Russia is at the border of Asia and Europe and thus you can see a mix of 2 cultures there. Its really an amazing country. St Petersburg was the old capital of Russia, with many many grand palaces and art museums, the most famous Hermitage (If you really look at all the art pieces inside, it will take 11 years to finish! I was lost for 2 hours inside trying to find Da Vinci which was actually on the 3rd level and trying to find the exit! ) I told many people its a strange country and i will touch on that later...some pictures first..
First supermakret stop in Russia near the border...We were supposed to buy food for lunch... but..
Russian vodka 1 bottle ~ 6 sgd Beer 1 sgd All the ang mohs rushed for it and they practically got drunk every single night.
And then we came to Vybrog, supposed to be a finnish town but due to war, it became a Russian town in 1938. If you can't get the alcohol in shops, they even have this man with a shopping car, selling cigarattes and even more alcohol! Welcome to the land of DRUNKARDS. Oh ya, we changed our EUROS to roubles on the bus as there was this walking bank, a man with millions of roubles (real) and changes money for you. Incredible!
and alcohol comes in all shapes and sizes! How cool! 
And with 3-4 hours more of bus ride, we finally reached our first hotel...Hotel Sovetskaya!
But it was a nitemarish start...because of the city's water system, you can't drink from the tap but the more amazing thing was, if u tried to fill up the bathtub with water, its BROWN in colour. SONG BOH!!! Totally disgusting. Our first room had no hot water so we complained to the counter. They sent a drunkard up, who fiddled with the tap for 1 minute and then gave up. When we went in to see, he removed the knob and yes, we can't even turn the tap now. WTF?!Did I say Russia was strange?! After numerous attempts, we finally managed to change to a better room.
The next day, we finally commenced on our city tour of St Petersburg! Finally some nice pictures! According to the guide, St Petersburg has an average of 35 sunny days a year (OMG) and has a totally of 364 bridges linking the various islands.
Me at a horse structure (I forgot the name!) in front of St Issac Cathedral at ploshchad Dekabristov (Decembrists' Square, named after an uprising in 14 Dec 1825) Btw everywhere in Russia is some kind of kaya kaya...Kievskaya, Sovetskaya, Mayakovskaya, Valdimirskaya, yayapapaya hahaha
St Issac Cathedral - It is one of the world's largest and most ornate cathedrals. The church was named in tribute to Peter the Great who was born on the day of St Issac of Dalmatia. Expensive to go into the church, so I only went up the colonnade for a sky view!
Next stop: Smolnyy Cathedral. Very striking because of its blue design. It was previously a convent founded to educate young nobleman, but nowadays its a concert and exhibition hall about its history. From the nearby Smolny Institue, Lenin orchestrated the Octorber Revolution in 1917
Me with some young russians who suddenly appear in droves. Everyone was so exicited and grab them to take pictures haha. Notice they are not looking at my camera hahahahaha
Rostral Columns on Vasilevsky Island, they are navigation beacons only lighted on special occassions like when I am in russia hahaha
View of the State Hermitage Museum across the river Neva. Note the frozen Neva.. you can actually walk on it! 
Me and the Trinity Bridge... Centre of bridge actually opens in Summer months for boats to pass through..
Church of the Spilled Blood It was built on where Alexander II was assissinated. It is very beautiful in typical soviet style. 
Souvenir market!
Things were not chepa so we..... took pictures instead keke
Chess boards and matryoshka dolls!
State Hermitage Museum No one will believe you went Russia if you din't visit this museum. One of the world's greatest art musuems. Better get a map inside if you dun want to get lost like me haha 
The Bronze horsman at my finger tips!
That pretty sums up the first day in St Petersburg! Will update about Moscow and more of St Petersburg when i get back from Easter break...See you 2 weeks later!
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