Arriving into St
Petersburg in the morning was very industrial.
Allan loved all of the cranes and size of the port, it was
gigantic. Going through customs was a
bit of a let down, we had heard all of the horror stories and how difficult it
could be. No one even blinked at us, all
of our documentation that we had paid for and had ready wasn’t even looked at.
Our bus tour was also
pretty sad, as part of the 72 hour visa free period you are supposed to be
booked on a tour which we did through the shipping company. The bus dropped us off at a not very
interesting location and we didn’t even bother getting back on, instead we
found our own way and checked out some sights on the other side of the river before
heading to our hostel.
The first stop was at St
Peter and Pauls Fortress. The fort was
constructed by St Peter the great between 1706 – 1740. The only people to ever come close to the
fort were the Finnish people, who immediately turned around and didn’t bother
fighting because they were frightened.
After this the fort was used as a prison. The cathedral in the middle of the fort has
a big spire covered in real gold.
From here we walked
through an old town type area, back across the river and headed towards the Church
of the Savior on Spilled Blood (candy cathedral). We took a few snaps of the outside and
decided to drop off our bags at the hostel before going in as it was really hot
and we all had sore backs.
Once back at the cathedral
we explored the inside. The whole inside
was made from marble and mosaic tiles.
The photos don’t do the massive mosaics any justice; they were huge and
really detailed. The front of the
cathedral was where the Russian Tsar was crowned and at the back was a shrine
where Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded.
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