Today is the second anniversary of me flying back into Moscow from my adventures in Murmansk, Ekaterinburg and Perm, the second anniversary of seeing Red Square properly for the first time, and I think the post I’m going to commemorate the event with is this one, Russia on film. Back in 2018, I found three… More Russia on film
I’m not a big museums fan. I’m not a high art or culture sort of person. At the risk of sounding like a brat, I’ve been to the Louvre, I’ve been to the Hermitage before. It’s not my thing. But in St Petersburg, I felt like I really should make the effort to go to… More A day at the Hermitage
There are two main churches to visit in St Petersburg, once you’re done with all the other delights like the Peter & Paul Fortress, the Hermitage labyrinth and more palaces than you can imagine, many of them now home to the sort of staples a big city like this needs more in the twenty-first century… More Great churches in St Petersburg
I love a boat trip. I nearly froze to death out on the river in Rīga in November two years ago, I went on three different boats in Malta earlier in the year, I did the canal boat in Amsterdam last year (another case of nearly freezing to death) and by the time you read… More A boat trip around St Petersburg
My first morning in St Petersburg was too hot by far and I got off to a bad start by having a pitched battle with a first a metro machine that refused to sell me a smartcard and then a metro machine that was extremely reluctant to sell me tokens. Add to that my local… More Peter & Paul Fortress: my first day in St Petersburg
It was the morning of my first Russian domestic voyage. I was starting small: Moscow to St Petersburg, but how to do it? It’s a short hop on a plane. When we did it on the school trip in 2002 we took the overnight train. But my mum, already delirious with panic over the idea… More The Sapsan high-speed train: a bullet on a coffee table
On Monday I told you all about my visit to Russia in 2002 – specifically the Moscow half of the trip. When we left the story, we were on the overnight train to St Petersburg. And now it’s very early in the morning and we’ve arrived in Russia’s second city. No one’s really slept much,… More Russia 2002: St Petersburg