What to do in St Petersburg, apart from the obvious

St Petersburg travel guides tell you, quite literally, all the same things. And yes, of course you peer at the masters at the Hermitage, marvel at the mosaics of the Church on Spilled Blood, saunter along Nevsky Prospekt and eat borscht. But what else? Here are five of the things we found worthwhile:

1) Go into shops

From the posh Eliseyev deli on Nevsky Prospekt 56 to the small local shops, you'll find nothing but gems. Even if the shop turns out rubbish, you will have had a 'real Russian experience'. Buy something you like the look of and try it. By doing so we stumbled upon this lovely milky ice cream popsicle and a pot noodle type ready meal that, by adding some hot water, turned into a tasty potato mash with croutons and dill.

Local fruit and veg shop on Pravdy street

Sweet somethings at the Eliseyev shop

2) Go into buildings

For most buildings it is impossible to see from the outside what's happening indoors. We have stood at the foot of many a great building, piece of paper with the exact address in hand, wondering if we had come to completely the wrong place. I think it may be the tiny windows in all these eighteenth century buildings, designed to keep the heat inside in cold winter months. Have the guts to open the doors and step inside, and you will find what you were looking for despite appearances.

If it hadn't been for the word 'recipe' in the window I would never have gone in

3) Look up and down in the metro

Look up (to the ornamental ceilings and walls) and down (to the old school wooden escalators) when in the metro. The stations beautifully built, even if somewhat scary due to the great depth of the tracks and the masses of people going in and out.

4) Try and work out the Cyrillic script

It's not that hard and it will help you find out what's hidden behind those small windows. It is a supermarket? Is it a restaurant? Is it a bar? By the end of our journey we were actually able to find things!

5) Book a tour in a suburb

We allowed the guides at Sputnik tours to lure us away from the touristy comfort zone that is Nevsky Prospekt and into the suburbs. We went on a rooftop tour and although the view was non-existent (fog), we had a great time talking politics and daily life with our guide, and learning how the many abandoned USSR factories that are dotted around central St Petersburg are now being used by artists and creative souls. St Petersburg = the new Berlin.

Apparently, on a nice day you can see the whole city from here