. We loved walking by it every day. 

St. Petersburg is very colorful. 

Church of our Savior on the Spilled Blood, thus named as it was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was fatally wounded in 1881. 

 If you look closely there is a workman up there. 

The entire inside of the church is decorated in tile mosaic from floor to ceiling. It was impressive. 

There was not another doll inside of this doll. 

The Hermitage! This is one of the more impressive museums I have ever been to. We spent an entire day there and only saw 25% of the collection. Thankfully I had done some research before hand on what to see and we skipped over things that were similar to those we had seen in other museums or countries. 

One of the more unique things in the museum was the Peacock clock. We actually stopped by it twice because we were so impressed with it. It was made in the 18th century and still functions today, however they don't wind all the mechanisms as the museum is trying not to over work it. Three were a few small mechanisms working when we were there. There was a dragonfly that turned with every second tick, and a few other small things. When fully wound the peacock opens it feathers, spins around, a rooster crows, an owl ruffles its feathers, and mice and rabbits spin. It is quite the design triumph. 

 The Hermitage museum is housed in The Winter Palace, which in and of itself is impressive. Pretty much every room has a pained ceiling, gilding, and is a masterpiece in and of itself. 

The Hermitage was incredible. You could spend days exploring it and still not see all it has to offer. 

Russia: The Lead Up

This year for my birthday Ben and I decided to head to Russia for a week. We initially thought we would go to St. Petersburg for a long weekend, but when we started planning we realized it is a lot of work to get into Russia so we decided to then extend the trip to 8 day and add a few days in Moscow.

Usually when we plan a trip I ask my friends for suggestions of what to do, where to eat, things to avoid, etc. When I started to ask about Russia, I found that only one of my friends had been recently and she only went to St. Petersburg. Due to this I decided to check out a St. Petersburg and a Moscow travel guide from the library. I read both of them cover to cover and made extensive lists of where to eat, what to see, and what to do while we are there.  In both St. Petersburg and Moscow we stayed at centrally located hotels which I would highly recommend. Although there is a good metro system set up in both cities, the stations are not always close to the sites, and as a foreigner you will ALWAYS get ripped off on the taxi fare, so walking around is a great way to see things.

We started by booking our hotels. This is important as you will need a certificate from your hotel in order to obtain your visa. The visa application is quite straightforward but there is a lot of documentation needed.  Once our hotels were booked we called each hotel (for our stay in both St. Petersburg and Moscow), and asked them to provide the certificate of our stay. They emailed us a form to fill out, and once we returned it they emailed each of us a certificate confirming our hotel stay. The visa application depends on the country you are applying from. My application was 5 pages long and I had to provide a list of every country I have been to in the last 10 years! Ben's application was only 2 pages, but he had to prove proof of residence in the UK, as well as proof of travel insurance, and 3 months worth of bank statements. We also had to get photos to submit with the visa application as every country has different standards for background color and photo size.

The visa application is then submitted through an agency. The total for my visa was £120 and Ben's visa only cost £60 as he applied using his German passport. The turn around time is quick and we had our visa's back in 5 working days. They have an expedited service if you want to pay more and you can have your visa the next day.

Next we booked the flights. We booked our flights in and out of St. Petersburg on British Airway and decided to take the Sapsan train from St. Petersburg to Moscow which takes about 4 hours. The flights to Moscow are shorter but when you include getting to the airport early and travel times it is quicker to just take the train.

We also booked tickets to see a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. I am glad that we looked before hand as several performances were already sold out. I booked my tickets directly through the Mariinsky site and it was a much better deal than I seen on other ticket sites. We had also looked into going to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, but there were no tickets available for the ballet the nights that we were there.

When you arrive in St. Petersburg there is a taxi desk after you pick up your luggage at the airport. They will request a taxi for you and you pay them, not the taxi driver. We paid 1000rub to get from the airport to the hotel.

Once you arrive at the hotel, the hotel will register you with the police. This is something that has to be done for all tourists visiting Russia. You don't have to do anything, but they do charge 200rub per person to do this, and if you are staying at multiple hotels, like we were, you have to pay this fee at every hotel.