Friday, July 12, 2002 12:50
Location: Cafe Idiot, nab reki Moyki 82, St. Petersburg
Weather: Hot, partly cloudy

Frankie is singing "I did it my way" on the cafe's stereo. Despite the Lonely Planet's warning, the Idiot is not packed with expats. Indeed, it's empty of customers, other than me, so far as I can tell. It's a curious place, all low ceilings, mixmatched furniture and atmospheric lighting. The decor is English country c. 1940 crossed with Parisian art deco. Pleasant enough, anyway.

I haven't made it to the Hermitage today despite my plans. This morning started a bit slower than planned (I blame the 3 hour time change from the UK) and I had to do laundry, buy water, etc. I finally set out just after 10.

Frankie's moved on to "New York, New York", but I reckon St. Petersburg is about as far away from Manhatten as a big city can get. It's as though Amsterdam was built on a Parisian scale, then moved to Vietnam. The roads are massive, but side streets along the canals are often literally more pothole than pavement. The weather is hot and humid, and the locals are dressed for it in thin shirts, crop tops and T's.

The subway, buried deep under the city, was easy to figure out. I asked for 10 rides, expecting an electronic pass card (used by most of the locals) but instead got 10 tokens. Well, that's some more flexibility to share with friends in the group.

Once downtown I walked along Nevsky Prospekt towards the Neva. The buildings on either side are tall and grand, though the stores are mostly familiar: Hugo Boss across the street, a coffee shop on the right. At the Moskovskaya subway stop was a MacDonald's (or rather íÁËÄÏÎÁÌÄÓ [you'll need cyrillic text installed to see that properly]).

At the Griboedova Canal (right next to the Nevsky Prospekt subway stop) I took a photo of the beautiful Church on Spilled Blood on the right, then continued on a short distance to an Internet cafe (Quo Vadis), which was so much cheaper than the hotel ($1.50/hour instead of $16/hr) that I had to go in and get the diary up to date right away. When I emerged it was almost time for lunch. Crossing the avenue I went into the Kazan Cathedral, a large building with a pleasing dome flanked by grandiose St. Paul's-esque colonnades. I followed a small stream of people going in a side door and found it was packed inside, with a service in progress. I gawked discretely at the ceilings and made my way back out.

I continued along the south side of the canal, crossing to the north at the pretty Bankovsky most pedestrian bridge. The buildings here were pretty shabby, and the pavement ripped up, but pedestrians were moving by normally and I had no sense of being in a "bad" part of town.

I cut up the next street to the innermost canal, the Moyka, and followed it around to the Idiot, which would have been easy to miss but for the clear building numbers.

Having finished a delicious lunch (mushroom soup, blinis and fresh grapefruit juice, C$19), and downed my complimentary shot of vodka, it's time to pay up and see some more of the city.
posted by Tom at 11:44 AM | link |