The Soviet Union Lives On
Trip Start
Aug 20, 2008
1
4
15
Trip End
Sep 15, 2008
St. Petersburg,
North-West Russia,
Russian Federation
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
St. Petersburg was another story. After visiting two countries that seem to have blossomed in
recent years, we were expecting to find St. Petersburg a thoroughly changed city from the Leningrad we visited 40 years ago. Surely the fall of Communism in 1991 would have brought big changes!
In the pre-cruise literature, Princess had warned that attempting to explore St. Petersburg on your own would be both expensive and dangerous. For starters, the Russians were charging $200 a piece for a visa unless you were in a group tour. And, the cruise line warned, the ship would dock in a ship yard where the way into the city would involve a mile and a half walk across an active ship yard before you would be able to access any
sort of public transportation. This conjured up visions of dodging 18-wheeler trucks and cranes swinging huge containers while trying to find the way out. So, we signed up for the tour that sounded least likely to be a tour. It was billed as a walking tour of the "hidden city' and included travel by the metro. No tour busses, just poking around the city on the subway. If you had to take a tour, this would be fine. Or so we thought.
We arrived at St. Petersburg at night in the dark, so were we ever surprised to wake up to find the ship docked alongside an embankment with a main road into town at the other end of the gang plank. So where was this huge shipyard we had to cross? When we disembarked at the appointed hour to meet our tour guide, the first thing he did was herd our group onto a tour bus. From there we drove across part of the city to where we were let off at the entrance to a metro stop. Metro tokens were distributed to our not insignicant group of 40 people and with a guide in the front and one in the rear we all shuffled onto the speeding escalator and were whisked down to the platform several hundred feet below the ground. There, with the rush hour crowds swirling around us, we grouped to be given instructions as to exactly when and how to board the train. Of prime importance was keeping the group together. Wow, shades of the old Soviet Union. Keep the group together! No one off on their own!
We boarded the train precisely as directed and rode several stops, jammed in with other riders in a packed subway car that we felt quite like home for us New Yorkers, although I think others in the group from less urban areas were uneasy with the crowds and the pushing. Despite our being a large group of Americans in the middle of rush hour, our fellow Russian riders seemed not to notice us. No one made eye contact, showed annoyance at a big group, or even cast curious looks at our dress or demeanor.
At the destination station, we dutifully admired the grey marble plated walls and columns built in the Soviet era. They were certainly more beautiful than the average New York subway station! And we marveled at the escalators carrying thousands of riders to depths far greater than our own in New York and at speeds considerably faster. Our guide told us that on the descent, standing riders keep to the right while the left is for those walking down. On the up escalators, however, both "lanes" are for standing. Initially that struck me as odd (no one is in a hurry to get out of the subway?) until we rode down and realized just how deep the stations are. No one but the really fit could walk up that distance. So, it suggests that their escalators must run consistently unlike the NYC subway's escalators with their frequent breakdowns. The NYC Transit Authority might want to consider a visit to St. Petersburg.
Leaving the metro station we came out across the street from a market, a large hanger-like building with rows of food stalls. It was mostly empty of customers except for our tour group. The guide explained that the locals shopped at supermarkets like our Walmart and not at places like this where you had to bargain for a
good price unless you knew the vendor and where the honey was spiked with sugar water, etc. He had lived in the United States and was clearly partial to American shopping and not quaint markets. Still, we enjoyed browsing despite the fact that the vendors only grudgingly tolerated us being there seeing that
we were mainly gawking and not shopping.
The selection of meat and produce was excellent! Such a change from the summer we spent there in Soviet days when meal after meal was cucumbers, tomatos, and not much else in the way of vegetables or fruit. And the meat back then was always "mystery meat." This meat was recognizable by cut and type. There were even several tiny suckling pigs on display. (Very recognizable!) Note: Someone later suggested that this may have been a high-end speciality market like Citarella or Zabar's which it did resemble.
Leaving the market we walked about a block further and what do we see but our tour bus waiting for us! End of walking tour! From there we drove to several Important Buildings for photo ops as we learned about the accomplishments of some of the Russian Czars. At one "church", the Church of the Spilled Blood, we were told that it had been constructed with the contributions of grateful peasants who were devastated when the czar was assassinated. Looks like 17 years is plenty of time to rewrite history once again!
The tour ended with an lengthy opportunity to purchase Russian "handicrafts" - but not at the open air handicraft market where the guide warned we would be besieged by thieves who would steal our money and our
passports which would then be "returned" if a $400 reward was forthcoming. Instead our tour bus pulled up in front of a residential apartment building. Outside at an entrance that led down several steps to a ground floor
level there were several "bouncer"-types lounging around smoking cigarettes and waiting our arrival and that of several other tour busses. They were straight out of central casting for being Russian thugs. The guide hinted that they were there to protect us from the thieves that plagued the market we had passed up.
Inside, the entire lower floor of the building was a series of well-lit, freshly-painted rooms with attractive displays of Russian dolls, amber and other precious stones, souvenir books, etc. It was a big operation
and a far cry from the street market. Joe did not go in but chose to walk around the park across the street. This did not please the guide. He wanted everyone in there shopping! The park, a remnant of the Soviet era with its decaying, grafitti-covered bandshell, looked mournful on this grey day and was deserted except for a young woman with a baby carriage walking slowly while talking on a cell phone. The paths looked unkempt and unused, the place a ghostly remnant of the soviet period with seemingly no relevance today.
After lunch we went on a second tour, this one to the Hermitage Museum. Again, the guide
made much fuss about staying with the group although when some drifted off (Bill included) she did not make anything of it. The Hermitage is the second largest museum in the world after the Louvre. If you spent one
minute in front of each piece of art in the collection, it would take 8-9 years to see everything. In our allotted
two hours, our group tore through the galleries that were restored rooms of the Czar's Winter Palace and saw parts of the Western European art collection. While the size of an art collection can't be disputed, quality can. Still, I would venture a guess that the Hermitage would be in contention for second place (if not first) in quality as
well as quantity. One wishes that the Hermitage did more lending back and forth with other museums so that this
treasure trove of Old Masters could be more widely enjoyed. On the opther hand, as we fought past the incredible mobs of tour groups as we made our way through the rooms, it was clear that the collection is hardly going unappreciated or underutilized by those who can get to St. Petersburg!
The general tone of St. Petersburg remains surprisingly drab. While advertising is everywhere, there are still very few attractive shop window displays as in other cities. There were no well-cultivated parks full of colorful flower beds as in Stockholm and Helsinki. The dress was drab by and large (although given that it was a cold day and most people wore coats it was hard to tell.) The only bright spots were the half dozen or more bridal parties we passed posing for photos in front of various fountains and monuments, lines of white super-stretch limos waiting near by. Outdoor wedding photos were clearly the rage.
There were so many of these parties that one woman in our group was moved to ask if Wednesday was considered a particularly lucky day to be married. It was summer, the guide replied. People wanted to marry when they could take pictures out of doors. It turns out that they still marry at Wedding Palaces as in the Soviet days, churches not having made a comeback it appears.
From our guide's comments it seems that the country is driven by bribes to the right strongmen at every turn. Laws seem laxly enforced. He himself declared that he did not pay taxes as why should he give his money to oil billionaires when it would be better spent supporting his aging mother who had very little pension money and
could end up selling flowers or parsley on the street like the babushkas sitting on the curb outside the market.
Taxes optional?
Forty years ago, our big question as we toured Russia was, "Are the people happy?" It was hard to tell then, and it still is hard to tell. People on the street looked down at their feet as they walked back then and they
still did the same now. Alcoholism was a big problem then. Now, our guide said gambling is the number one problem. The Communist bosses who had replaced the Russian czars have now been replaced by mafia-style oil billionaires. La plus ca change......
Still, young people on the subway had i-pod type earphones on, food was plentiful ("People have enough to eat." our guide said emphatically), McDonalds was advertising for workers offering 17,000 rubles per month (24 rubles = $1). That surely was better than the old salaries. But who knows.
