St. Petersburg, part XXVII - Restaurant Brynza, Pushkinskaya and the streets of St Petersburg (i)

Pushkinskaya

And of course, Nevsky Prospekt

For the record, I'm not paid to endorse anything here. If I recommend a place it's because I've actually been there myself and was suitably impressed, and want to keep a record for future reference. I can say now, straightaway, that I'll be back in St. Petersburg, and I'll be visiting the Brynza again because that's the way I roll, and I usually get what I want.

Brynza. For future reference.

Of course I had borscht, and speaking as someone who's tried loads of borscht in easternmost Russia and somewhat knows what they're talking about, this is hands down the best borsht I have ever had.

Night, and then day.

I got up the next morning, had some very nice hostel breakfast as you do, and walked downstairs to Pushkinskaya to view the statue of the street's namesake.

Alexandre Pushkin

More Pushkinskaya

Hello, my Queen of Spades.

I returned to the hostel to meet up with the others, where we were chauffeured off to our next destination, the Piskariovskoye Memorial Cemetery. It was located very far away from the city centre, so it was a nice way of seeing the streets and boroughs of SPB as we drove out of the city.

St. Petersburg, part XI - Hostel & the famous St. Petersburg metro (i)

Pushkinskaya metro

I was very pleased when we went back to the hotel, which was really just a glorified hostel. We got to choose our own rooms, and I asked Ksenia if I could get a room to myself because I didn't want to room with Giorgia - frankly, the idea was repugnant. Ksenia said no problem and I was given a choice of two twin-bed rooms. I went with my gut and chose the one I felt most comfortable with. I had to pay about 20 euros extra, but in my opinion that was 20 euros well spent. Just look at this nice room I got, all to myself. I had the time of my life here. I flopped around on the beds and threw myself on the bedding and wriggled my feet and used the Internet and closed my eyes and drank in the fact that I was in the heart of Russia, in St Petersburg of my dreams, and what better feeling is there to finally come to a place where you've longed to be for so long?

After we had washed and settled in and had a brief respite, we all went out again. St. Petersburg during the night is the St. Petersburg of Anastasia Romanov's Once Upon a December, with its damp pavements and wide roads and yellow glimmering lanterns that light up the city in all its neoclassical beauty.
My first taste of the famous St. Petersburg metro. Pushkinskaya station, which was 10 mins walk from the hostel.

More to come, and you can expect a lot of metro entries because those are a lot of pictures I took.