A night cruise on the Neva

I had read that a great way to see all the sights in St Petersburg was by boat, as the buildings were designed to be approached by the river. We'd just missed the white nights tours, but decided to still take a tour by night and see all the buildings lit up. Although it was cold and damp, we stayed up until 1am for the beginning of our tour. Unfortunately we had to share our boat with three drunken louts. It was a reminder of annoying idiots from back home, something I'd been away from for two years. At first they weren't bothering us too much, just swigging from their pre-mixed bottle on the back of the boat. Then I caught a glimpse of one urinating off the side. Disgusting, but still not bothering anyone but his mate who likely got splashed as the boat sped along. Finally they came over and started harassing us. Annoyingly they kept talking to us in Russian and then telling us they couldn't speak English. That's ok mate, now bugger off and leave me alone. They didn't, even whilst we ignored them. We waited until the boat made it to the sparkling TV tower and turned to make it's way back to shore, and then we got up and went inside the boat. Thankfully they didn't try and talk to us again, although one decided to try and hang off the side. Unfortunately he didn't fall in. The tour was nice, even though it was cold, late at night and a bit longer than it needed to be. Regrettably the drunken halfwits really didn't make it worth it for me. And to top it all off, we didn't agree a fare before getting into the cab and again got stung by the St Petersburg taxi drivers. Please take my advice if you're ever in the city AGREE A PRICE BEFORE YOU GET IN!! 

Here are a few of the decent pictures I took, mainly from the beginning of the tour.

Watching one of the many bridges opening

The Winter Palace

St Peter and St Paul Fortress

The Aurora, where the first shot was first for the October Revolution.

As soon as I'd taken this picture we ducked inside away from the Drunkards.