I haven’t been writing anything since last month because of the election in Russia. My company was supplying different kinds of coated paper, cardboard, etc and actually, I was up to the eye in work. Fortunately, our people were able to vote as successfully as they could and so, I’d like to describe my trip to Saint Petersburg, which I made almost 1 month ago. And another event happened, we wrote a test, the half term test of our upper-intermediate course and I want to use most of grammar, phrase verbs, idioms in order to fix the knowledge ;)
I remember my first trip to St. Petersburg. It was 1988 and the town had a name “Leningrad’. I was at school when our 10A class decided to earn some money for a journey and so we washed floors and classrooms every evening. It lasted, I suppose from September to January and eventually we earned enough money. Now I think we got only a part of the money we needed, anyway, we were proud of ourselves. I can’t imagine the same situation in modern school. My memory doesn’t save the details, apart from winter, the subway, the famous armored car ‘bronevik’ on Mars field, which was used in 1917 by Lenin who climbed onto it and told to the people round about a bright future.
Almost 20 years later I flew to SP again. The aim was to see friends who I had met in Malta, to inhale deeply the air of Neva, to enjoy SP’s night life. I didn’t mind visiting the tsar’s palace in Pushkino. I remembered we’d visited it with classmates the moment we were shown into the huge, enormous, sparkling throne-room. It’s the pearl of the palace, every decorated element covered by gold; old, full-length mirrors everywhere; and a weird ceiling which is changing its pattern while you are approaching the end of the room. If you looked through the windows you’d see a strictly organized vast park with statues, situated along the straight paths. But the most interesting thing about being in the palace is observing the amber room. That room had been ruined in 1941 by the Hitlerite intruders and its pieces had been stolen and lost. The specialists had spent reconstructing the tiny fragments 20 years, and 50 years after the disaster the amber room was opened for viewing. Now it is looks like a valuable casket, but of an unusual size. Before the Great October Social Revolution we had a lot of beautiful palaces, then a lot of them were destroyed and only nowadays the Government is spending a lot of money to restore them. (Btw, in Perm old residential areas are being demolished, and new housing estates are being built in their place. I think it’s terrible. I saw plenty of old wooden houses in Irkutsk, which are fixed and preserved for the future generations. Next, we left the palace and walked along the paths. I wouldn’t recommend you to visit that place in winter, because the trees are naked, the wind very cold and you wouldn’t fully enjoy it. After the palace our tour bus went to another ‘famous’ place, called ‘Podvorie’, a typical tourist trap. It is a restaurant built like a country house decorated by traditional Russian attributes. A waiter said that they used for cooking only their own products, including locally produced meat, vegetables, berries and even vodka. We were told that it’s a favorite place of … of course, Vladimir Putin, don’t forget its 2007 year now))). All waiters were dressed in traditional Russian costumes, head-dresses and boots. Out of the blue, they organized a circle, took musical instruments and the concert began. Their choir sang Russian folk songs so professionally we were amazed. Next each of us got a small musical widget and began to participate in show, which was a lot of fun. Afterwards I saw our president in TV news, his wife and he really arrived at the same café in Moscow, and probably the waiter didn’t lie.
Well, we were able to have some spare time for the sightseeing and we were ready for a prolongation. As we were walking along Nevsky avenue, we felt cold and I thought I could do with a drink for health. We found out small café, no, it was a ‘native’ bar where people could drink a quick shot, without taking off their coats. The 50 milligrammes of cognac cheered me up. After a couple of hours we decided to go to a funnier place, ‘Purga’. It actually means blizzard if you want translation, but in Russian ‘purga’ also means ‘utter rubbish’. What’s bar like? it’s a very strange place, a tiny bar with small tables, tight space and sky-high prices. It almost let me down , but, at 11.50pm, Santa’s appearance caused a gale of ecstasy round. Really, every evening the people are being entertained with Santa Claus (Ded Moroz). We didn’t waste our time, we celebrated NEY YEAR in October! Waiters are obviously used to doing it every day; they wear dress a hare and spread ears near the entrance. Like children, we made a circle, sang and danced in a ring, as for me, I won a Christmas cracker and Bengal light. Russian doesn’t accept celebrating the New Year without our president’s official address. It’s a custom to hear the speech with a glass of champagne in hand. In fact, the president was a cartoon and nobody wanted to listen, but it urged us to fire the lights and fill our glasses. As usual, everybody wished each other Happy New Year and hugged each other. During the evening I suppose I clinked glasses with everybody and met a people from a lot of different places. SP is well known such bars, weird and original.
The next evening we set off to another cosy place, ‘Honey Money’! If you have been in ‘Rock Café’ you have an idea about places with live music. Speaking personally, I quite like listening to live music, especially the blues but that evening we enjoyed rock-n-roll. Old photos of pretty Blondie girls, Elvis Presley, pink cars – symbols of America life style everywhere. Stunning place. The first thing we saw was a long queue, we waited about hour before could approach a bar counter. How many eccentric people around, some in wide cowboy hats, some dressed in leather outfits. I saw a couple of black women, one of them looked like a convict, she had a tattoo that covered her chest and arms and she danced so actively, I’ve seen a similar dance only in Cuba. After celebrating New Year the day before I was exhausted and was having a rest, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere. The band consisted of four people, one woman and three men. They played the lovely rock-n-roll music, very active music and people danced; everybody knows what it’s like. ‘Honey Money’ organized a course for all newcomers who wanted to learn how to dance. We left at 5am satisfied and delighted. It was the first night I came to understand the local joke about drawbridges. All citizens must know the timetable of the drawing of the bridges; otherwise they would stay near a bridge, sadly looking at the opposite bank of Neva River. This is what happened to us. The driver of the car we caught was optimistic about the bridge at first, but soon gave up and even didn’t take any money. We longed to get home, had a several goes at catching a car, but nobody wanted to give us a lift… At last, we were given a lift by a gypsy cab driver. Really, in spite we were not far from home, the journey took hour and fifteen minutes. The driver was so kind that he agreed to bring me to the airport in several hours.
It was an incredible trip, it was terrific fun, I saw my friends I’d met in Malta, I visited weird and stunning bars, even a theater, and I had a ball! I hope I’ll visit SP soon. To be frank, I find that SP is better than Moscow, the rough, overcrowded capital of our country.
Now, I’m preparing my official suit for Vienna, as I got an invitation from my partners. In several days I’m in for an excursion to a mill plant, the symphony orchestra, sightseeing in Vienna and two free days just for fun. I dig out my camera and I’m going to add a new report to my page soon. I hope I won’t lack impressions ;)))
