Today was my last full day in St Petersburg and I was planning to travel out to the suburbs to visit Peterhof one of Catherines lavish palaces. There were still issues in the hotel of me waking up then falling asleep at 8am, and the large school parties running havoc in the hallways and at breakfast.

I found a website that offered door to door guided tours for $49 for both the Hermitage, Peterhof, and Pushkin. I planned on doing one each day but when I went to book it the price was based on a group of 10 people so for me to do it solo was $200 each. I decided to do them all myself and skip Pushkin as it was a bit harder to get to by suburban bus.

I stopped by the metro station to top up my card by 50R ($1) so I now had a balance of 150R ($3.25). Metro fare is 31R and when I had arrived by bus from the airport it was 26R. I also wanted to scout out the international train station to Helsinki.

I then proceeded to take the Red Line metro across town to Avtovo station. The Red Line is the most palatial of all the lines. I was scouting stations to return to on my way back to tour in further detail.

At Avtovo station I was told in the hotel to go under the underpass to the other side of the road to get the bus. I could take either bus 200 or 210. I could just about make out the Cyrillic for Peterhof, it looked something like 'NeTerho&'

On the bus a conductor came by with a card reader for my metro pass. She realized I was a tourist as my card was different so she said Peterhof and I replied yes.

I'd checked the route on google and it was meant to be a coastal road leading out of the city to the Palace. There is a hydrofoil that runs from outside the Hermitage but it doesn't start till May 1 tourist season and I was a week early.

The bus drove endlessly thru tower blocks for well over an hour. I was worried maybe I'd missed is as a road sign said Peterhof 2 km to the right and I never saw signs after that.

After a while more driving thru smaller towns the conductor came up and said Peterhof so I was to get off at this stop. There was a painted yellow wall and railings to show I was at the palace grounds.

There was construction in the gardens which was partially closed off and I had to find my way in which was at the back of the palace.

You had to wear shoe slippers which were quite slippery on the wooden floors. No photos were allowed and I only got one of the first staircase.

Inside you can see why the peasants revolted as it was such a feast for the eyes. I've been to so many palaces before but I was still blown away by the grandeur.

One room had giant wall size canvases but the wall was divided in four by four separate canvasses. One room was white with gold detailing, there was a red drape room, while another had tinted chandeliers in different shades from top to bottom.

It was slow moving as there were large tour groups with guides holding me up. One group was Korean so I stopped for fun to listen to them. They moved aside to let me pass so I replied 'gunchaneyo' (its ok). This resulted in startled gasps from many of the ladies 'hangul mal' (you speak Korean!!).

I got chatting in Korean and said I worked three years in Daegu as a middle school English teacher. They asked if I lived in Russia now so I replied 'yoheng' (vacation). The entire group was more fascinated in me than the palace taking turns interviewing me asking me all kinds of questions about my nationality and appearance curious about the Korean speaking foreigner in Russia!.

One of the wings was Asian filled with furniture from Japan and similar wall panelling. If it wasn't for the groups you can move quite quickly thru the sections open to the public which is not the entire building.

Out in the rear gardens leading to the sea workers were cleaning the pumps and turning the fountains on for the start of summer tourist season. The hydrofoil from the Hermitage leads right to the wharf at the end of the gardens.

The gardens were equal in their majesty and splendour with all their gold sculptures. The bus directions on wikitravel mentioned a big church at the bus stop. It was an interesting Orthodox Church similar to the Saviour of the Spilled Blood Cathedral with its domed architecture.

It had a more darker interior but just as interesting and detailed painted murals inside all the arches and alcoves. You could take a staircase up for 100R ($2) but nobody was checking and I wasn't about to climb up. It is an interesting place overlooked by the large bus tours that go directly into the palace.

Waiting for the bus back it was standing room only with the bus full of mostly local pensioners. I'm not sure what the conductor was trying to tell me when her reader tapped my card but she was showing me 8R. I don't know if she was asking me to pay more or that was the balance left.

That didn't make sense as I topped up my card before I left and had a balance of 150R. After an hour of standing when I got back to the metro I tapped my card and it said my balance was 8R. That means the bus had charged me 56R ($1.25) each way when the local airport bus was only 26R.

Being an hour long bus it probably charged more for distance. I cleaned out my coins and topped up 55R to give me a balance of 63R for the rest of the day