Better late than never, a 360 video of Palace Square in St. Petersburg

Another one of my signature 360 degree videos:

Better late than never, comments after our walk to the top of St. Isaacs

Just take a look....

Better late than never, a view from the top of St. Isaacs Cathedral

A view from the top of St. Isaacs Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Better late than never, Church of the Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg

Video of the Church of the Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Better late than never, a view of St. Petersburg

A view from across the river in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Better late than never, more video from St. Petersburg

St. Peters Cathedral, Peter & Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Vatican, Rome

So today we got our butts out of bed really early and got to the Vatican by 8am, after checking out St. Peters Basilica (truly awesome, definitely sends a message), then we walked towards the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel..., we were greeted with a 1km long line, 2 hours later and €28 poorer we were in. D and I disagree slightly on this point, but when we got to the Sistine Chapel, I was expecting to be blown away, in reality I was sadly disappointed. I found myself saying 'is that it?' So unless you are a art buff or die hard Catholic I would skip it, save the Euros and have an espresso.

Below is a 360 degree video of the Square infront of St. Peters, very cool:



Here is a video from inside St. Peters Basilica:



Time to eat some pizza!

Some thoughts on Russia

Danielle and I are sitting in Domodevo Airport for a few hours until we fly to Hungary, so I thought I would add a post with my thoughts on Russia.

Firstly for any travelers reading this, if you have to choose between St. Petersburg and Moscow, go with St. Petersburg. Moscow is interesting, but incredibly frustrating at the same time. Even in the most popular tourist locations like the Kremlin there is no English, or even pictures so you can figure it out, everything is in Cyrillic. Also the metro and train system here is very difficult to figure out, and finally the people are not approachable, and downright unfriendly to foreigners. I cant tell you how many times we were denied things, here, or told not available, just to turn around and get it from someone else.

St. Petersburg is the complete opposite, the metro has maps with both the Cyrillic and English Alphabet which makes it a breeze to navigate, people were friendly and willing to help, and as you would expect in the major tourist sites there were maps (pictures) and even signs in Languages other than Russian. Why the difference, maybe the proximity to Europe? Also we felt that the sites we visited in St. Petersburg were in all very rewarding, while some of the sites we visited in Moscow are not worth the entry ticket price.

For example, if I had to do it again I would not pay to enter the Kremlin, it is just as beautiful from the outside as from the inside. Also don't waste your money on the Amory, the jewel display is nothing to right home about, we were told you must see the Fabergé eggs, so we payed the 350 rubles, and when we got there said "is that it?". If you have seen the Queens Jewel House in London you will be very disappointed in the Amory. Also St. Basils is very beautiful on the outside, but not worth the admission.

So to sum up Russia, it is very expensive, you will find yourself charged for everything from using the toilet, to taking pictures of the skyline (we never paid for the use of our camera, only got busted 1 time). The country seems very insular, they are not geared up to support foreign travel and in fact make you feel very unwelcome. However St. Petersburg is a ray of hope, and if they can do away with the backwards visa rules and make it easy fro Europeans to visit, I can see that city taking off as a must visit city. The architecture, history and atmosphere are awesome.

Final day in St. Petersburg..... Hydrofoil time

Just a quick note while Danielle is checking us out of the Nord Hostel here in St. Petersburg. First, the hostel is a large improvement over what we had in Moscow (I would not recommend Sweet Moscow Hostel to any other traveler), friendly staff, a free breakfast (as much as you can eat), and hot showers. However it could be cleaner, the bathrooms were very clean the day we arrived, but now they leave something to be desired. We are looking forward to a night on the Red Arrow train back to Moscow tonight as it is very nice, and a great nights sleep.

So whats planned for today? Well we are leaving our bags in a locker at the hostel and heading down to the river to catch a hydrofoil out of the city to Peterhof (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterhof), where we plan to spend most of the day. Later this afternoon we may visit the university and then back on the train to Moscow.

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day exploring the Kremlin, and the fly to Budapest.