Russia - The Road to St. Pete's

We shared a compartment on the train to St. Pete's with two Russian gentlemen, Andrei and Sergei. They were in Moscow for a business trip and were returning home to St. Petersburg. Andrei spoke reasonably good english and served us our first caviar (and last for me) of the trip. I'm not sure I understand what people see in eating salty, fishy smelling, fish eggs. I took one bite and gave mine to Jenny. Although she ate the bread with butter and caviar on top, even she said she would have preferred to just have the bread and butter. From what Andrei and Sergei told us, the tradition on the train is to drink lots of beer and smoke. We passed on the beer and cigarettes and opted for sleep instead.

We arrived in St. Petersburg unshowered and sticky at about 8:00 in the morning and took a taxi to the hotel in hopes of checking in early, showering and napping before heading into town for sightseeing. Although, our hopes of getting a room so early were dashed, we did get some coffee. After resting in the lobby, sipping coffee for a while, we headed into town to attempt to buy train tickets for the return trip to Moscow at the central train ticket office. We waited in a non-moving line (this seems to be the trend for most ticket lines in Russia) for a while before we realized that we didn't have enough money to purchase a ticket anyway. At least we killed time until the Hermitage opened.

It is hard to describe the Hermitage properly. It is more than a museum really. It would have been worth the price of admission even if there was not a single painting hanging on the wallls.

After wandering the rooms of the Hermitage for hours, even looking at a painting or two, we headed out in search of food. We stopped at the first reasonable looking cafe we found. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have a waiter for the non-smoking section so after about 30 minutes of being told to wait, we decided not to wait any longer and went in search of a new place. The service at the next cafe was not that much better, but at least we got the attention of a waitress eventually and were able to order some food.

Finally we headed back to the hotel for a shower, but decided to stop and climb to the top of the colonnade at St. Isaac's Cathedral first. We were already sweaty and sticky from our night on the train and day in St. Pete's so it seemed like a perfect time to climb 262 steps. The view from the top was nice, but our desire to shower was greater, so after a few pictures, we headed back down the spiral staircase and headed to the hotel.