Final day in St. Pete's - 7/17/17
Monday morning, we flew back to St. Pete's from Kiev for one final day before flying back to the US. On our final day, we decided to do one last thing. We took this hydrofoil boat over to the Peterhof palace. Unfortunately, our last last was a little rough...probably because we were crabby knowing that our trip was over and we wold soon be heading back to reality.
 |
| This beautiful palace is surrounded by fountains. Unfortunately, the ONE day that we go to see the museum, it was closed for remodeling I believe...so we could only tour the grounds. |
 |
| We saw this sign quite frequently. Apparently, it is very common for Chinese tourists to step up onto the seats of the toilet and squat to go to the bathroom...like the picture shows. They have to put signs up so that the toilets don't get ruined. I think it's because in their country they don't have sitting toilets and they are just used to squatting. |
After we walked around the front of the palace, we decided to walk around the back side of the palace. We had to walk through a gate to get to the back. I had a funny feeling that when we went through that gate, that we were going to get screwed and have to pay again. Welp, that's exactly what happened. The front of the palace is gated off and you have to pay $15 American dollars to enter...that makes sense because that's where all the large fountains are and that the most picturesque part. As soon as we went out back, it was like we left the main part of the palace and we could not get back in, even though we had already bought tickets to the front. Apparently, the ticket was a one time use...not one day use, one time use. When we said that all we needed to do was get to the boat, they would not let us through without paying again to get in to the gated area. We were so exhausted and pissed at that point. The one thing about Russia is that they nickel and dime you for all touristy things. Everything is a separate fee and we were at our wits end. A ticket to ride the boat. Then a ticket to get on the lawn. Then a ticket for the museum. Then a ticket for special exhibits within the museum. Then a ticket to use the bathroom. I guess we lucked out that the museum was closed, otherwise we would have paid even more then just the fees to enter, exit and reenter the front lawn 2 times.
Anyway, we paid the fee again, got back on the boat and headed by to our hotel in St. Pete's for the last night. Everything the next day with our flight went flawless ...except that our luggage did not arrive when we arrived in Chicago. We never picked up our luggage to walk through customs, which had never happened to me before. I was really freaking out that we would never see our stuff again. BUT, our luggage arrived to Gary's house just fine the next day.
 |
| These are the grounds of the back side of the palace. |
 |
| Last meal in St. Pete's. |
 |
| Gary complained to be that I made him walk almost 100 miles during our vacation in Russia....I told him to suck it up, because I walked all that AND I ran a marathon! lol |
That's the end of another adventure vacation.....I'm finally all caught up with the big events that have happened within the last year. Now I just have to finish planning for the next marathon adventure :)
No comments:
Post a Comment