02/08/18 I found an osteopath hoping he could help my back as I could not find a chiro last minute, but he didn’t really help much. After bringing back the car to the airport, I had to take 4 flights to go to St Petersburg, Russia. I initially planned to go to Finland and go to Russia from there, so to avoid cancellation/exchange fees I had to fly there first.
03/08/18 Not an easy task to reach the hostel this time, as I struggle to communicate for the first time since I left Australia. No one speaks English in St Petersburg even the metro ticket machine is not clear. The bus to the city was quick and easy, but the metro was another story. After I bought a metro card, the security guard did not let me in, was asking for a token that I didn’t have, and the lady at the ticket booth got angry at me and kept repeating something I did not understand until I realised I presented my ticket receipt, as the actual ticket was still in the vending machine ?. Halleluja.
Why on earth do you print a QR code on your ticket receipt?!
Well after almost 20h of travel, 4 planes, a bus and a metro, I made it to St Petersburg. Still 29 degrees to welcome me, but it should go down in the next few days. Now let’s try to find the direction to get to the hostel…
04/08/18 I met with a group of travellers on a free walking tour of St Petersburg. Diana, the tour guide took us through the streets and gave us some facts and history about some of the buildings and monuments. The bronze horseman, Winter palace, Admirality, St Isaac’s Cathedral. I found it funny that everyday at 12pm, you can hear a canon shot. I was used to church bells, well that’s a bit different. It is easy to spot tourists as like me, they jump by surprise. Diana told us she looks forward to it to announce the afternoon, and when she travels somewhere else she waits for it as her lunch signal. Interesting tradition!
You can feel that the football cup was here not long ago. Souvenirs shops still sell merchandising and many flags and banners are still floating. The city is really nice, quite impressive with its long and big baroque buildings. Peter the Great certainly knew how to do things big! It is also nice to walk at night as the main buildings are illuminated. Another interesting fact is that the city bridges move between 1 and 3am to allow boats to cross, so if you are out at night you need to plan to be in or out of city based on closure times.
Later I walked to Rubinsteina, a street famous for restaurants and bars to have dinner. As per my good old habits, 2 out of the 3 things I ordered on the menu were sold out, but I still enjoyed a pasta dish with beef and mushroom.
05/08/18 I had to queue at the train station for 45 min to get someone to print my ticket as something went wrong with the online website. I knew no one would speak English there so I tried to get some help at the tourist info centre a few days earlier. The lady sent an email but the transport company never got back to me so I walked to the station and finally got my ticket for Moscow.
My back has not improved so I also booked an appointment with an American clinic in Moscow, where I found an English speaking chiropractor.
