This was a British Airways flight so there was a level of sophistication to which we have become unaccustomed in our recent travels with the budget airlines and it was nice to be travelling in a civilized way rather than on the Ryanair cattle truck.
Have Bag, Will Travel
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Have Bag, Will Travel 
Your flight sounds like the good old days of flying. I’ve called most airline flights ‘cattle cars with wings’ for years now. Sounds like you were of the same mind.
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Easyjet is bad enough, Ryanair is worse..so BA is sure to be luxury.
One of my best Russian pictures is of St Pete’s at night…glorious city..I might even get there one day ( I thought you were going to pick me up on the way)
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I don’t want to fly Ryanair again but will have to in September when I go to Greece & Turkey. I’ll pick you up next time round!
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Most of the hotels there look like the one you have up there! 🙂 But they’re good – spacious, clean (not too sound-proof but that’s still alright!). enjoy the rest of the trip!! 🙂
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Thanks – you are right – a good hotel!
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We stayed at the Dostoyevsky, which was a hotel fascia front of a shopping complex with the rooms built over the shops. It was handy for sightseeing, if you get the chance Stoli pies is a good place to eat, close to st Isaac’s
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All food good but expensive!
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BA is odd. We flew to Paris and they stuffed up on our veg meal order. In compensation they plied us with endless (and I mean ENDLESS) bottles of drink. We staggered off the ‘plane with them.
What was annoying, was, the usual story. We requested a veg meal and other people took one who hadn’t asked for one. Stupid airline. Comfy though 🙂 Not my blog, will save my rant for elsewhere 😀
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A veg on our tour complained about the same thing. A few years ago they managed to lose Kim’s bag on a flight to Iceland and we had to share my clothes for 4 days and then they dealt with my complaint by simply ignoring it. Interesting customer relations approach but it worked because eventually we just lost interest in sending them pictures of Kim having to wear my baggy underpants!
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I’m going to enjoy your travels in St. Petersburg during ‘Byelie Notchie,”
the White Nights when the sun doesn’t set for two weeks.
I attended grad school in Russian Studies and spent a summer on an exchange at Leningrad State U, now St. Petersburg University. When you visit the Hermitage, look across the River Neva. On the river banks a short distance from the Peter & Paul Fortress, we lived in a foreigner’s dorm along w/ E. Germans, Pols, North Korean and North Vietnamese students, all on different floors.
I took the family back to ‘Peter,’ which is what local youth call their city. We stayed in a hostel between Nevsky Prospekt and the Palace Square in front of the Hermitage.
I hope you read or will read “Nicholas and Alexandra.” It will give you an excellent overview of Russia in the years leading up to 1917 and the two revolutions.
Ask your guide to take you to the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt and Smolny where the Bolsheviks rallied and stormed the Winter Palace in October. There’s a famous cemetery at the end of Nevsky where Tchaikovsky, Dostoyesky, Rimsky Korsakov are buried.
Jack
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Thanks for the tips. I read a book about N&A a long time ago but I don’t know if it was the same one. Also tackled War & Peace when I was at University. It must have been a wonderful experience living and studying there!
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Yeah I don’t want to fly ryanair again either. i have started using easyjet and it’s been pretty good.
We also love checking out the local super markets when we visit different a new place. It’s amazing what interesting treats they have in store.
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hehe that breakfast looks familiar!
Funnily enough we overheard a vegetarian complaining about exactly the same thing you and roughseasinthemed mention above on our BA flight too.
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It’s almost exactly the same!
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