The official residence of the Russian Tsars from 1732 to 1917, the Winter Palace now houses the State Hermitage Museum, one of the greatest art museums in the world. Even if you’re not a lover of art, you can’t visit Saint Petersburg and not visit this place. It really is that incredible.
Located in Saint Petersburg, the Peter and Paul Fortress was established by Peter the Great in 1703 on a small island by the north bank of the Neva River. It was originally built to protect the capital from a potential attack by the Swedes, but eventually fell into use as a prison for political prisoners. [...]
A cheap holiday in Russia can be made even cheaper by booking the luggage compartment instead of a bed, as Luke shows us in the above photo. Taken on an overnight train trip to St. Petersburg, before a train attendant could catch him in the act (and we hadn’t even started drinking yet).
This is a view if the Hermitage as seen from a cruise on the Neva River. The Hermitage is an art museum that holds over 3 million pieces in its collection, including works by Michelangelo, da Vinci, Monet, Van Gogh, and Picasso. The Hermitage was founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 and now comprises [...]
No one had heard of this Richard Caring, but the invitation piqued everyone’s curiosity: a giant Russian matryoshka doll, inside of which was a bottle of vodka and an invitation to fly by private jet to St. Petersburg. It asked for measurements, which meant only one thing: a fancy-dress party!—something rich Brits can’t resist. En [...]
Well, something good has to come out of this financial crisis, right? From the department of silver linings comes this item from Russia: because of the financial crisis, plans for a controversial skyscraper that would have towered over St. Petersburg’s low-slung Baroque skyline have been delayed and — preservationists, architects and many residents fervently hope [...]
We had a good weekend in St. Pete. Took the midnight train and arrived Saturday morning. We stayed at the Herzen student dormitory and it was really nice…good rooms and the location was perfect – right behind Kazaan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt. Since we only had two days there we tried to hit all the [...]
The St. Pete zoo was the most pathetic zoo I have ever been to, yet at the same time quite entertaining. A quarter of the animals aren’t even in their cages. Zoo employees have them out so you can take pictures with them (for several rubles, of course). The cages are surrounded by a waist [...]
A meal at McDonald’s and a ballet at the Mariinsky Theater – an evening of culture indeed! The McDonald’s in Russia was great. They have fried – not baked – cherry pies and kiwi McFlurrys! We went before the ballet, and the Russians gave us some weird looks because we were all dressed up. The [...]
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