Exploring St. Petersburg

Today I decided to follow the walking tour in my Lonely Planet guidebook, only as I didn't know where I was when I got out the Metro, I ended up doing it in a different order, but it was still good. As well as various grand, continental European style buildings, bridges and canals that make up the historical centre, I saw the following: St. Isaac's Cathedral (not inside, because I'm not keen on the insides of churches, but there was a good panoramic view from the top); Church of the Savious of Spilled Blood - so named because it is built on the spot where the People's Will group blew up Tsar Alexander II - the outside is obscenely lurid and the inside (I went inside this one as the guidebook recommended it) makes Catholic churches look almost tasteful by comparison, although at least there was less gold, just mosaics... So let that be a lesson to all propaganda-by-the-deedists: all you'll achieve is tasteless architecture; the shop where Fabergé of jewelled egg fame used to be; and the Peter and Pauk Fortress.

After that I was pretty hungry, so I walked back to Nevsky Prospekt (the main street). On the way I met a Russian girl called Zheyna (the zh is pronounced like a French j, so the Russian equivalent of Jane). I wasn't entirely sure what she initially was trying to talk to me about, but apparently it was this: .www.worldcarp.org. Anyway, I didn't stop to talk, because I was very hungry, and also I didn't want to fall for one of those "help me practice my English@ scams where you end up paying stupid amounts of money. She wasn't one of those though, just very friendly, she kindly showed me the kind of Russian fast food place I was heading for, and helped me order my bliny (pancakes). Apparently she'd been all over the place, including 9 months in Korea. So that was cool, she even gave me this funny little Korean toy thing with eyes that change.

Oh, and I almost forgot: the great tea mission, to find new teas in other civilisations, to boldly drink tea as I have never drunk tea before. To begin with, for lunch I went to a posh looking café, which wasn't too expensive, and had smoked tea. This tasted a bit like drinking a bonfire, but in a good way. Then with Zheyna I had a cold tea with mint. At least that's what I thought I was ordering, but it tasted more like a syrup, so maybe it was fruit tea. It was nice anyway.

Last night I made a great discovery. At the airport I bought a world radio, mainly so I can listen to comedy programs on the BBC World Service. I've not found that yet, but what I did find whilst listening to see how bad Russian pop is, was... black metal! Glorious blast beats! Wooo! etc.

And finally, it turns out that not all Metro stations are designed as I described yesterday. In fact, so far only the two I saw yesterday are like that, the rest are like normal underground stations, but still not too many signs to tell you where you are.