- St Petersburg
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Russia
I went on Peter's walking tours last April having read information about them before leaving. This was the best tour I have ever taken. The guides are incredibly knowledgeable and informative.
The tours take you around St Petersburg using public transport and take groups to unusual sights (we visited an apartment block with art installations and a large bomb shelter) as well as lots of the expected destinations. They even tailor make the tour to suit the group and will happily throw in something extra at a walker's request.
St Petersburg is a great literary city.
Walk the streets of Dostoevsky, like in Crime and Punishment, following the footsteps of Raskolnikov. There are even special tours which visit the places. See the fading yellow buildings, looming large, driving to madness. The squalor and poverty he personally experienced is reflected in his novels. There is also a Dosteovsky museum where he used to live.
Walk alongside the mighty Neva, with it's granite embankments, so glorified by Pushkin. Or the Bronze horseman depicting city founder Peter the Great looming large over the city. Pushkin house is a museum.
Walk down Nevsky Prospekt.
'All powerful Nevsky Prospekt' said Gogol in his sketch bearing the name of this famous street.
Imagine yourself in Petersburg to be in a Gogolian nightmare. This is the little man pittted against the big artificial city with it's structures of power and insane obedience to rank and status.
Watch the sheer artificiality and pre planning of old Petersburg as Tsar Peter dragged Russia forward with a European capital as a window on the west, the facades, ensembles, baroque and the squares. Built on cold rationale as a complete antithesis to the Russian soul. As Dostoevsky said--'the most abstract and artificial city on earth'
Anna Akhmatova was a Soviet poet, who variously lost husband and son to the Gulag camps. You can visit her apartment.
Petersburg- city of words. This is a map of the city with literary quotations from people associated with it.
mtblog.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/St_pete_map_web-1.jpeg
www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/dostoyevsky-memorial-museum.asp
Alexander III decided to put together a collection of Russian art. Nicholas II, his son, founded this museum in his honour in 1895.
I really enjoyed it. It may not be as famous as the Hermitage, but it is a far more authentic Russian experience as it only has Russian art. The queues are far shorter as well, which is a bonus!
After the Revolution, the museum benefited massively from state confiscations of privately owned artworks. The museum's collection includes over 400,000 artworks covering the complete history of Russian art, from 11th century icons to work by contemporary artists.
www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/home/
Saint-Petersburg,
4 Inzhenernaya Str.
It's not open on Tuesdays.
There are many places to get souveniers in St Petersburg, but just don't go to a souvenier supermarket. They charge twice as much as the street vendors and treat you like a potential criminal.
There was even a man at the entrance with a walkie talkie reporting everyone who entered and exited the shop. Outside there were about 3 or 4 coaches full of American tourists. They were totally unaware that they were being ripped off.
The main one to avoid is next to Peter the Great's Cabin.
Next to Peter the Great's Cabin. Don't shop there.
Bottles of champagne in St Petersburg cost only around £1.50. Seriously.
Any supermarket and liquor store in St Petersburg
The Metro is the underground. It is very cheap compared to London. A single ride on it (ie. as far as you like without leaving the station) costs 20 rubles, which is about 40p.
The routes can be confusing, but there aren't as many lines as there are in London, and the maps on the trains themselves are in Russian and English.
The main thing is the same as always in Russia, and that is not to look conspicuous. Most people on the Metro keep quiet, and speaking english might get you unwanted attention.
Look on maps and signs for a blue M.
When I was there, quite often museums or cathedrals would not be open on the day I planned to visit them. Most places seem to have at least one day off a week and are usually shut on the last Thursday of every month.
Everywhere seems to offer a cheaper price for Russians than it does for foreigners, though there are ways to pay slightly less. Most places accept student cards and the OAP age is about 50, so if you are old or young you can get a discount.
I was lucky enough to go with Russian speakers, and we just pretended we were Russian usually!
Chain of cheap-and-cheerful veggie cafes. Portions are small so order two - it's still a cheap meal. Menu changes constantly and English spoken if you're lucky.
Several locations around the city.
www.t-most.ru/
The only way to view the greatest of the treasures in St Petersburg Hermitage Museum is on a private tour. You will need a guide and an appointment, both of which can be arranged by Exeter International, a specialist tour operator with offices in the UK and Russia. What you will see there will blow your mind.
Exeter International
020 8956 2756
www.exeterinternational.co.uk
This hotel, formerly knew as Nevsky 22, is comfortable, if you desire to spend your stay in the city centre of Petersburg.
In fact, it takes just a few minutes to get to the Hermitage (what a museum!). What is more, Nevsky Prospect is amazing: this boulevard was built in the 18th century and it is full of Italian and French influence: Saint Petersburg is really the union of two different cultures!
10 Bolshaya Konyushennaya St, 191186 St. Petersburg.
Tel: +7 812 3123131
Fax: +7 812 7033861
Website: www.nevskygrandhotel.com
This legendary hangout frequented by expats, students, and local residents since 1996 recently moved to a new location (now right across from the US consulate).
The casual cellar atmosphere is cosy and welcoming. The staff pretty much all speak English. The moderately-priced menu (in English and Russian) features tasty American-style food including nachos with homemade chili, and monster burgers like nowhere else in the city.
Free WiFi and internet phone are really conveninent and helpful, and the English-language book and video library can help keep you sane if you're stuck here in winter.
The bar attracts a younger crowd late nights on weekends, especially when there's a DJ or band. It can get a little wild (in a fun way), and it's a great time to meet and party with locals.
Furshtatskaya Ulitsa 20
Metro Chernyshevskaya
www.citybar.ru
Smaller than my one-room apartment in St. Petersburg, Dacha is a bar-cum-club which goes a little way toward being avant garde, or at the very least, off the beaten track. Its nights of 60s music, electronica mixed with punk, and insane remixed disco pop beats the packed crowd of twenty-something party-goers dancing 'till the club closes at 6am.
Round the back of Gostiny Dvor. Metro Nevsky Prospekt, Ulitsa Dumskaya.
These are the main rivers and canals that criss-cross the centre of the city. Boat trips are widely available in the summer months, but walking their banks is also a very good way to literally view a cross-section of the city and what it has to offer. What you'll see will range from the industrial to the picturesque and parochial, but whether frozen or fluid they offer an unbeatable guide to the gamut of St Petersburg.
The Fontanka and Moyka rivers and the Griboedov canal all cross Nevsky Prospekt, the main street through the city.
This is the smallest of the three ‘out of town’ royal palaces and, from the outside, the least ostentatious. It was built for Catherine’s son Paul and is situated in the middle of a large, wooded park that seems very popular with the locals nowadays. Inside it’s decorated as lavishly as any of the others and includes a Grecian Hall, an Italian Hall and a Hall of War.
From St Petersburg Vitebsk station to Pavlovsk station. Then a 30 minute walk through the park or buses 370 or 383. Guided tours also available.
Cynic is a legendary underground bar hangout popular among local students and certain parts of the expat community. It can be rowdy, but it's not unfriendly. Originally housed in a filthy single room near Moscow station, it moved in 2002/2003 to new, larger premises just off St. Isaac's Square.
The basic drill is to sit around large tables drinking cheap-ish beer and vodka (occasionally absinthe), talking to friends and random strangers. Don't forget to try the grenki (fried bread with garlic), which give Cynic its special, peculiarly persistent smell. The food is actually surprisingly good, but most people come for the booze.
If you're lucky, some of the younger female patrons might have enough to decide dancing topless on the tables is a good idea. In which case, you've seen a genuine St Petersburg institution.
4 Pereulok Antonenko; www.cynic.spb.ru/ (Russian only), nearest metro Sennaya Ploshchad/Sadovaya. They probably don't bother answering the phone, if they have one
If you want the nearest thing in Petersburg to a genuine British pub, Dickens is the best bet. It opened up in 2005, and has a variety of British beers on tap (last time I went these included Bombadier and Spitfire), and also does really good food. Best "full English" in town by a long, long way; although the competition is hardly stiff, this is worth trying. Be warned - it's huge. The bar serves food from early morning, but there's also a restaurant that serves from noon to midnight.
There's another Dickens Pub in Riga, so you could do a mini-tour. Although why you'd come to the Baltic to go to a British pub may need some explaining.
118 Naberezhnaya Reki Fontanka (Fontanka River Embankment), open daily from 8 am; tel 380 7888; nearest metro: Sennaya Ploshchad/Sadovaya
Taking photos on the metro will attract the attention of the metro police and a modest but inconvenient fine having to be paid. On the positive side, the police are very helpful giving directions when your knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet fails you in the stations.
This cathedral rarely gets a mention, but because it is often overlooked it is fantastic to visit. You don't have to jostle with other tourists and its cool blue walls look absolutely fantastic in the snow. It's a few minutes south of the Yusupov Palace.
Prospekt Rimskogo-Korsakova or just follow the Griboedova Canal west from Nevsky Prospekt for about 15 minutes
If you're in St. Petersburg in the summer then don't miss the chance to visit Peterhof. The fountains are spectacular but unfortunately do not operate in the winter. The easiest way to get there is by hydrofoil which leaves from behind the Hermitage. It takes 30 minutes to get there.
During weekends in the summer it's possible to take a helicopter tour above St Petersburg. The cost is around $30 and the helicopters take off and land on the lawn beyond the northern wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Just follow the deafening noise…
Is this your business?Search Been there
