Greetings Comrades!

On my first day in St Petersburg I decided to take a taxi from the train station to the hostel where I was going to stay. However, I made the mistake of not asking the price before hand, and when we reached the hostel he asked for 2000 roubles. Thinking this sounded pretty high, but not knowing the value of things in Russia I paid the driver, but later worked out that I had paid him 40pounds, (about 8-10 times what the journey should have cost) - I wont make that mistake again! Then I set out to explore the city and find the Church of Spilt Blood . I could see this church from a distance so I walked down some side streets until I had almost reached it, I cut through a car park at the back of some buildings. However there wasn't any way to get through so I turned round to head back the way I had come. Suddenly a big black dog came running towards me barking fiercely. I edged around it trying to keep it calm, but it kept coming closer and barking even more. I noticed a man standing watching, so I motioned for hi to call his dog but he just stood there staring at me. Then the dog jumped up and bit me, sinking his teeth into my leg, I shouted "help!" at the man and he eventually called the dog back. I carried on walking and said to him "he bite!" pointing at the dog and making teeth biting motions with the other hand. The man just shrugged nonchalantly shouted a string of Russian, so I escaped as quickly as I could. Now I know why its called the Church of Spilt Blood! Welcome to Russia!

The church was in fact worth the hassle to reach it. It is the spot where Tsar Alexander was murdered, (hence the name - not the dog incident). Out of the many churches I saw in St Petersburg, it is my favourite. I will upload some pictures soon, (in the meantime you can see a picture here

The city is very beautiful with many bridges, cathedrals and grand buildings everywhere. However it is very cold, (you can not even take your gloves off for a few seconds without being unable to move your fingers). I toured all the other main sites, St Peter and Paul's Fortress, the Heritage/Winter Palace, Churches of St Nicolas, St Issac, etc, and I also found a museum about the siege of Leningrad (St Petersburg). The only problem with the churches and museums is they tend to charge much more to foreigners than locals. For example this museum was 40 roubles for Russians 100 roubles for English (plus an additonal 50 roubles to take photographs). Luckily student discounts apply and I had packed my old university card :-)

After touring the sites of St Petersburg for a couple of days I took a night train last night to Moscow and have arrived here about 2 hours ago, so am now heading out to explore this city, (being careful not to take any shortcuts through car parks....)


Thats all for now,

Cheers
Phil :-)