Saint Petersburg Experience

A CITY OF CONTRASTS

Advantages: so much to see and do, fabulous architecture, the Hermitage, boat tours round the city
Disadvantages: need to purify your water - apart from that, NONE!

...Senate Square ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Between St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Neva lies Senate square, (formerly Decembrists' Square – yes, yet another name change!), and this is where the famous bronze horseman statue is to be found. The statue was commissioned by Catherine the Great in honour of Peter the Great, and apparently, the piece of granite upon which the statue rests was a favourite of Peter the Great (though how anyone can a favourite piece ...
...to have called this piece of granite ‘thunder’ and used it as a platform to observe his surroundings. This monument was also a main character in Pushkin's mini-epic about this city, The Bronze Horseman. Extra advice for when visiting the museums: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Any bag larger than a ladies' handbag must be checked at the cloakroom – they are incredibly strict about this rule. So don’t leave anything valuable ...

weebagpuss 29.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of St. Petersburg (Russia)

Great Petersburg

Advantages: A wonderful, beautiful city with a rich history
Disadvantages: None

...in having finally arrived) into St Petersburg the change in atmosphere hit us as quickly as the icy Baltic breeze. Visited in succession it is hard to believe that these cities, the two largest in Russia, are even in the same country, let alone only 5 hours apart by train. St Petersburg, dubbed the Venice of the North thanks to its network of canals, has experienced a turbulent history. Foundered by Peter the Great in 1703 to provide access to the ...
...Tsars. In the 20th century St Petersburg has endured more mixed fortunes. Renamed Petrograd in 1914 it was the scene of the 1917 revolutions. Then the city, known as Leningrad since 1924, was surrounded by German troops during WWII. The people of St Petersburg fiercely defended their city in a siege that lasted over two years in temperatures dropping to -35°C. I have it on good authority (first hand witness) that St Petersburg bore its battle scars ...

Tricia24 31.05.2006 · Read full review
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Review of St Petersburg (Russia)

St Petersburg

Advantages: CHEAP!! - really good value for money - brilliant public transport
Disadvantages: a fair bit of red tape in repect of sorting ones own trip there!!

...of this fantastic city. geographically St Petersburg is situated at the extreme east of the gulf of finland and is a series of islands not unlike Venice - in fact many tourists refer to it as the venice of the north. The majority of buildings in the city centre are very grand and each and every one has its own secrets. the river was frozen solid all it appeared good for was the odd ice hole fisher or as was being demonstrated by a bunch of soilders ...
...fortress, a game of football. I hope they dont fall in i though then realised that there was not much chance of this happening, the locals know when the ice is unsafe and stay well clear but for now the snow covered ice provided pedestirans the ideal short cut to cross the river. suffice to say my trip continued in this good but cold vein - you do need to ensure that you are able to handel the very good but confusing public transport system in order ...

danielkatya 07.02.2005 · Read full review
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Review of St Petersburg (Russia)

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Advantages: City of such beauty
Disadvantages: Locals tend not to be overly friendly

I took Paul to St Petersburg, Russia in November 2003. It was his birthday/Christmas present. It had been a destination we both always fancied, and whilst looking through the Sunday Telegraph travel section, we saw a tour company advertising trips. After looking into that deal and then independent travel, we decided to go it alone!! So we booked our flights out of Heathrow, direct to Pulkovo airport with BA. Traveling from Belfast meant connections ...
...a guide book (TIME OUT ST PETERSBURG) found us our hotel – a reasonably priced local hotel Pulkovoskaya. Also required for trips to Russia are a visa – we had to send our passports along with forms and photos off to the Russian embassy in Edinburgh – something l was not too happy about doing but everything ran like clockwork. I would advise doing this a good 4 weeks at least before travel and be aware that the visa costs approx ...

purdy 02.01.2004 · Read full review
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Review of St Petersburg (Russia)

Emprassion

Advantages: Very interesting town
Disadvantages: Very wet and windy weather

I visited S.Peterburg in summer. I think it is the most suitable season for travelling there because the weather was fine there and not very windy.This town is rather differ than another Rusian towns.In the first the bildings there are in Europian arckitekchual style, in the second it has a reach historical traditions since the times of Peter the Great who founded this great town in Neva river in 1709.On that moment there was a swamp there and it ...
...The third is a lot reall nice places to visit which are connected with Russian history:Hermitage with its beautiful pictures, Russian musiem with the pictures of famoues russian painters,New Petergof called Russian Versal.Kunscamera with its mericle people and things with different nations. The modern Petersburg are on Nevsky prospect where a lot of restrongs and caffes offices and stores.Us for me I liked to go for a walk in Summer gaden not far ...

Vital 04.10.2002 · Read full review
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Review of St Petersburg (Russia)