the essence of pleasure is spontaneity

It is never easy to take the risk when you are not sure whats gonna happen.My decision to come to St. Petersburg was not to lie rather arbitrary than

carefully thought out. A necessity to have a break from London and a prospect of spending the rest of holidays at home were both an incentive to get out. Since I have been learning Russian in a course for a while Ive made my mind and decided to choose Russian in Rusland course.  To be honest those two weeks did more than only coming up to my expectations. 

In terms of my present Russian language skills I feel more confident than ever before. Even though there is still a huge amount of hard work before me I could not be even dreaming about the better language foundations than I recieved at the course.And what is most important I really strated to appreciate the beauty of Russian language,culture,tradition which made me even more curious for the future to explore those fields of life.

In terms of the people I met as I mentioned many times before I could not dream of having better mates than those I met in St. Petersburg. I believe that the multinationalitz in this case has done its good, all the different backgrounds, cultures, ways of thinking!!!! Despite the varieties we managed to get on well with each other perfectly, what I hope will result in the longlasting friendship for the future.
Finally in terms of St. Petersburg the city really exceeded my expectations. Those who managed to follow my previous posts know what I am talking about. It is simply one of these place you have to visit before you die.
During the last few weeks I got a very good life lesson-summing up its better to take the chances instead of waiting for the anwers.

Stephan copyrights

Political (in)correctness

The obedience of political correctness was never one of my virtues. Even though I spent the last years in the UK where the Queen is saint and racism does not officialy exist ( besides the fact that everyone hate Poles and immigrants in general),  I've been always itching to speak. That is why I would like to share a few remarks that took me as a suprise in St Petersburg.  The old Russian rule states: " say whatever you want as long as the Kremlin approves". However, since I am not an official political enemy I will not follow suit and here we go....

"A classless society"

All in all  in Russia the middle class is either invisible or it simply does not exist. The ruling class driving its newly polished western cars mixes with the working class still living the life in a style of Soviet conditions. Even though St. Petersburg is claimed to be the city where the differences are not that overwhelming you can still spot a huge amount of homeless, who could drink barely anyone under the table and beggers whose pensions do not cover any basic expenses. Still from the other point of view the huge amount of students growing up into intellectuals is very very positive!!!!!

Why not to buy Putin as a souvenir

What stroke me the most was the amount of pictures, gifts, postcards, posters even matryoskas with the prime minister Putin or a president Miedwiediew in every single souvenir shop. The cult of patriarchate has not definietly disappered. Maybe it is not as strong as in the times of Lenin or Stalin but still the smiley faces of Russian leaders are winking at you from the shop-windows almost everywhere. However, mentioning a positive side I was quite suprised with the amount of Soviet propaganda memories in a form of posters or postcards, which you can find also in every souvenir shop( I managed to supply myself with a dencent amount of gifts like that). It means the Russians can already distance themselves from those times and can even laught at it.

survival guide

Since one of my closest friends has kindly informed me that im getting old and boring and my my writing style has lost its own specific acuteness, ive decided to leave behind the description of consecutive days  and focus on more topical issue. That is why the title of today's post refers to some essential tips of survival for the total Russian freshers.

Money:

By all means the only legal local currency is russian ruble ( don't be misguided if the gentleman in the currrency exchange in warsaw is struggling very hard to sell you belarussian rubles instead of the one you really need, just keep focused) and any attempt of paying with dollars or not even think about  it Euros will end quite badly. Unless anything untoward happens you can exchange money in your own country ( if you live in Poland dont count only on your luck), but if you happen to forget to do it  no worries, there are like thousands of cash machines on every single corner, in every local shop or on every average tube station. So supply yourself with a fan of credit or debit cards and have fun. A word of warning to business travellers who love paying in the restaurants by credit cards: khym khym DONT DO THAT!!!!!!!! If you like you credit card and want to keep your current account number and especially money you have to be cautious because it's quite probable the number of your card would be copied. 

Transport:

As one of my Dutch friends  nimbly noticed the  streets in Russia are very wide in comparison to the rest of Europe.  Unfortunately that's the only compliment they deserve. Following the communist legacy you will find a lot of uneven roads and holes in the concrete. If you are from eastern Europe you won't be suprised but if by any chance you come from "the civilisation"( greetings to Germany) you have to provide yourself with a dose of tranquilizers. 

What is more if you are not a big fun of rollercoasters, better stay at home. There are many ways of travelling in the city: you can choose between a normal bus, minibus, trolleybus, marshrutnoye taksi or elektryczka. Unfortunately the variety does not go along with the quality. People whose blood pressure is quite high shoould just choose walking. Despite the previous, the biggest advantage of want St Petersburg transport has to offer is its low prize. You can travel by bus starting just from 19 rubles and by minibus 20. Moreover, if your haggling skills are quite high you can travel by private taxis starting even from 150 rubles. But  keep in mind that the drivers  from eastern ex soviet republics will not always get you to the destination you wanted. So never travel on your own by the unlicensed cabs. 

For my favourite Japanese and American tourists

Souvenirs:

Some may think that the souvenirs should not be included in the survival tip but believe me buying something nice for a decent prize in st. Petersburg is almost such a challenge as getting home by an unlicensed taxi. Those who are lucky enough to bring vodka as a souvenir from the trip should be in the 7th heaven. Not only the prizes are very low, but also the variety and this time the quality is definietely more than good. But remember there are some custom limits, so if you don't want to walk through the red channel at the airport don't cross the heaven's borderline. Those of you who are more traditional and can be satisfied with matrioshka dolls should also keep a few tips in mind. First of all remember to haggle with a trader before paying the final prize, in most cases the dolls are extremely overprized and sellers count on the naivity of the potential purchasers. Second of all, check before buying if the doll is not broken or does not have any hidden defects, its quite common since the manufacture was invented in the 18th century. Third of all, the matioskha is not a trip neccessity, there are so many things Russia has to offer ( covered in following  post).

Tsarskoe Selo

The Lavish imperial palace at Tsarskoe Selo was designed by Rastrelli in 1752 for Trasina Elizabeth. She named it the Catherine Palace in honour of her mother Catherine I, who originally owned the estate...what is more the magnificent parks and gardens surrounding Catherine Palace were created out of dense forest by thousands of soldiers and labourers, making it one of Russia first landscaped parks...

That's just a pinch what one can find about the Tsarskoe Selo in the guide, only an introduction to the experience one can easily call undescribable... this place is a real reflection on what can be understood by the Tsardom of Russia... all this monumentalism and glittering; stunning facades, columns, window framings, exquisite, neverending garden pathways, ponds, little ornamented bridges... All what the Great Russia had to offer in the time of its enlightenment

and that's what i mean by good company, copywrites once again reserved to Yoleen xx

It's def, one of the places which should be visited around St. Petersburg. Moreover, when one is lucky enough to have a good sightseeing company, no long lines and queues seem to be scary anymore. And the visit to the palace alongside the stroll around the pond would be unforgetable experience.

Tsarskoe Selo

Catherine Palace

Catherine Park

Great Pond

Grotto

Cameron Gallery

The French-style formal gardens

The Great Hall

The Great Hall

Chesma Column

The weekend finally has come and as the russian tradition states noone can stay on the weekend in the city. One either goes camping or sets off to the countryside to spend a lazy weekend surrounded by nature. Unfortunately none of us has a Datcha outside the city, which is passed from hands to hands by the consecutive generations. But in our case every difficulty can be overcome, that is why we managed to go to the countryside, visit a Datcha and finally get a proper bath in the batlic sea together with a sip of sun.

For the weekend excursion Nastya took us to the Rupin Datcha outside St. Petersburg, where we could admire the work of this Russian painter together with the beatiful surroundings were he used to live. I'm not suprised he managed to create such a good peace of art being inspired by the place he lived in. 

After the museum we went to the beach, where we spent almost entire afternoon: either sunbathing or swimming in the sea. Some of us proved themselves as very skilled swimmers and the others as also skilled lazybones.

finally what is to mention we drove by the famous Elektyczka to the DAtcha and on our way back, its definietly unforgettable experience!!!!!! there is nothing to describe, one has to find out himself to know the truth. 

No more words just photos :)

Friday part 2

inevitable has just happened the weekend has begun and even though the white nights in st. petersburg are over we  definietly managed to experience such a night on Friday...what I love in St. PEtersburg is the fact that this city never falls asleep, becasue the metro stops at midnight and the bridge closes the same time, when you get to the centre of the city you stay here until 6 in the morning. But believe me even the sleepyheads would enjoy their time here. Everything is thriving till the early hours, all the restaurans, caffees, pubs and clubs are open and full of people. so without the details we had a really enjoyable night!!!!!!

practice makes perfect part part 2

Today we started the day quite early by heading off to the city to see Nastya, who wanted to torture us with the practice lesson so early in the morning. As long as thursday was a day of realoding batteries the friday's waking up part was not that scary. We met with Nastya at dom Knigi at Nevsky Prospekt ( the most popular bookstore in st petersburg).  Then after a cup of coffee in a lovely small caffee nearby we started our walk around the city. Nastya knows St Petersburg by heart, she not only showed us the places, which are quite unusual for the tourists, but she also got us into the culture and tradition of St. Petersburg. We walked through the housing estates, narrow streets, backyards everything what remined of the daily life. She explained the story of popular Russian Komunalki( which brought me the memories  of bread cards and shared apartments during the communism in Poland) and took us the the museum of Anna Akhmatova in the fountain house. Akhmatova was a famous  Russian poet and artist during the period of blockade in St. Petersburg, she reflects a portrait of a strong russian woman. Not being a feminist to be honest I think Russian women are more than one can expect from even a man.
After the practice we came back to the classess to the next doze of torture by the other Nastya ;) The grammar part was not that enjoyable as the sightseeing but our teacher managed to make it as little painful as possible.

the wallpapers in the museum

russian barcelona

recently im into lifts

that's the end of the day in terms classes but be ready the weekend has just started

Thursday :)

blurred but smiley

Aafke und Peter

It's just thursday and i already feel like if i was here at home. I bet that the eastern european soul has something to do with it. Today after the classes i really felt i was  making a progress. I am not afraid anymore of speaking russian and step by step its becoming more real russian than as i mentioned previously a  polish russian. Due to the very tense schedule i had to give myself a break today and i didnt include any sightseeing in the agenda . Reloading the batteries and I am ready for FRIDAY !!!!!
Just a few photos from the last dinner in the Russian restaurant. All copywrites reserved to Yoleen :)

look how happy we are ;)

totally not an ash wendesday

I totally forgot to mention that wendesday was summed up by an amazing dinner at 218, which was organised by  Yoleen ( i can officialy state it here for me SHE is perfect) and Nicole. We had a really delicious dinner,everyone was engaged with cutting, boiling, washing up or collecting pots, plates and cutlery from all the aprartments around. We sat and talked for a few hours . I am really gettting into these guys.  

practice makes perfect

by all means i've exceeded the sense of decency by once again delaying the writing for so long...but as ive already explained its very difficult to find a spare minute to post something at least proper... that is why its 2 am and here we go...
the previous wendesday was a day full of learning and practice... after a few hours of classes we headed the city to meet Pasha, who was our guide for the first pracitce lesson around the city...not only we managed to practice russian on the daily basis but we also got an insight into the city's history as we were off to the Petrogradskaya with all its musems, gates, cathedrals and squares
After visiting the Trubetskoy bastion and SS Peter and Paul Cathedral we went on a walk alongside the shore where  a few walruses were willing to swim despite the lack of ice and lots of wedding couples  were taking their wedding photos in this marvellous sourrounding

Славянска Душа

According to the rule what happens in st Petersburg stays in St Petersburg I cannot reveal a lot about tuesday. I can  let you know that in English tradition  it could be easily called a shrove tuesday just without the pancakes and further fasting parts. 

So being once again as brief as possible we started the tuesday quite early. After we had picked up the registration cards from the office in the centre, we came back for the classes, that according to the schedule were at 12:45. The lesson today also took around 4 hours but this time it passed so quickly that we didnt even notice iwe were supposed to finish. my decsion to do the homework  yesterday at night turned out to be a bull's eye. Since now i know a homework is sacred and noone can mess around with it. In terms of the lesson this time Nastya decided to torture us( in a positive way) with as much speaking as possible. To be honest I find it really really helpful and motivating!!!! I am quite convinced that after these 2 weeks my Polish-Russian would be more Russian-Russian ;)

The other part of the day was also full of the russian atmosphere. We headed the city and had an amazing dinner in a typical russian pub/bar/restaurant, whatever it was, it had its own spirit. What is more besides the traditional russian food we had an extremely positive cultural clash with the natives. I always knew Russians were hospitable, but  people in the pub definietly exceeded their limits !!!!!

ps. 

On my way home from the registration office i spotted something for the proper japanese, english or american tourists. Right now i know that those buses are by all means everywhere !!!!

who said 'i dont like mondays'

I am getting worse and worse in terms of keeping you up to date with the latest news from st petersburg but today as an excuse i am using a fact that the city, the course and the people are so engaging that its actually  better to put the writing off for a while in order to take as much as possible from what this place really has to offer...

according to the song noone likes mondays so ill try to make it as brief as possible even though a lot happened...
monday was a 'D-day' ( a day of the first classes) Im in a group with Aafke, a lovely Dutch girl who also happened to be my roommate ( the merrier the better) at first we both were pretty stressed because noone knew what to expect, but only after a few minutes all the worries disappeared alongside the stereotype of nonsmiling russians,which i mentioned before
 all the teachers seem to be as cheerful, energetic and enthusiastic as one can only imagine, as well as really professional and whats most important very very patient!!! its a valuable virtue because if you have to deal with such a moron as i am you need to be preapred for every eventuality, After 4 hours of classes that not to exagerate were extremely intensive (plus loads of homework for a next day) and gave me more than half  a year of my  russian classes in england , we all went to the city to register....
yes yes yes, if you are not a big fun of russian police and extradition you'd better register..the registration was a good excuse once again to see the life of the city... which is thriving till the late hours...
finally, we came back home quite late and tired but it didnt prevent us from sitting the homework till 1 am ( even though the first impression is the most important i hope i will be that hard-working till the end of the course)... finito for monday and 1 am already starts my tuesday post

ps. this time no photos, don't blame me blame the battery

...and here comes Sunday

At the beginning once again bound by the already set up tradition a few words about the meaningful titel. Those most careful of you are qute likely to spot that my writing pace seems to be pretty delayed. Just to let you know the past few days were not to underestimate 'quite intensive'. I will take a deep breath and try to catch up with all the latest news that happened recently ( starting neatly from sunday, which despite its sancity was not the sacred day this time). 

We all woke up pretty early, trying not to be late for the first St. Petersburg excursion with Nastya ( not to mention we finally were late but only due to the fact we overestimated our walking/runnning skills). Heading to the city centre we took russian METROPOLITANA which would be the first but not last crucial point of my sunday description.

Just to let you know St Petersburg metro is one of the deepest subway systems in the world and the deepest by the average depth of the stations ( according to the rule what WIKIPEDIA says needs to be true). I am mentioning it because it was quite a suprise standing on the escalator for 3 minutes, going down and down, and seeing no 'light at the end of the tunnel'. When you are brought in Poland in the atmospehere of the black volga legends and are forced to keep in mind the entire soviet history even the russian escalator makes you quite inconvenient. My grandma  kept on telling me that St Petersburg metro has the most gorgeous underground stations in the world, so be ready for some more news titled:

Marta travells by Russian metro.

Ok, lets get to the point. We had met Nastya in front of the registration centre near to the Nevsky Prospekt and then started our excursion. It is really impressive how much she knows about the city and in what details can she decribe every encountered building, corner and even  bridge. Thanks to our lovely guide we have seen places in Petrograd we would have never  even dreamt of. Obviously, starting from the Nevsky Prospekt we passed such breathtaking and monumental places like Church on Spilled Blood, Kazan Cathedral, St. Isaac's Cathedral or Ostrovskyi Square. 

Kazan Cathedral

But what I really mean by saying we have seen a few extraordinary places is a different story. We strolled down the river with Nastya, having a look at a few architectural miracles including  iner alia: Vallin de la Mothe leading into New Holland, 3 lovely bridges named modestly: red, blue and green  and Stroganov Palace overlooking the Moyka. a

And it is just the beginning what St. Petersburg has to offer.

St Isaac's Cathedral

What is more I would not be myself if I hadnt  spotted one of the most controversial but how necessary places in St, Petersburg. The vodka musem pictured belove does not only reflect the Russian spirit but also refers to how valued byeastern europeans  culture and tradition ;)

That's all for the excursions so far.....

To finish our exciting day we decided to meet up in one of the apartments  once again to mingle and chill out  with the group. Thanks to our two lovely Italians we finished the day with declicious pasta with pesto , salsa dancing and even  some russian tradition mentioned before. ( and that's what I meant by not that sacred Sunday :) )

How about returning to the roots...

Dear All,

 To begin with, just a little reference to the title of the post. For your record  I am not only coming back  to my eastern european roots by deciding to live in St. Petersburg for a while but as an actual blog fresher (truely without any decent back-up ) I am returning to the first days of the uni, when I didn't have the faintest idea what is really going on. But as a I know right now practice makes perfect, so i really hope that after awhile some of you would enjoy reading what I have scribbled ( keep in mind the effort). Therefore, dear friends, collegeaus and strangers: some understanding would be really appreciated even if you are the most ironic and sarcastic person in the entire world ;)

After this quite boring but so neccessary introduction ( just to keep my morale up) a few words about what I am actually doing here. So a few days ago ( to be precise on Saturday 31.07.2010) I arrived in St. Petersburg, making it the farthest city in the east Ive ever reached. So after just 2 hours in a plane I landed at Pulkovo airport, where I was immediately picked up by the school's driver, being so kind to give me a ride directly to the apartments. It did not take long until I met all the guys from the course, who turned out to make a really good crew.  At the end of the day we managed to chill out alltogether in a typical russian pub. Im already convinced these two weeks are gonna be rich in not only russian experience but also  full of the international flavour ( italy, the netherlands, poland, germany, belgium). SO far I'm really really happy with what I've seen. Like one of our Italian mates ironically keeps on saying its the Dutch organisation, so it has to be perfect. So far everything goes like clockwork and it was only an arrival day!!!!! Let me see what happens next. 

 PS

don't be suprised with all the forms, declarations and the entire  procedure you have to go through at the airport, afterall it takes just a few minutes and its painless to cope with. And just a hint  especially to all english people who still believe in their charm...DONT TRY TO BRIBE THE CUSTOM OFFICERS WITH YOUR SMILE !!!! its more likely you will be taken as a weirdo than will get a fast track...so far Russians seem to be quite serious, but don't judge the book by its cover.

Remember

It's a GREAT Россия