Hello from St. Petersburg, Russia! I just arrived and I am eager to share how breathtaking and fabulous this city is! Museums, cute churches and palaces live happy together and make your stay a lavish festival for your eyes. As for the soul, yes, it is true that people here drink quite a lot. Almost everyone is hanging around the streets with a beer can and yesterday in Peterhof a whole family had their vodka on the train station at 11 pm. Kewl.

It is extremely useful if you know a little Russian if you are planning to come here. Prices for foreigners are almost double and at the end they get the same service as the locals. Yesterday I paid a ticket for foreigner for a tour around Peterhof’s fountains and at the end the guide was speaking to the whole group in Russian only. I am lucky that my family once upon a time insisted and I had Russian classes. Though I do not remember much of it, it saved me from quite a trouble here. In addition everything is written in Cyrillic alphabet, even the names of some international brands such as Subway for example. They simply call it Сабвэй.

The Russian currency is Rubli and 1 euro is about 34 rubles. Some things are really cheap compared to Western standard. Out of the beaten track there are plenty of nice restaurants where you can have cheap beer and vodka or have a meal for less than 5 euro.

Also, try the prirogi - typical bread with cabbage, potatoes. I loved the cabbage pirogs so much that I am afraid that I even put on a few kilos of eating so much of them!

Now I am heading to my hotel and here comes the end of today’s life report from St. Petersburg.