Tsarskoe Selo

With one day left in St Petersburg (my train was at 11), I decided that I would feel incomplete not to have seen Tsarskoe Selo. So, despite any real idea how to get there, I set off. My directions were: take the Metro to Moskowskaya station, catch a minibus right outside the station to Tsarskoe Selo. Sounds simple enough.

Here's what actually happened:

I caught the metro all right, feeling like an old hand, I even dealt with changing lines with no problem. Then, I left the station. Hmm. There are no clearly marked areas saying "Tsarskoe Selo Minibus Wait Here". In fact, the station has about 4 exits & I have no idea if I even exited the correct one. Well, I saw someone jumping on a minibus in front of me and decided that this was a likely spot, so I asked a few people which one was for T.S. In response, I got the Russian shrug. No language, just the shrug. I wandered aimlessly checking the signs on the windows for a sign, before finally realizing that I should be looking for the town name, not the tourist site name. Once I looked for Pushkin, I saw loads of minibuses of every description.

I jumped in the nearest one, felt proud of myself and settled in for the half hour ride. The bus had a little TV showing animal bloopers. Classic entertainment After a half an hour, I asked a woman when we'd hit T.S. She told me to get off immediately! We were in Pushkin! I really hope that woman catches a really bad cold (censored version). If I'd stayed on for another 5 minutes, I would have been dropped at the gates. Instead, I wandered lost through Pushkin for 45 minutes. A lovely town by the way. I eventually arrived at the Palace purely by luck.

Let me tell you something. Russia is not set up for tourism. Russia does not particularly want tourism. They make it as difficult as possible. In St. P., I saw a signboard saying Tsarskoe Selo (in Cyrillic) and 25p. I was thrilled and asked when the tour left. The woman looked me up and down and said, "Only for Russians."

I bought my ticket to the park and began wandering the (beautiful) grounds. Of course, then it began to rain. To enter any of the buildings (replicas) to see any of the antiques (none of which were there when the original was - those all exploded in WWII), cost additional rubles, which I was disinclined to pay. Instead, I went looking for a cafe. Nope. Lots of hot dog and ice cream stands and that was about it. I ate my protein bar and went looking for a microbus home.

I found the stop and waited (in the rain). The first bus filled up with people shoving in front of me, leaving me to wait for the next one. I was one of the shovers for the next one, let me tell you! Then a bit of a search for the Metro and home feeling that I definitely could have done without seeing T.S.; knowing, paradoxically, that I would have felt incredibly deprived not to have seen it.

Well, I doodled around for a bit and ended up having to really rush to catch my train. Why is it that having spare time always encourages me to be late? I caught the train 2 minutes before it pulled out of the station. I had a compartment with two older Russian ladies (bottom bunks) and a Russian Romeo (also a top bunk). He spoke to me. Incessantly. While drinking vodka and after removing his shirt. Things like, "Do you like Russia?" "Do you have boyfriend?" etc. etc. I finally fell asleep to avoid him. That ended my time in St Petersburg. I hope that you've enjoyed it as much as I did!

To see pictures, visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/StPetersburg