Peterhof

Day 1 in St Petersburg began with taking a ferry to Peterhof Palace. Can you guess what we passed along the way?

The Kunstkamera museum! Although we didn't actually go inside I was still thrilled to see it in real life.

This photo was taken on the other side of the river, where we awaited a ferry to take us across to the 

Peterhof Palace.

Peterhof Palace is the most beautiful thing I have seen in my life. Gold, statues and fountains. Many, many fountains. It took a total of about 7 hours of non stop walking around the gardens to see everything. And that's not even including all the tours they have for the historical buildings! Needless to say, I still saw quite a few girls wearing sky-high stilettos. I don't know how they manage but I am thoroughly impressed.

The Grand Palace

Side view

Apart from the immaculate state of the gardens, I was amazed at how green everything was. Trees, so many trees! That's one thing I love about Europe, how green everything is.

I also saw a squirrel in real life for the first time! It took a lot of effort and coaxing to actually take a photo of one. They're like hyperactive, fluffy mice the just run around digging holes and burying whatever food they find. My dad joked that it wasn't people who planted all the trees in Peterhof, it was all the squirrels.

More fountains

View from the balcony of the Grand Palace

Another church 

The restaurant we visited afterwards

As we were walking back to the apartment I looked at my watch. I still can't get used to the fact that everything is visible at 10pm at night. Everyone should be sleeping but instead they're heading out to do all their grocery shopping. Unfortunately we were some of those people. We headed to the local supermarket, O'kay. This store really puts the "super" in supermarket. It has EVERYTHING. Bikes, clothes, footballs, food, TV's, fans…you name it. You may need to buy some cheese but come out with a lamp instead. Not to mention the huge variety of products they have. An entire aisle was dedicated to cheese, another to yoghurt, another to mayonnaise. How are you supposed to pick anything!?

I kid you not, this is was taken at 10:30 pm St Pertersburg time.