St Petersburg.

St Petersburg is amazing, so much history, so much extravagance, so many people and so much poverty. We visited many palaces and learnt about Rasputin, Peter the Great and many more. I'll never be able to remember everything but found it so very interesting. The gold gilding throughout the palaces is extravagant, especially when you are told that it has to be re-done every 25 years. In the suburbs the poorer people live in high rise boxes with no lifts or air conditioning. The majority of the outer suburb accommodation buildings were erected in the sixties and are in need of some serious repairs.

The palaces are now museums and in every room there are ladies sitting, watching everything you do with eagle eyes and solemn faces! They are there to make sure you don't touch anything. Malcolm calls them Net Net ladies (net is 'no' in Russian) and I was Net Neted twice for leaning on a pillar.

St Petersburg is known as the Venice of The North, so it was understandable that we went for a cruise through the many canals. Malcolm produced two bottles of vodka and multiple bottles of Champagne. By the end of the cruise the tour group was very merry and we were constantly waving and greeting the passing Russians with a cheery 'how ya goin mate' in order to squeeze a smile out of them...it worked!

Several of the palaces had to be restored after the war, fortunately many of the gold ornaments and chandaliers were buried before the Germans invaded and then dug up afterwards.

Another highlight was a Russian Folklore evening with Cossack dances, songs, instruments and costumes from the region. The costumes were magnificent and the Cossack dancers were a sight to behold.