Four + weddings.....and a museum

St Petersburg is a spectacular city. Celebrating its 300th birthday a few years ago it is looking its best. Set amidst canals and public parks are unique and beautiful buildings almost everwhere you choose to wander and wander we did.

The Hermitage museum was a marathon cultural experience through 1057 massive rooms. The collection runs 3 million items so there is a lot to absorb in a day. We attacked it with vigour and made it around to most of the rooms, sometimes you're not quite sure whether you should be looking at the items on display or the room itself as the winter palace is incredible. By the end of the day we were definitely museumed out. The Anthropology museum had a slightly weirder collection - pickled 'mutant' babies in jars with tags like "cyclops baby". Not standard museum fare but a good break from Monets and Rembrants!

One of the funniest things we have seen here in St Petersburg is the customs that surround the photographic part of Russian weddings. At many of the famous monuments there is an endless stream of brides and grooms arriving and lining up. From huge stretch cars to battered Ladas the wedding parties pile out and get in line for their photos. After watching the events for a while we realised that if you wanted a flash occasion you could purchase two white doves, have your picture taken and then release them. I was a bit suspicious at the start because the doves seem to take off in a very choreographed manner and I figured they must land in the boot of a car the other side of the park ready for their next gig. A few weddings later we confirmed that there were fresh doves used each time. The deluxe package includes doves and firecrackers ... the tacky package was a photograph opportunity up on two smelly horses. In any case the whole wedding party launches into champagne and shouting and the bride and groom perform a weird kiss (it looks like they are trying to swallow each other). When it's all over the couple smash their glasses against a big rock sphere, climb back into their transport and head to the next location for a similar shoot. This goes on for hours and hours ... one thing you do notice is that the brides rarely make eye contact with anyone else in a white dress.... I guess that is not surprising!

Our hostel turned out to be in a fantastic location ... a 2 minute walk to the Hermitage and a 2 minute walk to KFC and McDonalds. One of the worrying things that we had heard a month ago was that the hostel was great but there was some construction work going on and during renovations there was only one working toilet - but not to despair as they'd probably be finished and KFC was just around the corner. Staying true to our expectations of Russian efficiency there was little progress. We got a tip of a guy in our room advising that there was a secret bathroom in an apartment next door that was ok to use. Pleading ignorance we started to frequent this bathroom avoiding runs to KFC. To everyone's astonishment a couple of days later real work men turned up and started to get cracking on the "out of order" bathrooms. Not only did they labour all day but continued into the night. The last job of the day was to put tar sealant behind the shower. Impatient (hardly believable for Russia) they decided that they wanted to dry the tar out as quick as possible and took a blow torch to the wall. A wall of fire, injured worker and billows of smoke later the bathroom renovation plans were but on hold for a while longer. Some day there will be no queue for the loo.

We were a bit let down by the food in St Petersburg. I think part of the problem was that we were out and about all day and by the time dinner time came fast food seemed more appealing than searching out restaurants or cooking. We did try a Turkish restaurant one night. It had a hot buffet section which promised to be a quick and easy canteen experience. Oddly enough they wouldn't let us take a tray and dole the food there and then - at that stage one scoop onto a plate would have done the job. Instead an astonishing display of inefficiency played out where we pointed, the manager told the waiter what we wanted, the waiter wrote it down, we sat down at our table, the waiter passed a piece of paper to the cook behind the buffet (who had been present all along), we waited for 15 minutes wondering what was happening and eventually when we thought that we had been forgotten about a bowl of soup arrived from the aforementioned and afore-witnessed bain-marie pot of soup.

After a lot of effort Marcus mastered the Russian railway internet site and managed to nail down exactly which trains we need get to get us across Siberia and into Mongolia. Life would be a beach if there was internet booking but unfortunately you have to throw yourself at the mercy of austere ticket agents who are likely to flatly deny the train even exists. Taking deep breaths and clutching the Russian phase book we went to the station. Much to our surprise the girl was approachable (had the ability to smile underneath surliness) and between handsignals and scribbled train numbers they managed to understand each other so we've tickets as far as Lake Baikal. Getting the rest of the journey will be another afternoon's adventure.

One of the must do day trips from StP is a peek at Peterhof palace and garden. Its about an hours journey on local bus from Baltaskya metro station to the Summer palace built by Peter. Its a spectacular setting right on the bay of Finland, acres of gardens with fountains at every turn. We wandered around the property for a few hours on a greyish day...coming to the understanding why Peter had a summer and Winter palace....you do not want to be out here in the rain. The fountains are fantastic.




So our first Russian train experience took us on train number 3 (the lower the number the better the train) from St.Petersburg to Moscow travelling in the relative style of 2nd class. We boarded the train to find our sleeper beds made, toiletry pack on top and a breakfast box waiting for us. All very plush! It will be interesting to compare it to our cattle-class 72 hour trip to Irkutsk on train number 10.