A night out in St Petersburg – guide for beginners

When we arrived back in town from the trip to Novgorod on Saturday evening at 9 pm, St Petersburg's unpredictable weather had changed once more – for good this time, so that the evening was just too summer-like to be wasted! After a very quick dinner at the Russian fast-food chain Emilia, I headed home to change into something that wouldn't ruin my début night in St Petersburg (we all know the stories about Russian women wearing high heels at every suitable and non-suitable occasion, don't we?) and then back to Gostiny Dvor to meet up with the group of reckless who had decided to conquer vodka and … Turned out we weren't so successful at the latter ;-). We first tried a street next to the church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, where the reliable Lonely Planet located some of the best clubs - the doors of which remained closed, though, not because of the lack of centimeters on our heels, but because they had been closed for quite a while. In our desperation we simply followed some partyish-looking folks into a backyard. Instead of being an underground location as we suspected, the place must have been very posh – so posh that the door men were wearing masks and too posh for a bunch of foreign girls without passports. Back to Gostiny Dvor we went, where we entered the next club we saw, just so keen on finally getting to know the Russian night life. Weeellll … it was a fun night, but really not at all different from one anywhere else in Europe. Some of the girls were dressed up pretty much, but nothing overly exotic, most of the music was international and the songs that were indeed Russian could have been hadn't it been for the foreign lyrics. International drinks and no fights – sorry to disappoint you, but the bad Russian guys must have been busy elsewhere.

The most exiting part was probably getting back home. If you don't live on the main island, you can forget any party night that ends before 5 am, since that is the time the bridges across the Neva open again. In any case, you'll have to test your Russian to negotiate with legal and illegal taxi drivers the price for your trip back home … mine didn't cope well with this stress test, but in any case I wasn't going to pay 1000 rbl (30 €) for a trip that shouldn't cost more than 300 rbl. Luckily, one of the illegal taxi drivers waiting in the second row was quite keen on getting a passenger and agreed readily to my price – showing that the trip was probably only worth 200 rbl. I was a bit afraid to tell my host mum the next morning how I had gotten home, since we were told at the language school that we should only trust official taxis. My host mum, however, was surprised to learn that I had tried an official one at all – according to her, only foreigners take the overprized taxis, while every Russian is going на машине (simply meaning „by car“ and obviously the word for inofficial taxi).

Since I have thus overtaken myself when it comes to night activities (I originally planned to go out only next weekend), I will have to (and in fact have already) come up with something new for next friday ... stay tuned, this one is really going to be a St Petersburg only experience!

New city - Novgorod

I'll be in Petersburg for only two weekends, so I've got to use them wisely. Turns out going to Novgorod doesn't exactly qualify as wisely, but who could have known beforehand?

My school organized a trip to the city of Novgorod, which is supposedly one of Russia's oldest, on Saturday for about 40€. It's only about a 180 km from St Petersburg, but given that we were travelling with a big bus and that Russian highways aren't exactly … well constructed plus a driver who had obvioulsy never done the trip before and a lot of people who just don't manage to be on time after breaks, it took us four hours to get there. Our guide was rather displeased and rushed through her programme, hardly giving us any time to get at least a snack of пирошек (stuffed bread and quite tasty) at the parking lot. We visited the old market place with six or seven churches (each of the also served as a warehouse and assembly hall for the different groups of merchants) and the Novgorodian kremlin, the supposedly historical heart of the city. It wasn't stunning (except for the monks' chorals, which were really impressive), but I could have definitely enjoyed it, hadn't been for our guide squeezing in every little detail about Russian history at every other corner. I had almost forgotten, but I just hate guided tours and this was certainly the last time I try. Sure, it's more hassle to organize a trip yourself and my Russian is stil very very poor, but I'm definitely going to Peterhof on my own.
Well, back in Novgorod, we also visited a monastery and the museum of wooden architecture, which was actually pretty nice. After that and before we left again for Petersburg, we had some time to „explore the city centre“, but since most of it was destroyed by the Nazis and not exactly restored, it's a rather ugly place, with lots of weird touristic attractions and divertissements like petting of poor exotic animals and very kitchy souvenir stalls. Not to mention all the wedding parties!! Either Novgorod it THE place to go to get married or there must be zillions of weddings at any given day at any given place in Russia, because they were just everywhere, starting in the kremlin and ending in the museum of wooden architecture (it's an interesting place to visit, but I probably wouldn't stage my wedding reception there). But then again, I've seen newly-weds standing in the middle of four-laned Nevskiy Prospekt in broad daylight (Russian drivers aren't as crazy as Chinese ones, but I would still put my life and good health over a photo shooting ...), so the main thing about Russian weddings seem to be that they have to be ... special?

Photos!

Real life postcards

I don't think you need any text with these photos ... we went to Peter & Paul Fortress yesterday and although it was a bit windy, we were lucky enough to catch one of the 30 sunshine days in St Petersburg (per year!!), so forget postcards and have a look at these stunning panoramas of the historic heart from Petrograd side. The fortress with the SS Peter & Paul cathedral and the island itself are really pretty, too, and not too expensive (160 rbl. for students for a combined ticket, ~ 4 €). We visited the prison (rather boring), but did not spend any money on the wall since the view from the beach (I know now where the Parisians got the idea for Paris plage) is just as good. I'm definitely getting a hang for the city :-).

Classes ...

Wow, I'm feeling slightly dizzy ... I've had seven hours of classes today, with only about half an hour for lunch (something like a Fleischpflanzerl in the school's cafeteria)! After that I only felt up to a quick trip to the post office and from there went straight back home. So I guess I'll tell you some more details about classes today.

Every day, we have four lessons from 10 am to 2 pm, each lasting about 50 minutes. Unlike in China (at the language school as well as in the university course), we do not different have different classes, but stay with the same teacher and the same group all the time. As far as I have seen, there are only young female teachers and all of them are really nice, so nothing to complain there. Most of the groups are for absolute or nearly absolute beginners, i.e. A1, and there's nothing above B2. Some people got books, but in our class we're handed out photocopies every other day. Each group has between 5 and 10 students, but there seem to be problems with the placement. I've met people who had to start from scratch although they had already learned for half a year back in Germany and they were told that the groups were too big to change. Admittedly, there was a whole bunch of newcomers this week, so maybe things will have settled next week. The classes themselves are pretty much standard, working in pairs, presenting the results to the group, doing exercises ... we work on different subjects for about six lessons, so on the first day it was describing people, then we moved to the instrumental (case) and from tomorrow on, we will talk about dates. We do get homework and everyone seems to do it, but at least till now, it wasn't too much.

The cool thing about the Studienstiftung's programme is that it includes an intensive course, which means that you get an additional 2.5 hours every wednesday and friday. It depends on your level, but there are never more than four people in a class and it focusses on speaking rather than teaching systematically. It's only me and another guy in our class and we watched a short cartoon about health today. Keeping up with writing all the new vocabulary down while answering the teacher's questions turned out to be challenging, but I'm pretty sure that this will boost my sparse knowledge a lot :-).

How to find Italy in St Petersburg

Keeping this blog up to date is not as easy as I expected since I have internet only in my hostmum's room which for obvious reasons I don't want to use too much. What's more is that for some reason the computers at school don't accept USB keys, so I can't just write offline and post during one of our frequent breaks.

Anyways, I've been here for two days and already starting to feel comfortable. Not with the language, of course; every contact outside school or the flat that involves more than pointing and saying thanks is REALLY challenging, but I've done my share of Nevskiy Prospekt and found out that Russia is still Europe, after all. After our school sponsored sightseeing tour this afternoon (which was entirely in (easy) Russian – I still understood quite a lot), we went to the Russian counterpart of Starbucks and enjoyed some delicious creamy hot chocolate – it's unfathomable to find something like that anywhere in China. That was Italy part I. Part II and another big surprise came when I visited my first proper Russian supermarket. I've been to some 24 h shops yesterday, but those are really really small and quite dingy. The supermarket near our flat (named 1814 after the date in which the triumph arc in front of it was built), on the other hand, didn't only feature Lays chips, Schwarzkopf shampoo and Danone yoghurt, amongst others, but also my favourite Italian cookies which are very hard to get even in Germany. Yummie! I really expected Russia to be much more different, but in comparison to China, everything here is quite „normal“ and Western. Am I disappointed? Well, the language is enough to put up with for the moment and I was very glad when I could buy Fenistil (had some serious fights with mosquitos during my first night) in a normal pharmacy (getting any Western medicine in a Chinese pharmacy is pretty unlikely).

My classes are okay, we have four lessons everyday, in which we talk a lot and try to actually do it grammatically correct. Tomorrow is my first „intensive“ lesson, where we're supposed to talk in very small groups for 2,5 hours ...

In terms of sightseeing I've been around Nevskiy Prospekt (where the school happens to be and which is actually the main street of St Petersburg) a lot. I was stunned by the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood and I did like the mint look of the Eremitage, but other than that I haven't seen anything yet. It's definitely a very big city and will take a while to explore, but then again, I've got three whole weeks :-).

Добро пожаловать ...

... and welcome to St Petersburg! Sun set an hour ago at around 10 pm (not quite like during the famous white nights, but still much later than in Munich) and I‘ve settled down enough here in the south of the city to share some first thoughts.

The trip was okay, we experienced some turbulences, but that‘s what you have Kwells for, no? Besides, I happened to sit next to a girl doing the same programme as me, so the flight was definitely not boring. Waiting for our driver to pick us up was, though. The woman from the language school was fussing around from the very moment we met here and at first wouldn‘t even let us get cash some 10 metres away (Pulkovo must be one of the smallest airports in a big city - there‘s virtually nothing except for ATMs and a dingy little café) because our driver would arrive in 10 minutes. Turned out it was more like one and a half hour later ... without the slightest excuse from her side. Not exactly good service if you ask me.

Well, I finally made it to my host family‘s flat and hadn‘t the other girl who already came to St Petersburg last year warned me I would have definitely been scared by the looks of the door and staircase ... maybe it‘s just that I‘ve got used to them, but not even Chinese apartment blocks look that bad! Very tattered, veeeery dodgy ... but inside the flat is quite modern und pretty clean. My room is comfortable enough, only lacking an internet connection - I‘ll probably try to get a 3G modem tomorrow because walking over to my host mum‘s room for every mail is not really an option.

Good point: my host mum and host sister. They seem to be quite nice, with a lot of experience in hosting students. We chatted over a cup of tea that turned out to be dinner (I refused bread and cheese, but am not hungry, anyway) and that was very good practice for listening comprehension. Oh yes and I do have to admit that Youren was right about why Chinese is so utterly difficult - my Russian is much more limited than my Chinese was when I first went to China, but understanding what they are saying (when they are talking to me, that is) is much easier because there is a fair amount of words similar to English or German that always get you back on track. In terms of speaking there‘s still a long way to got, but after my first experiences here in the family I am confident that at the end of the three weeks I will at least be able to use everything I‘ve learned so far in a more natural way.

Not talking about outside though - been here for less than seven hours and have already lived two incidents which show that the average Russian is not very considerate when it comes to foreigners learning Russian. The first one happened when I had just entered the aircraft - of course there were lots of Russians on the flight, but I would still doubt that my „Excuse me, please“ makes me sound like a Native speaker. The stewardess whom I had adressed, though, immediately replied in very fast Russian - it was only from my flight experiences that I gathered she wanted me to put my bag in the compartment since I was sitting next to the emergency exit. A similar thing happened when I wanted to buy a bottle of water at the airport. I bet I always look very puzzled, but they don‘t even make an effort to speak more slowly or anything ... but maybe my reaction will get better in a couple of days ;-).

Well, tomorrow‘s my first day at school and we will leave early in order to get me a ticket for the Metro, so спокойной ночи!

Tu m'étonnes ...

Literally: "You surprise me", this widely used phrase is normally spoken with utter-most non-surprise and at first, I thought my counterpart was mocking me. It turned out that "Tu m'étonnes" is really the equivalent to "I see".
For this post, however, I'm referring to the literal meaning - a list of things that I found bizarre, strange or just amazing about this wonderful city!

• "2o minutes": Every morning, two free newspapers are handed out on virtually every metro station. It's a pretty cool service because it gives you just the right amount of news and local gossip for your daily ride. But the thing that surprised me was that you never find any copy left in the trains or stations. In Munich people leave the newspapers - for which they paid - on the seats and during the day, it get's pretty messy. On page one of "20 minutes" it says "Do not throw away in public", but I wouldn't have expected the French to be so ... obedient.
• Mondays: Around the lab, everything's closed on Mondays. Even the supermarket. Admittedly, shops stay open on Sunday, but it can be quite annoying to find out which bakery follows which schedule.
• Prices: of course, this is Paris and I'm not complaining about rents. Clothes are partly even cheaper than in Germany, but that's not true for make-up and the-like. I paid 3€ for a tiny bottle of hairspray that would have cost me 0.50€ at dm. I know, it sounds a little cheapnik, but still ...
  
• Shopping: yesterday, the first shop of a Japanese clothing chain opened near the Opéra (I personally had never even heard of that chain). I was handed a flyer today when browsing through the Grand Magasins and as they had jeans on sale for under 10€, I thought I might as well drop by and have a look. When I was still on the other side of the street, I saw people near the shop standing behind a barrier. It looked as if they were queuing, but I attributed it to street works going on. When I had crossed the street, however, I discovered that the barriers were in fact fencing off the entrance of the shop and people were really queuing up to enter - not only on one side, but one both sides of the entrance! Altogether there must have been around 100-150 people waiting. Just for a shop! The last time I saw that in Munich was ... hang on, I've never seen that happen in Munich. But then again, people in Paris are in general better dressed than in Munich. Parisians obviously spend some energy on looking good!
• Ads: in the metro, about half of the ads are for theatres, concerts or exhibitions. The ratio in Munich is probably something like 10%. We have cultural things going on, too, it's just that the public is not so interested in them.
• Bonjour, merci, je vous en prie: the French are exceptionally polite. They always hold the door open for you and they rarely ever jostle, even if the metro is packed. During my first week in the lab, people must have thought me to be very impolite because I normally stop saying hi at around 11 am. Here, however, you greet everyone, no matter whether you know him and no matter what time of the day it is. And they have this special intonation for Bonjour that's a mixture between question and exclamation - and very hard for foreigners to imitate *g*.
• Cash desks: here it doesn't seem to matter if you spend hours queuing in the supermarket. The cashiers, no matter whether it's at Franprix, Monoprix or Auchan, are much slower than in Germany - and so are the customers, as you can see well when they are using help-yourself desks.