St Petersburg

The last stop on "the long journey home" was St Petersburg. I am very glad to have included this city, both the city itself as well as the people the accompanied us made it a great last couple of days on my trip!

We flew into St Petersburg from Moscow with Aeroflot (I am now a member of the "I flew Aeroflot and survived" community!). We arrived pretty early in the city and went to the hostel which was straight next to the Palace Square and the Hermitage!

After we slept a little (had a rather short night in Moscow) we walked a bit around to get some orientation in the city. After that we met up with Annika who we met in the Moscow hotel, and she proved to be the best tourguide one could wish for the days to come! We finished the Monday with some drinks and dinner.

The second day we visited the Hermitage and again Annie showed us around. The Hermitage is ernormously large, full of masterpieces, including Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet and so many others. I was amazed by the beauty of the building itself. St Petersburg is just a city like none else in Russia. The rest of the day we spend walking around the city and be amazed by its beauties.

Wednesday we visited the Isaac cathedral from where we had a great view over the city. Thursday was already the last day and we decided to take it easy with a canal boat tour. At night we met up with Annie and some of her friends to have a drink. That proved to be a memorable event, when it was my turn to shout I bought a bottle of Vodka. Not soon thereafter I was completely off the world and with many thanks to Annie I made it home... Friday started a bit miserable!

After departing St Petersburg I made a brief stop-over in Copenhagen before I finally returned to Amsterdam, after 20 months I was back where it all started: Schiphol Airport. I was very happy to see my parents, aunt and cousins waiting for me at the arrivals area!

Having access to my laptop also means I finally can share my photo's!