I fell in love with St Petersburg just over
two years ago on my visit there, and after hyping it up to Gem, I was hoped it
would be as good as I remembered - and
it was.
St Petersburg is an amazing city, its
beautiful, its fun and the people there are lovely. It is sometimes referred to
as the Venice of the east due to its many canals winding through the city and
its stunning architecture. It wasn’t long after we arrived that Gem said that
she could see herself living here.
So we spent 6 days in St Petersburg, and
for pretty much the first time in Russia, we had consecutive days of rain and
grey skies, which we didn’t mind. Our days consisted of much the same thing,
sleeping in, making breakfast and then going out exploring and sightseeing for
a few hours of the day, and then coming back and relaxing for a while before
venturing back out again at night for dinner and drinks.
We had a lovely room at Soul Kitchen Junior
Hostel that overlooked one of the canals. The bed was extremely comfortable
which contributed to the many sleep in’s we had. This hostel is by far the best
hostel we have ever stayed in. The location was perfect overlooking one of the
canals, just a short stroll from St Isaac’s Cathedral and the river, and then
in the other direction Nevsky Prospekt, the main street of St Petersburg.
Besides its location, the interior was huge, with a massive couch and projector
screen with hundreds of movies, a huge country style kitchen and great staff
who were extremely helpful. They even enjoyed a few drinks with us. It was a
solid group staying at the hostel and we were able to have a few boozey nights
with them.
St Petersburg has some of, if not the most
impressive church interiors I have ever seen, in particular, St Isaac’s Cathedral
and The
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Under the candy-like spires of the church,
the walls and ceilings are covered from floor to ceiling with impressive, mosaic
artworks that are so intricate that until you are up close, look like detailed
paintings. The elaborate walls and ceiling are truly breathtaking.
Hard to beat, but in my honest opinion I think St Isaac’s takes
first place for amazing interiors. The exterior might not be as visually
appealing as The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood but it still a stunning.
It’s a huge building with a dome set high above the city skyline that gives you
a 360 view of the St Petersburg. A random fact about St Petersburg is that
buildings cannot be built higher then the Winter Palace (which is around 22m
high) unless it is a church. So at the top of St Isaac’s, you get an
uninterrupted view of the city all the way to the horizon.
Inside of St Isaac’s you have a huge open area that is covered by beautiful
incredibly detailed paintings. Everywhere you look inside this cathedral there
are paintings, all as equally impressive as each other.
Besides the interiors of the churches, some
other amazing architecture could be found in less assuming places such as bars,
cafes and restaurants. Each place we went to looked like it belonged in an
interior design magazine. Whether it was a quirky coffee shop, burger joint on
Nevsky Prospect, or the little hole in the wall diner on a random backstreet,
they all looked as though they had been designed and decorated by highly
skilled designers.
One other building that must be mentioned
is the Marinsky Theatre. We were lucky enough to visit this amazing venue one
night to watch an opera. The story was about a girl who wanted to elope with
her lover. Her father didn’t approve and after a heated argument the boyfriend
pointed a gun at the father – after losing his nerve and dropped the gun and it
accidently went off and killed the father. The story is very much a
roller-coaster from this point, and it all got rather complicated. All the
characters cross paths without them realizing etc. The sets, costumes and voices made for a
really impressive opera!
The days were spent much the same, sleeping
in which was nice and was easy to do since the sun didn’t rise till after 9am,
then we’d make some breakfast and spend the day gallivanting around the city,
checking out all the buildings, sculptures and bits and pieces the city had to
offer.
We did try something a little usual one
rainy morning that was great fun, a visit to the Museum of Soviet Arcade Games.
Upon paying your entry fee you are given a bunch of 15 kopek coins (old Russian
coins) and then you have free roam the museum to use any of the old machines on
display. The games seemed to be based on two main things, sport, and shooting
things (mostly animals or ships), with the occasional car-racing machine being
thrown into the mix. We had a blast in here, and we got quite competitive! We
played some shooting games and then had a few games of basketball, drove some
cars, sunk some ships and then played an ice hockey version of foosball. We weren’t sure what the museum was going to
be like, but it was awesome! We felt like big kids and I loved it!
Our last night in St Petersburg was a great
way to finish it off, we grabbed a few beers and sat around the common room
chatting with some of the other travellers, and then the staff got involved as
well and before we knew it we had a great group of 20+ just sitting around,
drinking beer, wine and of course some vodka and just having a good laugh. It
made it even harder to leave this city that we were both in love with.
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