Advertisement
Published: August 28th 2010
Pretty City
Walking the canals brought out some pretty, rewarding clouds over this interesting building.Ratings explained:
'Bad times' - self explanatory
'Don't bother' - self explanatory
1* - worth a look
2* - Good Times
3* - Unmissable
+ - emphasis on the rating
I expect people to filter the rating through their own travel desires so if you know you hate museums you can downgrade a 3* museum to a 'Don't Bother'.
In St Petersburg we rapidly learned any number of things:
That there are plenty of jobs in Moscow and St Petersburg but not so many elsewhere in Central Russia, and they have a lot of migrants from Ukraine, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; all this from our helpful airport transfer driver.
That the women dress very provocatively and never, ever smile. That the kebabs in Russia are hot and delicious ( I learned that actually, Alicia refused).
That every drinks fridge in a store or even a street kiosk are locked and can only be opened by a remote control behind the counter, leading us to endlessly be pulling on locked fridge doors.
That the laws of supply and demand don't apply to corner stores, there are heaps of them, some 24x7 servicing tiny obscure locations; how on earth do they stay
Reflective Alicia
Alicia takes a moment to reflect on the streets of St Petersburg. in business?!
That any broken down or banged up old car you see on the streets will ALWAYS be a Russian made vehicle. Lastly that you need to WATCH your step, the sidewalks and roads are littered with life threatening hazards that can trip you or drop you into the centre of the earth so you need to beware.
Our arrival in St Petersburg was on a warm, pleasant, and blue skied day a sign of things to come as this was the weather we had every day for the next week, usually mid 25C weather everyday, never over 30 and lovely.
We stayed in a little apartment in the city centre reasonably close to the main road Nevsky Prospect (NP); this is the ultimate main road in that you will always be walking or busing up and down it in St Pete's; it was great having our own place as we could load up the fridge with breakfast and dinner items, cook meals at home and save on eating out, and wash our clothes without having to do the painful backpackers 'laundry mission'. On TV Alicia found a dubious Russian-only TV song contest that looked like Eurovision, she
Nice Architecture
Pretty buildings and nice colours, it's a lovely city to walk around. said it was the worst performances she's ever seen... good times.
St Petersburg generally is a lovely city with loads of pretty architecture, some 'grit' and character, and nice canal and river banks to walk along and millions of things to do. The public transport for tourists isn't lovely; it's clearly been designed more for locals or workers (fair enough) but it does mean there's rarely a metro stop or bus route you can figure out going to where you want to go! Our general means of getting around was busing up and down NP (a reliable route that every bus does) and then walking miles to wherever we needed to be. We did a heck of a lot of big walks in SPs, most very pleasant and charming thankfully and 100% safe, we never felt concerned.
The Russian people we met, aside from a green grocer who ripped us off a million rubles for some fruit and veg, were friendly enough and helpful. We communicated effectively with lots of pointing and saying 'yes', 'please', and 'thankyou'. The language and culture barrier was nowhere near as bad as feared; I felt it was about on par with Poland where
St Petersburg Streets
Alicia demonstrates one of the perilous walking hazards in the streets of St Petersburg there's similarly basically no English spoken by anyone.
You can always find someone who speaks a little English in tourist infos or major tourist attractions e.g. a place selling ballet tickets or entrance to the Hermitage if you're desperate.
Our first major sight-seeing was to the Peterhof (3*) a palace of the Csars built along the Gulf of Finland; mainly renowned for it's grounds the Peterhof has a thousand fountains all of different designs. We walked the extensive grounds under mostly clear beautiful blue skies and blazing sunshine. We loved the main golden fountains near the palace which consisted of dozens of fountains shooting water every which-way from fabulous golden statues. The area was reminiscent of German King Ludwigs castle grounds at Linderhof but more magnificent.
Other highlights included a rotating sun shaped fountain that was surrounded by some beautiful rainbows and a band of chaps playing horns that only played a single note, so to play a melody each man would have an armload of 3-5 horns and play a different one for each portion of the tune, it was very entertaining and different!
There were a lot of Russian tourists about including the obligatory army of scantily
Golden statues at Peterhof
Golden statues are a dime a dozen in the remarkable Peterhof lower parks. clad Russian women in very provocative clothes (tiny shorts and skirts, all with push-up bras). Alicia and I watched them pose saucily for countless photos NEVER smiling once, and we discussed at great length. Alicia believes that the woman may only see themselves as sex objects, and only know how to express themselves through their sexuality. We can't figure out why the heck they never smile but perhaps they think they look better without; which is BLOODY stupid. It all seems a bit sad.
Nick contemplated if all the saucy dressing would give Russia a chance in the Most Beautiful Women (MBW) contest but concludes loads of women dressed like tarts doesn't necessarily make them beautiful, although some are, but they also lose a trillion points for not smiling, bad luck Russia!
The Peterhof palace has really memorable rooms; some white with incredibly heavy gilt golden leafing and small sculpture all over the walls and ceiling edges; some with beautiful paintings on the walls; we've seen over two dozen palaces of Europe and this rated right up there amongst the best interiors.
After a fabulous day in the Peterhof we attempted to get Alicia some Russian ballet tickets
Peterhof main fountains
Looking down on the spectacular main fountains at Peterhof from above, photos can't do this place justice. back in town and were surprised to hear all the major ballet companies take the summer off - wtf?! We then went to a fresh food market were many of the merchants shouted for our attention, it was like being in Asia again, we weren't sure what the correct response was so we gave them eye contact and spoken “Nyets” (No) to dissaude them.
The next day in St Petersburg we went to the 'Peter & Paul Fortress' which sits on an island joined by a bridge at the western entrance of the city river mouth. There were many different sights within the fortress like cathedrals and museums, first we went to the space & rocketry one were we learned that the first dog sent into space 'Laika' didn't actually return safely! Oops!
Next was the 'Peter & Paul Cathedral' (3*+); what a STUNNING church, I'd rank it third 'best church interior in the world' behind Wurzburg Residence and Melk abbey.
The cathedral is absurdely beautiful inside with light green and purple themed ceilings painted into stars and other patterns plus very pretty biblical pictures e.g. angels and cherubs, heaps of gold & gilt richly decorated columns, rostra, altar
Sun fountain
This cool fountain rotates around projecting a sort of spherical fountain in the shape of the sun, it did a nice job casting rainbows too as you'll see in the photo. pieces, etc. Alicia died of boredom whilst Nick fought the camera White Balance and photographed every inch of the interior.
We also enjoyed the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison (1*+) within the fortress which was were political prisoners were kept in the late 19th century, the cells were surprisingly spacious! Here we learned Vladimir Lenin's brother had been executed by the Csarist state as a revolutionary.
Around the fortress was the 'beach' a range of grass, cobblestones, and a strip of sand all along the Neva river bank, here the locals came out in pretty good numbers to sunbathe and swim in the river. It was so darn hot we wished we could join them but had not towels. We were fairly surprised to see people swimming in a big city river which you can't help perceive as being likely polluted, but most of our shock came from people who opted to sunbathe on the terribly uncomfortable cobblestone section of the river bank instead of the sand or grass, there was no charge after all....
Lastly this day we went to the Artillery & Signals museum (2*) for Nick where just outdoors alone we saw a vast amount of military hardware.
Peterhof Interiors
The palace of Peterhof has beautiful interiors, this is one of the best, looking up at the upper walls and ceiling. We saw some 8-inch thick steel blocks with holes blasted in them from various tank shells, some truck mounted missiles that looked like mid-range nuclear rockets, and the famous Katyusha WWII rocket launching vehicle that laid down a lot of pain on the Nazis whenever it hit anything. Nick had a great time and Alicia bravely soldiered on (hahaha) and got through.
Our next St Petersburg adventure took us to the St Isaacs Cathedral (2*), the view from outside was of a large, shining golden domed lined with statues. We climbed up and after 300 steps had decent views. St Petersburg is one of the best looking cities from above due to many golden domes and spires, the river, and loads of cranes at the harbour.
The cathedral also had a top-10 in the world interior which we loved with impressive huge mosaics, some made of golden squares, and some huge, heavy bronze doors with great detail high-relief scenes. Nick muttered curses about 'white balance' problems and took lots of photos and Alicia tapped her watch before we moved on.
Around town this day we saw loads of sailors who all seem to be Russian Navy chaps who are
Dramatic Golden Statue
The Peterhof statues and fountains are works of art and endlessly interesting. in town for one day only. Some of the guys must be locals as they're driving cars and clutching kids, others are obviously not as they're clutching flags and beers and singing crazily; we saw the sailors a lot throughout the town and they added some good atmosphere.
In town we also spotted a little corner kiosk (the kind usually selling smokes & magazines) that exclusively sold fruit, Alicia was delighted, loved the concept, and bought some fruit from them to support them in their healthy selling endeavours.
Our next sight was the 'Siege of Leningrad' museum (2*); this was one of the names of St Pete's in the last century the other being Petrograd, the museum covered how the city was besieged by the Germans in WWII. The museum helped us appreciate how devastating the siege of Leningrad had been, of the three million original pre-war residents one million emigrated and one million died. We also saw the tiny slices of bread that had served as peoples daily rations during the tough times; as little as 150-250g of dark bread a day; it was a tough, tough siege.
After buying some metro tickets successfully the ticket selling girl
Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood
This lengthily named church puts you in mind of St Basils in Moscow, it's very pretty. shouted at us, but we had no idea why and she didn't seem to want to belabour the point so we moved along, Nick suspects that she was trying to be helpful but they way Russians come across sometimes can seem angry or loud; much like the shouting but friendly Russians depicted in a Simpsons episode I hope some of you have seen! We decided to bear this in mind and not take it personally if Russian people seem rude or upset as maybe they're not!
On the metro we noted most Russian men are clean shaven and since we don't want to stand out much and be harrassed by the allegedly corrupt police in Russia who don't mind picking on tourists fishing for bribe Nick has had to start shaving regularly now (boo! bad times, that isn't how I travel).
Back in our flat we ate cherries and used the fan in the flat liberally to keep us cool, we also needed electric plug-in Mosquito zappers to keep the little bastards in check and let us sleep through the night unbitten (thankfully they work really well). Nick is also studiously working his way through Russian beers, they
Peter & Paul Cathedral 1
To be 'top 3 in the world' the Church interior has to be pretty stunning, this one is. have a decent range, the 'Cmapblu Menbhuk' is a nice lager and my pick of the bunch, NFI how to pronounce it!
Every morning we eat cereal at home before going out for the day and one morning Nick achieved the 'worst breakfast of his life' with a combination of girly milk (skim) and 'Harmony' cereal which was a cardboard-like 'Special K' cereal. It put me in a foul mood the rest of the morning and I demanded a hot-dog as compensation at the first opportunity; happily my first Russian hotdog was pretty good, layered with pickle slices on top.
We noted the insanely cheap price of petrol as we were getting water from a service station: 25.3 rubles a litre is basically 53 pence or 93 cents (AUD)! Later in our trip we asked our transfer driver and he just said; “yes Russia has plenty of oil”!
In the Zoology museum (2*) we dragged ourselves around through stuffy heat and dehydration, like all natural history museums it has loads of stuffed animals and we saw owls, bears, lots of good stuff. Also memorable was the 'Narwal' whale with it's huge unicorn-style horn. The highlight of this museum is
Peter & Paul Cathedral 2
The colours and designs within the Cathedral are nothing we've seen before and wonderful the preserved body of a mammoth that fell into a peat bog (silly bugger), it was great seeing the body of an extinct creature from what 40,000 years ago!
After filling up on local fast-food; very good baked potatoes Nick's family had recommend from their trip and drinking a thousand litres of water and a couple of ice creams we rallied to go to the next sight.
The St Petersburg 'Political history museum' 2* was very good; Nick was particularly excited to see the offices were Lenin and his team had directed the Russian revolution in 1917 including the desk where Lenin worked and a little balcony where they made the odd speech from, it was an incredibly historic room.
There were some excellent propaganda posters we saw and had a helpful guide in the museum explain for us they included one you see over an over throughout Russia which is a stern looking Russian housewife holding forth a recruitment letter; basically 'The motherland is calling' it was the first poster the Russians put out after the Germans attacked them in WW2 to do a recruitment drive.
Other posters included a poster of a young girl holding a
Peter & Paul Cathedral 3
We're suckers for nice chandeliers, these ones are beautiful. photo of a soldier with the caption 'My fathers a hero who fights to defend our country.... and you?'.
Lastly a funny prohibition type poster with Vodka crossed out on onse side and a book on the other side of the poster; the message being: spend your energies reading NOT drinking.
The museum had a good amount of English info, and also reinforced that Stalin was a monster (in case any of you were wondering), a top museum we really enjoyed it.
We had a long and rewarding 3* day when we visited the Hermitage (3*). St Petersburg's premier art gallery for a full day; we lined up 50 mins just to get in. In front of us in line was a hilarious looking young teen with a rat-tail hairstyle and clothes from the mid to late eighties; you see a few great 80s flashbacks in the clothes of the odd person in Russia, at one stage Nick also spotted some 80s Air Jordans!
In the Hermitage Nick's love of sculptures was satisfied in our first hour, and there were plenty of paintings throughout too. Our real highlight was the Hermitage interiors; many rooms are terrifically beautiful. The
Peter & Paul Cathedral 4
The altar pieces are suitably lavish with loads of gold & gilt and intricate designs. love it. Hermitage also has some rooms meant to be the most lavish palace interiors they could come up with to display and they were largely amazing and wonderful; some of the most wonderful palatial interiors we've seen anywhere in the world.
We saw plenty of works from big name artists including our old favourite Rubens (not his best work here), and plenty of others like Picasso, Gauguin, Rodin, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, and Monet. There were a few nice ones we liked.
After our fine hermitage day we headed out to see the 'See yourself Russian show' (3*) which was a Russian culture show.
At the show we drank champagne and sat in the back row so we could stand up for better views and photos. We loved the show and took many good photos, there were impressive singers, good entertaining outfits, dancing, and amazing moves e.g. cossack dancing. At interval Nick also tried red caviar which was so salty & fishy!
The show was obviously for tourists but was very well done and didn't feel like a cynical 'made for tourists' production; I imagine an ordinary Russian citizen would enjoy it too.
On our final day Alicia
Peter & Paul Cathedral 5
More of the fabulous interiors at this fine cathedral. Wow! had a Russian tea (no milk) which she quite liked and we made the mistake of travelling to Moscow (!) more on that in the next blog entry.
So St Petersburg in review, we both really liked it, were happy in our little apartment and our only failing was not eating enough Russian cuisine as we cooked at home all the time. We would have liked more time to see sights and just soak up the pleasant city; we'll be happy to come back if time ever permits!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.131s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0527s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mum&Dad G
non-member comment
on St Petersburg blog
Having sent one blog we admire the time and effort you put into your blogs!!! Its very time consuming isnt it?!! So glad you loved St P'S (Shame about Moscow!!)You can always go back there You can fly there from Hong Kong Cathay Pacific See you on Skype soon XX