In search of Mother Russia

If there’s such a thing as Russian chic, then St Petersburg has it, as Ivy Broadhead found out when she took advantage of the closeness offered by a student placement in Helsinki to make the trip by bus across the old forbidding border

There is something just a bit magical about going to Russia; vast, far away, rather mysterious, and with awkward enough visa requirements to make you wonder why they don’t really seem to want you in their country; it must be something really good, right? Or really bad.

We got an overnight bus from Helsinki to St Petersburg, in part just because it seemed rather exciting to be able to get on a bus and wake up in Russia. And it was. As we juddered in around 6.00am, we got to see the city waking up, its beautiful old buildings slowly illuminated by the sunrise, and the big wide streets mostly empty. Of course, if you have more than a student budget, taking a train or flying would be far more comfortable, faster, and probably much more accessible, but for us the bus worked.

Keen to offload our bags, we headed straight for our hostel, tucked behind the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospect, which is a little way south of the Neva River. Cuba Hostel was cheap, bright and friendly, in a cool and studenty kind of way, and staffed by incredibly helpful bright young things who were keen to direct us to good places to eat and drink nearby, and on one morning even came for breakfast with us. When you’ve been pointing and guessing for four days having a native Russian speaker on hand is very much appreciated.

The first thing that will strike you when you get into the city is just how beautiful, how grand and how very un-Soviet the city feels; all tall, imposing buildings, glorious old churches and picturesque little bridges. The people perhaps fill the stereotypes a little better; lots of glamorous Russian women in furs and stilettos smoking slims, along with plenty of grumpy Russian guards and police in fur hats, with guns underneath their trench coats. Despite this potentially ominous presence, it is a lovely place just to wander around, although the bitter winter cold and guidebook full of circled must-sees kept us from spending too much time aimlessly. There really is something for everyone’s interests; architecture, history, literature, ballet, opera, art, the military, gardens, as well as surprisingly good food and some lovely, underground kinds of bars. It would surely be rude to leave without sampling at least a little vodka after all?

Having weighed up the appeal of opera versus ballet, we decided on the first and booked tickets before we arrived, spending our first evening in Russia watching Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Theatre. Even after a night of very little sleep, it was beautiful and elegant, and almost as captivating as it had been when I first saw it, aged seven and very excited. We paid the equivalent of about £30, which was probably more than we spent on food over a couple of days, but we got what we paid for.

It would be impossible to try and tick off all of the churches in St Petersburg, but in our five days we managed quite a few. Near our hostel were the Kazan Cathedral, an elegant pillared building apparently modelled on St Peter’s in Rome, and the cumbersomely named Church of the Saviour of the Spilled Blood, built on the spot where Alexander II was murdered in the 19th century. The second is the one you’ve most likely seen on the postcards, glittering, multicoloured onion domes housing an amazing mosaic interior of biblical scenes. From a distance, it looks like it could be built out of children’s sweeties, and up close it still retains an element of the fantastical, which makes it very strange to learn that in the Soviet era it was used to store potatoes. Over the River Moyka lies the third church

I’d recommend, the gilded St. Isaac’s Cathedral. A perfectly beautiful church in its own right, what really makes this one worth mentioning are the spectacular views that greet anyone who manages to tackle the winding stairs leading up to the top of the dome. With a long standing Muslim population, St Petersburg also has a huge central Mosque, which looked very impressive from the outside, although non-worshippers are not permitted to enter.

We dedicated one afternoon to the Peter and Paul fortress, which was St Petersburg’s first settlement back in the day but is now pretty touristy. It was interesting to see the fortress and to learn more about the city’s origins, and we did get to see some pretty impressive marching routines and gun shuffling from an army band, but if we had been pressed for time it probably would have been one to miss.

For art lovers, of course the Hermitage is a must; we could have spent our whole five days there and probably not seen everything, but instead we spent a good half day there and saw some beautiful works of art, from Miro and Picasso to Rembrandt and lots in between. The buildings themselves are amazing, although not quite as impressive as those at the Russian Museum (which includes the Mikhailovsky Palace), again near to Nevsky Prospect. All marble pillars, gold metalwork, intricately patterned wallpapers and staggering ceiling decorations, the building occasionally threatens to overshadow the artworks, and would be worth the entry fee alone.

We left with plenty more still left to visit; the Summer Palace and gardens, the Pushkin House beyond the river, and the Dostoevsky Museum to name but a few. St Petersburg is somewhere I would definitely go back to, although perhaps I’d wait until the Spring for my next visit; on more than one occasion we cut a wander short because it was just too damn cold, and spent a decent amount of time ducking into cafés to thaw numb fingers and toes.

With visas and transport to sort out before you get there, a trip to Russia may not be as cheap or simple as a mini-break to Paris, but once you get there things are generally very cheap, including museum admission, even taking into account the huge foreigner tax imposed on every ticket you buy. Souvenirs were of course overpriced and not brilliant quality, but we had some fun sifting through the market stalls and did come home with a few of the requisite Matryoshka dolls and colourful floral scarves, after a bit of good-natured bartering with the stallholders.

Food is also very cheap, and largely pretty good. Everywhere you go are quick, cheap Teremok blini stands and restaurants, which serve big pancakes rather than the small ones we call blinis in the UK, and with any filling you care to think of. Imagine a much more exciting, Russian version of McDonald’s. Salmon, caviar and rye bread are big players in Russian cuisine, but there are also lots of sweet, dense pastries on offer, and a surprising number of sushi restaurants. Actually, perhaps not so surprising given the salmon and caviar fixation. One of our party was a vegetarian, and had feared she would be in for five days of bread, cheese and cabbage, but we did manage to find a lovely all-vegetarian restaurant, the Café Botanika near Chemishevskaya metro. It wasn’t as cheap as some, but worth every rouble to get some vitamins inside us; we found some delicious Russian food, but light and healthy it was not, probably something related to how bitterly cold it was for much of our stay. We found a pretty good balance between eating in fancy restaurants and real Russian-style eateries, such as the place near to our hostel on Nevsky Prospect called Frikadelki.

They served up hearty soups, porridge, pancakes and other traditional food to tables of Russians who looked like they were in for a hard day’s work, and for 100rbls (about £2) you could find yourself pretty stuffed. As well as the sushi restaurants, we passed lots of French-style boulangeries and cafés, which were more expensive than the Russian places but worth a look if you get sick of blinis.

Having been spoiled by the luxury of being able to resort to English whenever my meagre Finnish fails me in Helsinki (which is often) it was a bit of a shock to realise how few of the people in shops and restaurants spoke English. There was a lot of pointing and gesturing involved in ordering in shops and restaurants, and there were a couple of times when we ended up with something slightly surprising, but staff were generally pretty patient and good natured about it. I got nowhere with the Cyrillic alphabet, and had a couple of times where we ended up slightly lost, street signs being a bit tricky to work out from the Roman alphabet versions on our map. We did a lot of walking around, but the metro is fast and cheap, and quite simple to work out, especially compared to the Tube in London.

On reflection; cold, confusing, cheap, grand, big, strange, beautiful, old and modern all at once. Not an easy trip, in terms of access, language, or getting into the bloody country in the first place, but one you won’t forget. I’m still under the spell anyway...

INFORMATION

Visitors from most countries will need a visa to get to Russia. For a UK citizen in 2009 the cost was approximately £80, although it is cheaper for other countries within the EU. You can apply for a visa through a travel agent even if you aren’t going on a package trip, which means you generally don’t have to visit the embassy yourself. For more information go to visitrussia.org.uk

We travelled by bus from Helsinki, but major airlines like KLM and British Airways do fly direct to St Petersburg from the UK. More information can be found on their websites.