If anything is going to spur you on to dieting it is Nevsky Prospekt; St Petersburg's most splendid avenue, where the women have legs up to their armpits, slenderly wrapped in the skinniest of jeans and the tightest and highest knee high boots imaginable. It seems that whatever the weather - ice, snow or rain - nothing is going to rid them of looking gorgeous in their heels. Meanwhile their shapely top halves are swathed in the most glamourous and sumptuous furs I have ever known, swishing with sheer elegance as the girls sashay down the street. Even though we have seen so little of Russia we can already see that the people have a certain physical quality about them. The women’s beauty far outweighs the men but both have striking features with strong characteristics. Most of the girl’s faces are framed with perfectly lined, bold fringes and they range between cute as a button and striking as hell. The men meanwhile don’t seem to have been as blessed in the looks department - particularly when they have such a penchant for mullets and beer bellies. That said, the men with a Mongolian influence are often incredible looking, with a unique quality of stern slash come hither good looks.
Nevsky Prospekt is like the greatest catwalk show ever, as the girls in their designer threads with their millionaire (and inevitably older) arm candy by their side, pop into boutique after boutique, picking up the latest must haves. But it is not just the rich people who doll up and look gorgeous, everyone is at it. Quite simply the style is to be glamourous and ladylike at all times and here I am looking and feeling totally out of place as I clomp about in my clodhopper snow-boots and thick down jacket. Quick - get me to a beauty salon for some nail extensions, hair extensions and whilst you’re at it, leg extensions. That way I might actually look as if I fit in at the Grand Hotel Europe - Russia’s finest and most historical hotel, where we are staying for two nights.
After our pleasant enough train journey here we had tried to look our best as we were picked up by private transfer form the station to check in. No use - we still looked well and truly like travellers! Oh well, they still let us in! First things first we ran a bath and soaked away the train journey, sipping champagne as we relaxed. Feeling particularly decadent I poured a little champers in to the bath - it was free after all and there was no way we could drink it all anyway - it was gone 2am. Champagned out and tubbed up we fell asleep on the sumptuous bed, catching up on some much needed zeds.
We woke up in the morning to the most glorious day (still no snow, whilst ironically there is plenty of the white stuff back home apparently) but the sun is out and it is perfect weather for walking around the glorious city (breaking in my not comfortable at all new shoes as we go).
Strolling down Nevsky Prospekt is perfect for people watching and right at the bottom of the long avenue, as if out of nowhere, we stumble across a striking mint green and white building, adorned with gold - the State Hermitage. Situated in a huge square, right on the river (all important buildings were designed to be entered from the water front) the Hermitage looks every inch the royal residence - palatial but not imposing. As it was such a beautiful day we thought we would continue walking in case the weather didn’t hold throughout the rest of our stay and so we crossed the river, taking in sights such as the Peter and Paul Fortress, with the cathedral where most of the Russian rulers are buried. On our way back we passed the fairy tale like Church of the Spilt Blood (neither the name or reason behind it are fairy tale like at all), St Issacs Cathedral and Kazan Cathedral.
As we walked we came across six or so wedding parties, which were stopping off for photos in front of all the great sights. All the girls wore the most meringue inspired dresses, topped with beautiful fur stolls and one couple even had their own party bus which drove around the city and every so often they would jump off, drink some vodka, have a boogie and smoke a fag or two! It seems to be the trend to drive around the city to have your photograph taken in all the important places and it was quite fun to watch.
We attempted to have dinner at a typically Russian restaurant but after I managed to pry open the heavy wooden door against the force of the wind, I boldly strode in on a private function - so quickly exited and opted for authentic Vietnamese next door, which was delicious. Full to the brim it was time for bed, back at the lovely hotel. As we walked back, the first flutter of snow began to fall - I was so excited - snow in St Petersburg - I almost wet myself!
I totally expected the whole city to be blanketed in gorgeous white snow but was disappointed when I woke up. By the time we got outside the roads had turned to black mush though off the beaten track, the parks still had inches of show carpeting their ground and all the buildings were covered in a soft sprinkle of glittering sugary snow. It was a bit of an effort to find the Russian Museum but it at least took us to the back streets of the city, where we passed a couple more weddings and some interesting local scenes.
The Russian Museum was worth the effort to find and we spent about four hours admiring some of the most extraordinary art work, all of Russian origin and about another hour getting lost in the maze of corridors of the equally lovely building Whilst many could get spend days submerged in the art, we could only last about half a day before we were all arted out - that said we would not have wanted to miss it.
For dinner we popped into the equivalent of Starbucks and ate veal and chicken bagels, before heading back to the second of our five start hotels, the Corinthia Nevskij Palace - perfectly pleasant but more business like than the decadent and historical Grand hotel Europe. It’s free though - so who am I to complain?! We attempted to scrub up well for the ballet, but needn’t have worried as most people were tourists and dressed as such and apparently the sense of occasion for the ballet is not what it used to be and people to not dress up the way they used to. I was hoping for ball gowns and diamonds, I got smart casual and relaxed. Fashion aside, the theatre was glorious. We went to the Hermitage Theatre as the other more famous ones both here and in Moscow were playing opera. It was intimate and understated but beautiful and royal at the same time. We saw Swan Lake and were totally blown away. I had seen some amateur ballet before but I have to admit it made me rather dizzy. This performance with live orchestra from the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra was incredible - it was so peaceful and magical - and to be in such a unique setting as the private theatre of the Tsars made it all the more special. Of course, on the way back, I was pirouetting and leaping all over the joint - convinced with a little effort I could be the next prima dona. Hmmm - no chance.
Walking around St Petersburg at night is really lovely with its pretty canals which under the cover of darkness give off an air of mystery, as everyone’s warm breath resonates in the air under the street lamps - it totally felt like a spy film! It was good to see how the city changed from day to night and week to weekend. It certainly seemed to have a more relaxed feel to it now that everyone was off out to enjoy themselves. We had read that the Russians are great givers of gifts and they never go to a house party empty handed. This was clear by the many people walking down the street with gift bags and flowers, obviously off for a night of entertainment at a friend’s house.
On our third and final day in St Petersburg we spent the morning being typically disorganised, trying to buy our train tickets. After about an hour of waiting (the queues were short, the staff impossibly slow) we realised that we didn’t have our passports and I had to let plenty of people sneak by in line, as I waited for Stu to go get them. Of course, he took such a long time I thought he had been knocked down by a car which had spun in the ice! Just as I was about to leave the line and raise the alarm (though I hadn’t quite thought through which alarm I was going to raise and how I was going to do it) he sauntered in through the door. By now I was less worried and more annoyed - we could have half walked to Moscow in this time. I was not nearly half as angry as the attendant was mind you. There is certainly a Russian way - they make everyone (locals included) feel as if they don’t like you, have no time for you and simply wouldn’t care if you spontaneously combusted in front of them - they would probably just side step you and walk on. Actually to be fair, its kind of a cool attitude and one if I had the balls I might adopt - there is no bull s**t or time wasting, if they can’t be bothered to help they wont and they mostly don’t; if it takes time out of their day to hold a door open they won’t waste said time and if it requires any effort at all to smile unnecessarily they would rather save that energy to keep warm, or I guess cool in the summer! And showing gratitude or emotion to them is totally wasted - already we are beginning not to bother.
After getting our tickets, which Stuart was most concerned about as we have open carriage sleeper tickets and he thinks we will be pillaged and mugged (as it turns out the carriage was fine, everyone was quiet and we live to tell the tale - we even got our own sheets and pillows), we trot on down to the Hermitage for another afternoon of culture. It has been suggested to us that we should simply choose one area of the Hermitage that we wanted to concentrate on otherwise there would be just way too much to see. We headed for the Russian culture and palace interiors section and were not in the least disappointed. The rooms were as royal as they come, with gold decor and art beyond belief. The chandaliers were to die for and the building itself awe inspiring. Along the maze of corridors to the different exhibits we spied a few Cezzane’s and Piccasso’s as you do. It is an absolutely mind blowing collection of art housed within the building.
Before heading back to the hotel to collect our bags and drag them to the station we swung by the ice sculpture competition outside the Hermitage to see how the kids were getting on - very impressive! We then meandered back through a few parks and even had time to make the worst imaginable snowman and pop into Kazan Cathedral. Being that it was Sunday and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch had just died, the church was heaving with people lining up to pray and it made interesting viewing - beyond that the Cathedral was incredible in itself.
We dragged our bags to the station and managed to find the platform pretty easily and so we boarded the train for four nights of Trans Siberian adventure.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment