Russia – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

City Guide September 2, 2015

Four Perfect Days in St. Petersburg: Travel Guide

In May, we went to St. Petersburg, Russia after visiting Paris for the French Open (travel posts here and here). Lots of people asked why we chose St. Petersburg, as most Americans don’t travel to Russia, and the answer was simple: it was cheaper than other options. We knew that we were going to France and that we had to fly through Frankfurt (because United is the worst), and we thought we should tackle another city while we’re halfway around the world already. After looking up flights to Munich, Vienna, etc., we decided on St. Petersburg, and I’m glad we did.

I did not know a whole lot about St. Petersburg before booking the trip, but had a good image in my mind of what it would be like. For the most part, I was right, but the one thing I did not expect about this beautiful city was how good the food is. And I should clarify: I don’t think I ate anything Russian in Russia. The food scene in St. Petersburg is world class. The restaurants are trendy, the cocktails are delicious, the dishes are eclectic… and we loved every bite and sip.

We soaked up so much history and culture in just four days in the city. We bought Faberge eggs (ahem, eggs from the Faberge Museum), walked until we could walk no more, toured this canal filled city by boat, used more audio guides at museums than I would like to admit, and frolicked in at least five parks.

Long story short: You need to go to St. Petersburg at some point in your life. And when you go, I’ve outlined four perfect days in the city. You can also use this custom Google map I created which plots all of the places named below.

International June 1, 2015

Final Days in Russia

We landed in Houston yesterday after traveling for 18 hours from St. Petersburg to Frankfurt back home. The two flights we took on our trip back to Texas were infinitely better than the ones going to Europe, as Isla slept much longer (thanks to Frozen being played on repeat) and I didn’t get sick. Isla will probably be battling jet lag for a few days, as I think it’s much easier for adults to acclimate than it is for babies. I cannot (repeat: cannot) believe that we will be celebrating her first birthday on Thursday and throwing her a confetti-themed party on Saturday. It makes me want to cry, so let’s not talk about it for now.

The last two days in Russia were spent doing something I’m normally not the best at on a site-seeing vacation: relaxing. We saw a few historical monuments (but did so leisurely), and it wasn’t on purpose. It wasn’t until the eleventh hour that we realized our planned day-trip cannot work because the palace is closed for a private event, so we decided to seize the opportunity to leisurely stroll through the city, eat our favorite frozen yogurt, drink our favorite cocktails (to go) and eat at our favorite restaurants. I am going to publish a detailed St. Petersburg travel guide to add to my City Guide collection, and I cannot wait to share all of the must-sees of this gorgeous Russian city.

Some of the highlights from our last two days in the city included:

Going to Vasilyevsky Island and taking our first family photo of the trip next to the Stock Exchange and Rostal Columns on the Strelka.
Eating lunch at Restoran, which seriously looked like a Restoration Hardware catalog and I was gushing over the decor the entire time we were there – the food was delicious too!
Walking around the Peter and Paul Fortress, including the beach area and the famous cathedral.
Playing with Isla in Alexandrovsky Park, where she made the longest walks we’ve ever seen – this shocked us, as her walking progress had halted since we got to Europe. She had one epic tumble at the end, and we called it quits for the day.
Getting frozen yogurt for the third time at Egurti (please see the Russian name for this to better understand our constant confusion!).
Eating at Leica, Cafe Idiot and Furtuk (again – love it!) – the food in St. Petersburg was phenomenal. I am starting BBG immediately.
Visiting the beautiful Kazan Cathedral, which was holding a service, so we lit candles, walked around and quietly left.
Exploring a Russian grocery store (Stockmann) – we bought lots of dried mango and granola bars, both which were delicious. It’s quite interesting not being able to read food packaging whatsoever.

Sasha and I recapped our trip during the long journey home yesterday, and we made a lot of wonderful memories over the last 10 days. We laughed and laughed when we both had Isla’s new obsession with waving to everyone at the top of our lists. She would literally wave incessantly at every single person in a cafe until they waved back. It was the funniest thing. Europe really brought out her friendly side.

What are your thoughts? Would you ever visit St. Petersburg? Where is the favorite place you’ve ever visited?

International May 28, 2015

Welcome to Санкт-Петербург!

It’s late here in St. Petersburg, and we’ve just finished our second full day. We arrived on Tuesday at our hotel around 4pm, so we just wandered around the city after unpacking to get our bearings. My crazy itinerary (see this post on planning) has a number of restaurants picked out from various sources (Trippy, Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, etc.), and I had Fartuk lined up for dinner that night. We wandered the streets aimlessly looking for a Fartuk sign, only to eventually turn on Data Roaming on my phone in order to see the actual street address. It turns out all restaurants are written in Cyrillic (like St. Petersburg is in the blog post title)… cue lots of confusion in trying to find the Latin-names. Sasha speaks passable Serbian and his parents both read and write in Cyrillic, but unfortunately he doesn’t. So far, we have played lots of charade with people at stores and in restaurants. There is not a lot of English spoken here, which is exciting but confusing all at the same time. I love the thrill of this though (except probably in high stress situations, which we hope to avoid!).

Anyways, our meal at Fartuk was one of the best we’ve both ever eaten, and the atmosphere was perfect too (seriously considering scratching future plans to go back). Come to find that a ton of restaurants here in St. Petersburg are très trendy – the Russians know what they’re doing on the food scene. I’m going to do a detailed St. Petersburg travel guide when I get home, but to rattle off a few of the things we’ve enjoyed so far:

Visiting the Hermitage Museum, which is one of the largest in the world and is totally gorgeous and seriously could take all day to wander around. We caved and got English audio guides, which were really helpful. Our favorite sighting was Da Vinci’s Madonna and Child. We wandered through Palace Square before entering (as well as looped around St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which was swamped with tourists).
Strolling through the city’s many parks, including Alexander Park and Mikhailovsky Gardens. Isla needs to get out and stretch her legs after riding around (and napping) in the stroller for a lot of the site-seeing.
Going to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which was one of the most gorgeous sites I’ve ever seen. The inside was covered in detailed mosaics, and we spent ages just looking at all of the intricate scenes inside.
Taking a cruise through the many canals of the city (called “Venice of the North”) – passing the Mariinsky Theater, among many other iconic sites.
Popping into the Faberge Museum – we’re trying to decide on an egg for Isla (probably a teensy tiny one!) – the music ones remind me so much of Anastasia.
Eating delicious meals and drinking coffee/homemade lemonade (something every restaurant has!) at Azia, Fartuk, Zoom Cafe (another favorite), White Night Istanbul, Park Dzhuzeppe, Coffee Bar Bonch, and Coffee Shop.

Fancy a glass of … umm, bubbly? Any guess how to pronounce that?