[ESN EVENT] Trip to St. ''gelukkig hebben we de foto's nog'' Petersburg

''Gelukkig hebben we de foto's nog'' is a Dutch saying, it means ''Luckily we still have the pictures''. St. Petersburg was a lot of fun, but 3 days is too short. Yet, still a lot of great pictures have been taken to try to keep in memory of all that we have experienced.
--
With ESN we left from Riga on thursdayevening, to arrive in St. Petersburg on friday in the morning (and to go back on sundayevening). In the beginning it was a bumpy ride (Latvian roads are poor) so not being able to sleep really deep (but still satisfactionary). Then we had the necessary (and time taking) control at the border, in which they checked our passport, VISA and immigration papers. Us was told it would help also if the bus was clean and we put up a nice smile, so we tried as hard as we could. :-) For me all of this was a very nice experience, although others undoubtly felt different (and wanting to sleep, also not being used to border controls in the EU (anymore).

Friday 
Upon arrival in St. Petersburg it did not take long for us to meet our (primary) guide, who during her entire guidance told us that ''you are young, you are smart, you are beautiful'' and ''you are more than welcome to take pictures''. I really loved her. Not only because of her compliments but also because of her shared knowledge. When we were going with the bus through the city, one of the first things she said was that St. Petersburg recently had welcomed its 5th million inhabitant, that Russia clearly is a capitalist country now for sure and that St. Petersburg has changeable weather due to the Baltic Sea, just like Riga. That St. Petersburg has hit globalisation was
quite clearly recognisable when I saw this stuff (see picture)
being sold on the streets.

Moreover, she told us that St. Petersburg was set up in 1703 and had been a military capital for 200 years, that St. Petersburg has 42 islands and 65 rivers and canals and that 82% of the people in St. Petersburg live in a flat. We also passed the Red Square, where she mentioned that it can fit up to 80,000 people, as this was the amount of people that were there for a concert of Paul Mccartney in the past. In terms of food, dinner is normally between 1-3 PM and supper at 7-9 PM. In my opinion, a lot of fun 'facts'!

 As time passed, we were getting close to our first destination, the Hermitage museum. According to the description provided by ESN, ''One of the largest and oldest museums of the world. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise nearly 3 million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world.''

According to our guide, ''watch at each painting 1 minute would take 10 years to see everything''. Yes, this museum is big. This was most evidently illustrated by the fact that I lost my group and it took me 1,5 hour just to find them back. At your left you can see a picture taken from both the inside (left) and outside (right) of the Hermitage.

Now some more pictures will follow.
Below you can see a portrait of Peter II (unknown artist).
Somehow to me he looks quite feminine.

Other pictures taken.

''The Malachite Room was decorated to the designs of A. Briullov in 1839. The columns, pilasters and mantelpieces are lined with malachite in the technique kown as the ''Russian mosaics'' The room is associated wit historical events: - on the night of November 7,1917 the lsat meeting of the counter - revolutionary Provisional Governemtn took place here. The ministers were arrested in the adjoining Private dining - room.''


After having been in the museum for several hours we headed back to check-in to our hostel.
We stayed at AZIMUT Hotel (Lermontovsky Prospekt 43/1). When walking in it looked more like an airport though, it's ''entrance hall'' is this big. My shared room was at the 15th floor. Despite not being the highest floor of the hotel, you don't really need to get higher to have a nice view like this.

After having explored our rooms it was time to explore the city by food to grab lunch and enjoy a few hours of free time. During this time, I found out that there are funny traffic signs in St. Petersburg. I have fitness clothing labelled ''Time To Run'', but this traffic sign seems to be quite serious about it as well. In reality it meant walking at the side of the street because of some roadworks, almost being able to breathe in the fume of the cars. Having said that, some of them are quite stylish.

We had our lunch at the Russian version of Pelmini, a self-service restaurant which also exists in Latvia.
Not having been there before, I learned that it is an alternative to LIDO, both offering lower prices than ordinary restaurants. But since St. Petersburg is more expensive than in Riga, you just pay a little bit more here. It was inside the Pelmini that I learned that Metro is also sold in Russia (did not expect this), all Groninger students (and/or Dutch students for that matter) are probably familiar with this free newspaper. In the Pelmini I also heard a song they were playing on a sound-system. At first I thought it was a Latvian song I heard just a few weeks before, but then I suddenly realised it was ''Gangnam'' style, which I learned about just recently. It's crazy how internet hypes can spread so quickly, clearly an indicator of our changed society. Even today I heard it blasting through the in-ears of a girl just standing in front of me in the bus. Anyway, that aside, I also didn't expect to see soldiers when stepping outside the store. In general, I have seen a lot of men in uniform in St. Petersburg, although those were from the navy, I think. It just makes you wonder though if you are in the present or in the past.


A last unexpected sight was this, which made me think back of  ''Geen slapende honden wakker maken'' (Don't wake sleeping dogs)

During the evening we went to an Irish Pub to have a drink there.
I and others took ''Three Bears'', the cheapest 0.5 l beer there (150 roebels or about 3.75 EUR),
often mispronounced as ''Three Beers'' by us. :-)

SaturdayOn Saturday, the 29th of September, after having a good night rest on a great bed, we got back in the bus for our St. Petersburg City Tour (Bus Tour, Old town, Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Isaac's Cathedral, Nevsky Prospekt, Field of Mars, Kazan Cathedral). Actually, it went so quick, I don't recall which of these we have actually seen or I remember (stay longer than 3 days in St. Petersburg if you go!!) and which not. Luckily I made some pictures to help me with that.

Just before you enter the Peter and Paul Cathedral, you will see a helicopter.
This helicopter can take you to fly over St. Petersburg, yet it will cost you 3000 RUB and the flight time is 10-15 min.








Now, starting with Peter and Paul Cathedral, some images.























Continuing with Saint Isaac's Cathedral


















Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt is a busy shopping street. Here it is funny to see how they translate all international names to Russian, but of course, their alphabet is different also.

Me and the people I was walking with, also almost thought this chair from IKEA was five thousand EUR, but 40 RUB is roughly 1 EUR.
















Some other pictures of this street. For this I can say that it is good that I asked a Latvian about the Baltika Brew and he mentioned  that the beer is not so good. Else I might have tried some time, but now I will just decline. I trust their opinion since the beers in Riga are (quite) good compared to those of The Netherlands.

In one of the side-streets you can find a matryoshka flip-up board with ''I love Russia'' to stick your head in, great fun. The matryoshka  dolls (Russian nesting dolls) can be found in any souvenir shop in St. Petersburg. Other then that, I believe we skipped the Field of Mars. I did go inside in the Kazan Cathedral but it was not allowed to take any pictures.

















Various other pictures.
Top right: Loon naar werken! (''Pay after hard work'' (freely translated))

After having spent a long time walking in and around Nevsky Prospekt (it is a long street also) I had to get back to the hotel by SPB metro. I did this on my own, as my mechanical watch stopped ticking and I didn't notice (and as such missed the general meeting time to go back by metro to the hotel together). When wanting to buy my ticket I did not receive any paper or chip-card, so I was clueless of what had happened.
After 10 minutes or so I figured it out though that one of my coins in
my wallet looked rather strange, and has the letter M (for Metro) on it.
So now for next time, I know. :-)

When you go down by the escalator to the metro station you will notice it is a far way down. I asked a friend and dormmate from St. Petersburg how come. He was so kind to explain it to me. He told me that 'Saint-P' was created on swamps and that the ground is very wet. Because of this it is impossible to create underground surface near the surface of soil. As a result, creators went in deep to 70-100 m. By the way, if you are reading this, thanks again! In the metro itself the lights stopped working just before each next station. Me at first not knowing if this meant the metro was malfunctioning or broke or not. :-) Also stopping just before we arrive at the next station, but hey, this also happens with trains in The Netherlands.

During the evening we went out again, this time to Jagermeister Bar. Good atmosphere and cheaper prices than the first place we went the day before. This time it was almost 5.75 EUR for 1l of beer. After my St. Petersburg trip I heard that there are in fact places where you can drink for more affordable prices, but that most likely the staff will not speak English.

Instead of going to club Luna  afterwards with the biggest remaining group (of which the entrance fee was 600 RUB - which seems to be normal in St. Petersburg for clubs) I decided to go back home and get some hours sleep to still see a bit of the city with others in the early morning. Recently I have heard that Luna is also a place for rich people to go to, so maybe not so suitable for students in particular.

Sunday 
Here are some of the pictures of the last day, including those of Peterhof (which is simply amazing!)
Too bad it was raining the entire day, for hours on end. I still kept making pictures but then after some time my lens of my DSLR started to get foggy. I had to let my lens dry for hours, luckily my camera survived.

After Peterhof we went back to Nevsky Prospekt again (and afterwards in the bus back to Riga), but not so much worth mentioning here. Because it was still raining (hard) I got the shiffers, my jacket being totally soaked. Luckily I found out that the bathroom of KFC also serves as a great sauna. On that note I would like to end this blog-entry here and will talk next time about my revisit at the Ethnographic Open Air Museum.