If you ever visit any Museum of significance and look for beauty then you must visit this Museum. It is the largest in the world, founded in 1764 by the Catherine the Great. There are six buildings and five are open to the public—the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre. I read that the entrance is free of charge the first Thursday of every month for all visitors, so if you plan to visit then perhaps that is a good option. Most of the museums we visited in Russia were closed on certain days so it is best to check opening hours, the Hermitage is closed on Mondays.
The Hertimage has to be my personal favourite Museum of all time, I absolutely could not get enough of it. I have visited Schönbrunn and other museums like this. But this one, is the nicest. It is an ostentatiously lavish museum, the beauty of thousand gold crafted, hand-painted dreams that stand amid Edgar Allan Poe’s tempest shores of poetry could not do this Museum justice. I clasp tighter to hold onto the beautiful memory that is now the Hermitage.. So come and visit the lens of my perceptive as I take you through the overwhelmingly beautiful rooms of the Hermitage..

If you are interested, here is the vlog to really get a sense of this amazing place:

Saint Petersburg – Hermitage Museum & Pelmenaya Restaurant | Travel Vlog #17

Check out our Instagram: yu_go_gone



This building is just so beautiful, as though it were a wonderful painting someone crafted just to look at and admire it’s art. How someone came up with this design is beyond me. It is truly so delicate, detailed and vibrant.


Buying the tickets is easy and the best part is there is no waiting in line. In Paris, everywhere you go you wait long hours, here it was easy you just go to the electronic machines and purchase the ticket there and then you are let straight into the Museum, we waited, thinking we could not enter until the people in front of us did but it turned out they hadn’t purchased their tickets. We purchased them on the day when we arrived.


It is packed with people.. you can leave larger backpacks in the storage areas. It really is extraordinarily well organised. Hats off to the Russians, they know what they are doing. There is no waiting time virtually you go straight in..

And you arrive to this.. can you believe this! Fit for a princess!! Literally.








I took so many photos of these chandeliers.. I could not get enough!


just look at these high ceilings! An artist’s dream!










This painting is my favourite. Titled the Lovers by Giulio Romano, painted by him 1524. He was a student of Raphael. In short, the painting shows two lovers, who are deeply in love. It appears this is no passing fling. The slippers on the floor indicate that there is comfort in this arrangement however the placement of the slippers on the side of the woman indicates she is married to someone else. The cat too emphasises the discrete and forbidden actions of the two. On the other hand, it may be an encounter between Zeus and Alcmene, the painting may indicate that Zeus has assumed the appearance of Alcmene’s husband to make love to her.
While we were there some tourists decided to check if the painting was real, so they crossed the barrier and they shook the entire painting fiercely, it looked as if it would fall. Touching it with their hands in the middle. I could not believe this, that anyone would go and touch something so old and precious. I may have berated the culprit, right before security came to escort them out…














In times when the museum was a palace where royalty lived, they would look out their window and see this same view..





The gold room.. absolutely amazing.

Everything in this museum is a piece of art.. I cannot do it justice if I tried. No words could possibly describe it. A poem would perhaps help convey it better..






Here are later times, more “frugal” living.




My favourite room in the entire museum, as though from a fairy tale. Libraries are where my heart lies.

A painting of Alexander the Great


Breathtaking.

Back to reality..


However, even this reality looks like a wonderland of architectural magnificence.

Pelmenaya Restaurant

We loved the mixture of cuisines. These are Russian pelmeni with meat filling.

Ukrainian Vareniki with potatoes

Uzbekistani Pastry – the best!

Central Asian – Manti. All of them were amazing and very cheap!!

We loved the Hermitage so much!!!! More of Russia to come!!! Yugogirl out! :-::-::-:

Peterhof Palace and its gardens are at times referred to "the Russian Versailles" (which many have said undermines the shear grandeur and scope of it). I have read that some say Peter the Great was inspired by Versailles to build this Palace but that even Versailles cannot outshine Peterhof. Whether this is true of not – unfortunately you’ll have to judge only from the gardens of Peterhof as the interior of the Palace was closed!!! We were devastated.
We did not get a chance to see the town surrounding Peterhof, and this we regret so much as it was incredibly picturesque. I feel as though we barely saw anything, is that not always the way? As for the Palace it was especially loved by Peter’s daughter Empress Elizabeth (who had good taste might I add) and contributed towards extending the fountains in the grounds. The entrance is inexpensive, the transport is cheap and the waiting time to enter the complex is insignificant but the experience is fantastic, taking you to another world. A world of fairy tales and a world where angelic-like peace is a strange idiosyncrasy that lulls the mind and captures the slight movements of squirrels in the forest. A world where tourists roam and a world which seduces you and leaves you wondering did this actually just happen.. so come with me and visit just that..

If you are interested, here is the vlog to really get a sense of this amazing place:

Saint Petersburg – Peterhof Palace, We love Russia! | Travel Vlog #18

Check out our Instagram: yu_go_gone


One of the first buildings when you enter the complex.




This is very famous and extremely beautiful.

My mind wonders in places like this I think about the extravagance and see it as indescribable and simultaneously picture poor Catherine the Great may have thought the Palace perhaps frugal as she roamed the grounds, moving the court to Pushkin for something a little more ‘high end’. On the other hand, I wondered how they walked around the grounds in those large dresses and how they thought about the everyday person, probably thinking something in line with Marie-Antoinette, thinking that everyone lived so lavishly. This is what I loved, as we walked a little further out we found such quite loveliness with no tourists.




This was incredible.


This was so Alice in Wonderlandly strange.



At one moment, I thought about the amount of time that goes into merely the grounds and gardens of the Palace, and I thought about the couples I saw taking their wedding photos there and to me this was strangely interesting because during the time elegant Empress Elizabeth would have been walking around, no person who was not of royal descent would be allowed on the grounds, let alone have a wedding on the grounds. Imagine, princesses, empresses, tsars, kings, princes allowing “commoners” to walk around and take photos on ‘their’ land. It just would not happen. This is the true beauty of Russia. It does now happen. We saw many couples, taking photos, freely roaming the grounds that belong to the people of Russia.

Here’s the money shot. That’s what you come here for!

It is soooo crazy to think someone lived here!

It looks like a beautiful building on the outside unfortunately we went on the one day the even more grand inside was closed!

The gods guarded the complex whilst the rain fell like the beauty of endless love.

Leaving..

Senoval Restaurant for dinner


An alcoholic shot in the colours of the Russian flag – delicious!




Yes! We came here for sushi! But truly everything was fantastic and not very expensive!!! I could go for some of this right now!!!

Like the story of Anastasia, this story of Saint Peterburg too does end. As I stand in my red coat in the city of red loves, red armies and red soviet stars. I cannot help but be sad to leave. I leave you now Saint Petersburg, but not for long. I will be back with my red coat to visit your romantic skies once more.

Saint Petersburg is amazing!!!! Moscow is next!! Yugogirl out! :-::-::-: