St. Petersburg... Russian 101

We have arrived in Russia! Chad’s first time and Ewa’s second time. We were expecting to step off the plane to AK-47 armed police and a stiff set of questions at the customs office. However, there were only a few lazy looking officials on the tarmac, and we cruised through customs with hardly a flinch. We even managed to get a bargain on our bus ride from the airport, having only paid 50% of the cost we were supposed to. From the get-go we were fitting in fine! It took us a long time to find the hostel, and we even had the help of a kind Russian gentleman who tried to help us find the hostel. We gave him the address and showed him our map and he proceeded to walk with us for about 5 min and then point is in the direction of the hostel. After he left, we thought a little more and figured out he was pointing us in the wrong direction, but nonetheless he was very helpful. The hostel was practically empty the entire time that we were there, so we had a room to ourselves and the kitchen was always free. The hostel even had one of those new fancy spa showers with a ‘rain’ showerhead from on the top of the shower at a height of over 7 feet! Top this off with somehow only having to pay about 60% of our original quoted price for the rooms, even after a surcharge was added to the price for a fee to register us in the city.

The first night we spent walking around, trying to figure out the little area of the city that we were staying. The hostel was just off of the main street of St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect. This street connects all the main sights in the city and can be walked from one end to the other wandering in and out of the side streets in a few hours. That night we had our first look of the Saviour on spilled blood cathedral, which is an amazing sight to see. The church is built upon the location of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, who ended serfdom in Russia. The church was built between 1883 and 1907 and contains marvellous mosaic frescos covering all the walls, and roof. During the Bolshevik revolution many of the churches and religious monuments were destroyed. Those that were not destroyed were converted into museums for the people. The most prestigious ‘museums’ have only recently been renovated/restored, within the last few decades.

The Saviour on Spilled blood by night.

Almost all of the sites that we visited can be seen with a short description on a website we found after leaving St. Petersburg. It is www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour I would highly recommend sifting through the website, it’s a short glimpse at this wonderful city.

The second day in the city we were up and off to the Hermitage museum. This museum is housed in the former residential house of the Tsar’s. Now the palace has a huge collection of artefacts, sculptures, paintings and many other items. We spent nearly 5 hours wandering the halls of the Hermitage. The museum is certainly impressive. Compared to other major museums that we have visited, the Hermitage was practically empty. It could be the time of the year, or that perhaps Russia does not receive as many visitors as some of the other European cities. You are also allowed to take pictures all over the museum. Well, not so much allowed as the people who are in the rooms guarding the items really don’t care. You are supposed to pay to take pictures, but we soon found the gaps in the system and were snapping away. Also, the museum houses two treasure rooms, which you have to pay extra to visit. We were careful to never carry much money with us on the street, and to not carry excess credit cards when we weren’t planning on spending much money. SO, we didn’t have enough money to pay for the visit and as it turns out we didn’t have enough time or energy to see them on this day anyways. We did return on our last day in St. Petersburg to see the treasure rooms, but you are required to pay the full admission price and the price for the treasure rooms. So, rather than forking out again for the full tour, and the treasure rooms, we decided to wander more in the city. That night we tried to buy our tickets to Moscow. However, we learned our first lesson in ensuring to carry more money, or an ATM card as the ticket counters did not accept credit cards. There was an ATM there, but of course we didn’t have our card and we were only 600 rubles short (~22 dollars Cdn!) So after a few frustrating hours of trying to communicate and to buy tickets, we went home discouraged but with a plan for the morning.

The Peter and Paul fortress in St. Petersburg.

We were up early, well early for two people who haven’t had to get up for work in over 4 months, and were off to the train station to buy our tickets before our plan to meet up with a walking tour of the city. Of course, our plan worked alright, until the documents that we used for getting our train tickets turned out to be out of date. Chad’s photocopy of his passport was from his old passport. Train tickets in Russia are printed for a specific person, and are required to have your passport number on them, even for Russian citizens. After a bit of tense moments trying to get the tickets reprinted, and being told that we would have to pay full price for a new ticket, we walked out not having to pay a dime more. So, this was the third time that we were able to get the best of the system, or pay much less than we were supposed to.

The hassle at the ticket office slowed us down just enough so that we ended up being late for our walking tour. We thought that maybe if we hurry we could catch the tour wandering away from the meeting place. We found a group of young people and tried to catch up to them, for a few blocks we were on their tail and then when we got to them we realized that a) they are all speaking Russian and b) they were hammered and so not our walking tour at all. With the prospect of a guided walking tour of the city out of the picture, Chad pulled out the map, scoured for the sights and planned a walking tour of his own. For the next 5 hours, we walked around the city, trying to catch the major sights. We zigzagged North-South across Nevsky Prospect, moving from the far East side of downtown (at the Shestakovo cathedral) until we hit the Neva river on the West side of the town. We managed to take in almost all of the significant buildings within walking distance and we didn’t let the rain bother us one bit. We stumbled along the way into an amazing market that was selling fresh goods of all kinds imaginable. Fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, honey and so much more. The market was one of the cleanest and freshest we have seen in any city around the world so far. It was also the first place Chad has had to experience “The Handshake”. While looking longingly at one of the food stalls, a vendor approached Chad and said “My friend” grabbed his hand and guided him closer. The trick is, he wouldn’t let go. Chad almost had to wrestle him to the ground in order to get away. The one encounter has been enough to remind us of the warnings that Chad’s best friend Dave gave us about ‘friendly’ vendors and the never ending handshake!

The next day was our last day in the city, but we had until 16:00 to spend seeing the city, so we embarked on day two of Chad’s walking tours. We headed across the Neva river to the Peter and Paul fortress and along the river bank South, finally coming to the Hermitage one last time. The walk was another nearly 5 hours of seeing the city and had us fully exhausted for our 6 hour train ride to Moscow.

Our first impression of Russia is that the country is not as different from many other places we have visited. Many of the stereotypes portrayed by American movies either did not exist or are at least, not true of St. Petersburg in the modern era. There is a unique culture and unique customs, but the people live and behave in very similar ways to many other Eastern European people. Also, Russian accents, or the ones we have heard do not sound like how North America stereotypes them at all. Many people speak at least a little English, the people are generally nice and helpful, but not all. One interesting thing is that there are two sets of prices. There is a Russian price and a tourist price for entrance to all museums and for tickets to concerts / plays. This is a carry-over from the Communist Era, where it was a belief that the government helps to provide for the people of the country. The “true cost” is to be paid by foreigners, but the cost to be paid by citizens of the country is subsidized by the government. Although most things in St. Petersburg cost on-par with Europe, there are several things that are still unreasonably cheap. Metro tickets, vodka and cigarettes are all very cheap by comparison. A half litre of vodka is only $3 Canadian, a trip on the metro is less around $0.8 and a pack of cigarettes is only about $1.5 (all in Cdn dollars).

Inside the Saviour on Spilled blood

After our last walking trip we were off on the train to go and meet up with Ewa’s family Natalia and Kola in Moscow!

written by

ECRadventure on September 11, 2009 from Saint Petersburg, Russia

from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog

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