Murmansk Winter Expedition: Day #6 – Practical information

Tickets to the Hermitage

• It is worth buying Hermitage tickets online. Yes, it will be more expensive than at the ticket office, but it will miss you in the queue to the ticket office. In addition, there is a separate entrance for those on the Internet.

Metro

• Metro. Disposable “tickets” take the form of a token. Within one token, you can change lines several times (for example, to see more beautiful stations). One token is one descent underground. One token costs 45 roubles. We didn’t know, from a quick analysis of the planned route it came out that we need 16 chips. Well, not to the end. We went out on the ground as a tribute for a moment, and still 8 tokens were left as a souvenir.

• Russians, metro, children. The metro in St. Petersburg is deep. There is a long moving staircase leading to it. After Julka climbed the stairs herself, we (the parents) were baptized by a Russian woman that it was so dangerous. The same lady at the other end of the stairs took Julka by the hand and assisted her at the landing, which greatly shocked the child used to such architectural inventions.

Parking

• For safety reasons we planned to leave the car in a guarded car park. On the spot it turned out that there are many free parking spaces in the centre. So we left the car just under the tenement house where we stayed overnight. Note: it is worth paying attention to the signs such as “no parking between 0 and 7 on Wednesdays” if you don’t want the garbage truck to pick up the car.

Opening hours

• Tourist attractions close at 6:00 p.m., ticket offices are open until 5:30 p.m.
• The city is still vibrant and lively at midnight.
• In various places you can meet the living tsarinas Catherine, who for a small fee will be happy to have a photo with you.

Safety and cleanliness

• The center is calm and clean. No rubbish falling down the streets, the tenement houses clean and neat. In public places (supermarket, metro station) there is security.

Shopping

• St. Petersburg is a civilized city with shops that have moved out of the wild and unprofitable Poland, such as Marks&Spencer or Next. In addition, you will meet well-known brands such as L’Occitane or Jack Wolfskin and many others.

Language

• Unlike other Russian cities, we could communicate in English.

What and how we visited in St. Petersburg you will read in another post.