St Petersburg

Good.

Quick Tips:

Whenever you go, you should always keep an eye on your bag, especially in the underground and other crowded places. Also try not to stay out late -- that might not be quite safe.

Best Way To Get Around:

It was a rainy, cloudy day, and after the boat tour on the rivers and canals of St. Petersburg, I was near to catching cold, so my friend suggested going to an Italian restaurant to eat some hot, spicy pizza--he was sure it’d help me. So not going far from the steps where the boats moored, we saw a pizzeria--Pizza Hut was written on the windows, so we entered and immediately were slightly shocked to see all those people who took part in our "cruise" along the canals of "Northern Venice." The waitress told us that we were lucky because only two seats were left; all the others were occupied by "those strangers from the boat." While the waitress was taking the order, we smiled at each other because the pizza parlor was full of noisy kids, running between the tables and chairs (there was also a special place for them with a seesaw in one of the corners). Later, we found that in this Hut there was also a Kid’s Menu in which a single topping PPP plus Pepsi-Float plus a toy (usually for boys it’s a car, and for girls, sorry, but I don’t know) cost around $3, not so much for the great fun. So, back to our meal--I ordered Supreme Farmer’s Pizza with beef, pork, and onions ($10). It was of the medium size, 9", and for me it was more than enough. My friend ate the Classic one ($10), again 9". In the menu, we found that their pizzas could be 6", 9", and 12" sizes, but it was the best feature of this place that you could Create Your Own Pizza, for this you might choose any topping from the selections, add it to any pizza, and create your own pizza. You may ask, what toppings were there? Here they are: pepperoni, ham, beef, pork, green peppers, tomatoes, black olives, onions, mushrooms, cheese, and pineapple. Not a bad selection of toppings!

MMMMMMMM, the pizza was delicious, but my friend told me that one pizza was not enough for him. Still a little bit hungry, he ordered the Supreme Garlic Bread (for only $1): 2 pieces of garlic bread topped with melted mozzarella cheese. For me, he ordered Tomato Garlic Bread (for $1.50): 2 pieces of garlic bread topped with tomatoes and melted mozzarella cheese. They were definitely ambrosial, but pitifully, they were too small...

Continue...to part II

We also tried the food from the Salad Bar, where we put together our own fresh, crisp salads and topped them off with one of their delicious dressings, and you could come up a lot of times (cost: $5, or $10 for two), so we tried their raw carrot, cabbage, tomatoes, and cucumbers. All were garden-fresh and healthy.


On the place mats were written that Pizza Hut also offered a Business Lunch (available on working days from 12pm until 4pm) during which you could try a personal pizza with 2 toppings, plus ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT salad bar (and the price for all this was only $5); moreover, it doesn’t matter if you dine in or do take-out (note: basic pizza of medium size costs $5). So we paid not so much for two pizzas plus two salad bars, garlic bread, and two cups of tea.


But if you don’t want to eat a lot, you can go here for coffee or tea and something sweet (around $10 as well, though you’ll be lucky to get even a single seat). From the menu, we have learnt that for dessert, you will be offered a banana split--banana, ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate ($3), really soft and melts in your mouth, or a dainty homemade apple pie, baked with fresh apple chunks served with a scoop of ice cream ($2), try it.


You’ll be safe under the roof of the pizza parlor, so let it rain!

Open from Monday to Saturday from 11am till 7pm, on Sundays from 11am till 5pm.

What words from the Russian language are known all over the world? I’m absolutely sure that the list of them won’t be long, but amid the expressions everybody will be able to hear the name of "a strong alcoholic drink from Russia". Take a guess at what’s in the box and you could win a trip to the special museum located in St Petersburg. Yes, it’s Vodka. Take a visit to a very popular Russian Vodka museum, which is open daily from 11am till 10pm. My group was thankful for a good tour during which we could learn a lot (really a lot!) about the history of the famous Russian firewater. Besides that, the English-speaking staff was also cheerful and friendly. They tried to answer all the questions (and we really had a lot to ask).
But now I’d just like to say a few words about the museum: the inn featuring the best brands of vodka, could also offer us moreish pancakes with caviar and traditional Russian hors d’oeuvres. After the excursion we bought special Vodka souvenirs for our friends and relatives. There was a great variety of bottles (of different shapes and sizes). So Vodka tasting plus a guided tour cost only15$ (but don’t forget that the prior booking is necessary). And now I’d like to describe the food that I have eaten in Russian vodka museum, because not only pancakes were available there… and the other reason - it was lunchtime. Pelmeni is the magnificent word for all Russians.
"You can now try a selection of several types of pelmeni at virtually any restaurant in St Petersburg. They can be traditionally Russian, Chinese, Georgian, Korean or Tatar. The choice is enormous." "Nowadays there are a great number of varieties of pelmeni in Russian cuisine, differing from one another in shape and in the filling. The tastiest pelmeni are considered to be those filled with various types of meat (beef, pork, venison or bear meat), but they can be equally delicious with chicken, mushrooms or vegetables."(Where magazine, 2003)
But I wanted to sample traditional Russian pelmeni. The Museum of Russian Vodka could offer the house specialty "Imperial Pelmeni", a hot starter prepared to a 19th century recipe. The filling was made from finely chopped fillet of sturgeon mixed with onion, herbs and other ingredients; the chef there made very good dough, it was so thin and soft that even melted in our mouths. When the pelmeni were served, they poured on two or three tablespoonfuls of hot butter or sour cream. We ate pelmeni with wooden spoons; grated horseradish was served separately with fresh salad. Also green olives, and salt (a pinch of salt was enough). We always sing hymns with great gusto, especially if it’s the hymn to Vodka.

A long time ago, I had a friend who used to work as a manager in Laima (a chain of restaurants. The logo is a snowy white sugar bag with the navy blue inscription Laima).
To tell you the truth, it is more Russian-European cuisine than anything else.
Delivery of lunch boxes takes only an hour within the city.

Bolshoi prospect P. S., 88 phone: +78122324428

That is the best place to visit in St Petersburg for your children. Ice cream in more than 30 varieties, desserts, cocktails, cakes, champagne, coffee, tea, juices, 31 tastes every day.

The Cabin of Peter I ("The Original Palace", or "The Red Mansion") was built in 1703 on an island in the Neva’s mouth captured from the Swedes. The construction took only three days (May 24 to May 26), and it was the first residence of the Russian Tzar and the first building in St Petersburg.

We can read the information that the location was chosen by Peter I; the palace was made by unknown workmen, but the manner of cutting ("in six angles"), the treatment of logs, the planning of the house and the shape of the windows prove that it was made in the traditions of Swedish national architecture. "The Original Palace" of Peter I is the smallest of the known palaces; it’s 12m long, 5.5m wide, and 2.72m high. There are three rooms here, a study where the Tzar worked (23.5 sq m), a dining room (17 sq m), and a small bedroom (6.75 sq m); there is also a small entrance hall (5.3 sq m). The high four sloped roof was originally decorated with a wooden model of a mortar and two shells "in flames" at both ends: these symbols (lost in the XVIII century) indicated that the house belonged to a military man. It was Peter I’s wish that all the buildings in the city of St Petersburg should have some likeness to the architecture of Amsterdam, so he issued a decree according to which houses in the city should be built of square beams. In those cases, when logs were used, they were to be covered with boards, painted crimson and designed so as to look like Dutch brick masonry. The remnants of such painting were discovered during the restoration of the house in 1971-75.

Peter I spent only a few weeks in this palace. He had to leave St Petersburg at the end of summer of 1703. When he returned another palace, a warm "winter palace" had already been built for him, and the smaller mansion was no longer needed. Thus, the house was turned into a historical structure under the state protection. It was, in fact the 1st museum piece in Russian history.
Open for visitors Wed-Mon (except the last Monday of each month) from 10 am to 5 pm.

Diamonds are girls' best friends. Of course you know this phrase, so the best souvenir from the Northern Venice is the jewelry that dates back to the previous century or even earlier. Let's take a look at the handmade items in Babushka shop (phone: 007 (812) 327-9822), that is open from 8am till 10pm, and situated on 33 Nab. Leytenanta Shmidta, where we can find jewelry and amber, artistic miniatures and wood carvings, watercolors, graphic art, and paintings. This place impressed me much because I have never seen so much beautiful refined stuff collected in one shop. I feel no regrets about my decision to buy several watercolors for my dining room and woodcarvings for my summer house here.

Also don't forget about Treasures of St Petersburg (phone: 007 (812)164 5018) the shop and showroom. Here many sales of antiques, paintings and jewelry take place. The shop is open daily from 11am till 8pm, address: 4 Vladimirsky Pr. I was a little bit shocked to find old dresses made of atlas, silk, muslin there. They are very expensive but very impressive; maybe one day I’ll be able to have one of such dresses in my wardrobe. Also there were elegant ladies’ gloves (Kidskin, embroidered with metallic thread), made in Russia, early 20th century. They cost 15$ (not so much for tender women's' hands) and the miniature buckle from brass made also in Russia, early 20th century (for 300$). For men there was a whimsical pipe with dog decorations made in Russia, late 19th century (for 400$), that really deserves a place in someone's collection.

If you have forgotten your map at home it will not be difficult to find a suitable one here. Visit St Petersburg house of books (phone: 007 (812)318 6402)! The store is full of different maps from geographical to political, so every buyer will, I’m sure, find what he or she needs. Besides that if you are not in a hurry don’t lose the opportunity to enter the sections of foreign literature (books in English, Italian, German, French, Spanish etc.), because we are always pleased to find the item we wanted for a long time. Maybe here you’ll be able to find that book. And translated Russian fiction deserves your attention. The shop also has fine art reproductions, as well as specialized literature on medicine, sociology and so on. Priceless albums with reproductions of Peterhof, Pavlovsk, and Gatchina are on the shelves and I couldn’t stand the temptation to buy them. The shop is open Monday -Saturday from 9am till 10pm; and the address is 28 Nevsky Pr.

But especially good albums containing photographs can be found in Bukvoyed (Pedant) as well as the books about St. Petersburg and its suburbs; they are really great, but a little bit expensive.

There 2 shops with one name in St Petersburg and they are both open Mon-Sat from 9am, Sun from 10am till 10pm; the address: the first one is 13 Nevsky Pr (phone: 007 (812) 312-6734) and the second one is 20 Nevsky (phone: 007 (812) 312-4936).

They also offer the books in foreign languages, and wide range of fiction; I’ve bought the verse by Poe there with the English version on the left side of the page and the Russian translation of the same poem on the right one.

This year a great amount of international music festivals dedicated to the Northern Capital’s 300th anniversary have been taking place in St Petersburg.

"It's the first time that so many of the music world’s most glittering stars have been brought together in one festival. The artistic director, Jury Temirkanov, has invited performers whose mastery will allow the public to take a fresh look at the art of music-making as a whole"(writes the magazine "Where", St Petersburg). So you can listen to the musicians from all over the world in The Glinka Chamber Hall of the Shostakovich Academic Philharmonia, the former Engelhardt house.

On the 2nd of June, I attended the concert of the Lindsay String Quartet from Great Britain that was a magnificent evening: the outstanding musicians played those legendary instruments: Peter Cropper played a Stradivarius violin (Golden Period), Ronald Birks a Stradivarius violin (1694), Robin Ireland, an Amati viola (1630), and last but not least, Bernard Gregor Smith a Ruggiero cello (1694). Also my friend on 4 June went to the jazz concert and he said it was just incredible. The soloists were Georgy Garanian (saxophone), Denis Matsuyev (piano) and Andrey Ivanov (double bass).

If you come here this summer (and occasionally there will be no festival concerts), you, of course, will be able to listen to music by Prokofiev and Shostakovich. To know more about the timetables and how to get here, look on the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society or, to purchase the tickets go directly to Tickets.

This is the best place to visit for mosaics. Take your whole family here. It will be one of the most fascinating tours you take. Do not hesitate to pass by and look up at all of these beauties.

Its immaculate view is absolutely gorgeous. It separates two emperors of the Russian Empire, Peter the Great and Nicolai I. There are two statues. Both men are sitting on horses. One pursues another.