St. Petersburg

The first day was mostly just getting to the hostel. We spent about an hour trying to get into the metro from the train station. Excluding one girl who just ignored us, we asked three people how to get to it and couldn't find any door that lead in to it. We found two sets that lead out though. Eventually we found a map and found out we were only and a 20 minute walk from our hostel. With our bags at the heaviest they have ever been it took a bit longer than 20 minutes but our hostel here is really nice. The girl running it is very friendly and we got some really good food and just sorted ourselves out. Next day was spent sight seeing. We saw a few of the parks and palaces that St. Petersburg has to offer and bought a few sweets for the guys back home. Brian made a complete mess of using his Visa card in a shop and caused a big queue and a lot of confusion I doubt we could have understood even if we spoke basic Russian (my Visa card has expired). Brian stopped by a small park were people released doves on their wedding day, to play with a baby bear. We are pretty sure it is now illegal to keep bears as pets in Russia but this guy still had one in a lead and muzzle. The heat was stone splitting and the parks were full of people in bikinis. It was a nice last day. Had a chat to a few guys at the hostel that night who had been traveling by train through Uzbekistan. Next day we were woken by a very load snorer and the door banging so we got up early and headed to the airport. The airport doesn't let you check in until a maximum of two hours before your flight so we were left sitting and eating terrible airport food. We were on our way home so it didn't matter. St. Petersburg airport has about 5 places to queue before you get on a plane and while your bags can go through to your final destination you have to get your second boarding card at the stop over airport and not at the start. We got very confused by this but met two other English speaking girls without follow on boarding cards so we took it to be the norm. Also met a slight drunk Ukrainian who has lived in Ireland at least 5 years who tried to convince us to go swim in the Black Sea cause it was so great.