When planning on visit Russia you must be thinking about coming to St. Petersburg. You are right, this is a "must see place", which combine in it a mighty of the past, where everything is at least 300 years old, with intence life of one of the biggest cities of Europe. But what is probably even more interesting is the surrounding of St. Petersburg.Czars of past often didn't like to spend their time in a busy city. Around Petersburg there are many palaces that manarch have build, now these are little towns that are still leavnig in a spirit of that time. This towns are Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Gatchina, and Petrodvoretz. When you travel to Russia probably only there you will find past like it was 3 centuries ago. In this post I would like to tell you a little bit about Pushkin.
Pushkin, or Tzarskoe selo (Czars village) is located at the south of St. Petersburg, about 17 miles away. You can get there my train (25 min) from Vitebsky train station, or by bus (40 min). Some of the St. Petersburg tours also include a visit to the Pushkin. It was a present of a Peter the Great to his wife and at next emperior of the Russia, Catherine the First. Peter has build a estate for his wife that was named after her. It was a beautiful palace that was surrounded by parks and ponds, and the town was build around it to support it. There is a great number of monuments and cathedrals in Pushkin, that were build to pleasure the eye of her majesty.
The royal families for the next 300 years have always spent their summer in this pallace. It was famous for it carnivals and balls.Today Pushkin is small city that remember it glorious past. People around are kind and willing to help. It seems like a whole city is like a museum, or beautiful park. You feel free and comfortable there.
