Saint Petersburg - Peter the Great's 'window to the west'

My spontaneous trip to St. Petersburg

Day 17

I am in St Petersburg!

It all started taking the metro in Moscow to Leningradsky trainstation which impressed me a lot. Very modern, very big, very efficient and lots of security guards. I looked for my train on the info board and found one going to Murmansk that corresponded to my train number and departure time. So I thought that must be it then. But Murmansk? I went to the platform anyway and looked for my coach number. I like this way of entering the train and finding your seat. Since I had Anna book my ticket online I knew which coach number and which seat exactly. So I showed the lady waiting at the entrance to my coach my passport (I didn’t even have to print my ticket) and she checked it with her list. So basically your ticket was checked before you entered the train and not sometime randomly when you’re already seated and maybe asleep. When she checked me off her list I knew this definitely is the right train. Then I went inside and was pleasantly surprised. I had seen pictures of the Russian night trains and thought I would have to face some worn out dark colored coaches with red leather benches but instead I saw a new looking white interior with blue cushions and my bed already made with clean white bedsheets. I didn’t take a picture but will on the return trip. The beds were arranged in groups of four, two top ones and two bottom ones facing each other. On the other side of the aisle two more were placed sideways, where the bottom one converted to a small table with two seats. All designed for excellent use of space.  My bed was number 8, a top bunkbed and therefore my storage room was sort of limited. The lower beds could use the entire space under the bed for bags etc. I put my backpack and small bag on the shelf above my bed where additional pillows and blankets were placed. Then I only had to figure out how to get up there. It wasn’t high, but I didn’t want to step on the bed below. I used the little step that was applied on the dividing wall to the next compartment and made myself comfy. It was very warm in there, so I didn’t need a blanket. The bed was very short, so only ideal for people about a foot shorter than me, but since I usually curl up anyway that was ok. But curling up also made me “wider” and the bed was very narrow so I feared perhaps falling out of the bed when the train braked. But the other guy in my compartment showed me there was a thing on my bed I could tilt over to make a barrier to prevent falling off. After that was settled I donned my sleep mask and earplugs and actually went to sleep since I was very tired. I woke up a couple of times though because my neighbor was snoring. They should definitely use that as a criteria to assign beds, snoring and non-snoring passengers. I set my alarm afraid that I would end up in Murmansk, but another service offered by the train company was a wake-up nudge. I was very pleased with myself when we arrived. I immediately found the right way to the metro, bought a one-trip token and took the metro to Nevsky Prospekt Station. The train station there, Ladoj station, was also very nice and modern with signs in English! When I had to change lines I asked someone who also spoke English and was very helpful and showed me towards the right exit. Outside I took a few minutes to orient myself. I knew where the hotel was on the map and knew where the metro station was, but the exit was at a four-way crossing. Using my guide I identified the big colorful Cathedral which was just around the corner from my hotel and started up the street. I found the Moyka street and then the sign that said Hotel. I read the reviews for the hotel and knew that you had to enter through a back courtyard. It really didn’t make the best impression, but inside everything was fine. The receptionist was nice and spoke English well. They even let me check in, even though check-in time usually is at 2 pm. I had to email them the hotel voucher since I had no opportunity to print it. The wifi works excellent! I had some breakfast in my room from my goody-bag I took with me and then started my first tour of the city.

I went back towards the colorful church which is the Cathedral of Christ’s Resurrection, then back down the street (Nevsky Boulevard) from this morning to the big crossing. There was a very cool building on the right called House of books. There’s a bookstore on the bottom and a café on the second floor, called Café Singer (from the sewing machine company). It has a glass dome that’s lighted in blue when it’s dark.

Across from the House of books is the Kazan Cathedral. It’s supposed to be the St Peter’s Basilica (Rome) for St Petersburg. I walked around the back the Hippogriff’s bridge – very cute. 

Then went back to the Nevsky Boulevard and continued down the road. I passed the Stroganov Palais where supposedly Beef Stroganov was invented. Next to it is the House of columns in pink and white and further down the road I arrived at the Alexanderpark with the Admiraltejsky building. Sadly it was under construction so I could really only see the gold pointy dome with the gold sailboat at the top. I fed some nice fog crows the remaining pieces of the pastry that I was still carrying around with me and naturally once you start feeding one a whole flock of pigeons appears. So there I was trying to strategically feed the fog crows without making it too easy for the pigeons and then made it obvious to them that the pastry was gone by shaking out the remaining crumbs from the plastic wrap. Usually I find that when you do that and walk away that they understand. However, what happened today was that the whole group of pigeons, sparrows and fog crows kept following me through the park.  Not pushy or aggressive, just kept my pace following me.

Then I took some pictures of the Bronze Horseman and took a look at the river neva and the opposite little islands. It was soooo windy that it felt icy cold. I also tried to take a picture of me with the self-timer. This usually works well if I can find a flat surface with a good height to put it on, which I did. But it was so windy that the wind actually knocked over my camera and naturally it fell on the lense. I thought I had irrevocably broken it, but after a few on and offs and straightening the lense it worked again – hallelujah! Lesson learned: no selfies when it’s windy. I turned back and walked past the Manege (former equestrian center or royal stable) towards the St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which also had a tower under construction. It’s the fourth largest dome in the world (according to my book). I wanted to buy a ticket go to the top because it said in my book that the view over the city was great. But of course, it said the top part was closed due to strong winds. So I continued by walk and passed the Isaac square with a statue of Nicholas the 1^st. I also took a look at the Astoria hotel and Hotel Angleterre. Then I went along a sidestreet back towards Nevsky Boulevard with lots of pretty buildings. I also went inside a Faberge jewelry shop, but they didn’t let me take pictures. I crossed Nevsky Boulevard and entered the Castle Square through the Triumph arch. 

There I saw the Hermitage and the Alexander Pillar. I walked across the singer’s bridge (St. Petersburg has lots of water channels and therefore lots of bridges. Saw the house where Pushkin died and then went along the winterchannel past the Hermitage theater onto the riverside road which is called the palace embankment because all the wealthy people had their palaces here. So I walked along and found that most of the pretty palace buildings looked unoccupied. I passed the Marblepalace and saw the Trinitybridge before I turned back to the Mars park, which is actually quite close to my hotel. I wanted to go to the Summergarden park but it was closed because of a storm warning. So walked south along the Engineer’s palace, the old circus and then back towards town past the Russian , ethnographic museum, palace of the fine arts, crossed the street to the small park where the Pushkin Monument stood and had a peek inside the Hotel Europe which looks much more impressive than the Astoria or Kempinski. I ended up back at Nevsky Boulevard. I had some cocoa in a nice little café and then went towards the St Petri Church which the Sovjets used as a public swimming pool. I also found a miniature Teremok (the fast food place I mentioned where you can get all kinds of Blinis etc.). It was not much bigger than a news stand booth. I walked around some more and finally had some Beef Stroganov in a nice but good priced Restauraunt across from the Stroganov palais. Back at the hotel I really enjoyed my shower!

I really like St Petersburg. It has a nostalgic glamorous atmosphere which is undermined by all the pretty buildings and only rarely disturbed by modern architecture.  Perhaps you could try a tour through St Petersburg with Google Street View to give you an impression. I didn’t take a picture of every building even though most are really pretty. You can just imagine women in lovely dresses and furs and men in top hats go around their business in horse drawn carriages or sleighs. Also I feel much more welcome in St Petersburg than in Moscow because the people here appear very helpful, can speak English and even the signs are in English telling which sight is in which direction.

Day 18

I began my day with the breakfast buffet at the hotel which could have featured a bit more European options. It was rather rudimentary with only two types of bread (white and whole wheat toast), coffee or tea (no hot chocolate L ) and then 3 variations of cut sausage meat, one plate of cheese, sausages (like hot dogs) , the small brown granulate noodle variation I’ve also seen in hungary, cornflakes and cocoapuffs, pre-packed yoghurt and fortunately some miniature croissants out of the bag. But even the sugary cereal was a welcome variation from my breakfast habits in Moscow. Then I started out toward the summer park to see the summer palace. The park was still closed but I got a peek through the fence at the summer palace. Evidently I had confused the palace with another one, because this was the temporary residence of the tsar and was rather small and simple, but still pretty. Then I walked across the Trinity bridge and saw the sun rise over the summer park. I continued east along the embankment to look at the Aurora marine ship, which was not available for tourists that day. I turned back and went to the Peter and Paul Fortress. I got the standard ticket for the Cathedral, Prison, Commandant’s House and History Museum in the wall. The prison was not very impressive, just lots of prison cells and some information about their occupants. The Saints Paul and Peter Cathedral was pretty and inside were lots of marble tombs. Thankfully the lady at the ticket office gave me a pamphlet that identified each coffin. I saw Peter the Great’s tomb and Catherine the Great and so on and so on. The Romanov remains were interred here in 1998 in a separate little room next to their servants who were also murdered in 1918.

The Commandant’s house featured a very nice museum with lots of interesting things such as old bathtubs, toilets, travel toiletries, clothing, sewing machines, typewriters, etc. It also showed a lot of pictures of old trains, old horse drawn trams (with rails) the first cars etc.

At 12 o’clock the canon was shot to mark the time just as it had been since Peter’s reign and then the Churchbells rung a very pretty melody. I went to the outside walkway next to the Kronwerk bridge and had my little picknick lunch enjoying the view across the Neva at the Basilius Island the palaces on the other embankment. The sun was shining and it just really beautiful.

I crossed the bridge and looked at the Kronwerk Artillerymuseum from the outside and turned back. I walked by the big ship which I had thought from afar was a reconstruction of some royal hanseatic vessel. But I don’t think it was really a ship and just built to look like one. It had a gym, a spa and a restaurant inside. You could see the threadmills through big glass windows . I crossed the bridge onto Basilius Island and looked at the Rostra lighthouses and the Naval Musuem, then passed the Kunstkammer, University, Menschikov palace and the Academy of arts. Infront of the academy they had two small marble sphinxes from Egypt. I continued down the other bridge (Maria bridge) and looked at the “English Embankment” where more pretty houses stood. I walked to the Rumancjev Villa and Bismarck’s Residence. I turned back towards the Nicolaus palace then walked along another channel with “new Holland” to the right. I was disappointed by this. It looks really cool on the map,  a triangular island inside the city, but it was just a boarded up old ugly building. It could have been fixed up nicely to use it for something. I walked down further towards the Marijinsky theater (old and new) and the conservatory on the other side of the road. 

I had been looking for a cheap café to have some tea an use the restroom and naturally, when you’re looking for something it’s nowhere to be found. But eventually after hearing myself complaining about the cold out loud I found a subway and had some tea. After warming up I wanted to use the bathroom, but at the door was a scanner that would only let you in if you still had your receipt from your purchase. Of course, I had already thrown mine away. But when I asked the cashier she gave a spare receipt. How complicated. Back outside, I walked down even further along the little channel to the Nicolaus Marine Cathedral, the church for sailors in baby blue. 

I walked back and looked at the  Jusopov palace, by now it was getting dark and all the building were nicely lit up. I walked towards St Isaac’s square and down Malaja Morskaja street, where I found the house Tchaikovsky died in and then finally headed back to the hotel and stopped by a nice self serve restaurant and had dinner.

Day 19

I got up, had breakfast and headed over to the Hermitage, which is only 10 minutes walking distance from my hotel. The museum opens at 10:30, I was there at 10:15 and already a small line had formed. So I stood in line and waited patiently. When I saw the school classes herded around by teachers I feared the worst. Mom and I had previously had bad experiences with school classes in Vienna. When the door opened naturally a lot of people cut the line and pushed ahead. As I mentioned before, Russians can’t queue and possibly other tourists as well. Only the British take the concept of queuing by heart.

Inside they fortunately had many ticket offices, and this lady here accepted my student ID so I got in for free! I left my jacket and backpack at the cloak room and then had to find my orientation as there were several entrances with metal detectors and scanners for purses.

I got an audioguide and started my tour through the Hermitage. Up the main staircase and then through (almost) every room of the first floor and second floor, where I left out some of the Asian art. Then I had to find my way into the groundfloor to the prehistoric stuff. After 5 hours of walking and looking and listening to my audioguide my feet hurt and I was tired and thirsty. I had seen two small paintings from DaVinci, a sculpture from Michelangelo, lots of Picassos, Monets, Renoirs, Cezannes, etc. The rooms were mostly very pretty and very elaborate. What I liked best was the peacock clock.

I left and headed towards the ticket office for theatershows. I was thinking about going to a performance of Swan lake or a Russian folk show. But the Lady at the ticket office was not very helpful and the prices were higher than the ones I had looked up on the internet. It was only 4 o’clock so I tried to figure out what to do with the next two hours. I decided to give the museum in St. Isaac’s Cathedral a chance, went there but the lady at the ticket office did not accept my student ID. And I refuse to pay 250 ruble to go into a church. So I fed some birds in the park and headed south to what my guide book called the “haymarket” which is supposed to be a market and a shopping center. When I got there it was just a plain old shopping mall, so I decided to take the metro to Nevsky Prospect again instead of walking which wasn’t the smartest idea. Changing metro lines in Russia means walking around endlessly underground. So I don’t think it was that much shorter than just walking. Also you have to pay attention on which exit to take at the station, because you might end up at a totally different street and then have to walk back a whole block. I went to the self-service restaurant again and had Borsht soup and then looked for a Produkty to buy some desert and water for the next day. But the producty I had seen that morning was not a good producty at all. It was really just a kiosk with beer, chips and some chocolate etc.

So I decided to go to the Restaurant “Stolle” around the corner which I had read about online, it was supposed to have the best pie (pastry pie) in town. I got into conversation with a girl from Manchester and we had some quark pie. She was working in Moscow and maybe we’ll do some sightseeing together next week.

Day 20

I took the metro from Nevsky Prospekt to ist southern end destination called „Kupcino“ (pronounced coopcheena) and then looked for the bus to take me to Catherina palace in the suburbian town called Pushkin. I had looked it up online previously and looked for bus 186. At first I found the right bus, but was on the wrong side of the street. So I went to the other side and soon enough my bus 186 came. I asked the driver with the note I had written if he’s driving to the palace and he said no. So that took me aback a little and then I started asking random people if they spoke English. The third person tried to help me. With my note, clarifying where I wanted to go, he walked me up to another bus, a minibus, and asked him if he could take me to Pushkin. The girl who sat next to the driver (as I said it was a minibus, more like those airport shuttles from hotels) and she spoke English. So I arrived directly at the palace park after about 15 minutes and searched for the entrance. Next time, I would probably take the train directly from inside the city and then walk the rest from Pushkin train station to the palace. If you don’t mind adventures then taking the bus is an option as well. The metro only costs 28 ruble and the bus ride another 35 which I suspect is cheaper than the train.

Since it’s winter season now, the palace like many other sights are under construction so the front façade of the palace was partially covered. I got my student discount and rented an audioguide. This one was very good, because it had one track for each room you went through telling you where to look and what to note in particular. So I made my way through the royal rooms which were all very nicely restored after they were destroyed during the war. The main attraction at the palace is the amber room. The amber room had also been looted and a lot of myths evolved about its whereabouts. The current amber room was mostly financed by Germany.

After I had purchased an extra ticket to look at some other rooms with personal items of the tsars and finished that part as well I walked through the park a bit and fed the birds. In summer I can imagine the park would be pretty. But I missed flower beds and ornate bushed. There were only trees and grass and walkways and statues that had already been covered for winter. But there were lots of squirrels running around too. When I offered one of them some bread, it came right up to me, not shy at all and sniffed at the bread. Apparently it must be a very spoiled squirrel population because it did not want my whole grain toast. So the ducks got it instead.

I went back to the bus stop and took one where “Metro Kupcino” was printed on the side and then took the same way back into the city. I changed onto the green line and went one stop further onto the Basilius island to go to the Kunstkammer. This was actually the first public museum Peter the 1^st established to educate his people. Most of the exhibitions were about different ethnic groups, Eskimos, Indians, Chinese etc. but the main and most interesting part was the “monster” collection or natural science collection as it’s called in English. The German name would be Raritäten- or Kuriositätensammlung. There were some stuffed exotic animals, butterflies and beetles but also tons of jars with formaldehyde containing deformed babies, stillborn most likely. There were lots of Siamese twins, Cyclops babies, siren babies (with fused legs, like a fin) and others with huge brain hernias, or cleft spines. All very gruesome and disturbing but on the other hand sort of interesting. Also two headed calves, four legged chickens, two headed cats etc. Apparently collecting odd things was a trend at that time, but Peter 1^st had wanted people to collect these things specifically so they could be analyzed by his specialists and to educate people that it was not the devil’s work that some babies were deformed.  Peter had also founded the academy of sciences where 9 out of 13 members were German.

It was already dark again when I left and headed back across the bridge at the Hermitage towards Nevsky Prospekt where I had something to eat. I really wanted some hot chocolate and maybe a piece of cake or a cookie for desert but either you pay 200 rubles for a hot chocolate (300 even at the Singer café in the House of books!!!), or they don’t even have hot chocolate on the menue or people don’t understand what you want. So I was kind of frustrated when I was back at the hotel and had some tea instead.

Day 21

I packed my things and then googled what I would do that day. I had already seen everything on my list and even the top 10 must see sight lists on the internet didn’t help very much with my schedule for the day. I also looked through my book and decided to go to the Museum of Ethnography first. On my way I passed the colorful church again and thought I might as well look inside. But here the ticket lady didn’t accept my student ID and I refuse to pay 250 rubles to look into a church. I then went through the Michaelsky park, fed some birds and then went to the museum around the corner. The museum was nice, it had lots of costumes, outfits and artsy crafty stuff of different cultural tribes of all regions from Russia. Then I decided to go to the east side of town to the Alexander Nevsky monastery, one of three monasteries in Russia that have some special title. I was disappointed when I got there, it just another big church with a couple of building surrounding it and some cemetaries. Then I bought a ticket (200 rubles!!!) to look at the cemetery where Tschaikovsky and a bunch of other famous people were buried. I wouldn’t recommend going here. 

Then I thought since I was on the east side anyway I might as well go a little further north to where the Tauride palace and another monastery was. But I could not figure out how to get there with a bus or tram. I didn’t want to walk, because it was a bit far and it was slightly raining. After walking around the same building 3 times asking people how to get there and being sent in different directions I decided just to take the metro back to the town center. There I looked into the Kazan Cathedral, which was free of charge. There were lots of people standing in line waiting to say their prayer in front of an Icon and kiss it. That just appears very weird to me. I walked down Nevsky Prospekt some more past the big shopping center and old library to the statue of Catherine the Great. I looked around the Alexandrinsky theater behind it and walked along the “prettiest street of St Petersburg” according to my book. It was designed by the Italian architect Rossi and featured lots of white pillars on yellow buildings. I wasn’t too impressed and walked back. I went to this cool building on the other side of the street which was the Jelissejew delicatessen shop and café. 

It was really cool! Very art nouveau and lots and lots of yummy things. Each side featured different specialties, cheese and wine, baked goods, confectionary, vodka and caviar, sausage and ham and more sweets. In the middle they had a giant palmtree with chandeliers hanging from the leaves and a red velvet couch around it with little café tables and chairs. So I decided to have something warm to drink. They had a tea and muffin offer for 250 which I thought was ok for a place like this. It was also not just a tea cup but a small tea pot enough for three cups. They had a nice piano with classical music playing, the keys were actually moving and when I left the band played on the inner balcony. I chatted with a family from Manchester and then went back to Kazan Cathedral to meet Sarah, the girl from England. We strolled around a bit to look at St Petersburg in the dark and then went had dinner at the self-serve restaurant where I had been the evening before. When I told her about the Jelissejew café we decided to go there again and had a very ornately decorated éclair with praline filling, so yummy! We walked back to the hotel and I picked up my bags. By then it was already 11 o’clock and I panicked a little bit because I thought I still had plenty of time. So I rushed to the metro, ran down the escalator, rode to Mayakovskaya and then marched down the street to the big train station. The thing was that my ticket said the train station is called “Glavny” (a different one than the one I arrived at) but the one I was walking towards was called Mosvkowsky. I had googled it and asked the girl at the hotel and knew it was around here somewhere, whether it was the same one I didn’t know. So anyway, I ran around trying to find the right entrance and finally found the sign with the train schedule and found my train that would leave at 11:36. I rushed through security, beeped in the scanner, but fortunately the security guards didn’t car and ran to my platform. I was on the train, puffing and sweating at 11:30, phew! This time the train had white interiors and red leather benches. I had a lower bed and across sat a girl who spoke English very well and we started talking. Next to us was a group of boys in camouflage and Russian hats who were army newbies together with their boss. I was worried a bit that they would be up all night, but they were well behaved. They had unpacked an entire grocery store inventory from a magic mary popping bag and offered us some candy and apples etc. I made my bed and said good night at about 1 o’clock. I found out that if you have the upper bed, you bed is already made when you arrive, if you have the lower one, you have to put on the sheets yourself. I was so tired I went to sleep and arrived safely in Moscow at 6:30 am.

here's a picture of my bunk bed with sheets and mattress already removed.