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Europe » Russia » Northwest » Saint Petersburg
April 26th 2014
Published: June 21st 2017
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Visiting st. Petersburg was quite long on my bucket list. Thanks to my cousin who is as an exchange student in st. Petersburg I had the opportunity to go there with a small group of our family. After all the preparations the day of the journey arrived….

Day 1

At 04:00 AM my alarm clock rings. I woke up and went to the house of my aunt Zubeyde, which was the meeting point with Uncle Emin, aunt Zubeyde and cousin Metow and left from there towards Amsterdam airport. On our way, as usual Murphy's Law, one of us discovered that he forgot his passport. With a rush we went back to pick up the missing passport and drove to the airport where we met our other travel buddies Dogan and Feyza. Both of them were soaking wet as they were caught by heavy rain. We were JUST on time for the check-in. With a combination of rush, morning mood and too less sleep everyone of us was behaving a bit annoyed to each other. Anyway we made it. Our first flight was Zurich and from there we changed to the flight to st. Petersburg….

We arrived at St. Petersburg airport around 14:15 local time. Note that there is 2 hours difference in time compared with the Netherlands. We passed the passport checks and entered officially the Russian Federation. Outside Mete was already waiting to pick us up and he already arranged the transfer toward our hotel. The distance was quite long and it took us about one hour to reach the hotel. The location of our hotel was quite central. Although the entrance scared us a bit. You enter it via an alley and from outside it looks like a random Sovjet apartment, from inside we had a better impression. The receptionist was a very friendly lady who studied in the US, so fluently English speaking, and the rooms were quite clean. For a city trip where use the hotel room only to sleep it was more than enough. Quickly we checked in and dropped our luggage and went immediately outside. St. Petersburg was waiting for us….

Mete prepared a well organized program for us. Perhaps a bit too organized J anyway we went first to a cafeteria to have a coffee. Notable was that smoking was allowed inside. After defining our walking route we walked to the direction of the main street, Nevsky Prospekt, and did some small sightseeing. After walking a while we came to the Dom Knigi, which actually means the house of books. Actually it was the historical company building of Singer. These days it is a popular bookshop. On the upper floor there is a nice cafeteria with a nice view to the Kazan Cathedral.

On our way back we walked in front of the colorful church of our savior on spilled blood. One of the biggest photo moments. After spending some time to take pictures and admiring the fabulous building we moved on. In the mean time it was dinner time. Mete recommended to go the a famous Russian fast food chain, called "Teremok" After seeing the selection they were offering, it could be nice for a quick lunch but perhaps a bit too light for a dinner. In the end we went to RusBurger, which would be the Russian McDonalds OR Burger King. When everyone finished their meal we moved back to our hotel, as we were awake since 04:00 AM. The plan was to take a short nap and explore the nightlife of St. Petersburg.

Back at our hotel, the nice lady from the reception finalized our registration process and handed over our registration papers. Always good to have them in case the police will stop you. Anyway It was time for a short nap. The plan was to go out around 22:30 but we were sleeping so deep that if Dogan and Feyza didn't woke us up around midnight, we probably would slept until the morning. Quickly we took a cap towards 'Dumskaya Ulitsa' the barstreet of St. Petersburg. Unfortunately it was not according our expectations. The frontdoor policy was extremely unfriendly. Even the bars which were looking terrible the bodyguards were refusing us. In the end we found a nice cafeteria and took some beers and vodka. We didn't made it too late as we were still not fully recovered of the journey..

Day 2

Big achievement, we survived one day in Russia. With a light hangover we woke up, having breakfast, preparing etc. etc. we walked to the Nevsky Prospekt. The main item on today's program was visiting the Hermitage. Best way to get there is taking the bus. Note that there are many pickpockets active at St. Petersburg. We experienced that they are working quite organized. When we entered the bus our last person was surrounded by 6 guys, so he couldn't enter, neither go out. Luckily he managed to escape without any loss and we were 'kind of safe' in the bus and entered the square in front of the Hermitage.

The Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world. The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors. Apart from them, the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya and the eastern wing of the General Staff Building are also part of the museum. The museum has several exhibition centers abroad. The Hermitage is a federal state property. Since 1990, the director of the museum has been Mikhail Piotrovsky.Of six buildings of the main museum complex, five, named the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre, are open to the public.

Once we started to check all the items in the Hermitage, we realized that in a group we couldn't do the sightseeing all together. Some of us just wanted to check and go and some others were interested more about the stories behind the items. To put it in a short way, the group split. Metow and Dogan went for a quick view and go out. The rest of us decided to continue with the program of Mete. As we are talking about one of the biggest museums of the world, after a while we started to get bored as well and after seeing the most interesting part we decided to go out as well. Unfortunately in the mean time we lost uncle Emin. In this labyrinth museum it was impossible to find him. Me and aunt Zubeyde went out and we waited for the rest on the square. On the square there were persons dressed traditionally in order to make pictures with tourist for a small fee. When I was approached I made some pictures with 2 ladies dressed like soldiers. When the rest of our crew came out of the Hermitage, we to a cafeteria where we met Metow and Dogan.

After a lunchbreak Feyza and Dogan went back towards the hotel. With the remaining part we went to visit the Saint Isaac's Cathedral. The Cathedral is in a small park and all together it's very picturesque. I think we saw at least 3 couples, on their wedding day, posing for photo shoots. Well at least we know now how Russian brides are looking J. The Cathedral had 2 parts which could be visited. Inside the Catherdral the museum, and/or the colonnade around the dome. We decided to climb to towards the colonnade to have a nice view of St. Petersburg. The climb itself was quite challenging. Climbing the stairs to reach a high of 43 meters was perhaps too challenging, but we made it. The view over the city compensates the effort of climbing. Going back down was much much easier off course. The sightseeing part of today was over and we went back to our hotel.

For the evening the program was to go to the theatre for a ballet show, the swan lake. As I was not a fan of ballet and didn't want to spend 40 euro for joining a show which takes approximately 3 hours I apologized to join this event. Luckily I was not the only one. Metow and Dogan also didn't want to join so we decided to explore the nightlife a bit more. After a small dinner on a random place at Nevsky Prospekt we went to search for a bar to have some beers before we go clubbing. After looking around we ended up at a place called "Kuhelbeker Bar". The bar was in a 'kind of a basement' from the window you could look at the feet high of the sidewalk. The interior was like a living room style with couches and tables. It was more like that we visited someone instead we were at a bar. We took some local beers and after a while Dogan went back to the hotel to wait for Feyza. Metow and me went out to go for clubbing. Nightlife was waiting for us….

On our mind we had to go to the Metro Club. This club was not located in the city center and to reach there it was another challenge. We took the metro from Nevsky Prospekt. The metro station was quite funny. On the platform where you enter the metro there are doors, like the ones of an elevator. They will open once a metro arrives. Dogan took the exit nearby our hotel while Metow and me continued to go to the station nearby the Club. Unfortunately the metro station nearby the club was having a renovation so the metro didn't stop over there, so we tried to take another route. Unfortunately we guessed wrong and when we exit the metro we realized that we were in the middle of nowhere. Also the atmosphere of that area was a bit creepy and we were feeling like "A stranger in Moscow" The area was so creepy that we didn't even dare to take a taxi to go to the club and went back to the metro. After half an hour and a underground city trip of St. Petersburg we finally arrived to the club.

Metro Club is the biggest dance nightclub of Russia. It has 3 floors with different dance floors with different music. Also every floor has its own lounge part and club part. Price of beer at this club was the same as mineral water. English is not spoken everywhere but surprising enough we could manage with Turkish language as well as many people are there from Uzbekistan or Azerbaijan. At the club we also met a group of Dutch students who were for an exchange in Moscow and spending a weekend in St. Petersburg. Those poor guys were scammed by the oldest trick of the world. Approached by beautiful woman to go to a bar where the prices were extremely high and they were now drinking and trying to forget about their loss. We spent some hours by dancing and partying and at the end of the night, both of us drunk as a lord, trying to go back to the hotel we stopped to have a night snack which we probably never eat if we were not drunk. Also many fake taxies are active in St. Petersburg. If you just stand still at the sidewalk passing cars just stop in front of you to offer a lift for a small fee, which happened to us as well. Initially we didn't trust the guy and we spoke Turkish between us, shall we take it or not, but then the driver seemed be an Azeri who spoke Turkish back to us. For a symbolic fee he dropped us at the city center from where we walked back to our hotel.

Day 3

This day we started the day with a great breakfast at a Turkish restaurant at Nevsy Prospekt, Antalya Gourmet. Not a cheap but excellent food. After our long breakfast we went to the metro station. Today we would see 'the real Russia' by going outside the city center to the suburb Udelnaya. This place is known as it has the most famous market in Russia. The market offers a variety of goods such as antique samovars, sacred images and statues of Lenin or Stalin. You can purchase silverware, medals, bullets, uniforms, coins and a variety of obscure items. Nevertheless, some rare items from private bins can also be found at the flea market. However, you rarely find something truly unique for next to nothing. The place is filled with many secondhand dealers who ferret out valuable things from the morning and then re-sell them at a significantly higher price.

After walking a bit at the market a part of the group didn't want to spend a lot of time here and went back to the city center. I continued together with Mete and uncle Emin to look for interesting objects. After spending some time and buying some souvenirs we took our lunch at a place, let's call it snackbar, which were managed by Uyghur people, so also speaking a variation of Turkish. Time passes by enjoying our lunch and listening to the interesting stories of uncle Emin about the recent Russian history and people who suffered due to the revolution. It was time to go back to the city center and meet the rest of the group.

On our way we passed next to the St. Petersburg Mosque. The mosque was founded in 1910 and patterned by the architect Nikolai Vasliyev. Unfortunately the mosque was closed due to a renovation so we could only view it from outside. We met the group who found a nice terrace, Cafe-terrace Alye Parusa, with a good view to the Neva river and to the 'Peter and Paul Fortress', where also the cathedral is located with the tombs of the Romanovs. Mete and uncle Emin went to the fortress. I unfortunately had to skip this part as I had in the meantime blisters on my foot due to the many kilometers walk which I'm not used to be. I preferred to stay and enjoyed the nice view of the terrace with a cold glass of Russian beer.

When Mete and uncle Emin returned, Mete proposed to go for a boat trip on the Neva river. As long as I don't have to walk a lot it was fine by me so we went all to the boat. The boat trip took approximately one hour. It was nice to see everything, but there were also annoying parts as well. The voice of the guide who was speaking loudly trough the speakers was terrible and it was in Russian and we all got a headache. Somewhere in the middle of the boat trip, the weather became fresh as well. At the end of the trip we were nearly having indications of hypothermia.

We decided to have a warm coffee at the terrace in order to recover. When we had our coffee we actually enjoyed this place and decided to have our dinner here as well. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was nice and the waitress was cute J all to all it was a good choice. Uncle Emin had bought some presents for us at the market. Old Soviet medals. As we survived some days in Russia we were all getting a medal of honor with a small ceremony, basically a reason to drink ;-). After our dinner it was time to relax and we went back to the hotel.

For the evening Mete went to his apartment, uncle Emin and Aunt Zubeyde wanted to take it easy. Dogan, Feyza, Metow and Me went out to have a drink. We went again to the Kuhelbeker Bar. It was just a random nice evening at a pub. We were only having a small 'fight' with the waiter that we were lowering the volume of the music while they were turning it up. They were celebrating a birthday so we agreed to have the volume somewhere in the middle so they could enjoy and we could hear each other talking. On our way back to the hotel we would like to have a night snack and were looking to open snackbars or restaurants. In the end the only open place was McDonalds. How ironic that in a pre communistic country the only open place where we could eat was one of the symbols of the capitalism.

Day 4

Today it was a free day for everyone. After the breakfast everyone was free to do what he/she wants to do. In the afternoon there was a presentation at the school of Mete, which would be the meeting point. I decided to go to the lonely tour, searching for souvenirs and discovering spots which we didn't saw yet. The combination with the pain on my foot, big walking distances and hot weather was another challenge. I took it very easy. After buying some souvenirs and making pictures I bought a drink and took the example of many people by laying on the field in front of the Kazan Cathedral and enjoying the sun. Apparently it was not allowed to access the field in front of the cathedral. After a while some 'guards' came and sent everyone away from the field. Moving forward I had the feeling that the drink I bought was bad quality. I felt like that I had to throw up and decided to move slowly to the hotel to rest while the rest were going to the school of Mete. On my way I passed the main railway station where there were also some souvenir shops. Also the railway station is worth to see. Many different people from many different places who came for touristic or for trade purposes. From there I went to the hotel to recover a bit more for the evening.

In the evening, around dinner time, meeting point was at Alanya Gourmet. I was more or less recovered and met the rest at the restaurant. I was not that hungry so I ordered a small dish. The rest ordered a bit more and beside the main dish also some side dishes. When the dinner arrived the small dishes seemed be large and the so called side dishes were in fact a whole menu. Mete ordered 2 hamburgers which should be small ones, but the ones which arrived were comparable with a triple whopper. Whatever the effort was, we didn't manage to finish even the half of what was ordered. On order to digest the food we had to party the whole night ;-)

At the night I planned to go to Metro Club together with Metow. This time Dogan and Feyza were joining as well. Arriving to the club was easier than last time as we know which station to get out. We paid our entry and started to explore the club. A fun fact: with the entrance ticket you can get a free beer, but not a free glass of mineral water. We spent most of our time on the floor with R&B music. After dancing when we wanted to walk to the lounge part, 3 guys came in, who were looking for trouble. They started to look tough towards one on us and when we looked back there were was a moment of a threat that any moment we could fight with them. Before it got escalated we got out the dance floor and went to the lounge part. When they went away to another floor we continued with dancing. Later they came back and kept staring at us and I was prepared in case of an escalation that I would be immediately in a 'fight mood' One of the guys came to me and started to talk something in Russian. Probably he tried to challenge me. But when I started to reply in English, the impression on his face changed and went away. Also the security employees of the club noticed that there was a threat and took them away from us. Later when I wanted to explore the other floors I met them on the stairway and they surrounded me and started to speak Russian again. I kept cool and said, "what's your problem dude!" One of them was able to speak a bit English and asked where I came from. I answered that we were all Turkish. He looked to the others and spoke in their language something and out of the blue they all apologized to me and that they won't bother us anymore. I was surprised but anyway, what they told was true. They stopped bothering us and while bothering another guy the security became fed up with them and threw them out.

The rest of the night was very pleasant. Time passes and after many dancing hours and drinking beer with vodka it slowly became time to go back to the hotel. This time we took a real taxi. When we arrived to the main street I paid the taxi and stepped out. However I was drunk I did my 'basic checks' after stepping out and realized that I don't have my wallet. I ran immediately to the taxi who was on the point to drive away. Luckily I was just on time and found my wallet which fell out of my bag. Otherwise I would probably not manage to leave the country as my Dutch ID card was also in my wallet. Anyway it was our last night and the next morning, after waking up with a huge hangover, it was time to fly back to home.


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