Remember Travel? St Petersburg, Russia

Finland (where I live) has a lot of history with Russia, not a lot of it seen as pleasant from the Finnish perspective. As a result, my view of Russia had been what the media has said and what has come from people that connect Russia to war and power plays. So much so, my wife's parents were quite upset when we chose St Petersburg for a short Summer holiday destination and feared for our safety. For me, this added to the adventure a little.

It is a short train trip away (about 2 hours) and has a population of close to 5 million (almost the entire population of Finland) and looks like a slightly rundown Paris. The Baroque buildings from the 18th and 19th century are gorgeous though and the city seems to be under a lot of restoration. If the completed buildings are anything to go by, in a decade it is going to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Having travelled a fair bit to many different kinds of places, I am quite comfortable yet my my wife is a little less so. There was only one point where we ran into anything dangerous and that was 2 guys that were targeting us probably for my camera (just after taking the above picture). We ducked into a cafe and averted any trouble. Other than that, it felt amazingly safe (almost as safe as Tokyo).

The people were more than friendly at any time of the day and night and even when English was hard to come by, they worked extremely hard to be helpful. One day, there was a subway line closure and a complicated reroute that a police office couldn't explain to us. A couple took the time to take the wrong train with us so that we could get to where we were aiming. They did it all with broad smiles and openness.

[Singer Cafe, Nevsky Avenue - one of the best cafes we have ever found]

The people were really brilliant. My wife and I have danced in nearly every city we have ever visited and this time we went to a very random, side street dance school open night I found online and the people welcomed us warmly. When they realised we preferred to dance a different style than themselves, they made a few calls and found another party at a bar for us that was packed with people who welcomed us also. The city never seemed to sleep and much to our surprise and happiness, Sushi was available at any time of the night. People were drinking but rarely seemed too drunk and in the early hours as the bars closed, the streets filled with drunken noise, but contrary to Finland, it was laughter and fun. Many of the people (especially women) took a lot of care in their appearance and demeanour. Since being there, I have found out as I suspected through observation, that a lot of money is spent on living and eating outside of the home, but the homes are generally simple and places to return to and sleep.

[The Hermitage Museum]

My wife is a self-confessed anti-museum person. Until the Hermitage. Watching her go from artwork to artwork looking at them like she had never seen a painting before was something to see. I don't think she had ever been in this kind of Museum before and I could see in her eyes at times a deeper understanding form.

[The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood]

[Peter and Paul Fortress]

From what I hear, St Petersburg is not representative of all of Russia but I found that there were many conflicts between what had been reported and my experience. The people were so lovely and seemed content living a good life (I always try to remember to separate the people of a country from the government of that country. In general, I think the average person just wants a good life). The young mostly spoke excellent English and the amount of books people were reading was ludicrous. They read everywhere including while they went down the escalators to the subway. There were more noses buried in books than eyes glued to phone screens. That was a surprise. The other thing was the openness of the gay community. Men and women held hands, kissed and enjoyed life alongside everyone else. There were fliers for gay clubs and rainbow flags marking them. Again, not quite what I had been led to believe earlier. It was clean and even though there was a lot of construction, it seemed to be running quite well.

This was one of the best trips we have ever done together and in the few days we were there, we walked 130 kilometres (80 miles). I would recommend this city to anyone that wants to see something a bit different. We will go back at some point again as there were quite a few things we would like to see but didn't have the time. Hopefully, we can arrange a local to take us a little too as I think the local life would be an interesting one to see.

Taraz
[ an original]