So after a fairly heavy night the morning was naturally delicate. We had arranged to go to an art gallery with Mel whilst still under the influence. So in the morning we had to stay true to our word despite craving a few extra hours in bed. But with a shower and two litres of St Petersburg finest tap water we were up and raring to go.

The gallery was a considerable distance away and we had to walk. My choice of footwear were a pair a flip flops. In hindsight this was the most ridiculous decision since voting Ed Miliband as the head of the Labour Party. It was approaching lunchtime and with Nathans persistent hunger and the prospect of 3 hours in an art gallery we decided to have lunch. The choice was Mcdonalds. Largely very similar to the UK but they had a front of house who greeted us. For a second I thought we were going to get waited on.

The art gallery called Hermitage was a massive building which hundreds of rooms. Luckily I got free entry for being a student thank god. The pictures were very nice with some big names knocking about but not being the arty person my critique was based around the flaking of the paint which required a good look. I once for too close to the painting on one inspection and set off the alarm which sent the granny curator to jump to her feet making sure I hadnt smeared s*** all over the painting. All staff who worked there were over the age of 65 and sat in the corner looking as if they had died inside. Thankfully Mel was very knowledgable about these things arty and showed us a world beyond our ignorance. I noticed that despite painting a very imaginative picture their creativity didn't continue to their choice of title. Most of which were just plain descriptions of the painting. 'man in room' 'children in garden playing'. Which was just obscene.

We left Mel to wander around aimlessly and as we had to register our visa at a hostel that smelt of urine and was extremely hard to find. We then proceeded to find the boat tour and booked tickets for a 7pm boat. In the meantime we went for dinner at an Armenian and Georgian restaurant. Marcus and I chose a nandos style garlic chicken that you have to spend 15mins dissecting then the rest of the time trying to avoid bits of bone left in it. Nathan chose a traditional Georgian dish of meat dumplings. He described them as testicles wrapped in over cooked pasta. So overall another satisfying dinner on our travels.

After dinner we headed to the canal for our boat tour. This was immensely relaxing. I seemed to really enjoy the bobbing motion of the boat whilst passively listening to history. I enjoyed this so much that I fell asleep for 90% of the homeward leg.

So I am currently sitting outside my hostel in a quiet district of St Pete. with a bottle of strongbow which I was amazed to find in my hostel. My legs are extremely tired and I look forward to a good nights sleep and feeling fresh in the morning.