Last Minute Trip to St. Petersburg…sure why not!

i just need to take a minute to be very proud of myself. i am currently winning the war with my travel anxiety! we decided 3 days ago that we should take a last minute trip to st. petersburg, russia since we are over here. my first reaction was to come up with about 7 excuses about why i shouldn’t go and then i thought “hey! don’t let this win again…just go with the flow and see what happens.”

farah and i stayed up until 3am trying to book flights (turns out a flight was cheaper than the seats left on the 9 hour one-way train ride) and after lots of obstacles…trip complete. we got up at 3:37am this morning to make our 7am flight and i continued to tell myself “just go with the flow and it will work out.”

now looking at this picture 17 hours later…i have only slight recollection of taking this photo.

it was a zippy 1 hour 10 minute flight from moscow to st. petersburg. i also experienced the fastest and one of the more terrifying taxi rides of my life (actually we decided ALL of our lives). we were definitely pushing 100 miles per hour for the majority of the ride. i cannot begin to think about the ride back.

thankfully they got us to our hotel and we immediately all took an unattractive nap in lobby while they prepared our rooms at the marriott courtyard st. petersburg/pushkin hotel. they woke one of us up (i don’t think it was me) and said they had 1 room ready if we would like to go snore in there instead of the lobby. okay…they didn’t say the snoring part but it’s true. thankfully it was double beds and 3 people piled on for each bed for a 2 hour nap before exploring. travel makes you close, people.

did you notice i’m slightly more fashionable? my husband wheeled and dealed in a market in moscow and got me a new grey coat. i’m a little in love with it.

we decide to grab some lunch at a small russian restaurant called “cafe USSR” that had some interesting USSR things inside of it but incredibly affordable and decent food. ravery and i ate for $10! this is compared to the $8 coffee i drank in the airport this morning-yikes.

next we set off to explore the city like some straight up tourists….big red city bus tour!

i have never done one of these before and i will absolutely do it again in big cities any time i can! it was great to listen to an audio tour in your language to learn about what you are seeing. it cost about $15 a person and lasts 2 hours. here’s what i look like as a tourist:

the city of st. petersburg is quite large and filled with a ton of history. unfortunately my brain is fried and i have to be up in 7 hours so here’s a few of my favorites.

“church on split blood” (pretend the top isn’t cut off because i couldn’t fit the whole church in from our double decker position).  this site is where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and is dedicated to his memory. completed in 1907.

this statue is of Bronze Horseman, Étienne Maurice Falconet’s equestrian statue of Peter the Great (1782) but what’s way more impressive to me is that it sits atop a 4 MILLION POUND STONE. even more impressive-it was moved only by human power. i know. let that sink in. it makes me want to start doing more push ups.

again…highly recommend  the city tour even though it blatantly calls you out as a tourist. also-remember to bring adequate clothing because my teeth were certainly chattering when the sun went down by the end of it.

while we waited for our shuttle back to the hotel, we caught the sky bursting in to breathtaking colors along Nevsky Prospect, one of the main avenues of st. petersburg and best known streets in russia (or so i’m told in my audio tour).

tonight we sleep deep and fast because tomorrow consists of a big day at the Hermitage Museum. i am beyond excited and told ravery i won’t be ridiculous and try to see all 3 million pieces of art, sculptures, artifacts but only like 1.9 million.

the new wifestyle: don’t let irrational fears or thoughts take control of your world because you will never know what will change you.

questions:
1) what’s the most last minute trip you’ve taken?
2) have you ever done a city tour of a new place on a bus? where at?
3) what are you looking forward to most about your weekend?