Russia

I had always wanted to visit Saint Petersburg, especially after studying the construction of the city so when I found myself so close (I was in Latvia) I decided it was time to go, also it would a whole lot cheaper. I was doing volunteer work and only had pocket money, the visa alone was half my budget. The visa only allowed us to visit Moscow and Saint Petersburg and the travel agent warned us we could get arrested if we were caught womewhere else. Great.

After a horrible 13 hour bus ride we arrived at a highly guarded checkpoint where I was - of course - the last one in the line and the only one of the WHOLE bus to be questioned. Repeatedly. By two insane officers who considering their age should know better.

I enjoyed Moscow, with all the news reports I had never realized just how beautiful the Red Square is, the metro is a live museum as the Russians believe in preserving the past, good or bad, and left all the marks of the Soviet times. I waited for my train under a massive statue of Lenine...On the other hand an old lady tried to steal my passport, another one tried to trick us into getting into a strange car, even tough we were all volunteers they still made us pay extra to pretend we stayed in a hotel - I had no money left when we crossed the border again.

A 14hour, disgusting, smelly and sticky train trip till St Petersburg should've taught me a lesson, yet I had a whole week to suffer in that town. The heat was massive as well as the humidity - it was always around 32º, super humid while in Moscow it was even cold; the white nights were starting and messed with our systems, all the Russians we met walked super fast and insisted it was "just around the corner" even in 5h walking tours.I wanted to enjoy and breather the city, instead I was running up and down like a peddy paper with check points and everything.

I didnt like paying to get in a country in the first place but after that ridiculous price we were given prices for foreigners all the times, even restaurants(well, can we call pizza hut and kebab places restaurants? I got sick twice with their meatball soup...). As a result I only went to the Hermitage museum because I gave freen entrance to students and had apples and water for dinner for several days.

I slept for 24h straight when I returned.