St Petersburg Impressions

After being apprehensive about going to Russia, due mainly to media hype about post-Soviet conditions as well as a wondering how much of the authoritarianism is still in place, I was favourably impressed with St Petersburg. It was probably the worst time of year to visit - missing both the warmth of Summer and the softening effects of a white-blanketed Winter, but even in the Autumn murk it is a beautiful city. It sort of had the feel, to me at least, that I imagine 19th-century or early 20th-century Paris would have had. Full of great buildings and bustling with people and traffic but with an air of genteel decay. Or rather of a never-ending effort to keep the buildings in good condition - Nevsky Pr in Autumn is rather dirty, and somewhat polluted by vehicle exhaust fumes, but alive with people and vehicles. It also was a reminder of past greatness - both the royal kind, as well as commercial greatness. For instance the facade of the Singer Building, which stands on the corner of Nevsky Pr and Griboedova Canal, speaks of a time when the city's prospects were high and business was booming, before the decline of the Soviet years.It reminded me somewhat of the facade of the Selfridges department store on London's Oxford St.

Possibly many of the people were better off overall under communism after the revolution than under Tsarist rule, although stories of people queueing for hours to buy staple supplies make this seem unlikely. There is little doubt, however, that Russia's economy has boomed since the breakup of the USSR and the shops are probably as good as you would find in any of the major world cities. Apparently older people have found it harder to adjust to the changes since Communism than the younger generations who, like young people everywhere, relish changes.

The people that we met were friendly and never 'in your face'. Around the churches there are the inevitable souvenir stalls, salesmen of Caviar of dubious provenance, and beggars but thats where you expect to find them. You are not, generally, accosted on the street to take this tour or buy this souvenir. Our hosts were gracious and looked after us very well. It would be interesting to visit St Petersburg again with more time available to really get to know what it is like to actually live there - an experience you can never get as a tourist who is just there for a few days trying to cram as much in as possible.

Yes, I'll go back if I get the chance, long-haul flights and all.

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 10

Wednesday was our last day in St Petersburg, although not a full one. We arranged for Alex to pick us up shortly after 2PM to take us to Pulkovo Airport and arranged a 2PM checkout for the hotel.

This was our last chance to see the Hermitage. We decided, on Veronika's advice about the 'see-worthiness' of the Metro, to take the Metro towards The Hermitage so we walked up Nevsky Pr to the Mayakovskaya Metro station. Having purchased tokens and taken the escalator down to coal-mining depths we were able to view the tiled architecture which Veronika had told us about.


This picture doesn't really do it justice but what it shows is the name of the station in Cyrillic script done in reddish/black tiles on the wall. Just to the left of this, and immeditaly opposite those is a series of doorways (lift elevator doors) which is where you wait to get onto the train. The train pulls up and the doors open and you get on without seeing any sign of the train before the doors open.

Being so deep underground and very enclosed can bring on acute claustrophobia in one so inclined so we decided not to wait for the train but instead to walk to The Hermitage. The unfortunate aspect of that was that it made us a little later getting to The Hermitage and there was the inevitable queue. Hoever, in contrast to Sunday's abortive attempt, the queue was actually moving in increments of about 30 people every ten minutes so we eventually made it inside at about midday. This gave us just over an hour to 'do' The Hermitage before we had to head back to the hotel. Since our main aim was to view the Leonardo da Vinci paintings this was doable.

Inside the building we first made our way up the magnificent staircase. The tread height is only about 100mm which is probably OK for a lady wearing a long gown but would be quite wearying if you were a poor servant having to run around after the royals. Maybe the servant's stairs are a more appropriate height of tread for efficient ascent and descent.

Having no idea where the LDV paintings might be we asked a babushka which way to go and after quite alot of walking through huge reception rooms we eventually came to the paintings. Along the way we took a few illicit photos (if the babushkas see you taking a photo they will shoo you away) including this reception room.

The Da Vinci paintings were, in the end, worth seeing given that we had limited time available.
















The immense size and opulence of The Hermitage are staggering. It would probably take many visits to really do justice to the experience. However, now it was time to leave so we had a very brisk walk to the hotel arriving back just after our 2PM checkout time and had time to finish off our final packing and checkout before Alex arrived to take us to the airport.

The trip to the airport was full of mixed feelings for me. I was about to start the next part of my trip - three weeks in England with wife Patricia. I was meeting her and son Garth in London that evening.

We had been warned to be at the airport early to make sure we weren't held up by any of the security checks but in the event we had no problems getting through. There were some people at the terminal entrance, however, who were not being allowed in yet because their flight was some time away. I even offered to go through the outgoing customs check and was waved away with a smile.

On the BA flight to Heathrow I sat next to a Brit who was returning from a 5-day short holiday with his partner and two friends so we had a bit of a chat to while away the time. He told me they are coming to Oz with the Barmy Army for the Ashes tour in December. On touchdown at Heathrow there was no spontaneous applause on landing as there had been when we landed at Pulkovo on Friday evening. Most disappointing. I think it would be a good thing to do on any flight. (Any landing is a good landing).

At Heathrow immigration control I got the Spanish Inquisition (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition - Monty Python) since I was arriving from Russia, had been to the UK in August and must generally have looked a bit sus. Eventually I got through and after collecting our baggage we hopped onto the underground in to Earls Court (previously known as Kangaroo Valley during the heyday of Aussie working holiday trips in the late 60s and 70s). We managed to flag down a traditional London Cab and after dropping Mike and Sandra at their hotel I got to my hotel in Lancaster Gate and met up with Pat and Garth. We had dinner in while discussing plans for Thursday when we were to pick up our rental car and depart London pronto. Then to bed in a small over-heated room, but the story of our English experiences will be the subject of another series of posts.

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 9

Tuesday was our second day of discussions and proceeded much the same as Monday had except that this time Cyrus hadn't overslept. We had more discussions and presentations and then they took us to a Georgian Restaurant for lunch. Earlier in our visit I had tried to get a bottle of Georgian red wine for dinner as it is apparently quite distinctive and worth trying. Georgian wine wasn't available however because of some trade disagreement (apparently about quality) between Russia and Georgia. It seems that during the Soviet days such things didn't occur because of all being part of the same union but now that national boundaries have been re-established old rivalries and mistrusts have started to reappear.

All of these problems, however, don't stop Russians from enjoying Georgian cuisine which seems to centre on lots of meat cooked in various ways and accompanied by different styles of bread. For lunch we enjoyed one of the Georgian favourite meat preparations which is effectively meat barbecued on 'swords'. Real swords aren't used now but the large skewers are made up to resemble swords. This was accompanied by a light bread and the whole meal was quite enjoyable.

Late afternoon as we were about to leave the office I took some photographs of the JT guys who had made our visit quite a productive one.

Cyrus, Dan, Sergey, August and Mike

For dinner on Tuesday night we decided to try to get into Yolki Palki again. This time we were successful although we had to wait 20 minutes for a table to become available, such is the popularity of the place. We had some traditional Russian fare, of which the most memorable was the piroshki (Russian pies) and a mandatory shot of vodka.

Back at the hotel we broached the bottle of champagne and demolished the cake for a late dessert. I had promised to play some harmonica for Sandra and Mike so did of (probably woeful) impromptu kletzmer style on a G-minor harp and a bit of bluesy stuff on an E harp.

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 8

Before closing off my birthday in St Petersburg I should draw attention to the three chocolate bars which Mike and Sandra gave me. They have the most picturesque wrappers that I felt I had to keep them so that I can share them. They are almost as good as the chocolate itself!
I should mention also that my plan had been to share the champagne and cake provided by the Radisson hotel with Sandra and Mike after dinner. By the time we got back to the hotel after dinner it was about 1AM so that plan went by the wayside. We had another novel experience while getting back to the hotel. Being very late we didn't want to walk all the way back but we were didn't have enough Russian to confidently negotiate with a taxi driver. Anyway, we walked to Nevsky Pr with Dan and Veronika and they flagged down a passing car. Actually the one they flagged for us turned out to be a regular taxi. In St Petersburg private citizens often earn a bit of extra income by cruising for fares as irregular taxis. The deal is, apparently that you tell them where you want to go and what you are willing to pay and all being agreed you have a ride to your destination at the agreed fare. Regular taxis are supposed to work by the meter but innocents like us can get stung because we don't know the language and are not confident enough to control the situation. Anyway, Veronika having flagged down a taxi for us (and an irregular had pulled up for her and Dan) she told the driver to take us to the hotel and gave him the fare - no discussion, no argument - simple. It was hardly an adventure being straight up Nevsky Pr to the hotel but it removed an uncertainty from our situation, for which we were grateful.

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 7

Monday was our first day of business discussions so we were duly picked up by Alex and then had to pick up Cyrus on our way to meet with the JT people - way out in an industrial district. There office is in an old building opposite a power station. Interestingly the owner of the building keeps a couple of Russian classic cars in the yard - one of them a Zin.

The JT team - Sergey, August, Alex, and their US manager, Dan, proved to be easy to get on with and we had several good sessions with them. For lunch they took us to an Italian restaurant where Pizza proved to be popular. Getting to and from in the St Petersburg lunch hour took a while but it provided opportunities for conversations in the car.

Asking Sergey and August their thoughts about global warming they are very definite that it is a highly visible trend in their part of the world. There is an up side for them though in that it is bringing warmer summers and winters. A downside for the Siberian and northern Russia regions though is that the permafrost area is retreating with consequent massive ecological change that is not necessarily good.

After a fruitful afternoon of discussions is back to the hotel and then on to the Hermitage Theatre to see Swan Lake which had been organised for us by our Russian hosts. On arrival back at the hotel I was just refreshing in my room when a knock at the door came. It was a room service girl bringing me, on behalf of the hotel, a bottle of champagne, a card, and a cake for my birthday - a very nice gesture. Sandra and Mike came by later with a card and three very attractively wrapped chocolate bars, which was also much appreciated.

With little time to spare it was off to the Hermitage Theatre with Alex and Cyrus. The Theatre is fairly small and is in the rear of the main Hermitage - entered from the embankment side. Dan and his wife Veronika, and August and his wife Anna were to meet us there. We waited around outside for a while but it was cold and raining so we went inside to wait. As well we did because they don't have allocated seating - its first in best seated. We managed to score a long bench at the top right with good views of the stage so we were all able to be together when the others arrived. The extra warm clothing we had to wear came in handy for reserving seating space for the late arrivals in our group.

Cyrus, August, Anna, Mike and Sandra

After the inevitable wait for everyone to settle down etc the ballet started and I took a photo of the opening scene, just as the dancers had come onto the stage. I was severely chastised by an attendant but later on there were many more people taking photos without getting any attention from the attendants.

The ballet turned out to be quite entertaining, despite earlier misgivings I'd voiced to Mike. After the ballet we all made our way across Dvortsovaya Place to the Hermitage Restaurant which is just under the arch in the general staff buildings. Dinner was very sumptuous and entertaining. again they celebrated my birthday with a little cake bringing a great day close to its end.

Mike, Sandra, Cyrus, Veronika and Dan at the Hermitage Restaurant

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 6

For Sunday dinner we thought we would try out a restaurant called Yolki Palki which is apparently part of a chain offering reasonably authentic Russian food (at least according to them). This restaurant is in the same block as the Radisson but across the other side of Nevsky Pr. We eventually found it and they must be doing something right because it was packed full of local people - not a table to be had and this was Sunday night. Undeterred we wandered up in the other direction on Nevsky where we had not yet been - up towards Vosstaniya Pl where the Moscow Railway station is. We came across a place with some sort of Egyptian theme called Sphinx. They seemed to have room so we decided to give it a try. It was a strange sort of atmosphere with Egyptian influenced decor and playing funky western music. The menu was interesting too with many of the meat dishes expressed as xxx grams. One of the Chicken dishes looked promising a braised whole boned chicken. I read the 750 grams as being the weight of the whole meal. Wrong! it was just the weight of the chicken. After having had an entree there was no way I could get through that - delicious as it was. Even with Mike and Sandra helping we couldn't finish it. Can't say that we hadn't been warned - Russians like thier meat!.

All in all it was a fitting end to another interesting day.

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 5

Continuing our Sunday sightseeing tour we crossed Nevsky Pr to have a look at some of the sights on the other side. First amongst these was the Admiralty Buildings which has a very fancy weathercock on top of the dome

Further along was St Isaac Cathedral which is very large ornate building. Most of it is given over to a museum but you can also pay separately to go up to the collonade which goes around the building below the dome. Since you aren't allowed to photograph up there (officially anyway) it dulls the allure of the climb.
The building is so large and tall that it is difficult to get a decent perspective of it from the ground. Just behind the Cathedral is a quite impressive statue but I can't remember who it was commemorating.
The building behind to the right is the Mariinsky Palace.

Wandering through the backstreets we strayed well away from Nevsky Pr following Gorkhovaya Ulitsa but it was quite interesting getting somewhat off the beaten track. Eventually we ended up back on Nevsky Pr (OK we cheated and followed a sign that pointed in that direction) and then it was a simple walk back to the hotel.

Another interesting visit on the Sunday was to the Kuznechy market just off Vladimirsky Pr (the Radison Hotel is on the corner of this and Nevsky). The map showing the market wasn't great but was enough to get us within 100 metres. Attempts to question local pedestrians were met by shoulder shrugs but eventually by using the Russian word for market a local girl was able to point it out to us - just down the street that we were on actually! The market was quite interesting having a wide variety of fresh goods - meat, fish, fruit and vegetables - as well as other produce like delicatessen products, dairy products, and honey. I've never seen such a collection of Basturma in a deli before - they must have had six varieties while we are hard-pressed to find one. I tried several varieties of honey and bought some (more on this later).

This day is not yet finished but I'll follow up with more later...

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 4

Primary objective for Sunday was to visit the Hermitage. Ah - the best of good intentions are oft thwarted by the minutiae of reality! Being Sunday we didn't get going until mid-morning and then it was a stroll down Nevsky Pr (how we got to know and love that street in just a few days). Actually, to relieve the tedium of the walk we cut down through the back streets and it was infinitely more interesting than 'high street'. We came across a group of serendipitous lions hanging around in one street. We also came across a photo shoot for a wedding taking place outside the Large Hermitage.

Arriving at the Hermitage we were initially directed to the entrance on the embankment - along with a lot of other confused people - only to find that the proper entrance iis on the other side of the building in Dvortsovaya Place - ho hum. So backtracking we eventually reached the proper entrance (these buildings are BIG - see photo) and went through the gates to join the queue. Well the queue was longish but not too dismaying so we joined onto the end of it and waited. And waited. And waited. We were there for perhaps 45 minutes and there had been no movement at all. Here is a photo of the queue looking toward the entrance inside the courtyard.


Eventually we decided that we would probably be better off trying to visit the Hermitage on Wednesday morning when we had some free time before our departure from St Petersburg, so we headed off to see some more sights.

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 3

I told my travel agent I wanted to see the Olgas and she sent me to St Petersburg.
(Is Australian joke, Da? Is very funny. We laughink very much. Ho Ho Ho.)

Oh well, I thought it was funny so nyeh!

During our guided tour with Alex we got to sample the local tipple at a couple of galleries/souvenir shops. Alex being a guide does the usual thing of taking people to shops where he gets a little kickback from any sales. Nothing wrong with that - its the way these places get additional business. Anyway, the custom at these shops is to ply the potential customers with small samples of alcohol. At one of the shops they served vodka which I declined but Mike and Sandra gave it a try. At the other shop they served a liqueur made from cloud berries. I'd had a similar thing from Pia, a Finnish friend, a few years ago and it is quite pleasant to slurp. The small draughts of alcohol were insufficient to loosen our grip on our money however, although there was quite alot of good quality jewelry, china, and souvenirs of various kinds to tempt. The only thing purchased was at one of the shops where a small drinks/cafe is attached to it and Mike bought a bar of Russian chocolate.

Alex gave us about three hours of good sightseeing with a continuous narrative patter which probably was some stuff that the usual tourist may not get.

During our walking tour on Saturday morning we had passed a restaurant on Nevsky Pr which looked like it would be worth a visit for the evening meal. After freshening up we stepped out again into the now raining evening to walk the estimated block-and-a-half to the restaurant. It turned out to be most of the way down Nevsky towards the river and was full when we got there. Ho hum. But still, after all it was a good day and we certainly had seen a lot.

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 2

While exploring St Petersburg on foot on Saturday morning, after visiting the Church on Spilled Blood, we wandered through the Souvenir Market. This is a small collection of stalls (probably many more in the Summer) which all compete to sell pretty much the same predictable stuff - mostly Matrioshka dolls, toys soldiers and religious icons. I didn't buy anything on this visit, thinking to shop around before deciding what/where to buy. (In the event I didn't buy anything). I did, however, take this picture of these matrioshki at one stall. Some of them are ever-so politically incorrect!
See if you can identify each one. (Some of the inner ones are even less PC.)

Without enumerating all of the historic buildings we saw, we covered quite a few kilometres on foot through all of the major 'attraction' areas on the southern side of the Neva. Walking along the river bank you are impressed by all of the palaces - homes of the rich and powerful in Russia's Imperial past. Even the embankment is awe-inspiring. The walls are made of huge granite blocks that stretch for kilometres on both sides of the river and they all had to be transported in from elsewhere. One peculiarity which we were told about but did not observe is that, (mostly) in summer all of the bridges over the river are opened to allow free passage of commercial and pleasure boats. (The Neva discharges into the nearby Gulf of Finland). Apparently it is easy to get trapped on the wrong side for several hours if you aren't careful.

Lunch was a low-key but interesting affair - our first meal outside the hotel. We decidied to have a light meal at the Cafe' Coffee shop just across the street from the Radisson. It is a modern, bright shop and seemed to be popular with the locals - how hard can it be? Well the first thing is that many cafe/restaurant staff don't speak/understand much English and we had only a smattering of Russian and a phrase book. Also, the menus are generally in Russian/Cyrillic script. After staring at the menu blankly for a few minutes the waitress recognised that there was a difficulty and brought us over the English menus. Lesson number 1: Ask for the English menu! We eventually ordered and received our meals which were OK. We weren't accustomed to people smoking in eating places so we didn't linger over the meal.

In the afternoon, Alex came and picked us up for a guided tour of major spots. He is a registered tour guide so who better to get? In the car (Opel Zafira, aka Holden Zafira, aka Vauxhall Zafira) we were able to see some of the slightly more out-of-the way places. Amongst other things we saw the picturesque Smolny Cathedral (picture).
Across the Neva we went to see the Battleship Aurora. This is famous because on the night of 25th October 1917 while moored downstream, the crew fired a single blank round from the forward gun. This demoralised the defenders of the Winter Palace and marked the start of the October Revolution.
The Aurora is moored permanently (I think its concreted to the riverbed) on the Petrograd side. You can actually go aboard (for a fee) but we didn't bother. However, the Aurora was to come up again at a later stage of our visit.

St Petersburg, Russia - Part 1

Went for a working visit to St Petersburg in October - part of the world I've never been to before. Preparation for the trip took a while due to having to obtain a visa invitation and then the visa itself. I was a bit apprehensive about how things would be in Russia. I guess we have all been fed lots of information about how bad it was in Soviet times and that it isn't much better now what with organised crime etc.

The flight from Sydney to Heathrow (refuel etc at Bangkok) was just long and tiring although I did manage to get some sleep thanks to Valerium and Arnica. The new airport at Bangkok is still unfinished and a fairly dead place in the middle of the night. Met up with Mike and Sandra at Heathrow and then we flew together from Heathrow to St Petersburg. We were given an immigration card to fill in on the BA flight which was all in Russian and Cyrillic alphabet but we were also given a translation to help in filling it in. (I heard from George R. later that when he flew from Zurich to Moscow earlier in the year on Aeroflot they weren't given the translation so had to 'wing it'.)

I was apprehensive about the immigration formalities but it turned out to be troublefree. The immigration officer sits in a glass booth which is screened off from the queue and you can only get to see the person when you are right in front of them in the narrow corridor. The officer in my queue was an attractive younger lady in full military looking uniform but I managed to get a smile from her by greeting her first with 'hello' and then with 'Zdrazdvootvia' - a near approximation for a formal hello in Russian.

Once through Immigration and Customs we were met by Alex, a driver who had been arranged for our visit. He kept us regaled with local information on the run into the city through quite busy traffic due to our arriving during the late Friday afternoon rush hour. Having expected the weather to be cold in late October we were surprised to find it relatively mild when we arrived - although we had to put on a couple of extra light layers on after travelling in minimal clothes from Oz.

On arriving at the hotel we arranged with Alex to pick us up for a bit of a guided tour on the next afternoon (Saturday) which would leave us free to do our own exploring in the morning.

The hotel we were staying at was the Radisson SAS which is on the main thoroughfare in St Petersburg's CBD - Nevsky Prospekt. This made it convenient for us for a little sightseeing and also for the discussions we were there to conduct. On the Saturday morning we headed out walking adown Nevsky P. after breakfast but not without being suitably 'rugged up' first. The weather, while fine, was distinctly cooler than Friday with a maximum for the day of 4C.

Nevsky P. is a very busy street in both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. As you walk down past the stone buildings you are struck by the history of the place. When Czar Peter founded the place he wanted it all built in stone which was quite something as there is no building stone available in the region. All of the stone was brought in by cart - it was mandatory for any cart travelling to St Petersburg to carry at least four boulders. Also all of the stonemasons in Russia were 'encouraged' to move to St Petersburg for the duration. Consequently everything that has been built over the early years is still there in pretty good condition. Alongside the buildings, the huge downpipes - about 25cm diameter - discharge directly onto the footpaths. It didn't rain much while we were there but when it does rain there must be regular rivers across the footpaths.

The walk down Nevsky P. is a progression from one significant site to the next - consult a guidebook and you will se what I mean. Off Nevsky P. along the Griboedova Canal is the Church on Splilled Blood - a very spectacular construction. Here is a picture of me with the church in the background. Note the Beanie/balaclava and gloves as well as my trusty Kathmandu Ecofleece jacket.