72 Hours in St Petersburg: Part I

Did you know that you can get into St Petersburg without the dreaded process of applying for a Russian visa? Jump over to St Peter Line and book yourself in for a 3 day extravaganza of museums, sightseeing, eating and drinking in one of the most beautiful cities in the world!  That is exactly what we did. And Chewy and I were lucky enough to completely coincidentally be over there at the same time as six of our friends from Perth - the world is crazy small.

After a night time crossing of the sea from Helsinki in Finland to Mother Russia, you arrive in St Petes in the morning.  We went straight to our hostel (Cuba Hostel for those of you that are interested) to drop off our things, in the pouring rain, and then headed straight for the world famous Hermitage Museum.  It really is something else.  The sheer volume items in the Hermitage is mindblowing.  Give yourself at least 3 hours to be able to take some of it in, but don't expect to be able to see everything as we found that our brains sort of turned to rubber after a while.  It is absolutely beautiful though, and although the entry fee was a little pricey, it was definitely worth it.

 

 

The above number is a sleigh, and portrays St George slaying the dragon. Macabre, but somehow amazing, and at the very least incredible craftmanship!

 

Oh the rain on that first day, it was truly miserable.  It was cold and wet, and none of us were really prepared for this sort of weather.

Luckily for us, our friends at Tripadvisor had a killer cafe recommendation that we hunted down.  We waited approximately an hour for a table - yes, it was that popular, but boy was it worth it.  The food is all incredibly fresh, very delicious, and reasonably priced.  Oh and the apple pie is one of their most popular numbers.  I completely forgot to tell you what it was called, Zoom Cafe is what you're after.  I've given you the link to the Tripadvisor site purely because their actual website in only in Russian and I can't find the button that translates it into English, but I don't think there even is one!

I've kept the best until last - at Zoom Cafe they give you A3 sized bits of white paper and colouring pencils to draw on while you wait. Ah-mazing!

Ireland in 2 Days - Cliffs of Moher Edition

Hello lovely readers! Again I have to apologise for the extreme delay between blog entries, but travelling and good internet connections do not go hand in hand, and so unfortunately the blog entries had to wait for the time being.  However, as I have settled down on the top bunk of my hostel in LA, I'm reminiscing about good times past...

We decided on doing a one day tour to the cliffs due to our extreme time constraints, but I would definitely recommend spending more time in Galway because it's a beautiful part of Ireland.  Without further ado though, here are the pictures.

We met a friendly goat, Billy, who had been taken into care by the family that ran the tours, when they found him abandoned and hungry in the wilderness.

 This was Darragh, our guide for the day.

I think the pictures speak for themselves in this entry.  The scenery is simply stunning, I cannot recommend visiting enough.  

For those interested, we booked the tour through our hostel and they recommended MacCoole Tours as they are a family run affair.  Our guide, Darragh, was pretty much a stand up comedian and a really friendly chap, so I would recommend these guys.   They even offer home-made cakes in their grannies old cottage for morning tea, what could be better?!

Ireland in 2 Days - Dublin Edition

From Cornwall we made our way to Ireland, and stayed in lovely Dublin.  Unfortunately, we didn't give ourselves much time there and only had 2 full days to explore. 

I'll let the pictures do the talking for this entry. But let me tell you, it includes one of my favourite veggie burgers.

 

This beauty can be had at any Gourmet Burger Kitchen throughout the UK.

After a fair amount of sightseeing, it started raining (it is Ireland after all) and so we started our own little pub crawl.  Chewy made me try Guiness, which I wasn't a fan of, but good thing the Irish are also fans of cider.  We met some lovely people in the pubs, and had a raging good time with all the music and singing and dancing that was going on.  Happy days!

Frolicking Through the Fields of Zennor, Cornwall

First things first - apologies for the complete lack of posts recently, I've just been incredibly busy and haven't had a moment to post anything unfortunately.

But anyway, I can't finish my posts about Cornwall without mentioning the adorable village we stayed in.  Zennor is a teeny tiny dot on the map, but it's one of my favourite places on earth now.  Home to the Tinners Arms pub, our hostel (more on that later), and a handful of houses, there isn't much, but it is exactly that which makes it so lovely.

We stealth walked around the fields in hope of not disturbing all the rabbits, and it took many attempts to get a photo of one!

Now onto our hostel...again, one of my favourites.  It's called Zennor Backpackers and can be found in this converted chapel, which is also home to a cafe on the ground floor.  Our room had a perfect, unrestricted view of the cliffs, it was simply stunning.

After spending a long time playing with the calves, you can have some delicious food and plenty of drinks at the Tinners Arms.  It's one of the oldest pubs in the world, and really cosy and perfect for some drinks, and also has plenty of vegetarian options thankfully.