- Not being able to check into our hotel because we didn’t have the right paperwork. This was very disturbing but the nice hotel people sorted it out. Apparently you need a stamped and signed itinerary from your tour operator with the name of your hotel on it. I know you are technically suppose to be ‘supervised’ by a tour operator at all times but NO ONE on any of the reviews or sites I visited mentioned needing this documentation.They just talk about how this rule is not really enforced in St Petersburg.
- Underestimating how big the city is, it seriously took ages to get any where.
- Seeing fast food chains with their name in Cyrillic. The most popular was Subway. For some reason I did not expect to see so many American chains in Russia.
- The beautiful and grand interiors in most of the buildings. We went into a chocolate shop where every pillar was decorated and there was a grand piano. We had morning tea at a cafe in a bookshop which had beautiful floor to ceiling arch windows overlooking the square.
- Seeing a dead body in the metro, there were a couple of policemen standing near the ticket machines and on the ground next to them was a plastic sheet with some feet and a hand sticking out. We exited that station quickly.
- How green the gardens were, I never thought I would describe Russia as green but there were a lot of gardens and parks throughout the city and they were all a vibrant bright green. Very different from the darker green you see throughout the UK and Ireland. It was lovely.
- How much people loved their country, there were celebrations for St Petersburg Day on the last day we were there. Even though it was drizzling lots of people were out, there was a huge grand stand setup in front of St Issac’s Square as part of the official celebrations. A choir performing and most people were singing along. It is so different to how Australians celebrate Australia day (though this was just the first day of a 3 day celebration…)
- We didn’t realise St Petersburg was a canal city until we got there. Except since everything is giant in St Petersburg all the canals were kind of river sized.
- Having to plan where to cross the road. The roads in St Petersburg are mostly 4 to 6 lanes across so you need to keep an eye out for crossings. Otherwise you end up walking an extra couple of blocks just to cross the road.
Finally we noticed a lot of yellow buildings, we decided that yellow is the colour of palaces and therefore there are palaces everywhere. This may not be based on facts.
Once we ditched our bags we went out exploring, the first stop was The Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood. Normally I am not a huge fan of churches, after traveling through Europe churches start getting a bit samey. But the Spilled Blood church is different it is colourful and exciting and reminds me of Tetris. It was excellent, the only thing that would have made it better is if they were playing Tetris music in the background.
For a long time, last weekend was known as the ‘cursed’ weekend, the weekend away that just wouldn’t happen. It was the last long weekend before we leave London for good so we both felt we had to make the most of it and go somewhere. The problem was we left organizing everything til too late so tickets to almost anywhere were ridiculously expensive. I eventually found some overnight train tickets to Glasgow, there was 2 seats left and I was trying to book when one of the seats were sold! OMG I was so upset.
The most random thing we saw was a group of three girls in cowboy hats doing a Gangnam style type dance routine in front of the steps of the Helsinki Cathedral (above) while their friends filmed it. Everyone stopped and watched it was hilarious.
Trains in Italy are exciting, the platforms are long, wide and only slightly elevated from the tracks. The tracks are covered in weeds and wild flowers, it really makes you feel like you’re in the countryside when you hang out at these stations. Also it’s all very laid back, almost all the trains we caught in Italy ran about 10 minutes late. We spent a lot of time waiting for trains but as long as you are not in a hurry to get some place it’s a nice wait.
Last day of our Cinque trip we caught the train to Lucca to explore for a few hours. It was strange being in a full sized town after two days in Cinque Terre. Everything seems so large and there were so many roads and houses!
We climbed this watch tower despite our sore legs simply because there were trees growing on top. The view was excellent from the top and the trees reminded me of Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
We arrived at Pisa late at night, had a pizza midnight dinner and crashed for the night. The next day we caught the first train to Cinque Terre. Most of the train trip to Cinque was in tunnels but as we got close there were some exciting views of the sea teasing us as the train zipped in and out of tunnels.
Cinque Terre really is as amazing as people say, the towns are each tiny and very colorful. On our first day the weather was amazing, we rushed out onto a boat and traveled from Riomaggiore, the southmost town all the way to Monterosso on the other end. We had lunch in Monterosso which included pasta baked into a pastry which is then set on fire at the table.
There were tonnes of people along the track. Some people were super prepared, they were in hiking clothes and had walking poles, while some people clearly stumbled onto the tracks unintentionally. I saw multiple girls wearing ballet flats which looked very uncomfortable, there was also a man wearing a suit. I felt sorry for him. It was really hot that day.
It took us an hour and a half to get to Vernazza where we rewarded ourselves with really good gelato. It’s good to be in a place where the weather is appropriate for ice cream!
Sadly all the other tracks were closed so we only did that one walk, I think we were all disappointed but secretly a tiny bit relieved as our legs were sore! There was a lot of clambering up and down!
