Sightseeing in St Petersburg

Hi everyone!

After we got off the night train we were all so exhausted but we had another full day of sightseeing in St Petersburg!


The first place we went to was a cathedral. It was as beautiful inside as it was outside but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.


Afterwards we went to the Yusupov Palace which was huge and had so many amazing rooms with massive chandeliers.









The palace even included it's own private theatre and this was my favourite room because it was decorated in gold with velvet, burgundy curtains.



We made a quick stop for some photos (it is unreal how many statues of horses there are in St Petersburg!).








In the evening we went to a folklore show. Before it started we had a fancy dinner in the Nikolayevsky Palace where the folklore show was held (shown below).






And they had English Breakfast tea!!




The folklore show consisted of Russian dancing and singing and we all really enjoyed it!




The next day we got up bright and early and set off for some more sightseeing. We had a quick stop to take pictures of the Winter Palace (also known as the Hermitage Museum) which we visited later on that day.




The picture above shows how cold it was there! It actually felt a bit warmer than Moscow but it was still ice cold!


We crossed this bridge to get to the Peter and Paul Fortress and Prisons where there was another cathedral which was just as impressive as the one we visited the day before.






Then we headed to the Church on Spilled Blood (below). Despite it's name it was really pretty on the outside but unfortunately there wasn't enough time to go inside because we were on a really tight tour.




Although we were in Russia we still made time for lunch in an American diner called Long Island Diner and Bar.






Next we went to the Winter Palace where the Hermitage Museum is. The palace was so huge and (according to Wikipedia) has been calculated to contain 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 rooms and 117 staircases.








The rooms were covered in gold with columns and chandeliers everywhere. Even though it was so amazing (as the pictures show), after walking through different palaces for several days we were actually quite accustomed to walking through gold rooms!










One of my favourite parts of the Hermitage was the painting shown in the two pictures above. Our tour guide told us to stand on one side of the painting and then the other and it was so weird because the painting seemed to change in proportions! As you can see in the first picture, the building looks so much bigger than the sea, but in the second one, when you look from the perspective of the boats, the sea looks so much bigger than the building. I got so excited by this and kept running back and forth from one side to the other but I couldn't figure out how it worked!



Maybe the most anticipated part of the trip was the visit to the Mariinsky Theatre to see the ballet 'Swan Lake'. I don't know much about technical ballet but it was such an amazing performance and I loved all the costumes! The show was split into 3 parts and lasted just over 3 hours - both the dancing and the music were incredible!




Our last day in St Petersburg was sadly cloudy and wet but luckily it didn't rain too much when we were outside. Despite the weather we were all excited to go to our last visit which was the Catherine Palace.




This palace was a great place to end our Russia trip and after our tour ended we went off to the airport and took off for England.


The whole trip was so fun and it was really unusual for me because I have never been to an Eastern country before so I found it so interesting. I would definitely recommend going to Russia but I would also say that it is probably better to go on a tour or with a Russian speaker because it could be quite difficult otherwise! 


I hope you enjoyed this post - I really enjoyed writing it!


Love 


Emma

xxx

The Night Train

Hi everyone!

I thought I would do a separate post for this part of my Russia trip because I that it was such a weird experience that it deserved it's own post! After we had finished sight-seeing in Moscow we traveled to St Petesburg on the night train.


When we got on the train at around midnight it was snowing outside so I thought it felt as though we were in a Harry Potter film (minus Voldemort) because it was so magical! The compartments were similar to the Hogwarts Express, except instead of seats there were beds and there were also two other beds on top (like bunk beds). 

It was so cramped in the compartment and each suitcase had to be placed underneath the beds on the bottom bunk. On the other hand I think that the crampedness was a small price to pay seeing as there was free Wi-Fi which we all thoroughly made use of!

Although it was a night train, sleeping did not seem to be a possibility because the sunshine shone under the curtains straight into my eyes so I didn't sleep much at all!

All in all this was such a fun experience but I'm also not sure I'll be doing it again in a hurry!

Love

Emma
xxx

Moscow Madness

Hi everyone!

Today's post is travel themed because last week I went on a trip to Russia! I went for five nights and I went to both Moscow and St Petesburg. This post is going to be mainly pictures but I'll also write a bit about what we did. Because I have so many pics I thought I would do two separate posts for Moscow and St Petesburg - I hope you like them and I hope everyone had a great Easter!

Love

Emma
xxx






On our first morning in Moscow we went to Red Square which is probably the most famous place in Moscow. I think the thing that shocked everyone so my was that it was absolutely freezing! I thought because it was sunny it would be ok but every time the wind blew it was literally as if a freezer hit you in the face. Although funnily enough our tour guide insisted that the weather was really warming up and that we were really lucky that it wasn't colder!

I really enjoyed walking around Red Square despite the cold and taking loads of photos which you can see a few of above.



On the Red Square there is an absolutely massive shopping centre all inside when we actually only went into at first the escape the cold, but we ended up looking around more because it was so pretty! There were three floors and lots of cute bridges and flowers. We only went into one shop because we were on a scheduled tour and also it was very expensive and the shop assistants followed us around which was a bit uncomfortable so we made a speedy exit!


We then went to a cathedral which was so pretty because it was all white with gold domes and definitely looked very typically Russian! The inside was also really impressive but unfortunately you couldn't take photos. 


In the evening we went to a circus in the middle of Moscow. I don't really know what I was expecting because I had never been to a circus before so when we went in the stage was in the middle and everyone sat around the outside. The acrobatics were amazing but the animal acts were sometimes a bit cruel. Even though I didn't enjoy all the acts I'm so glad I got to experience what a real Moscow circus was like!

The next day we got up bright and early to go to the Kremlin which is the residence of the Russian President and the Russian Federation. I'm not going to lie, I'm not all that interested in History but I enjoyed going around the Kremlin so much just because all the buildings were huge with golden domes and they were so different to any buildings in England.









After the Kremlin we went on a tour of the metro. This might sound quite weird if you're used to the London tubes because I'm pretty sure no one would do a tour of them unless they wanted to hear the whole 'please mind the gap' voice. The Russian metro on the other hand is completely different. Every station we went to was so pretty with stain glass windows or mosaics or paintings - definitely my fave metro!








After the metro we went to a Russian market where there were so many Russian dolls and fur hats! I naturally hat to buy a fur hat which stayed on my head pretty much the whole rest of the trip. Buying everything was actually so stressful because we were told to barter and I just didn't know how low to go on prices and it was just quite awkward but I did manage to get some bargains (or I thought they were bargains anyway!)








Our last night in Moscow we spent in Red Square (again) and it was so beautiful at night!




The department store we went to the day before was all lit up and it looked so Disney so I loved it!





Then we rushed from Red Square to the night train to head to St Petesburg and I will be uploading some more posts so you can see that. 

Thank you (and congrats) for reading this super long post! 
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