St Petersburg is a city I have wanted to visit for years, and every year I have thought ‘right for my birthday this year it is going to by St Petersburg’.

My birthday is in August, so at about January time I start looking at the flights and they are so expensive, so then I put it off for another year.
 
Eventually I thought no, enough is enough I really want to see this city, I’m going to book it, so very early January 2014 I booked the flights.

Who would have predicted that only 10 days later, Russia decided to pick on Ukraine and spark civil unrest throughout parts of the country…...why did it have to be 2014?
 
Anyway, it’s too late we’re going, we’ll just have to pack our hard hats.

This city has always evoked mystery and clandestine rendezvous to me, so it was that feeling and the amazing architecture, like I had never seen before, that attracted me to St Petersburg.

Saint Petersburg has often been referred to as the ‘Venice of the North’. With the love I have strolling by canals and rivers and gazing across open seas, I couldn’t wait to explore.

Well, I’m not too sure what we’ll find on the cuisine front. Surely Beef Stroganoff must be on the menu, along with Blini and Borscht.
 
The local tipple has to be Vodka, doesn’t it? Although, who knows what other beverages Russia is famous for (there is only one way to find out).

Mmmmm… well our mini break was in early August and the research I had completed for this time of year, was that the temperature should be early 20’s.
 
How wrong was I, it was early 30’s (lovely if you laying on a beach, not so good for a mini break)?