Russia - Saint Petersburg

It has been a really great trip to St. Petersburg! The city is really beautiful and Russia has alot of churches and palaces that has very pretty architecture. Our tour guide was very informative, but then half the time the things he said... i one ear in one ear out. Haha... Before I begin my recollection of the whole trip, there are a few things i want to say about russia.

1. The water cannot be drank from the tap. It is white and clean, but it contains some bacteria so we couldn't drink it directly and we have to buy mineral water instead.
2. Russia has professional pickpocketers. <-- that was what the tour guide told us. Well, we did experience an attempted pickpocketing! It was really disgusting. Daryl and I were walking behind the rest of the other 5 pple in a group, and there came 2 men trying to sell us somethings. We kept rejecting them and trying to move out of their path but they kept bugging us. Then they got nearer to us and I suspected something was wrong... One of the man was trying to unzip the pocket of daryl's jacket while diverting his attention to the thing he was selling. So I pushed the man away and swore at him... Lousy. Not professional enough loh.
3. The people there are not friendly at all. I think they are racist against us... The cashiers at the supermarkets and every other locals that we happened to meet were never friendly to us.

4. The air is quite polluted i think... the cars look dirty, macham 5 yrs never wash.

5. The traffic is bad. The drivers do not care about the rules of traffic lights. There was once we had to cross a road, we didnt dare to cross until after 3 rounds of green man because the cars didnt stop for us.

6. Expired food can be found in the supermarket. Expire until shuang... we ended up buying a packet of cookies that were expired last year, but we still ate it. haha... tasted fine still.

And that's why I find Finland so much more homely when I returned. The officers at the customs smiled at me, the air is fresh and the water from the shower feels so good.

Russia from the window of the bus

at our hotel

The hotel was fine... and the buffet breakfast wasn't too good, but its better than nothing. There were a variety of food, but quantity does not equal quality.

the drive around the centre of St Petersburg on the first night

The 2nd day at the Hermitage, one of the world's best museums!

We saw famous artists paintings and had a "lesson" about the history of Russia. Too much to absorb. The interior of the hermitage was very "golden" and the design was very artistic. Very pretty. We toured in it for abouit 2 hours and the guide told us we had only seen 3% of the entire museum! *faint*

For the rest of the day, we had free time to walk around the city centre.

2nd night - ballet performance.

Graceful. I wish I knew how to dance too. The dresses are very glamorous... There were 3 different performances and after the whole performance, everyone was clapping nonstop and the lead dancer had to come out and bow until there was no more applause.

We were sitting on the topmost row of the theatre.

3rd day - city tour

We visited alot of churches. I can't remember all their names but I bought a set of postcards which has all the different places with their names on it. Anyway here are some of the pictures that we took.

the outside

the inside

the blue one.

The Battle Cruiser


Pushkin (city name). The palace that turned into museum for tourists to see... really super grand!

I really liked this place.

Another church, which looks like a castle to me. I simply love the pink!

3rd night - Russian dinner.

I chose the fish meal with 4 other people from the group. The rest of them chose meat... It was very delicious! The main course was fish with whipped potato and sour cream on top. There were Russian dances and songs played and sung by 3 Russians. There were also traditional Russian games played. One of them is whereby two people had to put on a hat which is a shape of a chicken and they were supposed to try and remove the other person's hat. I had the chance to play with one of the girls and lost terribly. My hat was snatched away within 3 seconds. Lousy.. haha. The other game was the tug-of-war. Totally enjoyed myself in this session.

One of the games that were played. It goes like this: A chooses B and then they kiss, then B chooses C and then C chooses D.......

Also, there was a russian wedding going on in the same restaurant that night.. and some drunk men came over to our side and treated us to free vodka! That night, many of our tourmates were drunk as well. It's quite scary when people get drunk. One of the guys nearly threw his girlfriend down the stairs!

The two drunk russian in the middle of the pic

Last day

We visited the Baltika brewery. It was really amazing to see how the beers are prepared and packed! Everything was automated, simulated and programmed. The machines are so efficient that they can produce (i think) 23 bottles per second. We also got to taste all the different types of beer there and I was surprised that the beers actually tasted good! Usually I don't like beers cause they are too bitter... but for those that I tasted, some had a little sweet taste. Yum... seng.

all of us at the brewery

Overall, it was a very fulfilling trip to Russia - St. Petersburg in the winter.

Phew. 2.5 hrs to blog this.

P.S: click on the collage to see a bigger version of the photos.