Visit Peterhof
by american_tourister
The tour of the palaces surrounding St. Petersburg is well worth the cost and effort. Peterhof (Summer palace of Peter the Great) is just breathtaking. We spent a day touring the palaces with a private driver and guide. The conceirge at the Astoria hotel set it up for us. It was well worth the time and effort. We did not wait in any lines. The guide always took us in the back way to everything.
Canals (Part II)
by Canadienne
Boat trips through the canals can easily be found on Nevsky Prospekt at the bridge over the Moika and at the bridge over the Griboedova (further west)
As the city is sometimes referred to as The Venice of the North, it would be a shame to miss out on this special aspect of it. Our boat ride cost the equivalent of 10 USD per person and lasted just over an hour, with a commentary in Russian. The language was irrelevant though, as the singular draw is the view. . .
Russians and vodka
by sophiebeans
Russians sure can put away a lot of vodka! I consider myself to be a pretty heavy drinker, but on my first night in St. Petersburg, Babushka made a toast to my arrival, and when I drank whatever was in the glass, I started to cough and wheeze! Potent stuff! Pictured here is my young friend, Val teaching me to correct way to drink a shot of vodka: with a pickle chaser! Nas Dorov'ya, Val!
Playing violoncello
by alcalacurro
Music is part of the Russian culture and you can see this artistic manifestation everywhere. In St. Petersburg there are many palaces where you can appreciate what Russian people felt about music since ancient times. Music rooms are dispersed in the different corridors and reminiscences about famous figures are in the brains of everybody.
One option here is taking music classes like me in the photo. I studied here one days with the cellist of a quartet music group. They invited me to go to one of their concerts in the Music Museum and was exactly what I did. The concert was celebrated there between chamber music and a fabulous singer accompanied with a piano. The museum is fantastic to see different music instruments around all parts of the world.
Ancient, exotic or experimental string instruments are distributed along palace rooms.
Vyritsa
by Lalique
Vyritsa is a village about 20-30km from St. Pete, it is known to be one the best dacha places and it is indeed. One can witness a lot of old dacha buildings, some of which unfortunatwly were abandoned and fell into decay, but still keep the traces of the past beauty.
The village as well is known for the church of Lady of Kazan', which was built without a single nail (!!!). The church inside is of dark wood as well, which makes the whole atmosphere dim and sets the mind to think of eternity of existence....