St. Petersburg

Heading to St. Petersburg I imagined a much more European city as this is what you hear from a lot of guides and people who have traveled there.  It's a lot more accessible for Western tourists to visit since it has a lot of port traffic with cruise ships who handle temporary visas for their passengers.  For them however they are not able to explore on their own and must always be with a tour guide who shows them around.  This would explain the lack of tourists overall I encountered during my time in Russia.  There were a lot of Chinese tourist groups.  They are allowed to enter the country visa free for 15 days as long as they are in a group.

Church of the Spilled Blood - Emperor Alexander II was shot and killed in 1881 and the church was built on it's site

Interior

Ceiling

St Petersburg has a number of notable buildings and churches to see around the city.  The Neva River separates the city and has St. Peter and Paul fortress opposite the main city.  This is where many of the Russian Tsars are buried.  Luckily for me my friend was able to show me around the city and take me to her favorite sites.  It also really helped that she could translate for me in restaurants and just going around in general.  She pointed out places such as a Russian style diner where the food is cheap and filling.  They are a relic of Soviet Times similar to Poland's milk bars.

Kazan Cathedral

The fortress during White Nights - shot at 2AM

I know people like to compare Moscow and St. Petersburg and I will tell you they are very different from each other.  I didn't think St. Petersburg felt European at all but I understand why they say that.  The buildings have more flair downtown and are floodlit at night creating a nice setting.  The lights however never took full effect here because the sky was never dark.  I was there during the "White Nights" a time in late June and early July where the sun barely sets.  What's nice is that the sunsets are longer and the "Blue Hour" that photographers love is more like 5 hours.

Bridges along the river are raised to allow boats to pass through causing some people to get stuck on the wrong side

My friend and I took a hydrofoil out to Peterhof Palace in the suburbs of St. Petersburg.  Peterhof is a palace built by former Tsar Peter the Great and is called the Russia Versailles.  And I must say it was beautiful.  Of all the palaces I've been to this was the best.  The complex is huge and contains numerous fountains and gardens throughout.  It's amazing to think the Germans destroyed this place in the war and everything has been meticulously restored.  They hid a lot of the fountain figures by burying them.

Peter the Great with dogs

During my time here I was invited by my friend to attend a formal gathering with her.  This was a meeting for people from her field of work who came from all over the world.  In total there were about 50 people and it was housed in a banquet hall right next door to FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg.  I felt a bit underdressed because all I had was a shirt and tie and only a nice pair of sneakers with me.  The place had the full nine yards.  Table was filled with apps, like completely filled.  At one point I reached to put some salad on my plate to find out it was garnish and I was sitting there with this on my plate the rest of the time.

The majority of the guests were 50+ Russians.  Since my friend had the best English she was the designated translator for the night.  They had a guy doing music who would get everyone dancing.  I was surprised how easily it was for the Russian ladies to get up and dance and they would invite the guys up with them.  It was a hilarious site to watch these old guys bust'n moves they really should not have been trying in public.  I guess it was all of the toasts made as the handles of vodka on the table kept getting refilled every time they ran empty.  My friend told me to stop after the 4th toast because there was no end in sight.  They even had a bus tour for the guests after the event was held. Hey FREE BUS TOUR!

As my friend and I made plans to head westward and out of Russia is where things went interesting.  Normally it's very easy to purchase a train ticket either online or through a machine at the train station.  I tried both methods and my card was not being accepted.  So the other option is to pay in cash from the attendants at the train station.  We stopped by in the afternoon to discover quite a long line something I went through back in Moscow.  We decided to come back at midnight when the crowd died down.

We came back and sure enough there was only 1 attendant on duty and the line was about 15 people deep.  After waiting for around an hour it was almost my turn.  A cat could be heard meowing and it was coming from a duffel bag in front of me.  Probably because it couldn't breathe I thought.

We noticed the attendant also took a  15 minute break in about 20 minutes.  That means that the entire line would need to wait until she was back from her break.

All of a sudden two guys show up and get in front of me.  I'd never been so angry in my life with the way society functions here.  These 2 guys had paid the guy behind them to wait in line for them.  I was ready to punch someone at this point.

All throughout Russia I noticed this attitude of me first more than any other place I've been.  No waiting your turn for anything.  Even getting onto the hydrofoil turned into an all out shoving match to get through.  The lady taking tickets had to get assistance and yell at everyone to stop shoving but that did nothing.

Yes people you know are extremely nice to you here.  It's the people and strangers you don't know who are not.  I do realize though America is the land of being nice to strangers.  It's something I feel proud about our country because it's such a rarity out there in this world to be so warm and friendly to people you've never met.

Hermitage (Home of the Tsars) and Palace Square where Bloody Sunday (1905) and Red October (1917) took place