St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg was great; in fact I wish I had more than 48 hours there—that was just how scheduling wound up as a result of border crossing scheduling in Kyrgyzstan. Many others have covered St. Petersburg in far more depth than I, so I won’t spend much time doing what others have done better. Things to do:

Late in the evening, after a rain

Drink a beer along the Neva

Mariinsky II

• Petropavlovsk fortress
• and the adjacent war museum (or at least the tank garden outside)
• Go to a performance at one of the city’s many arts venues (I went to Mariinsky II and it was quite nice)
• Visit the Hermitage, though prepare for massive crowd
• Visit Pushkin, one of Catherine’s palaces. Be warned—you have to/should (this was unclear to me) buy tickets in advance online—otherwise you wind up waiting in some very impressive lines (1hr +) for a museum that first opens at 12 noon. I didn’t know this, and though the ticket for the park surrounding the palace was also for the palace, and by the time I realized my mistake I was about a week too late. I didn’t see any opportunity to buy a palace ticket there

Catherine's Palace, w/ absurd line (1+ hr)

All in all, I expect I will be returning.