I've been trying to put off blogging about Russia for a long time. (And there's still Amsterdam to cover) What can you put into words about the trip of your life? Well, at least, it's the trip of my life so far. Obviously, I'm not as well travelled as I wanna be. I hope these selected snippets will provide myself and other readers and idea what life was like in the romantic city of St. Petersburg.
Me trying out my sofa bed for the first time. I was to sleep in this tiny thing for 10 nights. Thank God that every night was a peaceful one and I had no need to worry for the lack of space. It's surprisingly comfy. But tiny. I had to share the room with 4 other sopranos. We sure showed our messy sides as we tossed clothes everywhere. Once, after washing my panties, I hung them on the side of my bed. When the boys came in, I ran to hide them away. Hahaha.
This rarely-seen Chinese restaurant is called Red Tower, or 'hong lou'. We ate here twice a day, breakfast and lunch. For many days, amongst other dishes, they served pigs' ears and tongues. Yup, you did not read them wrongly. Out of ignorance, I ate them quite heartily at first. But when the lady boss told us what they were, I stopped. Most of my choir friends complained that food was simply too salty there. That, I can't dispute. But I'm really thankful that because of Hong Lou, I found a special place to feed my Chinese palate.
This is a canal, but I can't remember what's it called. This is my first picture with the canal, I'm standing about 3 minutes walk away from my hostel. You can obviously see the excitement on my face at seeing a canal, little did I know that I was to walk pass here everyday and probably more than twice.
This is an inactive church called St. Isaac. This is one of the more touristy ones. Inside is a museum on religion. There's also another entry up into the observatory deck, which I went a few days later. A good shot! You might be thinking that the weather there is simply perfect, cool climate and yet so bright and sunny. Ha, St. Petersburg receives only 60 days of sunshine a year. We happen to come during the White Nights season. Yup, the sun sets at 11.30 pm and comes up at 3 or 4am. Even night fall was a greyish tone, not the dark kind.