Catastrophically...

We went, they say, to St. Petersburg! For me, St. Petersburg has always been a sacred city, where you need to, you definitely need to go, fall in love with it and remember pleasant moments ... In vain, sooo in vain, we chose the Chocolate travel agency and decided to go with them ...

Everything was bad, so bad that it was embarrassing in front of Peter, it was impossible to admire him when you want to sleep, go to the toilet and wash ... Sorry for the everyday life!

It all started back in Kyiv on May 25, when we saw the “comfortable” Neoplan AA2244CB bus, it was a double-decker, but clearly designed for dwarfs, because. with a height of 174 cm, I could not stand up to my full height on the second floor of the bus, where our seats were. The seats are squeezed in so much that the distance between them is no more than 15 cm, the legs had to either be pulled up to the ears or put into the aisle. The seats recline, but it didn't help, and sleeping in such conditions is almost impossible, it seems, just a little bit more and I would have developed claustrophobia.

Air conditioner. It is, but it was not included. ))) And who promised you a working conder on the bus? He is and that's enough. Drivers stupidly saved diesel fuel and in the first two days of the trip, in the very heat and sunshine, they did not turn it on !!! The second floor of the bus turned into some kind of glass gas chamber for 48 people riding on top. It was unbelievable stuffy. And on the way back, when we got into a downpour, the roof of the bus also leaked in three places, we had to cover ourselves with blankets.

Drivers. Absolutely frostbitten people who do not care at all!!! They did not even think of helping to load/unload luggage, they pretended that they did not owe anything to anyone and were going to St. Petersburg on their own business, and we, poor relatives, asked for a ride with them here. I cut my palm and asked for peroxide or brilliant green, the driver pretended that I was not there and walked past, the tour manager rummaged through things for a while and found nothing. Why??? The bus that travels so far, almost 1.2 thousand km, does not have a first aid kit??? It's a mandatory thing.

By the way, they didn’t know the route either, it seemed that they were traveling for the first time, without a navigator, without a map, and they didn’t specifically ask anyone for directions! Once we drove for 2.5 hours along St. Petersburg, a distance that can be covered in 45 minutes, but they turned the wrong way two or three times and went around the bridges in a square.

The tour manager's name was Victor. As already mentioned here, he reacts to everything with “my hut is closed, I don’t know anything” or with the question “Sho?”. The biggest problem for him was that the passengers were drinking too much tea! When we went there, he announced a hundred times that you can drink no more than one cup of coffee or tea per person, and then he woke everyone up at ONE AM!!! And he began to pour tea ... where is the logic ??? One o'clock in the morning, people are already sleeping, you need to drink tea! And on the way back, he shamed our group, you see, we drank the most tea/coffee. How are we not ashamed? The fact that there is no normal organization of the group, the fact that you have to endure 4-5 hours before going to the toilets is nothing, you need to drink less tea!

Toilets. In the forest, with hefty mosquitoes. Or once we were brought to a network of markets and released to run through the toilets. More precisely, it was said like this: “Now a stop for the toilet. We all go out and look for a toilet.” This is fine??? Another feature, Victor could say to the microphone at 6 in the morning: “Now we have a stop for the toilet.” And after that, another 2 hours to go in search of this very toilet. TWO hours is not now!!!

Music. On the bus, we were tortured with songs like “Oh my God, what a man” or an eighties disco. Thank God, at least not a chanson ...

Hotel. This is the only thing I liked. We lived in Science 2 on the 5th floor. Very decent clean room. Cleaned up every day. There was no air conditioning, but because of the shady trees in front of the windows, the heat was not felt. Shower, toilet, refrigerator, TV, teapot. Enough for a normal "spend the night" and "rest". True, we almost didn’t sleep there, we had to have time to see everything and we didn’t want to miss the white nights.

Audibility is normal, or we had very quiet neighbors, but we did not hear anyone.

The part of the group that lived in LDM was very unlucky, they say that every word was heard in a whisper, and even the amenities were on the floor, not in the room!

Food. Oooh, that's another story! It's not like a hungry scoop, it's worse. We went to LDM for breakfast. Also, it’s not clear where the logic is, you had to get up at 6:30 to arrive in the morning traffic jams by 7:30 for breakfast and get: 1 bowl of oatmeal / pearl barley / rice + 1 slice of black bread + 1 slice of sausage no thicker than 1.5 millimeters + a piece of casserole or scrambled eggs about 5 by 5 cm + tea. ALL. And this despite the fact that they promised a buffet, and that's why many people were lured to LDM. Say, you will be written like kings. )))

Lunch was better. Every day we ate in different establishments, modestly, but you could eat. First, chicken with a side dish, salad, bun, compote.

Excursions. They were completely stupid and inconveniently organized. We left Kyiv at 9 am on Tuesday, arrived in St. Petersburg at 10 am on Wednesday and we were immediately taken on an excursion to the Peter and Paul Fortress. In the same clothes that we were driving, sweaty, sleepy, dirty, there was nowhere even to brush our teeth. Why take this route? You can first settle people, and then go to admire the beauties of the city. The last day was also stupidly organized. In the morning, a trip to Peterhof until 2 pm, then Gatchina, and departure at 5 pm, after wild races through parks and palaces, I didn’t want to and couldn’t watch anything. But on the bus we slept like the dead, maybe it was planned that way, so that people would be less indignant?

Never take excursions that pay extra! On the bus, Victor ran and collected money from those who chose Night Petersburg (700 rubles) + boating on the canals (550 rubles). The same prices hang on the website of Chocolate. We paid 1,000 rubles for a tour of Night Peter and the canals. And it's just going out on Nevsky and buying the first excursion. She, by the way, was a miracle how good, for 6.5 hours we rode on a boat, and by bus, and walked on foot. That's when I saw the real Petersburg!

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