St Petersburg - Lesson 1 in Russia
After spending 4 weeks in Europe, we got accustomed to the Western style of living. As we got closer to the border of Russia, we started to meet other backpackers who just left this mysterious country with plenty of good stories of this place. Those backpackers always told us how lucky we are to have just started our journey whilst theirs' were ending. We exchanged advice about the other's next destinations and we got a couple of interesting ones:
- Never give your passport to the police: some may hold your passport hostage until you handover money, photocopies are absolutely fine
- Sipping a shot of vodka with some pepper in it cures almost everything
- Don't expect any English at all in shops/train stations/restaurants etc etc
- Smiling at people doesn't get you anywhere
- Vodka in Russia is not a cliché
We spent a total of 5 nights in St Petersburg, not planned, but because we didn't want to leave! What a cool place, really refreshing to come to a totally different city to those we have been to before. The first thing we noticed was just how big everything was – the buildings, the roads, the cathedrals, and the Russian women are tall! We felt the full impact of the Soviet power when they were at their prime. However, we were still really impressed by the sophisticated architecture inspired by the west. Statues and sculptures of both the mythical and the legendary, the palaces and cathedrals for the Tsars and Tsarines. The most impressive of them all was obviously the Hermitage. We spent a good 4 hours in this museum, trying to take in as much of the 2.7 million collection as possible. Tired legs but smug to have seen work by Da Vinci, Picasso, Van Gogh, Micheal Angelo, Raphael all in one day. Very productive indeed.
Russia is famous for their onion-head cathedrals, and our first encounter with one is the Cathedral of Spilled Blood. We know we'll be quite bored of them by the end of the Russian part of our journey, but we let ourselves stop and stare at these colourful Taj-Mahal-esque monster of a church.
St Petersburg was built on a swamp so naturally there were a lot of rivers and canals worming through the city (We wanted to take a boat tour but no one else wanted to join us so the captain canceled the trip :( ). In fact, a lot of the buildings are sinking into the ground. It's so normal for the original front door to now become be the door to the basement!
The most original and quirky sight prize had to go to the museum where they held Rasputin's penis. We had to see this with our own eyes to believe it... There are family members reading this blog so I will just leave you with one picture, which can be found in the album... Pickled...
Special mention must go to the hostel we stayed at. We met some serious partying backpackers there and heard some pretty hardcore traveling stories from them. The hostel itself was comfortable and fun, the owners even encouraging some alcoholism with vodka shots+pickles being passed around. If you happen to go to St Pete's, you should check out Soul Kitchen Hostel. After 5 nights, we grew so fond of our hostel that we had to leave for the sake of our programme.
From St Pete's, we took our first sleeper train to Moscow. Quite an experience for the unexperienced – we braved 3rd class plaskart, where 54 people are sardined into one vagon. Though cramped and slightly smokey, we squeezed in a good night's sleep. The city lights of Moscow rolled in at 5am but you've got to wait for the next article.
Why aren't people commenting? Have you forgotten us, my dear friends and family...
Apres presque 1 mois a bourlinguer en Europe, nous voici en Russie ou nous souhaitons verifier plusieurs cliches : la vodka est-elle si importe pour les russes, les filles sont-elles toutes grandes, les russes sont-ils mal polis, fait il si froid que cela ? etc...
Mais commencons par le commencemant.
Nous avons passe 5 jours a St Petersbourg, le temps de visiter le fameux musee de l'Ermitage, de faire le tour de quelques une des nombreuses cathedrales a tetes d onions, de marcher, marcher et encore marcher, d aller visiter la forteresse Peter et Paul ou la construction de la ville a commencee, d essayer de parler russe (sans trop de succes), et de sortir dans des bars locaux avec d autres voyageurs.
Ville raffinee malgre des proportions demesurees, il faut prevoir plusieurs jours pour faire un tour convenable de la ville. Prevoyez aussi de bonnes paires de chaussures parce que les distances sont immenses, et il faut marcher un bout moment entre 2 visites. Il est important d avoir un guide complet et specifique a St Petersbourg pour bien comprendre l histoire (riche) de la ville. Le temps a ete variable, un jour sur deux nous avions un grand soleil et un beau ciel bleu, et le lendemain de gros nuages se faisaient menacant.
Coucher de Soleil sur la Volga, entre la forteresse et le musee de l'Ermitage
Pour resumer, nous avons passer un super sejour a St Pete, et cela doit beaucoup a notre auberge. L auberge en elle meme etait tres pratique, avec une cuisine sur equipee (le nom de l hotel est Soul Kitchen...) et plein de services gratuits tels que la machine a laver ou les coups de fil a l international. Mais surtout les gerants nous ont organises pleins de soirees, avec degustation de vodka le premier soir, degustation de crepes par la suite, et ils nous sortis dans quelques bars en ville avec une bonne quinzaine d autres jeunes de l hotel pour faire la fete. Quelques lendemains difficiles...
Pour en revenir aux cliches abordes au debut, il encore tot pour en parler, mais je dois admettre que la vodka est bonne et tres peu chere, et que les russes de sont pas les rois du sourire. En revanche, en plein milieu du mois de septembre, il ne fait pas encore si froid que cela.
Prochain article : Moscou, que nous avons rejoind en train couchette. A ne pas manquer non plus l album photos qui s y rattache, bientot en ligne !