Gonna be another long post….Guess what?

It’s my V’s birthday !!! Happy Birthday my love. The big Three-Oh. Now the fun really starts xxx

Not your typical birthday 🙂 we took a stroll down toward the train station and had pancakes (apple/caramel and bannana/chocolate) for breakkie at the bd girl’s request.

It took some doing but I managed to arrange a parade for V. Well actually it was the SPB City Day parade that came pouring down Nevsky prospect (main street) while we were there. The police had closed the road for at least 3km with officers posted every 15m so we were expecting a show. I have to admit it was rather lame compared to soviet era ones, but was still an unexpected treat. The parade consisted of: A few hundred people on harleys and every other kind of motorbike, a flock of rollerbladers, a herd of power striders (google it), a bunch of girls on with a band on a flatbed. The finale – the street sweepers 🙂 Really ! No tanks or ICBM’s.

Our next task was to get tickets to Moscow. The plan was to take a 1st class sleeper. Not so easy when you don’t speak Russian. The German couple in the queue in front of us gave up trying to get their ticket after 5 mins. We stuck it out and ended up with a 2nd class ticket – close enough !

Driven by the desire to walk as little as possible we stored our packs and challanged ourselves with the SPB subway system (was actually really simple in the end – doh! ) The stations are very, very deep and lavishly decorated (apparently Moscow’s are better). Our first stop, just for V on her bd, was the Military History Museum 🙂 what could be cooler than a massive collection of Russian weaponry ? Everything from AK47s to ICBMs.

Hotdogs and Ice creams for lunch followed by a walk to and around the Menshikov palace. Not briliant. He was Peter the gr8’s best buddy. BTW, palaces here are more like mansions rather than the romantic palatial stereotype.

We ended up near the train station in search of dinner. Eventually found a reasonable looking Russian resturant and made good use of our iphone translation app. The food was as expected. Beer was good. Vodka was, well, vodka.

To top off V’s day we boarded the train after an hour sitting on a cold granite floor in the station. The 4 sleeper cabin was cozy to say the least – an arms length between the occupants. And then to sleep.

Not your average 30th my love. But hopefully one to remember 🙂

Travel Tip

Notes on our experience buying train tickets:
– Find the train info you need on the Real Russia / Seat 61 or way to Russia sites and then get someone at your hostel to write down exactly what you need in Russian. Only works if there are no issues at the ticket office
– Look for the youngest, leaset grumpy looking (tricky) ticket office worker. Probably more likely to speak English and be helpful.
– Have pen and paper. Easier to write a time and date than say it in Russian.
– Never give up, Never surrender. Once you get to the front of the queue don’t leave until you have the ticket you need. When they can’t understand, insist. When they say ‘no credit card’, point to the Mastercard logo on the window, etc etc. Eventually they will help you, call the police or just close the counter 🙂

Photos in the gallery soon!

– Posted from my iPhone