July 4th, 2023 Saint Petersburg, Russia

8:30AM I took the metro from Nevskiy Prospekt to Moskovskaya, where I took the bus to get to Catherine Park.

10:10AM I arrived at Catherine Palace after 30 minutes of walking. The building is closed on Tuesdays, just like Peterhov was closed on Mondays. I should’ve switched the orders so that at least I could have more options and flexibility to visit at least one of those, if not both. I toured the park for about 4 hours and managed to see almost everything except for a couple of gates at the perimeter.

3PM I took a Yandex taxi to Moskovskaya. The driver didn’t have change. I took a minute to look for someone to help me change and he wanted 500 RUB instead of 456 RUB. I complained about this to Yandex and they gave me a 500 RUB credit, which came in handy on the way to the airport. I then went ahead to take another metro to Nevsky Prospect.

4:20PM I finally arrived at the State Hermitage Museum. I got into the museum just before 5PM, when they stopped new entrants to the museum. The museum was 2 stories and enormous. I didn’t get an audio guide and just scavenger-hunted all the famous pieces on the map. I missed a few as a couple was not accessible.

8PM I stayed as long as I could and took a bus to Chekhov. I had a chicken kief for 790 RUB. I then took the metro to Nevskiy Prospekt. Katyusha is actually really close by and was better. I had some fish pelmeni and a shot of vodka there. They were very good to the extent that I don’t even think they can be traditionally Russian. I walked back to Garden 22/2.

11PM I arrived back at Garden 22/2 and went to bed a little after midnight.