Can we go back to writing letters?

I always loved writing letters when I was younger...well, maybe not so much writing as receiving letters...especially when the sender had embellished the envelope with stickers or drawings and written on fancy paper! Ah, fancy paper....the joy of collecting it and swapping with your friends and sista! I still have mine in a little box, along with notebooks, stickers and all sorts of goodies that could make correspondence even more fun! So, when I grow up I want to have a space in my home for a desk for letter writing and drawers for my fancy stationery...

Romanov Palaces

Russia has such an interesting and at times brutal history, which is one of the reasons I suppose I find it so fascinating. Before heading back to visit this time I read a lot about the last Tsar and his family. While reading I learnt about some of the palaces in which they lived...they seemed to be endless! There were a few in particular that I wanted to visit.

The Winter Palace in St Petersburg is so accessible and worth a half day or full days visit as it houses the Hermitage museum. It is enormous and my favourite parts were the rooms of the palaces which were as they were during the times of the Tsars.

We did a daytrip to Peterhof, which is very easy to get to from the city by hydrofoil. It is very formal and what I imagine Versailles to be like. It gives you an idea of the riches of the Royal family. The grounds are huge and you can get a little train around them if you are feeling a bit lazy like we were. Otherwise you could spend a whole day wandering around here and bring a nice picnic to eat on the river or in a pasture.

The palace I most wanted to visit was he Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selowhere the last Tsarina was captured and taken from. Unfortunately we didn't make it there because some of our travel party were sick of palaces ;p Hopefully I'll get the chance to go back and finish my tour of palaces...St. Petersburg is a wonderful European/Russian city and now it is possible to visit from Finland without a visa it will make it easier to get back there.

Some Eye Candy from a Market in St.Petersburg

There is a wonderful tourist market near the Church on Spilled Blood, but be warned...haggle like there is no tomorrow or you will end up paying double or triple the price for some items. I was going to buy a watch at one stall but changed my mind and later bought it in Moscow for almost half the price!
The stallholders must be applauded for their displays....

Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

I first saw this church a few years ago at the end of my Trans-Siberian trip. I hadn't read anything about it before the trip. I had seen St. Basil's in Moscow which is a well known and easily recognisable landmark, but this was something I was not expecting. I was blown away...we turned a corner looking for the market to buy some souvenirs and up pops this onion domed beauty! It is quite different from St. Basil's with it's enamel domes and elaborately ornate mosaics and tiling...and in the competition for my favourite onion-dome Russian church, this one is the winner so far!
This Church was built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and was dedicated in his memory. There is a small gazebo over the place where his blood was spilt. On March 13, 1881 (Julian date: March 1), as Tsar Alexander's carriage passed along the embankment, a grenade thrown by an anarchist conspirator exploded. The tsar, shaken but unhurt, got out of the carriage and started to remonstrate with the presumed culprit. Another conspirator took the chance to explode another bomb, killing himself and mortally wounding the tsar. The tsar, bleeding heavily, was taken back to the Winter Palace where he died a few hours later.

Borscht...what girl doesn't love a soup that turns pink!

We got lucky in St. Petersburg with a great recommendation for a restaurant close to our hostel. Zoom cafe was AMAZING! Delicious food, menu in english, selection of russian cuisine with a twist and a dessert named 'call your parents cake'! So we basically stalked them, going for 2 meals a day a couple of the days we were in the city. Oh, I almost forgot to metion that they have teddy bears there too! So you can sit with your fluffy friend and have your cold borscht with sour cream, or a million other dishes all served with a sprinkling of dill (they just love that stuff in Russia!)

Marry me on Nevsky Prospect...

Our first day in St. Petersburg we were introduced to weddings Russian stylee...this is the main street in the city and it is BUSY! But don't let the traffic whizzing by put you off getting your perfect wedding pic :)