Friday 5th October 2012 - Day 2 - St Petersburg, Russia

8.30 am wake up call. After fluctuating hot and cold showers we went to breakfast which was random. Jon had a hot dog, cold fish and onions and cheese on bread with a boiled egg. I had jam and pancakes and porridge oh and some ham and cheese. We both decided against the layers of tongue and cold chilli beans. We met Sofia our Russian guide and Carla (Oi) and Simon who are from Weymouth of all places. We got in our own private minibus and set off to view the sites of St Petersburg. We had walked a few miles yesterday and had seen quite a few of the main sites but going to them with an English speaking guide was much better to learn about what we were actually seeing.

We went to see an eternal flame that I was convinced would have been put out especially in these winds. A bit like the Olympic flame it burns forever in memory of the falled military as it was in the centre of a park where the military train. We also noticed how all parks are surrounded by ornate railings made from Iron. If that was at home, thieves would have had them away and down the scrap metal yard sharpish.

　

Unfortunately practically every main church, building, steeple etc had some sort of scaffolding or renovation work going on but with a cunningly placed tree we were able to snap some nice pictures. The gale forced winds made it a bit chilly but a shot of vodka on the short break warmed our cockles. We are happy to know that in the near future we may fly home first class as we touched the hand of the pinhead statue a.k.a. somebody the great. We were listening really! In other words, if you touched his shiny brass hand you will become very rich. We observed another Russian trying to make millions by fishing for coins with a magnet in the river where a lucky hare was perched on a wooden post. There were groups of people all trying to land their coin on the hares feet and clearly missing and the man hiding under the bridge was capitalising.

We took a rest on some modern art chairs they looked good but played havoc with your piles, apparently. We visited St Isaacs cathedral which resembles St Paul’s and had to use the horses arse statue to disguise the scaffolding as there were no trees. After the tour we stopped for lunch and coffee. We spent £23 and redesigned my banisters which was time well spent out of the cold. It’s a shame we are to embarrassed to wear our new hats. We have since discovered it is approximately 30 degrees to warm to wear them without looking silly.

We then went back to the Saviour on spilled blood Church to go inside as we were told it was well worth the visit and it was. The entire inside of the Church was covered in artworks of tiny mosaics. Apparently it took longer to decorate than to build. It was quite breathtaking, even Jon was impressed. We walked a few more miles to see some statues in a park where Jon looked a tit. It started to rain but the walk was pretty through the Autumn leaves. There were immense amounts of local men photographing local scantily clad Russian women, and so I felt the need to join in, when in Rome and all that!

We went back to the wickey warket (now I’ve thought for the last 32 years that this was cockney for market, but apparently not?!) anyway, we went there again in search of a bargain for some Russian dolls. We left with a few in our pocket and slightly confused on the currency conversion! We went to another nice restaurant that was recommended to us. Clearly a good choice as there were poppies on the table cloth. Again we sat inside/outside in the gorgeous park with river alongside. We watched a genuine artist creating a watercolour masterpiece, he had all the actions. We finally cracked the currency conversion, double it and take off two noughts. I’m sure nobody from work will be shocked by my lack of mental arithmetic skills!

We then went to a traditional English pub that was like time travel as everything was brown from the smoking indoors. We chilled for a few beers and ciders, very cool indeed. A nice lady asked me if I was English in the pub, I said yes. She said you look just like Kate Winslet! We learnt some more Russian today… Pey do dna!