St. Petersburg – Day 2

Before I describe this day, I will give you some input about St. Petersburg:

Area: 1439 km²
Inhabitants: 4.580.620 (2006)
27^th May 1703 the town was founded and the first building of the town, the St. Peter and Pauls fortress was build from “Peter the Great”. He travelled a lot through Europe, studied in the Netherlands and spent some time in Britain. He wanted to build another, better Amsterdam. That’s why St. Petersburg has a lot of water channels. In the history of architecture in St. Petersburg there has always been European influence, because they invited a lot of European architects to build their castles, cathedrals and so on.

Find more information about St. Petersburg in the following links:

• Sankt Petersburg auf Deutsch
  
• Saint Petersburg in English
  

Our day started at 8 o’clock. We had our breakfast and after that at 930 o’clock the next optional trip was scheduled. It was the guided tour to and through the Catherine palace. First of all, I was not very lucky, because I forgot my jacket in my room and there was no time left to fetch it. I was forced to spent nearly the whole day with my t-shirt and believe me, it was fucking cold. Fortunatly we spent a lot of the time on the inside.

Catherine palace was originally built from Peter the Great for his wife Katherine. Every following generation extended the building a bit with its own influence in architecture and design. This building is really very impressive as you can see on my pictures in my gallery. The tour was very interesting, even when the guide uses always the same expressions when it comes to Russian people or buildings, words like stunning, handsome, extremely beautiful and marvellous and so on... (Btw she used it all three days long) I just asked myself, where did they lose all this marvellous and stunning genes. (I make an exception for the Russian girls).

After the guided tour we could walk around on our own. Pia, Hannes, Iris and I took this chance to get in the park of the castle. There we took some funny photos, but also some nice photos from the park area. The reaction of the Russian people, when they saw me running around in a t-shirt was really funny ;) (There is also a jumping photo of me, believe it or not, but the girls will need some time to send me their photos, hurry up girls !!)

Find more information about Catherine Palace, Catherine the Great and Peter the Great:

• Catherine the Great in English
• Katharina die Große in Deutsch
• Peter the Great in English
• Peter der Große in Deutsch
• Catherine Palace in English
• Katharinen Palast in Deutsch
  

After Catherine palace we went to the “Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ” (in German: Christi-Auferstehungs Kirche) but mostly it is called the “Cathedral on the spilled blood” (in German: Blutkirche). This was the place where Alexander II of Russia was mortally wounded. They built this Russian Orthodox church at this place. From the outside it is already again very impressive and on the inside even more. I can’t describe all the details; see it on your own in my gallery. (For photos you have to pay additionally 50 rubels ~1,5€.


More information on the cathedral:

• Church of the Savior on Blood in English
  
• Blutkirche
  

There was also a big souvenir marketplace nearby, so we went after lunch to this market to get some souvenirs. When Russian see tourists, they always start with extremely high prices. For example, I wanted to buy me a “Flachmann” and the seller started with 1000 Rubels (~30€). Even in Austria you will never pay this. That’s why you have always to bargain for a good price. In the end I paid 1000 Rubels for two. (In my opinion, it would have been possible to bargain even a lower price) On that day I bought nothing else.

After that we went back to the Hotel to prepare ourselves (for example getting a jacket) for the night cruise on the Neva River. (Another optional program)
We already had an idea of how great St. Petersburg is at night, but it was even better. Under the influence of Russian Champagne and Russian Vodka, the lights of the buildings along the river were even more intensive. I really loved that trip and in my opinion, if I have to decide which the best part of the weekend was, it would have been this boat trip. (Sorry no good photo at the moment, I will wait for the girls before I post one)

It was Friday night, so after the boat trip we were dropped at the next nightclub. Let’s say only those people who were interested in spending the night in the nightclub. So I left the bus ;) and went to the nightclub Revolution. The entry fee was about 250 Rubels (~7,5€). In every nightclub they have some kind of face control, that doesn’t mean that you have to look good, but if you are already too drunk, you will not be allowed to enter. The beer cost 90 Rubels (~2,7€). We met a nice couple from Austria at the bar (where else ;) ) from Pichl bei Wels. What is located really near to my hometown. The club has two different dance floors and a chill-out zone. It was a good evening, at 3 o’clock we went home, and that for we took the first time a “Lada-Taxi”.

So, what is a Lada-Taxi? In St. Petersburg everybody can effort a Taxi license, because it doesn’t cost much, so they main idea was, hey why shouldn’t everyone be able to play taxi. Therefore you just hold your hand with the thumb to the floor straight, and someone will stop to bring you where ever you want. At the beginning we were sceptic about this, but in the end it was an experience and really funny. It will not even take a minute ‘til someone stops. First you have to make clear where you want to go, then you ask for the price and of course bargain again. Take only taxis where only one person is inside, that’s the main rule, you shouldn’t take the “official” taxis. On this evening we paid 150 Rubels for the whole car (~4,5€). By the way, if you are afraid of St. Petersburg, you should be more afraid of the traffic then of the people, because the traffic is really really crazy !!

That was the second day, another day to come.