Peter and Paul Fortress

One thing I learnt about my mum's cousin is that she's very sneaky. After dragging us around St Petersburg the entire day and listening to my dad's complaints about his sore feet, she assured us she was leading us to the back to the metro. Little did we know, we were actually going to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress. 

It took 100kg of gold and the lives of 60 men to build this fortress. It lies on a small island just upstream of the river Neva.

The bell tower is 123.2 m tall, making it quite difficult to photograph from a close distance

The fortress consists of several buildings, one of which is the cathedral. Inside the cathedral lie the tombs of Russian tsars such as Peter the Great.

Here lies Peter I The Great

The cathedral interior. The iconostasis is still undergoing reconstruction.

Outside the fortress when you cross the canal leading to the fortress you can find this little rabbit sitting on a post in the water. The say that if you toss a coin and it lands right on the rabbit's feet, then your wish will be granted. 

 After 5 attempts of coin tossing in different currencies, I managed to hit the feet once but the coin immediately rebounded into the water. That still has to count for something, right?

On the way to the metro station we walked past this little cafe in the park which was located right under a bridge. Quite an odd place for a cafe but the people look like they're enjoying themselves. 

We barely made it alive to the metro station, dragging our feet we arrived at the apartment and collapsed into a deep sleep. I cannot emphasize more that if you do visit St Petersburg, wear comfortable shoes.