From Russia With Love
Trip Start
Jun 29, 2008
1
17
58
Trip End
Nov 27, 2008
St Petersburg,
Russia
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Although I always like to know some of the language of the places I am visiting (basics like please and thank-you, for example), I also find it an interesting challenge navigating a city when all you know is the basics. In Russia, the challenge is even greater as they use the Cyrillic alphabet, something which significantly increases the difficulty factor in navigating your way around. We arrived late afternoon from Stockholm, and finally managed to identify a minibus travelling past a metro station which we could then take a metro from. By counting metro stops and learning how to identify Nevsky Prospekt in Cyrillic, we made our way to our Hotel. After briefly settling in, it was time to head out for some dinner and to get a feel for the city.
The city has a great feel to it. It was kind of like a mix of Paris and Buenos Aires to me, with the grand architecture and wide streets, and also the river running through it (spanned by 37 bridges). Like in other great cities, there are lots of people out in the evening enjoying the city. I had the most wonderful beef stroganoff for dinner, the best I have ever had, washed down with a glass of wine (of course). We then proceeded to the river, and happened upon a lighted musical display of the floating fountain, off the tip of Vasilievsky island, which looks across at the Hermitage on one side of the river, and Peter and Pauls Fortress on the other. Classical music was pumping out from large speakers while the fountain displayed changed with the music, both in colour and height of the water. After enjoying the display, we continued our stroll along the river and then, while crossing another bridge, were then treated to a fireworks display. It was a wonderful welcome to the city.
