Advertisement
Published: April 21st 2006
Hello from St. Pete,
It's been a fantastic four days in the "Venice of the North". We have so much to report from our first destination as there is so much to do in this city. Firstly the stereotypical view of a grey soviet city certainly does not apply here. This is a bustling European style metropolis that seems to have easily slipped out of her recent Soviet past and embraced many of the capitalist trappings of most major European cities.
I'm glad to say though that it has also preserved the beautiful buildings and architecture of its past and while there is some neon on show it is really quite low key so far - and the omni-present big brands are relatively unobtrusive at eye level.
We have been based near Nevsky Prospect for the last four days. This is Russia's most famous thoroughfare and stretches the length of central St. Petersburg. It is around 4KM long and is lined with beautiful palaces - (the most beautiful being the wedding cake like Winter palace at the Western end) and awe inducing churches and cathedrals.
The entire boulevard is criss-crossed by canals, bridges, grand statues of former
leaders and busy shopping areas. We have covered most of the big attractions so far, including The Winter Palace of Peter 1st - this now hosts an incredible Hermitage Russian Gallery that includes paintings and sculptures from Picasso, Michelangelo, Van Gough in its 1057 rooms!
From there we visited the huge Cathedral of St Isaac's and climbed the enormous colonnade that allows you to view over the entire city. Other highlights include the Kazan Cathedral and the house of Dostoevsky. We also visited many traditional restaurants and sampled the local cuisine. On the whole its been pretty decent fare - a lot of blini's and pancakes and beef stroganoff. It is generally quite simple cooking and the meet dishes are usually served with white or red cabbage salads - it is actually pretty tasty.
The Russians themselves are interesting folk! Big hair, ankle boots with buckles, cross faces and dusty cheeks from the fumes of the city. They appear to hate you but are really helpful if you ask them a question. Very bashy though, there's no politeness in the metro, which incidentally only costs 7p for a journey.
We've just arrived in Moscow today. The hostel
is great and the people are so helpful. Last night we went to a puppet theatre in St Petersburg and then boarded the Red Arrow, train #1 to Moscow. It was so exciting! Little cabins with little steps and a packed breakfast for all 4 people in the kupe. We shared with two small Russians who smiled at us all the time. We even got a good nights sleep on board! I can't wait for the next journey. See the photo of Pat on board below!! Off to the Bolshoi tonight to see The Nutcracker. Will post again soon!
Da svidaniya!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.149s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0958s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg
John
non-member comment
Guns and Tatu, it sounds like the best city in the world, what else could you ask for? Hope the Vodka is going down smoothly!