Mother Russia Part 2: Sights and Sounds of St Petersburg

Again, a more or less direct lifting from the facebook album, with some selected pictures maybe:

So It's been a week since I've been back from Russia, though it feels longer away. That's just how work feels. And since it's Monday, and they usually suck, I'm going to attempt to make it worse for myself my reminding myself that the first thing that happened in St Petersburg was me getting scammed/robbed. Also this will turn out to be REALLY LONG. Really just skip this if you're not interested, as usual.

So in the morning, I happily checked out of Marins Park Hotel in Rostov, leaving my newfound friends behind, and hopped on a flight to St Petersburg. It was well, an airportsy experience. I will insert a Douglas Adams quote here:

"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport." Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports are full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk (Murmansk airport is the only exception of this otherwise infallible rule), and architects have on the whole tried to reflect this in their designs."

- Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

Am I right? Am I right? It was really a coincidence, because Murmansk is really in Russia, several hours North of Moscow. I wasn't in Murmansk though, neither did my luggage go to Murmansk. The ride all the way until St Petersburg Pulkovo Airport was uneventful. But then I hopped on a cab at the airport. And insisted on the meter instead of a fixed price. Big mistake. So the 20minute ride from the airport to the hostel turned out to be 10,000 roubles. For comparison, the 20minute ride from my hotel in Rostov, with the meter was 500 roubles. Fuck me. And the driver didn't want to give me my bags until I gave him the money. So I gave him the money. All my roubles.

I went into the hostel ( Vintage&Funky Sport Hostel), freshly robbed and penniless, met the nice receptionist (her name was Alyssa [spelling unknown]) who spoke about 10 words of English, and managed to postpone paying for the hostel until the next day when I could withdraw money. (She was really, really helpful, and being really nice though, and although the hostel is a little far from the centre of attractions, it's a pretty cool place to stay in. Only good things to say about this place.) The first evening in St Pete's was thus spent moping about my sorry state. And walking about the neighbourhood, trying to find a money exchange. Turns out banks were closed on Sundays (who knew huh?), so I went hungry for a bit. 

My cool fishing themed hostel room at Vintage, Funky and Sports hostel

Next day, I went out at 9am, looking for a bank, found one, and changed more money. Feeling a little richer, I headed to a walking tour, to find out that the guide had called in sick, so there was no walking tour for the day. The other walking tour was slated to start at the same time, somewhere else, so I had the whole day to myself. So I headed off in my usual haphazard fashion, wandering wherever I pleased, and managed to hit most of the touristy spots, like Church of the Saviour on Blood (like I said, fucking heavy metal name and I was wearing my Iron Maiden T-shirt), and St Isaacs Cathedral (decidedly less heavy metal). The mosaics inside were very, very spectacular though. Long story short, I did many touristy things, took a lot of photographs, and had some nice food at a restaurant called Net, near the Winter Palace. Also saw some other couples getting married at St Isaacs. At the end of the day, I almost forgot that I had just lost about USD150 just yesterday. St Petersburg is a pretty and quaint place, with it's many canals reminding me of Amsterdam and Nyhavn in Copenhagen. I would love to visit again during the white nights.

Church of The Saviour on Spilt Blood - Day

Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood - Night

Abruptly moving on to the next day, took a paid (1400 rubles) walking tour with Peters Walk / Walking and Bicycle Tours in St Petersburg, Russia, which is arguably the best thing I have ever done in St Petersburg. I know I wasn't there for long, but still, this comment holds water. I believe I have already shared that Peter is a man with many abilities, and speaks with a crisp, British accent. And also perfect Russian, when I questioned whether he was a local. Long story short, he is.

He is, also, in no particular order:

- Boss/Founder of Peters Walk since 1996
- Walking encyclopedia about St Petersburg
- A master of just about every topic (music, Literature, economics, animals, birds, fairy tales, cars, traveling, where to eat good pies)

And he tells you all the information in such an interesting manner, that I remember till today, nearly 2 weeks later, that in communist times, the hippies gathered secretly, recording overseas music on X-rays of their ribs. These albums are called ribs, and have piss poor sound quality, but is the symbol of rebellion from the innovative and resourceful. As are the bootleg copies of books, done 4 copies at a time, with carbon paper and a typewriter, so the last copy is always the faintest. And that hooded crows have lighter heads, and magpies are the ones that gossip, and that the developer of New Holland is hired by Roman Abramovic's wife. And Lonely Planet looks for him to write information about St Petersburg. So I am convinced he is the best in the business. And no, I wasn't paid to write this.

I am sorry I abandoned point form after the 3rd point, and at this point should randomly interject to say that I also went to John Lennon Street in Pushkinskaya 10, but I didn't spend a long enough time there, as well as the apartments Dostoevsky set Crime and Punishment in, as well as many back streets and courtyards that otherwise would have been missed.

L  to R: Jimmy, Me, Peter

 

 

Crime and Punishment apartments, so aptly named Crime and Punish-apartments in memory of Dostoevsky's novel.
Not.

Yellow Submarine and various graffiti - John Lennon Street, Pushkinskaya 10

After the walking tour (all 4.5hours of it), I hung around abit with James Hiryu, the other guy who took the walking tour with Peter. We headed to North St Petersburg, had a look before I headed to the Hermitage, hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous paintings by Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, and Black Square by Malevich. Suffice to say, I was on the wrong floor all along, and didn't see a single one. The other paintings were still beautiful, but this is just another reason to go back to St Pete's. Also, the number of mainland Chinese tour groups inside was just ineffable. And we must try to eff the ineffable. Anyway, had dinner at a bar/bistro recommended by Valeria Yatskevich (thank you very much!) and decided to walk about a little, and go for ice-cream. Which does seem quite retarded, but that's just the way things are. My ice cream wasn't the best, but sometimes in life you have to roll with the punches. So I went back to the hostel (30minute walk), packed up, and got ready to wake up at 6am, to catch the 7am Sapsan to Moscow.

This is probably a good place to round things up. Things didn't always go my way in St Petersburg, but being mostly on my own, I had to pick myself up and just move along, and make the most of the experience. Which I think I did.

Also, if you're illiterate, please go to the train station with about 20minutes to spare, instead of 5 minutes. I barely managed to hop on to my train to Moscow, because I couldn't find my platform. Because I couldn't read. That is a real pain.

Edit: I cannot believe I forgot to talk about the shop with the Soviet Era antique items. It was really cool and I bought a few Communist era postcards, from the 1950s. Not sending it to anyone. Also brought here during the walking tour, after seeing Marinsky Theatre and lunch at the pie shop. Good stuff that.

Second edit:
I just can't stop suddenly remembering stuff huh? Anyway, I also learned that Russians pay about USD$1 a month for an unlimited supply of gas from Peter. I just wanted to share this little factoid. And another one. While buying stamps for my postcards, Peter said that post offices in Russia still do telegrams, which is cool as fuck. Even cooler as fucker, is that fact that they have something called the Phonagram, which is basically for remote places with no telephones. So one post office calls another, dictates the letter word for word to the other post office, which will in turn write down the letter, and deliver the letter to the recipient. I'd love to see that in action! See how these little factoids keep coming back? Fun and informative haha.

Cheers!