Belated До свидания!

So, my four months in Russia is up and I'm writing this at home, wrapped in a slanket, with a hot water bottle, by the fire. Purely because it's comfy obviously, the 30 odd C increase in temperature was kind of noticeable. 

Anyway, this post will serve as a kind of summary for lazy but well-meaning people. 

Cool things I did in St Petersburg:

Walked across a BIG frozen pond

Went to the banya, NAKED, and got whipped with veniki (birch branches). No photographic proof, I'm afraid.

Russian Venus - Boris Kustodiev

Met Russia's biggest Beatles fan, Kol'ya Vasin, in the Temple of Peace, Love and Music.

Went to the Hermitage a few times.

Japanese goldfish bowl

Caught and ate Fred the fish, like a good bloodthirsty pescatarian.

Saw these tributes to Ekaterina II (no donkeys here)

Got a rose from a drunk stranger

Went to see the rising of the bridges

Saw a Chekhov play (The Cherry Orchard/Вишневый Сад)

Complied with all the best Petersburg superstitions

Ostap Bender

Cat statues on Malaya Sadovaya (Vasilisa)

Elisha

Atlas('s feet)

Kissing bridge

The Hare Escaping Flooding

Saw Finland (possibly? Yeahh)

Made some great (little) friends

Saw some, quite frankly, odd things.

Now that's a toilet! (Made from carrots)

Experienced winter (and the casual threat of near-death) like never before

Tried new food

Buckwheat & Tofu and Pumpkin curry

Manti

Georgian

Uzbek

Okay maybe not all the time

Drank a LOT of tea (even by my builders' brew standards)

Trekked off in the snow to see the wacky art in Erarta

Learnt to ceremoniously serve tea the Chinese way

Found these greats of Russian literature

Dostoevsky

Lermontov

Mayor Kovalev's Nose

Pushkin

And the greats of Russia in general

The Bronze Horseman (Peter)

Krylov

The Eternal Flame

Tchaikovsky

Peter the Great

Saw Petersburg at its worst.

And at its beautiful best

Appreciated Russia's past

And guessed at its future.

Looking onto oligarch complex from Church annexe

Hard as it was at times, we learnt to deal with laughably grumpy cashiers, pillowy mountains of snow and not seeing the sun for a good 5 weeks. Ultimately, I was sorry to leave and I hope I can go back in the next few years (and remember a bit of Russian). 

Otherwise, I'll see you chumps in Valencia!