Abroad in 2012: A Year of Travel: GETTING THE FEEL

We may not like to acknowledge it, but the jet lag has hit harder than we expected. That in itself should not be a surprise, because unlike our earlier trip to Western Europe, we made no special preparations to combat jet lag and tiredness. Plus, we are three hours farther east.

Friday, we explored our little compound. It is much as I described earlier: it's own little neighborhood. In addition to the Annabel Hotel across the way from us, there are numerous other businesses. There is a copy shop, another small hotel, some professional offices, a striptease bar, a beauty salon, a place called Zuma (no idea what goes on in there) and an erotic fashion boutique. At the back of our compound, there is a little "park" with the focus on a maypole structure for little kids. However, there is no grass, and I doubt children have played there in ages. It is used primarily for people to hang out and to smoke and drink. What I did not know until Fridy is that there appear to be passageways that lead from one compound to another. We explored the passageway to our south, and it lead into a real playground, which then spilled into another commercial compound with restaurnts, shops, hotel, spa... and that is accessible back onto Nevsky Prospekt.

Saturday, we walked down to the Maltsevsky Rynok (market). This is similar to the South Bend Farmers' Market. However, this is a single large building with steps that lead up to the entrance with a second level mezzanine with small retail shops run by individuals overlooking a central floor with the meat and fruit stalls.

According to Andrea, this is more representative of what shopping was like during Soviet times. You walk in, and since the fish monger and meat monger are nearest the entrance, you are hit by the powerful aromas of dead fish and warm meat. The produce on the first floor looked excellent, and we bought an onion, some strawberries, some cherries, some tomatoes and a few pickle-szied cucumbers. At the farmers' market, we may have paid $15. Our total was closer to $30! Andrea suspects we may have been overcharged.

We walked around a little and settled on lunch at a place called coffee house (spelled differently in Russian than the joint actully called Coffee House - Home in Vienna where we had coffee the other day for $16). While much less expensive than the Coffee House, a soup, salad, small pepsi, blini and coffee cost $30 (the magic number!)

From there, we stopped at the bakery on Nevsky Prospekt for a loaf of bread and went home, as it was starting to rain.

However, we had high hopes of actually doing some thing; seeing some thing. So we ventured out. Our plan was to ride one of the double-decker tourist buses to get a feel for St. Petersburg.

At Gostiny Dvor (a large, indoor retail market) it began to rain very hard, so we walked both its levels. While each stall may be owned and operated by individuals, there were certainly no bargains to be had.

After it stoped raining, we went into the very grand Grand Hotel Europe, hoping to watch the women's Olympic tennis final between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, but it was not to be. We tried Mollie's Pub, an Irish pub we spotted earlier, but they were not showing tennis, ony boxing. Maria may be Russian, but she does not appear to draw a crowd.

Thus we began looking for the City Tour bus, and we eventually found it. We climbed aboard and began our two-hour tour of the streets of St. Petersburg. Below is a sampling of photos from our Saturday travels. Admittedly, many are of dubious quality, as we were on a moving bus. However, in all likelihood, some of these images will appear again in later blogs when we really have the time to spend at each place.

The Anichkov Bridge over the Fontanka River with the famous four statues of horses on each point

The Burger King on Nevsky Prospekt - one of many to be found in St. Petersburg. McDonald's is here, too, but Burger King appears to reign as be the monarch of this royal city.

88 Nevsky Prospekt. Our residence is through the arched gate where the car is entering.

The KFC on Nevsky Prospekt. The rainstorm apparently knocked down the awning .

Our Macy's - Ctokmahh (Stockmann's)

The Moscow train station from Vosstaniya Square

Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace - the Pink Palace!

Gostiny Dvor - a merchant's palace even in the day of the tsars.

Kazan Cathedral - the temple of religions and atheism during Soviet days

The Stroganov Palace (guess what famous beef dish originated here?)

What is with all the sushi bars all over this city?

The Kunstkammer

Millionaires' Street

Mrs. Putin's Academy of Needle Works (she is now the primary benefactress of this school originally started by the Empress Alexandra for girls from the countryside)

Over the River Moika

Suvorovsky Place before you go over the Troitsky Bridge to the north side of St. Petersburg

The Tsar's Cruiser "Aurora"

An old ship and current restaurant. St. Petersburg is an important port and home to the Russian Navy

Saints Peter and Paul Fortress - an island fortress unto itself

Vasilevsky Island. On the mid right is the old St. Petersburg stock exchange. On the left are "spits" - light beacons fired by pitch to warn boats of land in the old days.

The Winter Palace, aka The Hermitage

The Bronze Horseman statue on the Admiralty park grounds with St. Isaac's cathedral in background

St. Isaac's Cathedral

Tsar Nicholas I - the gendarme of Europe. This statue sits on St. Isaac's square in front of the church and the Hotel Astoria.

Slightly better view of the Hermitage

Going over the Griboedov Canal. On the left is the Literary Cafe (yellow building) where we had dinner Saturday night.

Turbow and Pushkin - together at last!

Staircase up to the Literary Cafe, also known as the Kotomin House where Pushkin had a shot before he was shot. Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Gogol and Lermontov.