A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 87 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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The flower gardens reminded me just a little bit of Epcot. And yes, saw the Russian flag immediately.
What a difference in the weather. Again. What's cool about that though is it creates different colors and looks in all of your pictures, which is pretty cool! Smart move to skip the changing of the guard - no need to stand in the rain and wind to see that!
I'm sure it would've been very neat to see, but I was more worried the rain might end up as bad as it had been earlier on.
Sunday 12 June – part sixteen: let’s dine at a traditional Russian dining place!
Our guide was set on showing us an area we could wait in, but the rest of the group had a different idea, and asked if we could go and get something to eat in the station, rather than eating on board the train, which worked for me. It was hard work, as we were trying to find out if we had enough time or not, but eventually we found out that we did, so we all headed off to that very traditional Russian dining place, TGI Friday's!
When we first walked in, no-one appeared to be serving or allocating tables. Jay asked if we could sit where we liked, and that was met with blank looks. Oh dear, Houston we may have a problem here.. Our guide was off trying to find out when our train was due in, so we couldn't ask her for help. Thankfully a guy came out who spoke excellent English and we were in safe hands.
We settled down to peruse the menu, noting the differences to the TGIs we have at home. I couldn't believe how few cocktails they had, and the fact they didn't serve wine. I ended up having to go for a Diet Coke, as I couldn't have any of the cocktails, as they pretty much all had something in that I was allergic to.
One other thing that was a very nice difference was the price, but more of that in a moment.
I went for the Caesar salad with shrimp and salmon, as I still wasn't overly hungry, given lunch had been quite late, and I'd filled up on it, assuming we'd be eating on the train probably no earlier than 8:00pm.
Mark had a cheeseburger...
The whole thing came to - wait for this - Ł13.22 ($17.20), which I thought was amazing value, considering we'd be paying at least double that price at home.
TGI Friday’s
Entrée 8 8˝
Service 8˝ 8
Atmosphere 8 8
Value for money 9 9
Average score: 8.38
Our guide came and found us while we were eating, as she has to ensure we get on to the train with no problems. We had timed our meal perfectly, and after everyone had paid up, we headed out, following her through the station.
Our train was already at its platform...
There were long lines at some carriages, as obviously some workers had started the process of checking people's passports, whereas others hadn't. Anyway, that didn't trouble us for a while. Remember that long walk from this morning to get off the platform? Well, now we had a similar long walk to get down to our carriage. We started at number 18, and needed number 8.
When we got to our carriage, thankfully the line wasn't long at all, and we said farewell to our nameless guide. I did feel sorry for her, as I thought she was good in places, she just lacked confidence in herself, and sadly that came over with the way she conducted the group.
We quickly found our seats and Stephanie and Ethan swapped seats with us, so I'd have a window seat to take photos from. I got some shots as we pulled out of the station...
... and as we made our way along.
Can you believe how beautiful the sky looked now? You really wouldn't believe the downpours we'd had earlier, looking at this.
Authentic Russian food. Yes. What a deal too, awesome! Good timing indeed since you didn't have to wait at all for the train! Boy the weather that day was something else. Yep, the skies don't look menacing now!
Your guide did her job, I suppose, but yes that confidence can make a difference. I hope she improves!
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Nice photos of the flowerbeds which look amazing. I just can't believe the Russian weather which is so fickle! Nice value for your meal at TGI Friday's which looked good. Sounds like the great deal I got in a restaurant in Prague back in the 90's. I had a small salami pizza and beer for no more than $2.50. That was some deal! This was about 1996, when it was quite cheap overall in much of Eastern Europe.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Authentic Russian food. Yes. What a deal too, awesome! Good timing indeed since you didn't have to wait at all for the train! Boy the weather that day was something else. Yep, the skies don't look menacing now!
Your guide did her job, I suppose, but yes that confidence can make a difference. I hope she improves!
That was it for her, as she was only our guide in Moscow. We reverted to our original guide in St. Petersburg the next day.
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I know... Mind you, on our honeymoon, we went to a TGI Fridays in New York City, as it's so expensive over here, and it was so cheap there. It was such a treat to eat there for about half the price we're used to paying in the UK.
Nice photos of the flowerbeds which look amazing. I just can't believe the Russian weather which is so fickle! Nice value for your meal at TGI Friday's which looked good. Sounds like the great deal I got in a restaurant in Prague back in the 90's. I had a small salami pizza and beer for no more than $2.50. That was some deal! This was about 1996, when it was quite cheap overall in much of Eastern Europe.
Sunday 12 June – part seventeen: look at some of these speeds!
I was very surprised at how early it got dark, given that the sunset in St. Petersburg had been something like 10:30pm, but we were in mainly darkness a long time before that, which was a shame, as it limited the photo opportunities outside.
However, I soon found something else to spend my time on. We had noticed on the way into Moscow that they give details of the speed you're travelling at, although it didn't seem to happen all the time. I did try to get a shot of it earlier, but it didn't work out on the setting I was on, so I tried another one, and bingo - that worked fine. Look at some of these speeds!
Ok, I get it. It's all in kilometres an hour, so you're wondering what the heck that translates to. Well, me too, given we still work in miles an hour. 220 km an hour is 136 miles an hour.
Apart from that, I spent most of the journey working on today's trip report, and looking up all the various places we'd been in Moscow, and trying to get a bit more of a grasp of the city's geography. I was desperate to try and stay awake if I could, in the hopes that it would result in a good night's sleep (finally!) for me later...
When we got to St. Petersburg, our non-communicative bus driver from this morning was there to meet us, and marched us out of the station. We had to ask him to slow down a couple of times, as Phylis was struggling to keep up. I was fascinated to see how light it still was outside, after it appeared to be completely dark from the views we had from inside the train. No doubt that was because it had been so light inside the carriage…
As we emerged from the station, we saw the massive shopping complex we’d parked by this morning…
You probably can’t see it from these shots, but I realised it was home to Marks and Spencer, one of our big high street shops from home. Wow, now I was not expecting that!
We found our minivan, literally surrounded by coaches. I had no idea how we were going to get out of our spot, and had visions of having to wait for all the coaches to move, which would defeat the purpose of going as a small group. Our driver had other ideas. This is the space he first attempted to get us out through…
I am not a religious person, but I was clinging on for dear life, with my eyes closed and praying we didn’t hit anything. I cannot begin to tell you how close we were to buses on each side.
Fortunately, after a couple of minutes of this, our driver thought better of this approach, and ended up reversing, and we were able to get out behind the coaches. Phew!
We were all absolutely amazed to see how busy the streets of St. Petersburg were at almost midnight. It had been busy enough at a crazy early hour on a Sunday morning, but now it was even worse at a crazy late hour on a Sunday. We did ask Elena the next day if this was normal, or whether it was because it was a holiday, and she said it was pretty normal, explaining a lot of pubs stay open 24 hours a day, although apparently they can’t sell alcohol past 10:00pm.
Every time we stopped, I snapped whatever photos I could, as I wasn’t expecting to see so much of St. Petersburg at night, so this was a nice bonus.
We eventually got back to the ship at around 12:30am, and thankfully we were the only ones there, and a very stern woman checked our passports and allowed us back on to the ship. I was really pleased we got to see it at night for the first time.
When we got back on board, we headed straight to our room, and to bed. The alarm call for tomorrow morning was sadly just six short hours away…
The weather today was all over the place again - torrential downpours, light rain, cloudy and sunny, with temperatures in the low 60s. The best thing today was seeing as much as we did of both Red Square and the Kremlin, considering we thought we wouldn't see anything. The worst thing today was the rain. The funniest thing today was Today we tried walking through the grounds just outside the Kremlin And the result was it was a wonderful experience and, with perfect weather at that point of the day, it made for some wonderful photos. The most magical moment today was getting to see the Moscow subway.
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And yes, saw the Russian flag immediately. 
I got some shots as we pulled out of the station... 
What a deal too, awesome! Good timing indeed since you didn't have to wait at all for the train! Boy the weather that day was something else. Yep, the skies don't look menacing now!
I just can't believe the Russian weather which is so fickle! 
Nice value for your meal at TGI Friday's which looked good. Sounds like the great deal I got in a restaurant in Prague back in the 90's. I had a small salami pizza and beer for no more than $2.50. That was some deal! 
Mind you, on our honeymoon, we went to a TGI Fridays in New York City, as it's so expensive over here, and it was so cheap there. It was such a treat to eat there for about half the price we're used to paying in the UK. 
This is the space he first attempted to get us out through… 
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