The Past Three Weeks

It's getting really warm in Petersburg at the moment, so I've finally been able to ditch my ski jacket and snow boots! This has been a long time coming!!

The White Nights have started nice and early, so we're currently averaging over 15 hours of daylight per day. This is set to gradually increase until it reaches around 19 hours of daylight per day in June, which is when the fun will start! The White Night period is supposed to be crazy, with lots of drinking, music and festivals etc. It's really strange to get used to, but it's so nice. Stefka and I are lucky that our room is west facing, so our room doesn't get too light (or hot, the heating's not due to be turned off until the end of April) of a morning.Our friends on the other side of the corridor are less lucky, because the sun shines in to their room really brightly, making it difficult for them to sleep. 

Today, I went to my lessons and then I went out for an Indian 'business lunch', which was brilliant and under £4 in total. Got to love a business lunch! (Business lunch = the lunch time deals that all the restaurants do. Usually a two or three course meal inc. drink for an obscenely cheap price) I can't believe all of the food available to us here!! If I don't come back at least a few stone heavier, I'll be shocked! The past few hours have been spent sunbathing in the park with friends and a few beers (making the most of legally being able to drink outdoors here). Absolute heaven.

To top it all off, after Friday we have two weeks off school for our second 'reading week' of the semester. I've booked to go to Istanbul with a few friends, so I doubt any of us will be getting much reading done. Our flight to Turkey does have a brief stop in Kiev though, which obviously is starting to get a bit worrying, considering the current tension between Russia and Ukraine. I'll update on this as it approaches. 

I think writing about the past three weeks would be far to overwhelming... so to sum up; I love my lessons and my Russian's definitely improving, the city is still proving to be one of the most exciting places I've ever been to, my blood is probably about 74% cocktail now and I am eating all of the food. ALL OF IT.

Here's the proof...

Starting off with reading week (I walked my socks off that week): This is a picture I took approaching Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Temperatures were still around zero degrees, possibly slightly still in the minus numbers.

Saint Isaac's Cathedral in all its glory! The snow subsiding nicely, showing signs of the warmer weather to come.

I could have spent hours stood in front of The Bronze Horseman. Just thinking about the history surrounding this
monument gives me goosebumps. 

I revisited Marchellis for my favourite carbonara and a smidge of German revision. I have the patience of a three year old when it comes to food, so obviously I ate half of it before taking this picture, meaning I could only capture about five strands of spaghetti -sorry, my bad. You'll just have to take my word for it. Best carbonara I've had so far. 

I spent a lot of time in the park opposite my hotel, looking at its beautiful frozen lake and watching those daring enough to walk across it. There weren't many brave (read:stupid) enough to try it though, since it'd started melting at this point.

I went to see The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood for the first time. I'm still yet to go in it though (although I'm really excited to do to),  so pictures of its interior will follow in another post. 

The frozen canals starting to thaw. 

Babushka feeding pigeons. 

Bowling for Joe's 21st Birthday. A Russian man set us up on the machine and typed our names in. I became
Anna, which is close enough. Joe, however, somehow became Joy, which was the funniest thing ever.

Eating out is still an amazing part of my time here. I'll have to update the food section on here because it's all been so good!
This picture was taken at Clean Plates Society. 

Picture taken on the stroll home from Clean Plates Society. So beautiful!

I revisited The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood again on 15th April, in much warmer weather! It looked incredible.

Nevsky Prospekt: Dom Knigi on the left, which has the ever-impressive Singer Cafe inside it & The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in the background. There is history everywhere you look. Dom Knigi is Saint Petersburg's largest and most famous bookshop, built in 1904, it is one of the most historic and beautiful buildings on Nevsky. 

I told you cocktails happened...

We're spending a lot of time in this park now that the weather is nice and warm. It's a really relaxing place to meet after
class for a bit of a chill out/sunbathe.

Picture of me & Olivia on Neksky taken on Easter Sunday

Me & Stefka in Palace Square trying to coordinate a jump for the photo. We're both hopeless though and just
look like we're doing some kind of interpretive dance.

Sunbathing today after class

So much fun in the sun, lets hope the warm weather continues!

 UPDATE ON THE STRANGE THINGS I'VE SEEN

Surprisingly, there are only really two strange things worth mentioning. (I'm starting to get worried in case this is because I'm somehow getting used to/less shocked by things here?! Lord, I hope not.)

While sitting in the park, I saw these two women strutting around the lake with hiking poles. I hope that this
picture, combined with those above, show just how flat the park is. There is absolutely no need for hiking poles. (If
anything, I think they'd be a hindrance.) After these women had finished their walk, they started using the hiking poles
for  the strangest routine of stretches/yoga/meditation that I've ever seen. It was very amusing to watch.

Managing to capture this picture was a golden moment for me. This is a picture of a man (who
was walking with his wife/girlfriend), with the classic mullet... carrying a dog with a pony tail.
A MAN, WITH A MULLET, CARRYING A DOG IN A HANDBAG, AND THE DOG HAS A
PONY TAIL. If a couple are in a serious relationship, it's not uncommon for the man to
carry his partner's handbag, just to show how devoted he is to her. A dog (have I mentioned
it has a pony tail?) being carried a handbag by a mulleted individual
though is something that I haven't seen before.

My First Six Weeks in St Petersburg: The Good, The Bad and The Downright Strange.

We’re almost six weeks in! I can’t believe I’ve been living here for almost six weeks already. We’ve all settled back into Russian life so quickly that it really feels like we never left. Petersburg is one of the most incredible cities I’ve been to and it’s completely exceeded my expectations! There are so many things to appreciate here. That being said, this is Russia.  Last week, I was appreciating some of the impressive architecture on Nevsky Prospekt and then a man walked past me, walking a cat... on a lead... and the cat was wearing a tracksuit. Everything about that was just wrong.

Here’s a brief summary of my six weeks living in Saint Petersburg. It is with great pleasure that I present to you; The Good, The Bad and The Downright Strange. 

The Good

• THE FOOD. I am having a complete love affair with the food here. There are hundreds of Stalovayas (canteen style dining halls) all over the place, but shamefully I’m yet to nip into one. There are just so many other places to go. Nevsky Prospekt is especially good, it's full of Turkish, Georgian, Italian, Japanese (etc) restaurants and little cafes, filled to bursting with freshly prepared pastries and cakes. And the bonus is that THE MAJORITY ARE ALL TWENTY-FOUR HOUR! Last week at 4am, I was sat in an incredible little Italian called Marchellis, where I had the best carbonara of my life. There are also pizzerias everywhere. I haven’t eaten this many pizzas in a long time. Yeah, just so much food. Heaven.

Cafe Singer

I should say, these were taken after a night out at about 5 or 6 in the
morning which is why we look a little worse for wear. But still, PIZZA!

There is also a McDonald's down the road which has a 24 hour 'walk-through'!
Much better than the one in Tver that was a 45 minute walk away.

My breakfast!

Olivia's breakfast pancakes

Opera Cake

We went to a restaurant called, 'Soup Vino' for Alice's birthday. The soup was incredible!

The vino wasn't bad either!

I will definitely be leaving Petersburg the size of a house.

• The things to see and do! I don’t think I will ever be bored here. There are so many museums and monuments to see! There’s ballet and opera! Cinema, bowling and massive shopping centres. I know these might not be that exciting to some, but we were so starved of these things in Tver, that it is such a novelty having them here! There are obviously a lot more things that I haven’t listed, but I’ll just write about them as and when I see them.

Watching an opera at The Mariinsky Theatre

• The exchange rate - As you are probably aware, the value of the rouble has hit record lows. This means that now we’re getting so much more for our money. We’re used to 1000 roubles being about £20 and now it’s only about £16. Also, this means that this month’s rent worked out as only £263 instead of £310. Bonus!

•  The weather – Saint Petersburg has been uncharacteristically warm recently! Usually, February and March are still extremely cold and snowy in Petersburg, but this week we’ve had temperatures as high as 6°C. I’m not going to be fooled though. A few weeks ago we were lulled into a false sense of security when the weather reached temperatures around 8°C, but then suddenly things changed. We got home from at night out at 5am - no snow, not too cold, then went to sleep, woke up at 11am and BAM... SNOW!

The view from my window. There was at least 4 inches of snowfall, but I don't think this picture quite captured it

Have I mentioned that Saint Petersburg is beautiful? Because it really is. I sat on a bench yesterday, overlooking a frozen lake, surrounded by beautiful buildings. I can imagine that this will only get better as the weather gets warmer and then we can really appreciate places like The Summer Gardens.

Disclaimer: That is not me sitting on the bench. I was sat on a bench behind. (This picture was taken about
a week after the one above, so you can see how it's getting warmer!)

• There’s a lot choice of venue for nights out! In Tver, we had four places available to us; Club Cultura (never went), Zebra (wish I never went), Zerkalo (also, wish I never went) and Horoshii Povod (good, but started getting violent towards the end). In Petersburg, there are just too many to list. I’ve only been to three clubs/bars so far; Circus, Radio Baby and Cuba Libre. They’ve all been good so far though! –No complaints!

Our first night out in Circus! Drinks were about £6 for a single though, so not great. Still lots of fun!

Before Radio Baby - Preparing for our lie in the next morning!

First night in Radio Baby - Champagne bought for us by Hannah's parents (Thank you Sheryl and Mark!)

Our second time in Radio Baby, the following week

(Sorry, I uploaded it straight to blogger for a change, instead of youtube and the quality isn't amazing!)

We've also managed to find one or two cocktails...

 The Bad

• Holy shit, this is a dirty city. Saint Petersburg is the third most polluted city in Russia and sadly, it does show. 1) When walking down the street, buses drive past and carry with them a sheet of dust which just covers you. If you’re unprepared (like me) then it’ll go straight into your eyes and you’ll have to hobble around for a while until your sight comes back.  2) It is more than acceptable to spit in the street. This is definitely a cultural difference, because no one here bats an eyelid, we all think it's completely and utterly disgusting. Without exaggeration, since arriving here, I haven’t been able to walk down one road without having to be really careful about where I step. 3) I was in a bar a few weeks ago and they had unisex toilets. The obvious pee-on-the-seats/floor/everywhere was expected, but coming out of my cubicle to see a man blowing his nose into his hands and then washing his hands in the sink... not what I was expecting. It almost put me off my Raspberry Mojito. Almost.

• Most people here can speak English. This is especially noticeable in shops and restaurants. Today, I didn't hear what a waitress was saying to me, so I asked her to please repeat herself, but instead she just said it in English. Helpful, but not from a language learning point of view. Tver was definitely better in this respect, because it forced us to speak Russian everywhere.

• I’ve not been able to find a library to use yet. With sharing a room (and a small desk), sometimes it’d be handy to slope off to a library for a little bit and get some work done. Annoyingly, we haven’t managed to find one. Our friends, who have been living here since September, have also had this problem and the libraries that they have found have all got strange rules like, ‘no coats, bags or books to be taken into the library’ which isn’t ideal!

• I've had my purse stolen already! On my first trip out to a big shopping centre, we'd only been in about 3 shops when I noticed that my purse was missing. Just as I was telling my friend that it was gone, my phone started ringing. I answered it and there was a Russian lady on the other end, asking me if I was shopping in this shopping centre and then told me that she had my purse in River Island. This was so weird, because I'd not bought anything yet, let alone in River Island so there's no way I'd have mislaid it or dropped it. Anyway, we went straight there and my purse was returned to me (about £75 lighter!!). Apparently it was ditched somewhere and the security returned it to River Island, because it's a River Island purse. I was so lucky though, because all of my bank cards were still in it. I'd be buggered if they'd taken them. Also, it was lucky that I had my MTS card with my mobile number on it, or I'd probably never have been reunited with it. It sucks, but it happens and it could have been worse. I've always thought I'm really vigilant when shopping and I always make sure my bag is in front of me, but obviously I'm not vigilant enough. A (slightly more expensive than hoped) lesson was learnt.

The Downright Strange (I wish I had photos of some of these)

• As mentioned at the beginning of this post, the tracksuit-clad feline being led around Petersburg on a lead. I've seen dogs dressed up, but never cats and why was this cat on a lead? Seriously, who on earth walks their cat on a lead?! 
• We left a club at 5am on a Saturday morning and amongst the taxi’s outside, there was a woman offering rides on her horse (not a euphemism). Imagine getting a horse home instead of a taxi!
• I was stood in Palace Square and two men tried to get me to hold monkeys for a photograph... monkeys in ski suits. I definitely didn’t think I’d be seeing monkeys in Saint Petersburg.
• While walking back from The Mariinsky Theatre, we spotted two horses walking down the middle of the road. As they got closer, we noticed that the people on the horses were not only riding bareback,  but they were also swigging on bottles of beers. Just casually riding down the middle of the road at about 11pm... drinking beer... on horses.

I think I’ll designate a special section under each post for all of the strange things that I see. I am certain that there will be many more to come.

We've had this week off school, so I’ve spent it gallivanting around Petersburg. Will update you all soon!

XxX

Welcome to Saint Petersburg!

Hi Everyone!


I arrived in Saint Petersburg last Monday 17th at about 1am after the most hectic day of travel I have ever experienced. We decided to arrange our own travel, because we were sure that we could do it cheaper than the price of the group ticket arranged by RLUS. We succeeded.. but it was definitely a more difficult way of doing things. Instead of flying from Heathrow to Saint Petersburg (which in itself is annoying because I live in The North and would need to get down to London), we decided to fly from Manchester to Moscow. Here's our day's travel in a nutshell:

5.30am - Arrived at Manchester Airport and joined massive queue to the baggage drop. Don't you just love getting stuck behind huge school groups..

7.40am - Flight departed

*The flight is only about 4 hours, but Russia is 4 hours ahead, so I'll switch to Russian time now*

3.35pm - Flight arrived in Moscow

Time to land!

5.00pm - Managed to finally get through airport security, drag luggage through airport and board the aeroexpress train to take us to the metro.

6.00pm - Arrived at the Paveletsky Rail Terminal and boarded the metro.

7.10pm - After a lot of wandering around, we finally managed to find the Leningradsky Railway Station and boarded our train to St Petersburg.

11.15pm - Arrived at the Moskovsky Railway Station in St Petersburg.

The boys went off to find sim cards, James tried to find somewhere with wifi since he'd arrived in Russia without checking where he was going to be staying...vital information that he obviously needed, and we finally got our first opportunity of the day to eat something!!

Unfortunately the only food available to us at the time was this pizza.
It had some sort of garlic paste on it which burned the mouth.
Not the best 'first taste' of Petersburg.

1.15am - We arrived at our hotel and went to bed for some much needed sleep since we were up in 7 hours to take a placement exam for our language course (oh the joys).

Overall, I think I saved about £320 doing it this way. Was all the faff and luggage lugging around Russia worth it? As much as I hated it at the time, it probably was.

I'm currently living in a hotel, which is less of a rock and roll experience than I'd imagined. It's right in the centre of Petersburg though which is brilliant and we have our room cleaned once a day, sheets changed once a week etc which is handy! It's also really clean, so I'm not complaining.

Finally, here is the ever awaited tour of where I'm currently living! It's not the best video I've ever made and I've got a sore throat so it's all nice and croaky, but nevertheless, enjoy!

(Sorry having issues with technology and it wont let me add the video to the end here, so you'll have to just follow the link to youtube until I can sort it out!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlqxJY2K_rU


XxX