As the Perky Pilgrims Finnished their stay in Helsinki, they were Russian to get to St Petersburg.

None of the Pilgrims had ever stood foot on Russian soil and there was a good reason for it. Not because of what you hear in the newspapers back at home but because of the process of obtaining a visa. It’d be easier to play the piano with no fingers. You have to be invited to apply for a visa, therefore you have to ask to be invited. Felt like the days of wanting to go to a party for a friend of a friend. Like a good friend would, old man Pilgrim sorted it by using a company specialising in obtaining Russian visas.

Nothing about physical entry to Russia was particularly difficult. Like the Russian culture, it was fairly straight forward* crossing the border by train, unlike the entry by air (apparently).

*’straight forward’ implying the fact that the Russian alphabet contains numbers as well as forwards and backwards letters that was clearly invented by a drunk Latin bloke. 

TIP: As a general rule you don’t need a visa if you come via cruise ship but that means you can only stay up to 72 hours and every time you step foot on land you have to be in a tour group – that was not exactly a demanding option for the Perky Pilgrims.

As mentioned in previous posts, the Pilgrims despise tours yet they found themselves surrounded by them and even to some extent, on one! The hop on, hop off ‘City Tour’. What a wanky but spectacular way to drive around to the main sites of St Petersburg and to sense a feel for the cityscape. A set of headphones accelerates the wankyness to learn of the history of the city. The only information this Pilgrim attained from the big red bus was that there were three or four important guys named Peter that all had different jobs (not sure what they were). The other bit of history learnt was that St Petersburg was named after Peter the Apostle. See how boring that was to read. It was hard yacka Putin up with it all.

The Pilgrims went to a museum as well. Mainly because it was the Hermitage and you can’t visit St Petersburg without visiting the Hermitage. The building is a humongous and an incredibly designed piece of artwork itself however the three million artworks inside were supposed to be the focal point.

The Pilgrims are moving on and Russian down to Moscow where there is apparently a more true Russian cultural feel as oppose to the Europeanised Russia of St Petersburg. (English 101 – don’t repeat the same word in a sentence more than once). An overnight train will guide the way!

Read more of the Perky Pilgrim adventures here…