St. Petersburg...

We ended up arriving in St. Petersburg on Monday afternoon.  We just didn't have it in us to ride the whole 750 km from Moscow on Sunday after only 4 hours of sleep.  On the bright side we found a great camp spot in a Park by a lake.  It was definitely in the top 5 camps of the trip so far.  I slept very good on this night as the weather was cool and there was no road or city noise.

St. Petersburg is a very impressive city rich with history and amazing architecture.  We ended up staying in a hostel recommended by Dmitry - a friend of his owns it.  It had a funky kind of artsy  decor, was clean and cheap.  It was also right in the center of St. Petersburg so we had lots of choices for food and drink.  We ended up in an English style pub with about 25 beers on tap.  You could buy a beer in up to a 7 liter glass -  freaking huge!  We opted for the half liter sizes - Guinness and Newcastle!  The food was also very good - fish & chips, ribs, delicious salads.  The food variety in Moscow and St. Petersburg is completely different from eastern Russia.

I walked around St. Petersburg for a couple of hours on Tuesday morning to see some of the city and snap a few photos.  I need to come back someday as it looks to have so much to see that we didn't have the time for.  I wish we were staying a few more days - but Finland awaits.  We plan to ride to Helsinki, spend the night and catch a ferry to Estonia in the morning.  It is forecasted to be cold and wet in Finland so one day is probably enough.

The lake we camped next to on our last night in Russia.

Morning fog on the lake.

Courtyard outside the hostel.

Kultura hostel.

St. Petersburg streets.

The river.

Cool looking building I passed on my walk.