St. Petersburg -- land of canals, palaces, and vodka!

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell's 6 month journey has begun in style, first stop: St. Petersburg, Russia! The most northern stop on our journey. And it was cold, could've used an ushanka, even in October. The travel bug is alive and well, loving to be in a foreign land where the only words I know are yes, no, and thank you. Somehow we've managed to get by with charades, pointing, and smiles....so far. However, a crash course in the alphabet may be in order for the Trans-Sib portion. 

If it weren't for the russian language and cyrillic alphabet, St Petersburg could be confused with a European city. Between the ornate palaces, churches, and canals, Peter the Great built a stunning city from swampland. Our only encounter with the Russian mafia so far had to be the taxi fleecing, cars just pull up to you, unknown if they are taxis or not where negotiation is king. We thought we could avoid this with an official looking taxi, you know the kind with a taxi sign on top and a meter, but no, he was the biggest fleece of all, a mere double the price from the airport to our hotel which took 45 minutes, this trip was just 10 minutes and consisted of driving around the block. Dinner was just over half of the cost of this taxi ride. Karma did return its favor, one Tjikstani driver walked us to our Georgian restaurant. And many others probably only fleeced us a little.  

St Pete had surprisingly friendly people offering up smiles. Well aside from the security ladies manning the Hermitage Museum, that is. Or maybe that was the result of the company I was keeping, hence forward he will be called spoon man. (Apparently, it is frowned upon to carry orange spoons and make noise with it.) Very impressive art collection, impressive state rooms and wow, the chandeliers. This museum claims to house the world's most impressive and finest art collection. Yes, indeed, although I will likely remember the views and the rooms itself as well as the history during the siege of WWII, where 2,000 staff members and families were provided shelter below the museum.

History aside, our first night was very aptly begun with a trip to the vodka tasting room. Beluga!!!! Also tried fish preserved in aspic, interesting, just a weird gelatinous texture seemingly preserving the fish. And of course, the usual suspects of chicken Kiev, beef stroganoff, and borsch soup. Now is probably the most relevant time to mention my obsession with food while traveling: I talk about it, take pictures of it, write about it and can't wait to try the next food of the region. It is what I do best when traveling. Must. Try. New. Food. Every. Day. And meet new people, of course! Made our first friends at the tasting room courtesy of some lipstick lesbians kissing out front, an immediate connection was made between fellow Aussies. We joined this group of international university recruiters, some of which were Russian, clubbing. Ypa!! Nightlife is great here, multiple clubs, a cabaret and out all night on 2 of the nights, would've been more if jet lag were not an issue. If I could now make a recommendation, avoid Club Deny at all costs. The first night we tried to get in with the group of international peeps with only half of us successful, the next night my imaginary boyfriend and I tried, they took one look at his shoes and DENY. Ok, starting to get a complex here and then the last night of course, tried it. So did it with style: wearing my beanie and tennis shoes. Oh yeah. DENIED.  

And a word about the girls here. It must be said. They could use some help in the beauty and fashion department. Their killer looks and hot outfits on skinny bodies are wasted on the typical Russian man, these are lucky men, my friends.

Other activities included a canal cruise which we both promptly fell asleep on; walking up to the Mariinsky theatre, famous for Tchaikovsky's works, and asking for 2 tickets to Mozart's The Wedding of Figaro, in tennis shoes; the Peter and Paul fortress with a picnic dinner of gourmet hamburgers and pizza. The most memorable parts were just wandering around and checking out the hoods, the random monastery we found after taking the water taxi purposely going the wrong direction, taking pictures of all the shoes and FMBs surreptitiously and buying cans of pre-mixed gin and tonic from a corner market, cute coffee shops, riding the Metro and last but not least, liquor lane, where any type of beer or alcohol is sold and then promptly consumed on the street.

And now on our first of many train rides across Russia. Next stop: Moscow!