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I arrived in St Petersburg to find all steriotypes true - My first sighting was of an industrial wasteland from a car with a racist taxi driver having just been through a very unfriendly customs experiance. The taxi driver even told me that the old Lada was the best car ever, very well suited for Russian roads, not like other cars.

I have found St Petersburg to be a city of faded splendour, clearly a very beautiful city, but not very well mentained. Even in the Hermatage, I went into the room in the Winter Palace where the members of the Provisional government were arrested by the Bolsheviks, hugely significant in Russian history, and it was just really...well, dirty. And don't think I'm just being snooty, the walls were really blackened!
Still a beautiful city, 'Peter' just looks a bit grim in the wrong light.

The place is cold, not too cold, though there were still huge blocks of ice flowing down the river from the recent thaw if that gives some indication of how cold it was just before I arrived. I think this does the city atmosphere a lot of damage. Other european citys have a cafe culture that is vibrant and spills out onto the streets. In a Petersburg winter andything spilt on the streets would freeze into a tretcherous icy puddle. Its a place where everyone is either indoors hidden away, or going from one door to another as quickly as possible. The effect of this is everyone has their heads down and rushes on without paying anyone else much regard, making for a not very friendly experiance.
The 'Russian Smile,' i.e. never smiling at all is fairly true, there is a general coldness towards other people when you have dealings with Russians in passing. I am pleased to report that amongs all the sleeping and grumpy old ladys guarding every museum room, there is always at least one in every museum who is manically happy to see everyone and smiles lots - Made my day many a time that did!

I found that this was not the case at all once you got to actually know them. I stayed in a homestay while in St. P. with a woman called Valentina. She spoke no English and we barely understood each other (not that that stopped her chatting to me in rapid Russian all the time) but after a while I realised that she was really looking out for me. She would joke about how I didn't eat enough to lift my huge rucksack, and how I would wear my shoes out from all the walking around town I did. She was clearly not rich, but looked after me very well untill I was sorry to wave goodbye after 8 days.

St Petersburg is regarded as the cultural capital of Russia, and I can see why. The Hermatage is vast, and stocked with thousands of masterpeices from across the globe. Admittedly many of these were pilfered by the Red army at one time or another, though most were bought bt various Tsars (while their population starved) but the point is now, its awsome. Easy to get lost in, It would have taking me days and days to explore it all. In the end I spent much of my time there seeing the State rooms, the huge main rooms of the Winter Palace - Staggeringly grand and lavishly decorated they were truly magnificent. Unfortunately like a lot of things in Russia, they were not too keen on photos. This doesn't always stop people mind, every church and museum I have been too I have been met with shutter sounds, turing round to see some random old woman wondering away with a camera poking out from between her crossed arms - stealth photography is a fine art in Russia.
The city is also full of beautiful churches, dotted across the whole town. There are so many I was stumbling onto vast domed cathedrals not even marked on the map.

Coupled with the culture is the military - everywhere in Russia. The police, Traffic conventional and Riot are everywhere, as well as the Army and Navy who roam the streets in force. Partly this is due to the importance of the city for Russia, and also the presence of some Military schools, either way its disconcerting. I exited the Hermatage to be confronted with several thousand armed soldiers marching and shouting. Would you believe it, I can now add that to the list of things that scares the willys out of me... It was a spectacular sight though.

The time I spent learning a little Russian was interesting - Cyrillic is not as hard as it looks, though the rest of Russian really is. The school gave me the chance to meet some new and exciting people though, such as the wonderful Rostislav, a decendant of some famous Russian exiles who gave me a grand tour of the city, even introducing me to the upper crust of St. P. life with drinks in the Grand Hotel Europe - now thats a lifestyle I could really get used to!
I also met the 'classic' French Natalie, whos purple beret, turquoise coat and purple Doc Martins removed all hope I had of blending in with the Russians, but made for excellent company and it was joy to find people to speak English too and talk about the weather!

Petersburg is a city of wild contrasts, of beauty - Huge vaulted churches next to crumbling soviet flats, and of people - the cashier who looks prepared to stab you for shopping in her shop to a student who took Natalie and I on a late night jaunt to a church, only to realise he had decided that would be rubbish and was aiming for a party instead.

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