Saint Petersburg in 1 Week and 110 Pictures

Posted By Matt on Sep 5, 2012 | 0 comments

No Hablamos Ruso

The drunk guy walked toward the water taxi, stumbling and having a grand old time while his girlfriend’s body language made it absolutely clear she didn’t approve. He made it into the boat, and as they started to motor away, he began dancing to the taxi’s stereo, and then shouted at us on shore in Russian. I replied “Sorry, we don’t speak Russian.” He kept dancing, and yelled:

“Vee don’ta speek Rashan!”

Wedding Time

Meanwhile, across town, a huge limo was dropping off yet another wedding party at the Neva River. Katy counted something like 18 weddings. On a monday. Russians love weddings! But check your enthusiasm, they also love divorces! Bummer. Later that night I’m sure they went back to light off sky lanterns for good luck. Russians love sky lanterns.

Pесторан

It’s pronounced “restauran” but it is much, much more fun to say “Pectopah.” Now use this new knowledge to figure out what a Bap is.

Things Russians Love

• Dill
• Mid-week weddings
• Cucumber
• Butter in cream of wheat
• Frowning
• Drawbridges
• Mayo
• Bacon (on random things)
• Vodka (obviously) which is (and I quote) “for the aftertaste.”

Bridges that go up

At midnight in St. Petersburg, the bridges over the Neva River are drawn so that the big ships can pass from Lake Ladoga. Check it out here: Map. Also featured at (almost) midnight: daylight! Sunset was at 10:30 each day, and twilight would last for another hour. So people would pile into tour boats at 00:20 and ride out to see the drawbridges. I estimate there were about 100 boats with an average of 30 people on each boat. And when the bridge goes up, what happened? Clapping and cheering and taking of photos. News flash: drawbridges in my hometown are super annoying. I liked the boat trip and the enthusiasm though.

Pictures

Note: if you click on them, they’re supposed to go full screen and be super awesome. You can read the comments in the full screen viewer.

Katy and Tom fell asleep in the airport while waiting for our luggage to arrive on the next plane from Amsterdam. Theirs came, but mine didn’t for 72 hours. There’s a whole ‘nother blog post coming about this.

5000 Pb = ~$165

This group of bears travels the world, moving cities every 6 months. Each bear represents a country.

Russian bear making Russia Face

A group of tourists.

That’s the Flying Dutchman, a restaurant/tourist trap

We loved that the beach has a cool view across the river at the palaces.

Having fun on the midnight boat tour

a Bridge that Went Up

Typical breakfast fare in Russia.

Church of the Spilled Blood. Can’t describe the ridiculous detail of this place.

By far the dirtiest hot dog I’ve ever eaten.

Swan Lake at the Alexandrinski Theater.

Classic Russian pose. We saw countless girls making this face as they posed in front of things.

These tourists are not pleased with the downpour that happened at Peterhof.

When in Rome…

Waiting to get into the Hermitage Museum

Leo da Vinci made that. No big deal.

Tons of amazing paintings here.

At Catherine’s Winter Palace – better known as the Hermitage Museum

I read Crime and Punishment before the trip so that I’d be in a Russian mindset.

We saw Thomas!

dolls that you can put vodka shots inside of, which is a clever russian smuggler tick.

This is Katy’s vodka face

The train station Ladoshkaya which departs to Finland.