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Day 20 -28 (April 23-May 2)
Our overnigh train is a breeze with a 7am arrival St Petersburg and a 10 minute walk to our guest house, where we stored our bags while we went out for breakfast. Like most restaurants/cafes there isn’t an English menu and which is where travelling with a leader makes all the difference.
With a coffee and good breakfast inside us we met our local guide who took us on a walk of the backstreets of St Petersburg. She was a really enthusiastic guide, wanting us to understand that St Petersburg is more than just the museums like the Hermitage but was also a place where people live and so she took us into some of those areas where people live.
Because St Petersburg is a World Heritage site buildings can’t be pulled down to replace new ones. Most of the buildings where built around the same time 300 years ago when this city was built from scratch.
The buildings are designed largely as 3-4 stories, in a square or rectangular shape with a courtyard area in the middle. When they were first built rich and poor lived in the same buildings,
but the poorer used rear entrances and had the windows looking into the courtyard and not the street. A lot of renovating is happening now and guest houses, hotels and individuals are taking back some of the buildings that had become run down over the years. To look over the courtyard these days is not a bad option, as the street side can be noisy with traffic.
Cars are used a lot and as it is so expensive to build underground parking street parking is one of the causes of the clogging of the streets. No real parking bays you just park where you find a spot, on a curve, nose or tail up on the footpath, wherever you can fit.
St Petersburg was home to many of Russia’s great writers, musicians and poets. Everywhere you walk there are Dostoyevsky or Pushkin lived here plaques. We travelled the metro which is the deepest in the world due to the city having been built on a marsh. We visited a local market, ate lunch at a local pie place (the pies are not pastry but a doughy pizza bread like covering) and then were shown some of the more
classical style buildings that St Petersburg is famous for.
By the afternoon it was time to purchase a ticket for my train trip to Finland. Our leader volunteering to help translate. We found the window that sold the tickets to Helsinki and thought "great, second in line". The gentleman in front of us however, was buying a train or so it seemed (it turned out to be only 6 tickets but the transaction took around 45 minutes).
Other windows had ticket sellers trying not to fall asleep, but apparently only this window could provide ours. A Finish lady, who needed a ticket for that afternoon was getting nervous behind us and so we offered to let her go in front. Then another woman came back and stood behind the gentleman. Apparently in Russia it is common practice to go and tell someone that you are behind them and then go off and have a coffee and return to have you place reserved.
We were now fourth in the queue. The return lady took another 15 minutes to settle her tickets but our Finish friend only 3 minutes (we joked with her that we’d time her). She left
Inside the inner courtyard
Our guide takes us inside the inner courtyard of a building full of aparments. This one is yet to be renovated.with a big smile. Finally my turn. Didn’t take long, but our leader noted that the price had gone up 700 roubles (30%), the crazy response to the economic crisis again.
Dinner was at a local fast food type restaurant (Teremok) that is a huge chain here. Pancakes (blintzes) are the main fare, and half of us enjoyed dinner here while the other half were off to the Ballet. Teremok would be a place I use in my longer stay, as they did have an English language menu available and the food is very good for fast food.
The next day it was off to visit the famous Hermitage (forgetting my camera). I actually enjoyed the building and rooms themselves, but it also houses Russia’s best Art collection. There was a statue by Michelangelo, paintings by Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, Monet, Gaugin and Van Gogh to name a few. So many that I just stopped at the ones that appealed (at times like this I wish I knew more about art).
I caught the bus back to the main canal for a boat trip. I love the flat fares used here. 18 roubles (75cents) gets
One of many churches
The church of Sts. Simon and Anna you anywhere around town. The buses have conductors, and half of the buses are trolley type buses (using overhead electricity like a tram). The canal trip was all in Russian so we just sat back and enjoyed the view for an hour, with beautiful buildings on either side of the canals. I managed to spot my next hotel on the way which was inside a building on one of the canals.
Our final dinner was at a Ukrainian restaurant that cooked with lots and lots of garlic. Entertainment was provided here too with a folk group singing rousing songs and playing some interesting percussion instruments. Our leader couldn't help herself and soon half the table was up dancing. The following morning was good-byes every hour or so as everyone went their separate ways.
I caught the bus then walked to my new hotel. All very secure with electronic gate into the courtyard and into the front door and security guard on duty. Soon I was settled into the room that would be my home for the next week. A good chance to stop for a bit, first job doing the laundry (which in Russia is ok to do
in your bathroom).
The following week was spent exploring the streets of St Petersburg, taking the odd photo (I‘ll try not to upload too many), reading in the parks, visiting the Museum, catching up on my travel blog, phoning home, and watching episodes of Lost and Battlestar Gallactica which I downloaded as there is no English language TV at this hotel.
I usually went out to lunch and had a more snack like meal for dinner (bread and cheese) having found the nearest supermarket. Some of the parks were closed for drying after the thawing of the snow, and would open on May 1. Reading on the park benches was a popular option for many, especially in the sun. Others flocked to a sandy patch of the riverbank of the Neva river, near the St Peter and Paul fortress, to discard their clothes in order to try to catch some rays while they could (only 60 days a year of sun here, and I’ve had 10 of them!).
Every day seems to be a day to get married in St Petersburg. And every wedding seems to take their photos at the famous sites. While the bride is
posing for her photos, the wedding party enjoy bottles of champagne. The bridge across the canal from my hotel is a favorite as it looks back to the Church on Spilled Blood. There are queues of wedding parties here on a daily basis. The narrow streets are full of stretch limos and coaches. The skill of the coach drivers needs to be high as they seem to have to navigate impossible spaces and do three point turns that would be difficult for a car let alone a bus.
There are also padlocks attached to the bridge with initials in hearts painted on them, I'm not sure if this is part of the wedding rituals or done at some other time. I assume this symbolises their commitment.
A week passed very quickly, and it was good not to have done too much. I’m now really looking forward to being on the move again.
In summary it has been a great experience travelling through Russia. There is certainly less military/police presence than I expected, although the official registration of your details is still required at every stopping point. Certainly, people watching in the street and parks reveal the Russian
people to be warm and family people, or young people in love, or teenagers looking bored - very much like any street at home really.
It is somewhat difficult not speaking the language, although I have been asked questions (directions I think) from 3 people during my stay so possibly I am not as conspicuously different as I feel.
The Cyrillic script is becoming more natural to read, but there are a few characters that I always forget. Some times the words are similar to English once translated, so that helps to orient yourself. Some words like restaurant(Pectopah) and supermarket(Cyepmapket) look really different, but because you use them all the time they soon become familiar.
Speaking Russian is harder, as there are sounds we just don’t make in English. I have only managed to use regularly, hi (privyet), thank-you (spasibo), and good-bye(da svidanya). Amazing how you can get by with a smile and pointing!
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