Come Along Journey: #6 St Petersburg

In the sixth installment of our Come Along Journeys, we will continue our journey in Russia. And we will continue to try to evoke at least some of the feelings of traveling to a new place! I am going to try writing in first person plural (i.e. we and us) , in order to hopefully help you envision yourself actually there, but allow for me to be there as well. Feel free to let me know whether you prefer the first person plural or the second person construction. I have based the narrative on my experiences, but for the sake of flow some events may be combined or altered slightly.

From Novgorod, we take the train into St Petersburg's Moskovskiy Vokzal (Moscow Train Station). Across the square from the station is a hotel that has a sign that says Город Герой Ленинград, (the Hero City of Leningrad), referring to the city's part in World War II.

St Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, and it is an amazing city with a lot of great architecture and culture.

We arrive on April 30, and find that hotel prices in the city are relatively inexpensive, but starting the next day, the prices go way up. After checking into a hotel near the main street of St Petersburg, Nevskiy Prospekt, we go out to see the city at night. It is incredible to see the Hermitage, Spas na Krovi (Church of the Savior on Blood), Peter and Paul Fortress, the Admiralty, and St Isaac's Cathedral at night.

The next morning, we stumble into a May Day parade taking place on Nevskiy Prospekt. It turns out that there are still plenty of Communists in Russia.

The city has a lot of things to see.

These pictures cannot do St Petersburg justice. It is a beautiful city.

*Although this post is relatively short on words, St Petersburg is one of my favorite cities in the whole world. I first visited the city in 1994 and 1995. In 2000 - 2002, I spent a lot of time here, as I lived in other cities in northwestern, but frequently went to St Petersburg. Most of the pictures from this post were taken in either 2007 or 2013 at different times of the year. With the prospect of less international travel potentially, it makes me particularly sad, if I am not able to get back to St Petersburg soon.

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