Lonely Planet (our touring bible) refers to the history of St. Petersburg, also known as Petrograd and Leningrad, as one of struggle. First, its struggle of identity, where even from its birth over 300 years ago, St. P has been striving to be more like Europe. Second, its struggle with ideas, where communism has gone against fascism and more simply put, democracy versus autocracy (which is still an issue to this day). As soon as PDub and I set foot on St. P soil, our struggle was with East Asian tour groups (apologies to all of my Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese friends). In the line for immigration, I clung to PDub's arm fearing that myself and my 35lb pack would be knocked over and trampled by individuals shorter than me (and I am 5'3").
No worries, after a few thrown elbows and bloody noses, PDub and I were on our way to the historic heart of St. P. I instantly felt like I was in a different country where the architecture was like none I had seen before and the people spoke only Russian and looked completely different. I have been to other countries (aside from the U.S.) but never felt this instant outsider notion. When in Mexico, I felt like I was back in Texas, and when we visited Paris later in this trip, it took me three days to finally feel like I was in France. To me, being a visitor and experiencing a new culture is like being in heaven, and Russia hit the spot.
The shuttle dropped us off at St. Isaac's Cathedral (you can't miss it) where we proceeded to walk the few blocks to our hostel. Yes, we went from hotel rooms with heated floors to rocking, tiny ferry rooms to a private room with community bathrooms, but for the price and location, we couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. After hearing about the amenities, which included free international calls (sorry parents for not taking advantage of this), and dropping our packs off in our room, we headed for the streets of St. P. First stop: food! at the ZooM Cafe where I indulged on some borscht, a cold, red soup containing cucumber, potato, beets, and topped with sour cream.
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| St. Isaac's Cathedral |
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| Soul Kitchen Hostel Jr. I would recommend this place to anyone!! |
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| The ZooM Cafe. We had a tough time finding places seeing they are typically hidden and the restaurant name written in Cyrillic.....kind of a challenge for us. |
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| Borscht.....Probably wouldn't order it again but glad I did. |
After lunch, our true struggle began: getting everything in within the 72 hours (about 60 for us) that our visa-free allowed. I look back at my travel journal and still can't fathom how we did it all, although we did miss much. Here was our itinerary and what I hope to share with you over the next few days:
Day 1: Hostel Check-In
Lunch
Lonely Planet Walking Tour
Pub Break
Dinner
Ballet Performance
View and sunset from St. Isaac's Cathedral
Day 2: Breakfast
Private Palace Tour (with lunch in there somewhere)
Hermitage
Dinner
Day 3: Breakfast
Check-out
Church of Spilled Blood
Walk to Peter and Paul Fortress
Lunch
Hermitage
Cafe Break
Return to Ferry
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