St Petersburg: Culture At Every Turn- Except The Theatre...

St. Petersburg...our final stop in Russia, and the most European-feeling yet. All my high street favourites crop up here: River Island, H&M, Oasis, Monsoon...even Marks and Spencers! For all my non-British friends- trust me, you can't really get more British than M&S.

Anyway, a few words on St. Petersburg's main attractions. The main street, Nevsky Prospect, is a monster of a road...it just goes on and on and on. However, just taking a stroll down it is sightseeing in itself, with all the pastel-coloured, opulent 19th century buildings that crop up along the street. Kazan Cathedral in particular was beautifully grand; we were lucky enough to have lunch in a cafe that provided prime viewing of the building in all it's splendour. Also alongside the street, enthusiastic tour guides (probably- I speak niet Ruske, after all) reminded me of those I often see in London, complete with double-decker sightseeing buses.

The star attraction in St. P has to be the State Hetmitage museum, set in the cool mint-tinged Winter Palace. After politely declining to have our photo taken with a Russian lady dressed as a sexy soldier (even though she insisted that she took 'very pretty picture'), we headed inside...with no queues! The entrance itself is spectacular, with golden-gilded ceilings and a red-carpeted, grand staircase. There were tour groups galore around the palace, especially in the 19th century Russian living quarters and modern art sections (though the latter was a delight- more in a mo). But we managed to find a haven in the Gorden Horde section on the bottom floor, which showed relics from the Volga-Bulgarians and Mongolians.



As you can tell from my last blog post, I'm always excited to see works from my favourite artists. Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso...all those paintings I had to copy when studying Cubism in Year 9, actually there in the flesh! Pretty overwelming.

There was so much in the Hermitage that we didn't have the time- or energy- to see...exhibitions on Ancient Egypt, Japanese art and culture, 19th century European art, and so much more. If you want an all-encompassing experience of European 'culture', both past and present, all in one setting- and a beautiful one at that- then this is the place.

I know I spoke of going to the Mariinsky Theatre while we were here, to experience some real Russian theatre. The plan was to get to the theatre around 7pm tonight, 23rd July, and see if there were any cheap tickets to the current production of 'My Fair Lady', then grab a nice meal at Sadko, a recommended restaurant, afterwards. Flawless, right? Not quite...we kind of forgot that closing night was last night, and therefore the theatre was completely and utterly closed tonight. In fact, it was boarded up, and people were removing stage furnishings when we got there. Ah well, we could still fulfill the second part of the evening by heading to the highly recommended restaurant, Sadko. Trouble was, there was a predecessor that was pretty difficult to contend with...

 The appetizer at our fave St. Petersburg restaurannt- cheese, cheese and more cheese!

Last night, we discovered our undisputed favourite restaurant of the trip. I think it's called the 'Buffet Cafe'- but please don't let that put you off. Wanting something a little less catered to tourists, we wandered into a side street off Nevsky Prospect, and discovered a gem of a place. Only five tables and a vast array of black-and-white photographs greeted us as we tentatively walked in- but one look at the menu told us we'd made the right choice. Sadly, I would have to indefinitely wait for the 'Rabbit "Just You Wait"' dish; instead, I chose the scrumptous-sounding 'Trout with Walnuts', and Patrick chose 'Chicken Goudgeon in Garlic Sauce'. Both lived up to our expectations, and were preceded nicely by 'Herring with vodka'- a dish I have seen on various Russian menus, and wanted to try for a while. It's now or never, right?



Speaking of favourites, here are a few more favourites of our Trans-Siberian trip:

PATRICK AND JEN'S FAVOURITE...

...BORSH: It may have been an obscure hotel, but the borsh at Hotel Variant was undoubtedly the best of the trip... we couldn't find any that compared to the sumptuous homemade flavours in the Variant's borsch.
...RUSSIAN BEER: Without a doubt, Baltika number 3..or number 8, the wheat beer.
...CITY: After much discussion, Vladivostok was our face- the gorgeous weather and the aniticipaton of the forthcoming trip probably helped. Kazan and St. Petersburg follow pretty closely behind.
...TRAIN RIDE: It was a long one, but our 68 hour journey from Irkutsk to Kazan also provided the most fun, courtesy of Bulat and friends, as well as a fair bit of vodka!
...TRAIN FOOD: Probably not my cheesy chicken ketchup salad. Maybe Patrick's 'solyanka'- a soup with smoked meats.
...RUSSIAN SAYING: Still has to be 'stop stop stop stop stop...shut up' from random drunk ex-army guy on Chita to Ulan-Ude train.
...FISH: Omul, the Baikal fish that's related to the salmon... salty and delicious.
...MEAT: Provably the Mongolian lamb (or beef?) barbecued kebab we had in Ulaanbaatar.

So, spasiba Russia- you really have exceeded all of our expectations. On the whole, your hard expressions betray your loyalty and friendly nature. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we cross the border into Finland and head to Kouvola to see our Finnish friends, then...London's calling!