Pose like a Russian

To our absolute delight our morning started once again with a free all you can eat buffet of traditional Russian cuisine - pancakes with jam. We started out much earlier than the previous morning armed with a destination in mind and scribbled instructions on how to get there, courtesy of the receptionist who is obviously trained in English for the exact purpose of directing the cliental to the Environs of Petersburg, if they stick to the script.

We walked confidently to the metro, handed over our roubles and made it all the way to the bus changeover before our morning coffee. We followed the locals as they modelled for us how to pay the driver for the luxury of a minibus as opposed to the hot smelly regular bus service (like Chinese whispers you pass the money to the person beside you and hope they pass it on) and arrived at the gardens after a brief nap on the way. So far so good.

We walked through the gates and up the driveway of Peterhof Palace, passing huge fountains and tree-lined pathways. 'Pretty impressive' we thought. Then we saw the queue at the side of the palace, and realised we hadn't even made it into the grounds yet. We made a mutual decision not to go into the actual palace, and this decision was justified by the sheer expanse of the gardens itself, which has often been compared to Versailles in France. 

As we joined the throngs of tourists armed with cameras we very quickly noticed the strange behaviour of the locals. The more we became frustrated with the length of time it took them to point aim and shoot a photo with modern digital cameras the more delighted the person posing for the photo became. They really threw themselves into ensuring the photo would be a keeper, extending their bodies to look slimmer and shapely, pouting with outstanding confidence and aiming to show the world what true model potential they had. 

Well what can we say? When in Russia right? We didn't have the heels (our connies and sketchers didn’t even come close to being appropriate Russian footwear) or tight mini dresses the local tourists were sporting but we did have the camera and each other to take the photo and we could match these girls pose for pose. Well, maybe we didn't have the natural flair, or maybe it just takes more practice, but the next 3 hours we spent exploring the picturesque gardens were very entertaining.

Almost as impressive as the gold-plated fountains and lush gardens was the local girls' ability to walk all day through the gardens in heels. And make it look easy. After a close encounter with the local wildlife (a fast-moving squirrel) we caught the mini-bus back to the city. Our eyes now accustomed to local fashion, we now thought nothing of the expensive and six-inch stilettos sported by almost every Russian woman between the ages of 13 - 35, which they wore as a part of their  'everyday casual' summer style.

We walked Nevsky Prospekt, inside the Kazan Cathedral and then to the famous Dom Knigi bookstore. As large as it was we didn't manage to find a dessert cookbook but that loss was cancelled out by the wondrous discovery of a free, clean toilet right in the middle of the city. We even had time for some shopping before the stores closed at 10pm and Megan joined the Russian shoe club with a great new pair of heels. Of course that meant stopping and discarding the worn sketchers and strutting past the Bank Bridge with two gold winged griffins then all along the shortest route possible directly back to the hostel.