Phone photos of continental #5, part IV - Sankt Petersburg and the Food, Silja and Helsinki

Winter Palace

I have discovered that my phone is, surprisingly, far better at taking foodies than my camera is, so here you go.

YUM

Olivier salad

I've taken enough photos of Winter Palace as it is, but here's one last one.

The nightclub we tried to go to, but got kicked out of when we were discovered to not possess ID on us..

Super markets in SPB.

Metro.

And back on St. Peter's Line..

Dinner as always.

And Helsingfors again.

Phone photos of continental #5, part III - Silja, Helsinki and Sankt Petersburg

On the Silja line, bound for Helsinki, the one and only.

And hello Helsinki..

I stopped at the supermarket to get some coffee, and then some.

Then onwards to the seaport.

And then onto St Peter's Line.

Sneak peek of SPB

The cabin on the PR Maria

St. Petersburg, part XXXI - Open market, tax-free souvenir shop, more St. Isaac's cathedral and St. Petersburg port

Plov, a popular Uzbekh dish

This was our last meal in St. Petersburg. We went to a largely Muslim open market, where there were a lot of Uzbekh restaurants. St. Petersburg, and by extension Russia, is home to a sizeable Muslim community mostly from the 'stans', which used to be satellite states in the Soviet era.

I'm not a huge fan of kebabs but the mutton samsa was great, and of course anything and everything tastes good when you're ravenous. Then there was plov, which I had a lot of in the ME - it seems to be a staple dish for Semitic people.

After that we went to the tax free shop, and I got myself some furry black Soviet caps a la Marko Ramius, and we sat around the souvenir shop and had a nice chat with the shop girl, who offered us lots of free vodka and cinnamon, much to my pleasure.

A quick look at St. Isaac's cathedral, and then off to the port.

Dasvidanya for now, my beloved St. Petersburg. You are never lost for too long.

Gulf of Finland