I’ve been putting off writing this post for a little while, as I didn’t really enjoy Moscow. The hostel might have had something to do with it, which wasn’t particularly friendly, with people not making eye-contact with you, generally barging past and leaving the TV on constantly. St. Petersburg, however, was the complete opposite!

After catching the Sapsan train to St. Petersburg, I was happy to find that all of the metro stations had English (i.e.: Roman alphabet) translations of the names. Finding the hostel was the usual case of walking around for a bit until I found where I was on the map, but after realising that the road names also had English translations (to co-inside with my Google map), it was a piece of cake. The hostel itself was on the 6th-floor of an old St. Petersburg apartment building and when I got to the top I found that not only was I the only one staying in my room (one of the benefits off travelling outside of the tourist season), but the hostel was centered around a main kitchen and living area. One of the only downsides was that, apart from the hostel administrator, I was the only one who spoke English, but that changed later!

My time in St. Petersburg was spent recovering (from the missed train in Warsaw) and just trying to fit everything in into the short amount of time I had there. Day one was spent getting my Tans-Siberian train tickets printed and visiting Erarta, a contemporary art gallery on one of the islands. Day two was spent visiting the Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad, which was excellent. If there’s only one museum you can visit in St. Peterburg, it should be this. For some reason, I got kicked-out an hour earlier than advertised; something, as far as I could tell, was something to do with it getting cold. That wasn’t a problem, however, as it meant I had more time to try and track down the Museum of Political History, which was number 2 on the list. What I actually wanted to see was the Museum Of The Political Police, but it was only once I’d been round the entire museum and it was closing time, that I realised that it was in a different building in a different part of the city. This museum, on this occasion, would have to wait until next time.

When I got back to the hostel, the hostel administrator kindly offered to take me on to the roof. The missed museum was somewhat counterbalanced by seeing the sun set over St. Petersburg from one of the city’s rooftops. The only slightly scary thing was that behind me, for the entire time, was a roughly 8-storey sheer drop to the bottom, but the best thing was to hold tight and try not to think about it!

After spending a few days in St. Petersburg, I got the return Sapsan train back to Moscow and set up in the hostel described earlier. I noticed early on that it had a significantly different vibe to the other hostels I was staying in, but after looking around for some time, I had decided that it was the best place to stay. As I had such a short time in Moscow, the best thing to do was to use it as a base and spend as much time as possible out-and-about, doing things. I think I managed this, with a trip to the Red Square, a trip to the Cosmonautics Museum and a trip to Vorobyovy Gory Nature Preserve. I put Saturday morning aside for visiting Lenin’s Mausoleum, but unexpectedly, the mausoleum was closed and as may-be customary for this time of year, it is only open over the summer. Museums and attractions being closed is something I am beginning to get used to.

After spending a few days in St. Petersburg and Moscow, I left feeling destinctively under-whelmed. St. Peterburg was definitely the better of the two, but each had its problems and as the hostel receptionist in Perm said, neither is a very good example of a Russian city. Perm, on the other hand, is something else entirely!

A list of the attractions named above is as follows:

• Erarta [http://www.erarta.com/eng/about/]
• Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad
• Museum of Political History [http://en.polithistory.ru/]
• Museum Of The Political Police [http://www.russianmuseums.info/M195]
• Cosmonautics Museum [http://www.space-museum.ru/]
• Vorobyovy Gory Nature Preserve [http://www.vorobyovy-gory.ru/].