St.Petersburg! First impressions.

This morning we finally arrived to our most anticipated destination,
St.Petersburg. In retrospect we can surely pat ourselves on the back
for arriving there from Helsinki by boat, instead of taking a train.
The Estonian-owned boat was rather backwards in terms of construction,
but in every other respect it was much more fun than any other western
ferry we took during our trip. The onboard performances alone probably
justified the price we paid for the tickets, the number of dancers and
musicians performing for us probably was larger than the number of
fellow passengers. And as an added bonus we had an excellent view of
Tallinn skyline on a way (did I type Tallinn with enough consonants? The
spelling seems to change with every political change).
Unfortunately we didn't have visas to come ashore... unfortunately for
Estonia of course, due to their nationalistic(=stupid) visa policies
they lost 2 potential tourists.

And fortunately for us, because we'll have few extra days to spend in
St.Petersburg, which is certainly the most beautiful city of the Europe,
and therefore of the entire world. Petersburg can still impress even
after the Royal ensembles of Brussels, Copenhagen and Stockholm could no
longer stir our overloaded emotions.

Not only it's a feast for eyes, the city has everything the heart might
desire, I haven't yet been in any other city which will offer so much in
terms of round o'clock entertainment and good food. Even better then New York, and certainly better than anything in France. BTW, in my opinion French cuisine is very
overrated, just a big brand name that covers up the naked emperor.

It's Russians who are both the best cooks and best connoisseurs of the
food and every establishment in St.Petersburg proves this apparent fact. Even Coca Cola here tastes better. Seriously!
And it's only of food, but of all the other good things that come with
it. I.e. it's fun to walk in into most of the cafes just to check out
the design of the interiors - these are the funkiest places I've seen
anywhere.

Today's Petersburg is definitely a place to indulge yourself, the
variety of options is mind-boggling. Russians are great entrepreneurs,
and there is any kind demand - there will be supply to meet it. Would
you like to pet baby bear and feed it from a milk bottle? This will be
50 rubles (about $1.5) Would you like to fly supersonic jet? You can
do this too, except the price I believe is a bit higher.

The only thing that SPb seems to miss is, surprisingly, the availability
of hotels in the center. For our first night there we couldn't find
anything available for many blocks around the Moscow station.
But, what's a big deal - instead we took the advantage of the white
nights and booked a 5.5 hour night tour of the city. When life throws
you lemons, why not make lemonade?

Of course we also had an option of staying in a private room offered by
a
friendly babushka. The supposedly clean and beautiful room was in the
building we could see from the steps of the station and we agreed to
check it out. Actually Zara did walk to the 6th floor to check it,
while I was staying with the bags. Now I somewhat regret that I missed
this opportunity to see in what kind of horrible condition people live
in post-Soviet Russia. While I had good time standing outside and
reading all kinds of wall graffities, Zara was the one to take upon
herself all the shock.

This is another thing that should be noted about today's Piter - it was
throughly restored for 300-years celebrations, but the beauty is usually
is only facade deep. Walk few steps away from the main streets, and
you'll find that most of the city is actually in a very miserable,
dilapidated state.

But this is only if you walk where you shouldn't. It actually would
take a deliberate effort to leave the glittering Nevskiy, where every
house is a palace, and stray into some other less restored streets
(where perhaps every house is also a palace, but the one that hasn't
been painted in 300 years)