Executive Summary - St Petersburg

• Saw: St Isaacs Cathedral, Peter & Paul Fortress, Winter Palace, Hermitage Museum (and 6,000,000 works of art), Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, Summer Garden, Kazan Cathedral, palace after palace after palace, 4300 brides

• Did: Made it all the way from the airport to the city centre taking a minibus and a metro with no language skills whatsoever, sang 'Dancing Queen' at karaoke, wandered St Petersburg in the search of a cowboy-themed nightclub with a moderately crazy Dutchman, watched others smoke shisha (the novelty wore off for me in Dubai), boat cruise at midnight to watch the bridges open, stood in line for 3.5 hours to see 6,000,000 works of art, searched for Lenin statue - found plywood box.

• Ate/Drank: Blini with potato, blini with cream, blini with unidentifiable toffee-like-substance, quail ("fried under oppression served with spring greens and plum sauce"), akroshka (a cold soup that...well...I wouldn't recommend), pirozhki, Siberian Korona, Baltika, Nastoyka cherry vodka, Kvac (a non-alcoholic beer like thing that makes the broth for the akroshka).

• Favourite part about St Petersburg: The palaces lit up at night are unquestionably magical!

• Least favourite part about St Petersburg: The hospitality of the stern unsmiling hotel staff leaves a bit to be desired. Oh, and we're back to sterilising water and not being able to flush toilet paper.

• Life-altering revelation which has contributed to my search for universal truth: Russians do like to pretty up a church.

• Current career thought: Russia-based Spring/Summer bridal fashion consultant