St Petersburg or "Piter" as the locals like to call it...

We arrived in St Petersburg to a cliche backpackers' hostel - hairy showers, paper thin mattresses, dirty kitchen, no lockers and weirdos. Thankfully, the situation has improved and we have located a clean shower, a new bed and most of the weirdos have exited the building. One of the highlights of the hostel was finding that a hairier version of Kitty was residing in our room, except this version was much friendlier than Kitty so it was unlikely she was merely a stowaway. There has been plenty of Uno playing, which has started the 'Ultimate Uno Champ' tally. We will be sure to let everyone know the eventual winner (probs will be Katherine - yeah!)

Russian Kitty that we found in our hostel room - this one was WAY more friendly that our puss.

We have visited some amazing sights, including the Hermitage Museum, the Cathedral on Spilled Blood and St Isaac's Cathedral. St Petersburg is far more laid back and casual than Moscow - we compared it like Melbourne to Sydney for the atmosphere. Atop St Isaac's Cathedral some retard took a lovely photo of us with some scaffolding rather than the view we were hoping for. We saw some great OH&S (or WH&S as it's now known - thanks Steph :) ) - no harnesses, no hard hats, no safety boots and wooden scaffolding.

Pretty self-explanatory - at Peter & Paul Fortress

The Hermitage

Some Bell-end German tourist took a picture of us and a heap of scaffolding - wanker!

KG hanging out on one of the many canals St Petersburg has to offer

A highlight was Catherine Palace, which required our first 'day trip'. We caught the metro then a 'mini bus taxi' which was quite the experience. No seatbelts, no English, no windows, and no idea where we were going. But it cost f*** all and got us where we needed to be so no complaints here! 

Katherine's group photo with some random Russians

Turns out Catherine I had a slammin Panasonic Plasma - nice!

Catherine Palace - Catherine spelled the "crappy" way apparently...

We have also tried some of the local cuisine, including borscht, pancakes stuffed with cabbage, dumplings and fried cheese (not sure how Russian this is but it got Tom pretty excited).

KG getting right into her Borscht

What an "explosive" meal - this was the Hezbollah sandwich

Our Russian cuisine smorgasbord

Tom having a serious moment with his new love -  fried cheese