Well, here it is: the final day of our awfully big adventure.


Thursday 1st September

  Today's touristing was to be based around the Hermitage in the absurdly opulent Winter Palace, so we set off with our newfound British companions, Dafydd, Anna and Marco, and Emee the Australian. For those not in the know, the Hermitage is a massive museum spanning several buildings - think kind of like the Smithsonian but not so huge - and one of these buildings is the vast turquoise and gold Winter Palace. Now, the more astute among you may have noticed an irregularity here in that we visited a pay-to-enter tourist attraction. Fear not, dear reader, we have not yet been fully robbed of our senses, for on the first Thursday of the month entry is free. There was much rejoicing.
  I won't bore you with a long list of all the exhibits we saw, as there were really a huge number, ranging from Abyssinian artefacts to the work of various 19th/20th century French artists; we happily wandered around until closing time and could have easily stayed longer, particularly when amusing ourselves with such classic games as "Choose Your Favourist Art" while wondering around the vast galleries. The only break from our culturefest was when we suddenly realised mid-afternoon that we had't eaten yet, and nipped around the corner to Stolle, which is almost certainly our favourite Russian pie shop.
 Apart from the clouds piddling on us during the walk home, I'm afraid there's not much more to tell of your favourite intrepid adventurers today. We're currently packing up for the last time seeing as we have a hideously early start in the morning, and then we're going out to celebrate what has been a bloody good trip. We'll be updating later tonight with more on that, but that's all for now!

DOD: Tim, for carelessly losing his helium baloon.