Petersburg Part 1

Come with me to St. Pete's

We arrived in Petersburg at about 10:30am on Saturday (that’s Oct. 15th). From the train station to the hotel to our first excursion, to come back to the hotel, we had a lot to do. During our first day, we bused all around the city center and stopped about a million times to take pictures of various things (I took over 350 pictures). Most of the day was spent in St. Peter and Paul’s Fortress. Actually, the coolest part was we saw all the tombs of all the Tsars. From Peter the Great to Nicholas the 2nd. What can I say, we had lunch and some more bus touring, then back to the hotel.

The day was very interesting, but my favorite part starts with dinner. Most of the people in our group went to dinner at “The Idiot” (which is apparently pretty famous). It was a nice a place. It was very casually decorated, like a house might be. They had a small library, chess sets, places to lounge, and a bar in addition to the restaurant, and nothing was really separated. The food was excellent, and I say that with surprise myself because the place is completely vegetarian. I’m actually a big fan of meat and usually like to have it with my meals, but I really didn’t miss it this time. I had some rice noodles with vegetable and a very good sauce (I love rice noodles).

So dinner was good, after that it was time to hit the St. Peters nightlife. The first place we went to was basically like every other bar I have ever been to, full of people, smoke, and loud music. Not really my kind of place. A few us opted to find a better place, and that we did. After walking and talking for a while, we decided on a place called “The Money Honey.” This place was decorated in a western (that’s cowboys people) theme and featured some live Rockabilly. Although not my favorite music, rockabilly is pretty good (especially live). Still, the band took “frequent” breaks, so I needed more. Upstairs I found what I was looking for; in one room, they had your typical discoteka, hip hop, rap, and a ton of bad dancers. But in the other room, I stumbled into a live Russian ska band. That was fun. I definitely spent most of my time in there. The band was really good and put on a good show (I was skanking a bit, which apparently Russians don’t know how to do cause no one else was).

We stayed late and had a great time, and that was just my first day in Peter, more to come.