We’re in St. Petersburg today. We did get our individual Russian visas, so we were allowed to explore on our own. We took the ship’s shuttle into town, which dropped us at St. Isaac’s Cathedral. It is huge, and beautiful. We walked around the city, seeing many sites, including the Church of the Spilled Blood (see pictures). That was definitely worth the price of admission – absolutely incredible. We walked the length of Nevsy Prospekt (a long, main street), as well as taking many detours. I think it was probably 10 miles or more. We got to the end of the street and were too late to take the ship’s shuttle back to the ship, so we took the Metro and a city bus. Luckily, the Russian teacher on board the ship had written out the name of our stop at the port so we could get the right bus. Other than that, we didn’t have any problems at all.
The information I read before coming here had scared me a little that we might do something we shouldn’t, and get in trouble. Other than the very serious and stern border patrol people, I didn’t feel uneasy at all, and got my picture taken with some military guys! The city is quite cosmopolitan and in many ways just like other large cities we have visited. Advice for those who are going to visit Russia: No need really to learn the language. Just learn the alphabet and what sounds the letters make. You can sound out almost everything – Restaurant is written in Russian with the same phonetic sounds, so once you know those letters, you can easily find a restaurant, for example.
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