Russia

April 2018 - March 2024
An open-ended adventure by Kerrilyn
Currently traveling
  • 48footprints
  • 4countries
  • 2,185days
  • 342photos
  • 19videos
  • 31.0kkilometers
  • 30.4kkilometers
  • Day 1

    Adelaide to Qatar

    April 6, 2018 in Qatar ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    Well, we survived the first plane trip relatively well. It was about 13 hours all up. We had an uneventful trip down to Adelaide and Grandpa and Grandma dropped us off at the airport after providing us with a light dinner. We saw a few other Christadelphians at the airport - Penns, Mees. Also had a quick chat to Auntie Ruth Gore who was there with Uncle Peter seeing off the Penns and a few others I didn’t know.

    Heidi was pretty good on the flight. She slept for about 7-8 hours. The others managed to score a spare row each after everyone had been seated so were able to lie down to sleep. I sat next to Heidi and kept an eye on her - she fell off the seat once. I had gone to the toilet and had to wait a while in line - on the way back was told by the hostess that people weren’t allowed to sleep on the floor - I said, who’s on the floor? “Your baby,” she said. Oops. She had rolled onto the floor. She looked quite comfortable but I had to put her back on the seat. I didn’t feel like a had a lot of sleep - I hate sleeping upright and being pregnant didn’t help. I swapped with Eli later on and managed to get a couple of hours.

    We didn’t spend long in Qatar before jumping on the next plane. We had just enough time to refresh ourselves and grab smoothie before finding the gate. Heidi has enjoyed going on a bus, train and plane as we were moved around the airport.
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  • Day 2

    Qatar to St Petersburg

    April 7, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

    We didn’t have to wait around in Qatar for long before boarding the next flight. Just long enough to refresh ourselves, get a smoothie and stretch our legs a bit.

    The next flight seemed interminable. It was only about 5 hours but I was quite over being squished on a plane seat at this point. We had a cute little Russian boy in the seat in front who kept popping his head over the seat and trying to share his elephant with Heidi. He reminded me so much of Caleb and Manda’s Noah.

    Again Heidi was pretty good on the flight - she slept for a couple of hours. We were served breakfast for the third time 😂 Peeking out the window when we were flying over Georgia we started to see mountains with snow on top. Then coming into St Petersburg there was more snow and even massive lakes covered in ice.

    Going through customs was pretty standard and we had a taxi driver waiting for us with Michael’s name on a sign. It was cool to be one of those people for once! It didn’t actually feel that cold walking outside - it was sunny but not windy. We felt a little conspicuous being the only ones in t-shirts while everyone else was rugged up in coats and scarves! When we arrived at our apartment however we certainly felt the cold as there was a bit of a breeze. I think it was about 6 degrees.

    We thought we found the right apartment and lugged the suitcases up the stairs but then the number wasn’t clear on the door. So Mike and Kyria went off to find some wifi so they could contact the owner and figure it out Eli and I tried to keep Heidi quiet in the meanwhile but she would not sit still or be quiet! We just hoped there wasn’t anyone snoozing!

    Someone finally arrived to let us in and showed us around. It was a decent sized place. We asked the lady a few questions about the area - she spoke some English thankfully. Then once she left we showered and changed into warmer clothes before heading out to explore and get some dinner.

    Some observations - people don’t appear to wash their cars in At Petersburg which makes me feel better about ours and so many people smoke!

    The area we are staying in seemed a bit more run down - but it could just be it’s spring and everything is brown and recovering from winter. The building look a bit sad and not particularly impressive.

    Heidi was getting cold so we stopped at a cafe to get something to eat. We were struggling to find anything particularly Russian and ended up having hot chocolate with rum (not me!), soup and paninis.

    Then we headed back to the apartment to put Heidi to bed. Mike and Kyria went out for another walk and the rest of us crashed pretty early. I couldn’t keep my eyes open past 8pm!
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  • Day 3

    Morning in St Petersburg

    April 8, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ☀️ 1 °C

    We had an early morning wake up from Heidi at around 4am. We tried to get her to stay in bed til six but to no avail! We had had about 7-8 hours sleep so it wasn’t dreadful. Eli made her some milk and porridge for breakfast and the rest of us had arisen by 6.

    Nothing much would be open this time of the morning but we decided to head out at and enjoy not having so many people around. It was worth it to get photos without lots of people in them!

    So we trooped out - takes a bit of time donning all the coats, scarves etc and we were feeling hot by the time we left the apartment. It was a lovely 1 degrees outside so we were glad of all the wraps however.

    The streets were quite empty. We would have to wait a bit for breakfast too as nothing was open yet. We walked in the opposite direction to yesterday and finally saw the beautiful buildings we had been expecting. I love the colours and elaborate detail. Pity they don’t build like that today!

    We made a sumptuous breakfast at The Coffee House. It was a challenge trying to figure out what the menu was as the only English words on the menu were breakfast, lunch and dinner. We managed with some help from the waitress who spoke better English than we did Russian. However its surprising how little English is spoken. Even in the toruisty places like the museums etc they don’t speak English! Kyria is doing well with the Russian she has learnt so far.

    I’ve decided to split the day up into different footprints as I’m going to struggle to limit each day to 10 photos otherwise so apologies if that’s a pain to read! So thus ends this footprint!
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  • Day 3

    Winter Palace

    April 8, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    We bumped into a couple of Australians of all people in the Palace Square, although the wife was originally from South Africa and the husband sounded English!! They asked if we were from England 😂 sounds like they do a bit of travelling - lots of cycling round Europe etc. They were an older couple, quite friendly. I think the conversation started cos they heard us speaking English and asked if we knew what the memorial was for in the square - we didn’t have a clue either.

    We spent a couple of hours at the winter palace which is now an art museum of sorts. This was located at Palace Square mentioned earlier. It was so beautiful inside - very ornate and decorative. It blows me away how every room was different as far as design. You think they’d run out of ideas! Eli and I had a little difficulty getting in to the palace. We had bought tickets from booths outside - Heidi was apparently free. This saved lining up to get a ticket inside. But they wouldn’t let us through without a ‘free admission ticket’ for Heidi!! Whoever heard of such a thing. So we had to go back and line up at the ticket office to get her a free ticket. Crazy.

    Heidi was pretty good in the palace. Hmm, except for the one room where they had a decorative rotunda which had do not touch signs all over it - Heidi decided it would be good to climb on much to our embarrassment 😳 We weren’t able to bring the backpack in with us so of course this is when she decided to go to sleep and Eli had to carry her round in his arms. Michael had a turn lugging her when Eli’s arms gave out.

    There is still a bit of snow around as you can see in the photos - Heidi enjoyed tramping around in it.

    Another observation - there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of road rules over here. People don’t use their indicators and seem to travel at all kinds of speeds around the place! When there’s roadworks or work going on the side of the road there’s no orange cones and slow down speed signs and all that! We had a laugh at how different it would be in Australia!
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  • Day 3

    Hop On - Hop Off Bus

    April 8, 2018 in Russia ⋅ 🌙 5 °C

    Outside The Hermitage (winter palace) there was a line up of horses and carriages to take people for a tour of the city. The tourists and number of people around had greatly increased since we had entered earlier on. Heidi was much taken with the horses and was most reluctant to keep walking. After some deliberation and consultation at the tourist office we decided to take a hop on - hop off bus around to see the main sights of the city. We had apparently just missed a bus and it would be 40 mins before another came along so we decided to take a walk to the next stop. Heidi spied a playground in a park nearby and wanted a play so we promised we’d visit it after the bus trip.

    There were a couple of buses waiting here to go so we didn’t have to wait too much longer. I have to say it was one of the worst hop on-hop off bus trips I’ve done! The audio wasn’t in sync with the location of the bus so half the time we hadn’t arrived at the particular place that was being discussed so we were a little bit lost! Heidi had a great time however and enjoyed waving to people and narrating what was happening on the street below. There weren’t many other people on the bus so almost had it it ourselves. We enjoyed having some sit down time and stayed on the bus for the whole circuit.

    We split up after the bus trip - Mike and Kyria went to sort our tickets to a folk dancing show for another night, Eli went to find some lunch for Heidi and I took Heidi to the park. I regretted that she wasn’t wearing gumboots as it was quite muddy and puddly around the playground - no bark chips like at home! Of course Heidi was immediately drawn to the puddles and within the first five minutes had splashed muddy water over her shoes and pants and had a wet dirty backside after deciding to sit and play in the mud. She is so hard to keep off the ground! So many times today she would just decide to sit or lie on the ground. The playground was pretty neat otherwise. It was made mostly of wood which is a nice change, although you think that would be more maintenance. Eli joined me later with some fruit from a supermarket as a snack to tide us over until dinner.

    Once Mike and Kyria caught us up we decided to walk back to the apartment as we needed to change Heidi and we could take a break before having dinner. I’ve been taking every spare moment to keep working on the blog and used this downtime to add a couple more posts while I had wifi access.

    We visited the flea market we had found yesterday. After today’s experience at the park we thought it might be a good idea to get Heidi some more water proof shoes. Her feet were soaked after the visit to the playground! We found a shoe shop there but had some difficulty finding shoes that were easy to put on. Then Heidi decided she needed the toilet, although Eli had asked her countless times before we left if she needed to go. So we dropped the shopping and walked the other way to find somewhere to eat dinner and Heidi could visit the bathroom. Within a few steps though she had zonked out in Eli’s arms (again when we didn’t have the backpack!). She had only had an hour sleep today and woken up early so we should have been more prepared for that. We decided to still go out for tea although Eli was stressing the whole way to the restaurant that Heidi would wet herself!

    We visited a place we had passed on our walking today called Zoom Café. It was the cutest little cafe that really catered towards kids. It was down a few steps and was such a cozy little place with nooks and crannies. Everyone was given a sheet of paper to do drawing and there were kids toys and books scattered around the place. We had to wake Heidi up which she wasn’t happy about but she calmed down eventually and was happy to draw and read some books. The food was pretty yummy. We would like to come here again to eat cos it was such a cool little place.

    Back at the apartment we all crashed again. I think jet lag has affected us all somewhat! So ends our first full day in St Petersburg. We’re all loving it and so far Heidi is travelling really well.
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  • Day 4

    Statute of Lenin

    April 9, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Heidi didn’t wake up until 6am this morning so it’s getting better!

    We were taking the metro across the Neva River today to visit some of the landmarks over there. We didn’t leave until nearly 8 this morning. I’m hoping Mike and Kyria aren’t getting frustrated at how long we take to get out the door! After yesterday though we were a bit more organised with a spare change of clothes for Heidi and a sachet for her lunch if needed.

    The metro was only a relatively short walk from our apartment. Heidi went in the backpack of her own volition which was a good decision as there were so many people in the metro she would have been in the way. I may have commented on this before but people in the metro seem like soldiers - masses all silently marching through the corridors to their respective trains. It was so deep underground too - we were on the long escalator from top to bottom for about 3 mins plus another few steps down to the station itself!

    We were a little unsure as to the direction we needed to walk when we came out the other end and had to pull out the map. A lady approached us and stood there silently, ready to help. She didn’t speak English but we were able to make ourselves understood and she pointed us in the right direction. She’s the second person however to look at me and talk to me as though I spoke Russian! I’m sure I don’t look Russian! Kyria reckoned it was my colourful dress style 😂

    We dutifully found and viewed the statute of Lenin which from behind looked like he was giving a thumbs up! We had yet to eat breakfast but there didn’t seem to be any cafes open so we decided to head towards the cabin of Peter the Great and find something along the way.

    It was quite a picturesque walk along the Neva River, watching the ice floes float down the river. It was a gorgeous day today - think it was supposed to get to 11 today so and we were already starting to remove coats and scarves! We passed a rather ominous looking boat which I think you could do a tour on but they weren’t open when we walked past.

    The next stop was breakfast.
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  • Day 4

    Peter the Great's Cabin

    April 9, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We filled our bellies with breakfast - croissants, muesli and the like. I really do love the croissants you get in Europe - nothing like them back home. Food is so cheap over here too - Eli had soup, I had a croissant and a bowl of muesli, Heidi had a croissant and it all only cost $10! I had a chocolate croissant and it was delicious - not trying to make you all jealous or anything 😂

    Peter the Great’s cabin was the first building constructed in St Petersburg. It took 3 days to make and he only lived in it for 3 weeks - 20 years later it was made a museum of sorts! They have constructed a building around the cabin to protect it. It was known as a palace and a chapel in its time. It was a very simple building - doesn’t look like it would have been very warm!

    We sat down for a bit outside to give our feet a break. I think we were all feeling a little bit weary today with all the walking we had been doing - I know I certainly was and took every opportunity to sit down! Heidi was looking tired so we put her in the backpack and she was asleep within a few minutes. She’s certainly getting worn out and crashing quickly when she’s tired.
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  • Day 4

    Peter and Paul Fortress

    April 9, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We continued walking along the river to the next stop being the Peter and Paul Fortress which is on Rabbit Island. This was also founded by Peter the Great. It was still used as a prison and execution ground by the Bolshevik Government in the 1920s. It was originally built to protect from a Swedish attack which never happened. A few facts for the history buffs.

    Heidi woke up after about 10 minutes of being here which was a pain - she’d only had about 20 mins sleep. We think the backpack was digging into her arms. She was then a bit of a pain for the rest of the walking around which quite impacted our enjoyment of the site.

    We visited the Peter and Paul Cathedral which is the burial place of all Russian Tsars. The last remains of Nicholas II and his family were also interred and placed in here. They were unable to locate the remains of one of his daughters and Alexy the son. The other place we visited within there was the prison where political prisoners and convicts were placed. The conditions didn’t look too bad considering some prisons I’ve seen, although the solitary confinement was fairly grim. It was dark, they wouldn’t give you bedding so all you had was an iron bedstead to lie on, there was no heating and the walls would reach freezing temperatures. Ugh.

    Heidi was getting quite ratty by this point so we gave her some lunch. Eli and I were feeling quite despondent due to having to continually address Heidi’s behaviour but were much revived by chocolate bars which Michael and Kyria came back with. It’s amazing what a bit of sugar can do to lift your spirits! I think though that a common phrase of the journey is “come on please Heidi”! We had a last view of the river from the fortress where there was a number of people making the most of the sunlight along the outside of the walls, sunbathing.

    We were ready to head back to the apartment at this point. Eli and I grabbed a hot dog from a stand nearby which was actually quite nice and we made the long trek over the river and back to the apartment. Heidi started in the backpack with Michael carrying her but she became uncomfortable so she ended up being carried by Eli most of the way and then Kyria did the home stretch. She gets heavy very quickly!

    My feet were killing me by the time we came back! I’ve been putting my feet up for the last hour or so doing the blog. We will head out for tea later. It’s been nice to chill at the apartment. Heidi has had other ideas about going to sleep however which might make tonight interesting 🙄
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  • Day 4

    Dinner

    April 9, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Eli found a restaurant offering Russian cuisine for dinner tonight. We were all pretty hungry so after chilling at the apartment and doing a bible reading we trooped our for dinner.

    It was quite a fancy place. The waiter spoke really good english and was really friendly, happily answering any questions we had about the menu and general stuff about Russia.

    They also seem to love kids over here, or perhaps that’s just worldwide. Apparently there’s a saying in Russia “he who smiles at nothing is a fool” or “laughing for no reason is a sign of stupidity”! so people will not just smile at you as you walk past them. But Heidi always gets a smile and attention from people. They’ll stop to let her pat their dog or smile at her fondly as they walk past. And tonight at the restaurant the young waiter gave Heidi a lot of attention, it was cute. He’d smile at her from across the room, offered her her own plate and cutlery, just little things and then at the end made sure he particularly said goodbye to her.

    The food was amazing - so tasty and it was fun trying different dishes - we had caviar, elk, venison, rabbit to name a few. Dessert was also delicious as you can admire from the photo 😋

    Eli and I returned to the apartment with Heidi who was looking extremely sleepy and mike went with Kyria who wanted to get some night photos.
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  • Day 5

    Peterhof Palace

    April 10, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C

    This morning we were venturing further out of the city to the Peterhof Palace. We had to use the metro and then catch a bus the rest of the way.

    First though we wanted to find somewhere to eat breakfast. Kyria really wanted to find a bakery this time so we headed to the metro and walked around the block until we came across one. As soon as we opened the door the smell that assailed ones nose was sublime! Warm and like fresh bread...funnily enough.

    We left with packets of croissants, cinnamon scrolls and a few other varieties to tide us over until lunch.

    The metro trip was pretty straightforward and we were able to walk out and almost immediately find a bus to take us out to Peterhof where the palace was located. It was more of a mini van than a bus but people seemed to be able to use their travel cards on it as well. The driver had all the money sitting in front of him on the dash and seemed quite adept at taking money and handing back change as he was driving! There weren’t that many seats though and people had to do some shuffling when others had to get off. Luckily it wasn’t full when we hopped on so we all found seats. It was about 1/2 hour - 40 minutes bus ride.

    It was nice to view the outskirts of St Petersburg as we drove past. We could imagine how beautiful it would look when it had greened up and the trees weren’t bare. There was still beauty there though.

    I have so many photos from today I’ll have to split this up a lot!
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