St Petersburg, Day 2

First Day Alone

Unlike the previous day today we planned to go around the city by ourselves. 

We'd planned the day out and set off hoping to finish it XD

Our first destination was Saint Issac's Cathedral.

Saint Issac's Catheral

We were planning on going in as well as go up but found out our student cards don't get us discounts.

We needed something called an ISIC (international student identification card), many sadness.

This lead us to just decide and go see the view from the top after receiving intel from Ksen's mom that it's not worth going in cause of our future plans visiting the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Here are some exterior shots:

After an ungodly climb of too many stairs we made it to the observatory at the highest golden dome.

Who says I'm unhealthy?

A happy Ksen going down

Bronze Horseman

Right before we got some food (to prevent hangry Ksen from appearing) we made a quick detour to the Bronze Horseman for a quick photo or two.

Lunch

For lunch we decided to go to one of many many many many many suggestions, Brinza (브른자).

A Russian restaurant chain that specializes in cheburek, a Russian pastry of sort. 

We went for classic fillings; meat, cheese and potato-mushroom.

We had dessert as well but as the theme of this trip is 'we can be healthy if we try' it will not be posted.

Kazansky Sobor (Cathedral)

Due to the unfortunate circumstances of lighting being on our side we currently have meh pictures but please understand. 

As this is a currently operational monastery, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. 

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

Now to the highlight of the day (traditional touristy values wise) we went to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. A typical example of Russian orthodox church architecture or so google says.

Arcade Museum

Through Ksen's extreme research skills we found an old Soviet arcade museum next to the Church.

Our obvious next step, old-skool gaming.

That was pretty much it for the us on our second day in St. Petersburg. 

We had to catch an early morning train (half 6..... why Ksen....why) so we headed back with 21987 steps under our belt. 

Oh never mind, one more thing I didn't get reminded or anything because Ksen is right next to me watching me type like a hawk. We had a great time meeting up with Ksen's relatives for a Georgian/Russian cuisine restaurant. They were kind enough to introduce us to the restaurant order food that I would have never ordered and been able to enjoy without them. 

- GK

              

St Petersburg, Day 1

After a very warm welcome with a home made Russian pancake breakfast, we made our way down to a supermarket to explore the local groceries. A few sweets richer we were ready to embark on our tour.
Joined by relatives to keep us company and be our tour guides we explored St Petersburg's city centre and learned about the history of the Zsars.
Here are a few highlights from Geo's camera (if there will be unmissable shots I'll add them later, as I didn't bring the adaptor for the camera I'm using):

We got so lucky with the weather, it was amazing!

Visited Titans to make a wish

Fortress and the first building built in the city. We were impressed by the whole width of the river Neva still being frozen.

Church on Spilled blood unfortunately under restoration but still magnificent.

We also had some amazing food including Pelmeni and Vareniki, the best doughnuts in St Petersburg (which are so much better than normal doughnuts) and a home cooked meal with soup, potatoes and meatballs. Now to catch up with sleep and get some rest as more exploring to do tomorrow!

-KK

Journey to the Unknown (well for me)

Manchester to Helsinki

As per usual with a late start to the day, we got kinda hungry.

This allowed McDonalds and its evil Monopoly scheme to lure us in to its lair. 

After our feast in McDonalds we headed to the airport quite early, but the only problem, our flight was delayed by about an hour or so. Worse case scenario we'd miss our connecting flight. 

~Spoilers~

We made it yay.

The flight to Helsinki was mostly us just being anxious and asking if we would make it and watching random shows we downloaded on Netflix. 

As soon as we landed we got paranoid that we wouldn't make it so we dashed outside the plane..... and stood around on a bus to the terminal. Once we got there though we were pretty much olympians. 

Other flights were delayed as well so it ended up being pointless...but meh twas fun. 

Helsinki to St. Petersburg

A short flight over the Baltic sea on a minuscule propeller plane.

I wasn't sketched out......I was.

They turned the propellers on and we could feel the heat from the engine from our seats, so fun.

In the end we made it here, St. Petersburg and I'm currently writing this blog while Ksenia is on her phone not being productive.

Click refresh once in a while for more

- GK

Celebrations, Celebrations and more Celebrations

January to March is the ultimate celebrations period for Geo and me - New Years, our anniversary, Valentine's, my birthday, his birthday.. sounds like a lot doesn't it? Well, this year we had even more reasons to celebrate: first both Geo and me passed our driving test and are now proud owners of a pink (and ugly) UK driving licence and then we both found a placement for our year in Industry starting this summer. So we had a busy few months with all these celebrations and of course all the uni work we had to do in between.

Now, it's time for some rest and relaxation, as all assignments are handed in an we are on our Easter break. We are catching up with our missed posts and movie nights and preparing for our upcoming trip to Russia!

But enough talking, here are some pictures from our festivities:

Full table on New Years Eve

Trying on our new scarves...

...and moustaches

Fancy (expensive but worth it) 3 year anniversary dinner

Red theme for my 21st birthday

Bowling on Geo's birthday

Geo's lucky (very pro looking) bowling pose

IT'S CHRISTMAS BREAK ~~~ Day 2

Top of the World (sorta)

After resisting the urge to just stay in bed, we had a ticket to go the top of Burj Khalifa. 

We decided on Papa Roti (an amazing coffee bun at Dubai Mall) as breakfast just before our adventure to the tallest building to the world.

The entrance was very fancy as expected, and there's quite a bit to see before you even go up 

She's lost her mind waiting

There was a bit of waiting but soon enough we got up to the top with one of the fastest elevators I've been on.

"Make me look like a model" - Ksenia 2017

The rest of the day was comprised of just hanging out in the world's biggest shopping mall.

I'm too lazy to write more so here are the pictures of the rest of the day. (at least I'm honest smiles)

I'm a model

She Tries...

She really does...

The next morning (like 3 in the morning) we took a cab to Abu Dhabi for our flight back to good old HCMC for our eventful Christmas break.

- GK

IT'S CHRISTMAS BREAK ~~~~ in march

Not that anyone really reads our blog, but its been a while since we've uploaded anything mostly due to Ksen's laziness. Either way here comes part 2 of 3 of our Dubai Christmas trip.

Because I'm a model traveller I thought it'd be great that I wouldn't sleep on the flight to Dubai and I was practically falling asleep any given chance I had. Even with this tiresome condition, we went to the famous desert tour of Dubai....

We got picked up from our hotel on 4x4 and was pretty much driven to the middle of no where. 

Once we arrived though Ksenia got to take part in animal cruelty.

 Dubai being a desert and call the views that we got to see while waiting for our questionable group members wasn't too bad.

This waiting was followed by a desert roller coaster on the 4x4 all the way to the base camp where they so graciously offered mediocre food and decent entertainment.

After this event packed day following the long flight, we were pretty much knocked out by the end of it. We pretty much fell right to bed as soon as we got back from the desert tour.

- GK

Laziness and now Exams..

Well... as you can see our Dubai posts are far from up to date! We had an amazing trip and then a wonderful Christmas break with our families.

Unfortunately a busy schedule and loads of holiday laziness has gotten the better of us and we haven't updated the blog. Now we are back in Manchester/Leeds and while super jetlagged are getting ready for our exams...sigh...

Anyways, I don't know when but we will update the blog at some point and catch you up on all that has happened!

Till then, wish us luck with our exams!

-KK