I have never been to Russia so I was very excited about this visit - finally a 'cool' work trip!!
To get to St Petes we had to fly into Moscow and then take a domestic flight into St Pete's - SCARY!!!!! We landed and supposedly had 2 hours to get our connection but the terminal was a 20 min taxi ride away, as we came out of baggage control we were hounded by taxi drivers and all I kept thinking was thank god I am not on my own... once in a taxi and driving we were all looking at each other thinking there is maybe a 50% chance that we are going to end up at the terminal and a 50% chance we are going somewhere else.... Thankfully we arrived at the terminal and I wish I could have taken photos because I cannot describe it but there was no way I was going to I was too scared!!! Anyway we missed our flight so had to take a later one but eventually we were on the plane and lets just say that everything you have ever heard about Russian airlines is true. I would strongly advise against using them..!
First glimpse of St Pete's - its midnight but still daylight....so bizarre!!
The taxi driver drove us to the hotel the scenic route - this was definitely going to be a cool trip some of the sights were incredible! Here's a taster!
Thursday morning it was straight into the factory for a day long meeting and a factory tour but at 5.30 we were off and they had arranged for us to go on a boat trip because St Pete's is the Venice of the North and there are lots of canals... very pretty indeed.
At the end of the trip we came out of the canals and into the main bay, this fountain was incredible and the view behind was amazing too! This is the Winter Palace... wow!
St Pete's is truly a WOW city you just do not stop saying WOW every time you see something spectacular, its so opulent, its Putin's home city and so it has a lot of money spent on it, apparently for the city's 300th anniversary every cobblestone was picked up and relaid...
After the boat trip we went for dinner and we were spoilt... very spoilt! The factory manager insisted that we should try caviar for starters so most of us did. Sturgeon black caviar is apparently the best you can get - the cost we later found out was 3200rubbles for 50g... that's $120!!!!!!!
So it was 10.30pm and Wayne said that I needed a photo of outside
After our amazing dinner we headed back to the hotel and had a drink there, Fred went off and came back saying he had hired a minibus for the next morning and we were having a tour of St Pete's starting at 7.30am! So the sensible thing would have been to head to bed given it was 1am... but no... someone suggested going to another bar and I said great idea we should see all the sites of St Pete's!!!
These photos are a lot darker than it really was - it was like dusk but it never went dark - I kept going outside to check!! Nutter!!
So I ended up going to bed at 3.30am and the alarm went off 6.30 so that I could have breakfast before going on our tour....
First stop was the Winter Palace /Hermitage
Then it was the Church of Spilled Blood - the colours were amazing on the inside too.... very un-church like! Outside this church there was a small market and my boss decided he wanted to buy some hats so we hat to model them!!
Then Peter and Paul's fortress - looking up at this spire it really looked like it was swaying I thought it might have been my hangover but we all felt it!!
Next stop was the statue of Peter the Great!
The last stop was probably the most amazing this very unassuming church was totally AMAZING inside.... now I am not religious but as I walked into this church the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my eyes filled up with tears it was incredible, the sheer size, the architecture, the space, the paintings, the artwork, the Russian ladies praying.... it was breath taking.
So that was our whirlwind tour of St Pete's... WOW hey! Best work trip I have been on!!
So then it was a case of St Pete's to Frankfurt to London and finally just a few hours later Boston and home!! 4 countries in one day... not a bad day on 3 hours sleep!!
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