Sunday, April 1, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
St Petersburg, Russia
Well, after our little mishap in regards to train timings, we arrived in St Petersburg at 10pm that night, walked out of the station and were faced with a crazy, noisey, bustling city. With the disorientation (and thoughts of "oh god what are we doing here?") we felt more like we had arrived in a european Bangkok. We found our way to the hostel by crossing a bridge over the River Neva which gave us a stunning view of the night lights along the riverside.
The next day we walked till our feet were sore, then walked some more - the city is just full of the most amazing architecture. Huge cathedrals, palaces, museums and statues were everywhere, and all were majestic and very impressive. We visited the Palace Square which is surrounded by the Winter Palace and the Hermitage etc, Peter and Paul's fortress, The Church On Spilled Blood (a huge multi-coloured onion domed fulla), the Kazan cathedral and walked along Nevskiy Prospect (a huge shopping street). No doubt we were overwhelmed by the many sights, and in particular The Church On Spilled Blood. (photos to come)
The following day we went to the Hermitage, a massive museum full of art and sculpture, including some of the 'greats'; Leonardo, Monet, Titian, Picasso, Van Gogh, Gaughin etc etc sometimes whole rooms were full of just one artist's work - amazing. 2.8 million pieces in total are contained within. One of the highlights would have been the Diamond Treasury room - we have never seen so much jewellery (some dating back to 4 Millenium BC!)
It's been an experience getting amongst the Russians, we met a gigantic man at our hostel who is a weightlifting competetor from Moscow up for a competition. Everyone dresses real styley - but they are trapped in the eighties, and the mullet and rats tail are still in wide use here - has made for some interesting photography!
We'll get some photos on soon - off on a night train to Moscow now.
The next day we walked till our feet were sore, then walked some more - the city is just full of the most amazing architecture. Huge cathedrals, palaces, museums and statues were everywhere, and all were majestic and very impressive. We visited the Palace Square which is surrounded by the Winter Palace and the Hermitage etc, Peter and Paul's fortress, The Church On Spilled Blood (a huge multi-coloured onion domed fulla), the Kazan cathedral and walked along Nevskiy Prospect (a huge shopping street). No doubt we were overwhelmed by the many sights, and in particular The Church On Spilled Blood. (photos to come)
The following day we went to the Hermitage, a massive museum full of art and sculpture, including some of the 'greats'; Leonardo, Monet, Titian, Picasso, Van Gogh, Gaughin etc etc sometimes whole rooms were full of just one artist's work - amazing. 2.8 million pieces in total are contained within. One of the highlights would have been the Diamond Treasury room - we have never seen so much jewellery (some dating back to 4 Millenium BC!)
It's been an experience getting amongst the Russians, we met a gigantic man at our hostel who is a weightlifting competetor from Moscow up for a competition. Everyone dresses real styley - but they are trapped in the eighties, and the mullet and rats tail are still in wide use here - has made for some interesting photography!
We'll get some photos on soon - off on a night train to Moscow now.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Helsinki, Finland
Sitting and waiting for our train to St Petersburg... Missed the first because they went and changed the time for daylight savings and we turned up blissfully unaware, thinkin we were over a half hour early... Woops. Luckily it was cheap to change our tickets to a later train! Could have used the sleep in though... :-)
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