Birthday in Russia: St Petersburg (Part 3)

We wanted to go for a river cruise first thing in the morning on our 3rd day in St Petersburg! But we saw Victory Day-related festivities in front of the Hermitage whilst on our way to the pier so we stayed to watch.

Day 3 - 7 May 2016

Thankful for the fact that we got to see their Victory Day parade rehearsal! Rehearsal aje but it was already so impressive and grand la!!! I especially looked out for their women uniforms, so smart and so lawa seh. And it was surreal, watching tanks and missiles and war machinery going past me at such a near distance. With no barricades! Kalau kat Singapore, aku rasa the organizers dah pasang barricade batu and pagar besi sejuta inci.

I think we hung around at the parade area for about an hour half or two hours before we made our way to the Admiralty Embankment, where we took a boat out for a river cruise!

I read this to see the river cruise packages offered by riverboat companies in St Petersburg but they seemed to have many time slots and located everywhere = easy to find. So we didn't get advance tickets online and decided to just make our way down to the Admiralty Embankment (which is a popular pier) whenever we were free to take the river cruise. Heng we did that because we couldn't have stayed for the rehearsal parade otherwise!

In the end, we bought tickets from the company Driver on the spot because the other companies were being too aggressive and in our faces haha. We didn't bother asking for a cruise with an English-speaking guide so I don't know if they have any; the one we went on had the a Russian-speaking guide so kita pun tak paham apa dia cakap haha, although we were given a pamphlet with a route map and some English. Anyway kita pun cuma nak ambik angin and enjoy the sights and sounds je. Once in awhile, if other people in the boat turn their heads to look at a building because the guide pointed it out to them, kita pun ikut and pusing kepala sekali hahahaha

I don't have many pictures from our river cruise experience (which took 2 hours) because Saliheen was taking mostly videos (you can see the clips here) and I only Snapchatted the journey sporadically. But I do highly recommend this if you ever jejak St Petersburg! Although it would probably be more beneficial to get a boat that comes with an English-speaking guide ah hahahahaha

Oh, and be warned that orang sana (we heard them speaking their language) tak menyabar and will stand as close as possible to you (breathing down your neck kind) and will start to put pressure on your back (I can feel them getting ready to shove and jostle, tak takut jatuh laut eh!!!) padahal the boat crew baru start prepping for its next journey and the gate belum bukak pun. Takut boat tu tiba tiba pecut lari kot.

Had lunch at a nearby cafe after that and then we walked to Senate Square and St Isaac Cathedral.

St Isaac's Cathedral is besar gila! It was much more massive than I imagined.

Went back to our hotel to rest for awhile after that, then we went out again to walk down Nevsky Prospekt, which is a very popular and very busy main street at the heart of St Petersburg (and 1 minute from our hotel, of course!) 

Looked at some stuff, bought some stuff then we made our way to an Indian restaurant called Tandoori which we passed by the day before... asked one of their staff if their meats were halal (I already saw some posts online but wanted to confirm) and she immediately said "Everything is halal" SO YAY AYAM AYAM AYAM

We stuffed ourselves with so much food! That bowl of mutton briyani looks regular sized kan but it felt like it was bottomless ok haha. We also had butter naan, garlic naan, tandoori chicken and palak paneer to share. We didn't expect much from an Indian restaurant in St Petersburg la (some restaurants taper down their spice to accommodate to local tastes) but the food turned out to be spicy and sedap and oh so nikmattttttttttttttttt. Kind of wish we came here to eat the day before instead of looking of a cafe yang tak muncul haha. 

Took a nice chilly stroll down Nevsky Prospekt after dinner and went to see the Hermitage again.

Tried to capture the beauty of the area at night but these pictures don't do them justice at all!

Went back to our hotel after that to get some rest since we were leaving St Petersburg the next morning! Initially Saliheen and I weren't sure whether 4 days (technically 2 full days and 2 half days) was a sufficient duration for us to stay in St Petersburg but it turned out to be just nice for us. Off to Moscow next!