Time was limited on our last day in Peters as we weren't sure how long it would take us to clear Russian passport control, or even how long it would take to get there since it wasn't at the same location as where the ship docked. We therefore decided to take it easy and stroll around and do whatever took our fancy.
Shout out to our hotel, the Lancaster, near Vyborskaya metro. The location left a bit to be desired, what with it being opposite an abandoned factory and we later were told was not a great part of the city (not on the main islands), but as a hotel, it was pretty good and the house slippers were very puffy!
Walking around our 'neighbourhood', we found these feral dogs waiting at a bus stop. I would have loved it if they actually boarded the bus!
I'd also like to make a comment about the Peters Metro system. The service is pretty good but the stations are incredibly beautiful.
The system was opened in 1955 so feature some pretty interesting Soviet-era decorations, such as the medallion series about Lenin and the Revolution at Ploshchad Vosstaniya. This is not at all stations though - the newest station, Admiralteyskaya, opened in 2011 and naturally doesn't have pro-Soviet decorations.
The system is also incredibly deep - Ploshchad Vosstaniya is 58 m underground, while Admiralteyskaya is a whopping 85m! So in addition to being deep and awesomely decorated, they have SUPERLONG escalators! Side note, photography on the metro was banned until 2009!
Lunch - another trip to Shtolles, another day that they didn't have chicken! I'm beginning to think it was a scam! We had cheese and spinach, salmon, and today we decided to get a sweet cranberry one. All good!
Yussupov palace, on the Moika and site of Rasputin's murder!
Looking over the Moika towards St. Isaac's.
Even the beautiful parts of Peters aren't completely beautiful and amusement park-like. This car was parked down the street from the Yussupov palace...
and this building was a few streets away.
We decided to go inside St. Isaac's because it occurred to me that maybe H had never been inside an orthodox church. We weren't disappointed.
So bright and colourful!
I kinda felt that the mosaics and paintings were quire Western in style though.
Looking up to the bright and airy dome.
Following this, we tried to get into the Saviour on the Spilled blood but it had a massive queue outside and I decided to get myself from Russian politician matrioska dolls instead :D, and then we picked up our luggage to head to the ferry terminal...
But, what was this at the church near our hotel?
They were filming some sort of Russian period drama!!! One of the actors or extras waved to us when they saw us gawking through the bars.
Boarding time. Passport control wasn't fantastically signposted and when we got to where we thought it was, we found a guard blocking the gates. We three just kinda stared at each other for a while until eventually H piped up and asked if this was where we were supposed to go through, after which the guard smiled and waved us through. Who knows how long we would have just stood there looking at each other!
And finally - my Russian dolls! L-R, Lenin, Stalin, Yeltsin, Medvedev, and Putin.
No comments:
Post a Comment