Ok ok ok ok ok do not panic… and again, what time is it? 9.45? Where are you all??? Lets check again, how much of time left? We suppose to leave in 15 minutes…!

That is how started an adventure called trip to St. Petersburg. Ten more minutes and people started to gather.. I (member of ESN KTU section) was organizing this trip and a mentor - Audrė from KK was helping me a lot. It took a few weeks to plan everything... So imagine how happy I felt afterwards… Nobody was late, everybody came, a great relief came to me.

People studying in KTU, KK and VMU universities who came to Lithuania from Turkey, Germany, Sweden, France, Poland, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Italy, Kazakhstan were ready to visit St. Petersburg and enjoy its beauty and oneness.

This is the day, the time and place. Now, hold on Russia, our gang is coming! We are going to be sooo wild and so furious! (10 min. later - everybody sleeps in the bus).

Well, I thought to myself, maybe we are not going to be so wild. But that is completely ok, we will take it leisurely, there is nothing wrong with that, maybe these guys just want to have some rest and peace but not parties and rave...

I have to admit, that it was a first and totally wrong impression of our crew, because just after a noon everybody started waking up, to eat, drink and talk. In brief, it was a habitual waking up time and activity for Erasmus students. Very fast, talks and chatters in the bus, going Kaunas – St. Petersburg, developed in to a massive and unstoppable feast with delicious drinks, foods and even dazzling camera lights, which as appeared later, was dazzling bus drivers so much ,that they even couldn’t see the road.

After a short bus stop for a brief moral education, we could move on towards the town called Narva where we had to spend a night and then, fresh as daisies, cross Russia border. And everything went this way, we didn’t even noticed as we were already going down the road towards the great and remarkable town – St. Petersburg. And indeed, St. Petersburg is amazing. Undoubtedly - one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Architecture, museums, people, everything is so different, exclusive and beautiful at the same time. St. Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great, that is why the most famous objects that we have visited was somehow related with this remarkable person or his relatives.

At first we went to see Peters and Pauls cathedral in which all the emperors and empresses of tsarist Russia are buried down. It is the first and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg which amazes you by its grandeur and abundance of affluance. Second, a very special place that we went to see was a Catherines summer palace, that personally for me, was the most amazing thing that I have seen in Russia so far. Its splendour, beauty and luxury made me rethink about those who had it and those who had to die because of it.

The last day in St. Petersburg started quite early by going to one of the world-wide known museums – Hermitage. Just imagine, what an extraordinary feeling you get when you go down those beautifull coridors, staircases and halls that used to be a homes for ones of the most famous historic personalities. Moreover, step after step you discover sculptures, paintings and other masterpieces of the artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Matisse, van Gogh and others... It is quite impossible to describe everything in words. I think the only way you can get visualize Hermitage is to go there and to see everything with your own eyes ...

After these adventures and spectacular views, tired but very happy, we headed towards Lithuania . I must say that because of a remarkable drivers skils, our way back to home did‘nt take a long time and was very decent.

And that my friends is the story about a trip to a land of great Russia whrere a city called St. Petersburg amazes everyones eyes who is lucky enought to see the beauty of its wealth.

Simona Puskunigytė