I Am The Pup Who Arranges The Blocks

[lupestripe]

St Petersburg definitely feels more like a European city than a Russian one. It is also far more tourist orientated than Moscow, with far more English to be seen.

Founded in 1703 and built entirely from scratch, this has allowed architects to design a city of exquisite and grandiose proportions. No superlative can do the city justice - magnificent building follows magnificent building and the vibe of the place is so relaxed it's fantastic.

St Petersburg is a city a little like Venice and Amsterdam, built on a myriad of different canals. The central waterway is the River Neva on which sits many sailing boats and a stunning city scape punctuated by a variety of bridges.

On Nevskiy Prospect, the city's main thoroughfare, there lies the stunning Kazan Cathedral, Gostiniy Dior and the Aleksandriinskiy Drama Theatre, outside which a huge statue of Catherine The Great stands. Delve into any side street and you will find more exquisite buildings including the sumptuous Church of the Saviour on the Blood with its colourful chequered domes and delightful frescos.

In Marsovo Pole, we spied a Russian army parade near the eternal flame before heading to the Marble Palace which is now the Russian Museum. The highlight of the day was the dark green Hermitage Museum, a structure which to describe would not donut justice. It forms one side of Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, which is dominated by a huge statue in its centre. On the other side there is an exquisite orange arch in the Venetian style.

St Isaac's Cathedral, a huge grey Corinthian building was our final major site of the day before we called in a few local bars (including an Irish bar where we saw Dinamo Moskva play their next KHL game - we didn't stick around as they were charging £5.60 for a pint of Guinness) as it was getting dark and the weather inclement. We ended the day at a Georgian restaurant where we ate some damn fine sheesh kebabs, bread stuffed with egg and cheese and some squidgy lamb balls. All were quite delicious!

Earlier in the day we had headed to Teremok, a local fast food chain specialising in pancakes, which are a huge thing over here. The servings were small but my smoked salmon pancake was delicious. We also had to navigate the Metro system here, which is the deepest in the world - seriously it takes over three minutes just to get down the escalators it's so deep. Oh and Wolfie likes the green men on the traffic lights here, which don't just look like they are walking, they look like they are doing it with a funk.

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Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

The city is only 300 years old?! O.o

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

Yep, founded in 1703 on the whims of Peter the Great.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Huh! That really is quite a young city indeed, especially for one quite so magnificent, though I've yet to see for myself - furthest east I've been (other than Malaysia and Singapore) so far remains what was the border between the Germanies. (Well, and Greece and Cyprus, but I was too young to really remember anything of them)

Ow, £5.60 for a pint? And for Guinness? Not that it's bad as such, but it's fairly boring beer. (Fancy bringing some real vodka back? ^_^)

which don't just look like they are walking, they look like they are doing it with a funk.

I'm now wondering where the first fully animated pedestrian lights will be found. I'm guessing Japan. ^_^

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

The Guinness was ridiculously priced but I imagine import costs are high and the bar was right in the tourist part of the city.

I have seen animated fights between the red and green man of traffic lights. They are quite entertaining to watch.

Despite its youth, because St Petersburg is a modelled city built from scratch, it is just stunning building after stunning building. Definitely go if you get a chance.

[fen-ra.livejournal.com]

Your holiday entries are always great fun to read.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

I am glad you are enjoying them - I have a proposal for you at some point. Will announce all later ^^