Hellmouth

Travel

A family member worked for an airline so for several years I was able to fly standby a lot of places for free.

St. Petersburg, Russia - February 2016

I went on this trip with my dad. Neither of us had ever left the country so it was pretty exciting/terrifying. We saw a performance at the Marrinsky Theatre and spent a a few days just wandering the Hermitage Museum. We also visited the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and a cat cafe.

View of the Winter Palace through arch — The General Staff Building

Cat Cafe:

London and Canterbury, England - June 2016

This was the first trip I took by myself. I first flew into London and spent a day there. I went to The Victoria and Albert Museum and The British Museum. There was some historical clothing I wanted to see at the V&A but a lot of their costume collection wasn't available at the time.

The next day I took a train to Canterbury where I spent the rest of the week.I visited Canterbury Cathedral and a few other old churches, as well as the ruins of Canterbury Castle. It was raining for most of this trip, but that added to the comfiness. I mostly just relaxed and ate a lot of baked goods.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Canterbury

St. Martin's Church, the oldest church still in use in Britain

St. Martin's Church cemetery

St Petersburg, Russia - 2019

In 2019, I went back to St. Petersburg as part of a study abroad program. I lived with a local family for three months and studied at Smolny Convent. On this trip I spent more time at the Hermitage, visited Peterhof Palace and Catherine Palace, and saw several music and theatre performances. Several of us took a train to Moscow for a weekend as well. This trip was where I met my partner, who was also studying abroad.

On my way to St Peterburg I also had very short stops in London, where I went to the house of commons and watched a debate for a couple hours, and Helsinki, where I had to rush from the airport to the city to take a ferry and sadly had no time to enjoy the city.