Санкт-Петербург, visit to Петродворец

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Weekend was time to be a tourist again, this time with a visit to the palaces at Petrodvorets (known as Peterhof before 1944, and often referred to by that name now). Petrodvorets was a large country estate about 30km from St Petersburg. Started with just a simple villa by Peter the great, several large palaces were added by Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. The area was destroyed during the Second World War and reconstructed in the 1950s.

One of the biggest attractions is a series of 140 gravity fed fountains that are turned on during weekends during the summer. I didn’t see them today, since they are not yet on for the season.

I did take the tour of the large Grand Palace shown above left. They seemed to want all tourists as part of some tour group, so I tagged along with a Russian speaking tour group. The guide spoke quickly enough that I missed a bunch, but I could follow when she pointed and ooh and aah with the rest. The palace reminded me of the Catherine Palace I saw last week. Not a big surprise as Rastrelli designed both. Each room seemed to have a theme. One had large paintings of the destruction of the Turkish fleet in 1770. Another had entire walls filled with these small portrait paintings. There was of course an abundance of gilded ornamentation and statues.

After rain early this morning, it was a nice sunny day, so the grounds were also nice to walk around. The fountains empty into a canal that goes down to the Baltic Sea. Hopefully the next salt water sea I photograph will be associated with the Pacific Ocean.

Today was also an interesting exercise in using Russian public transit. Transit is excellent in this city with a metro (4 lines, 6 transfer stations and trains coming every two minutes or so), buses, electric trains, trams, suburban trains and “Marshrutka”. Marshrutka are these little van buses that operate on fixed routes. I took the metro to Baltisky train station. From here it was easy to find a Marshrutka 404 that my guidebook indicated went to Petrodvorets.

I had more difficulty knowing when to get off the Marshrutka. Several people got off at what I thought might be the stop, but I stayed on to the next stop. Turns out, I had missed the stop, so walked back about two kilometers. Getting back was a little easier, as I found multiple Marshrutka marked and took the next one that came along and was heading to a metro stop. I also had some fun knowing how much to pay (you pass your money to get forwarded to the driver), but I watched others and figured out 30 rubles.

Санкт-Петербург, second week of school

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Monday: Cold snowy weather for the last day of April. I struggled more with my classes today. We had five hours of class and the classroom was cold until we found a space heater. Shortly thereafter the power went out and unfortunately we were cold again. Somehow I couldn’t remember the pronunciation for various reflexive verbs. The blowing snow flurries did make me happy to be a student today and not a bicyclist. I took the metro with a stop at a café before coming home and studying some more. I am also reassured that this is colder weather than normal so hopefully it gets out of the system before mid-May.


Wednesday: There is a lot to remember. Each day, five hours of lessons brings more to learn. Today wasn’t particularly difficult though mostly a case of trying to remember the perfective and imperfective forms of many verbs. I try to review them several times a day: when I get home, before going to sleep, when I wake up and before class but still tough to remember them all. Today it was also nice to figure out that when my host asks: вам понравилось? That this translates into “do you like it?” – I didn’t quite get all the syllables worked through and hence difficult to look up in the dictionary, so now I tell her I like these various foods. My dictionary does get a good workout each day.

This afternoon I made a slow walk in the rain from school to Sennaya Ploshad and then a visit to the Russian museum. The museum has a good collection of Russian authored paintings though probably good to have a guidebook or guide to point out the highlights (or be more of an art historian than I).

Photo at right, shows I get lots of opportunities to learn additional Russian language; even occasionally stopping to figure out posters such as this one of a lost Pekinese dog. I’m sure the natives find it strange to have tourists with Russian/English dictionaries reading their “lost dog” posters and figuring out the vocabulary and grammatical structure. (Moral of the story: if your spelling or grammar is poor, do not lose your dog near a language school?).


Thursday: St Petersburg has its share of familiar fast food restaurants catering to tourists. However, I found I prefer the smaller cafes instead. The Subway goes so far as to spell its name in Cyrillic letters (сабвэй) and has familiar menu items spelled in Cyrillic. I visited Subway and tried to use my Russian as much as possible. However they quickly figure out I’m English speaking and switch to being helpful in English. Note: if you click on the photo, you’ll see an additional reason I took the photo: while rare, I do occasionally see bicycles on streets such as Nevsky Prospect.

The photo at right shows a nearby McDonalds with the pedestrian equivalent of the drive through.

In contrast, today I had lunch at a small café whose owner was from Uzbekistan. He also figured out I wasn’t Russian but we had the conversation in Russian about where I was from and what I was doing in Russia. At the same time, I learned a little more about the (warm) weather year round in Tashkent. These small café owners are providing a good service in not only food but also Russian language practice.

Today the grammar lesson was more straightforward. I found I am more limited by vocabulary than grammar. There are still many different words to keep learning and picking up each day. I find I’m remembering more words though also forgetting and re-remember some of the same words. There was an excursion scheduled this afternoon to wander through Dostoevsky neighborhoods though it was cancelled since we didn’t have the minimum number of participants (4). So I read Dostoevsky instead.

Friday: Now time for a weekend! We found our way to the last case today (dative), and still more perfective and imperfective verbs. I’ll have plenty to keep studying on my way across Russia, though will mostly miss the corrections to my grammar. We seem to be alternating nice weather with rain/snow so today time for good weather and another walk through the city. My regular haunts are becoming more familiar as I learn a lot of the center of the city. The Saturday excursion to Pavlovsk was cancelled due to lack of interest so perhaps time to explore nearby areas on my own during my last weekend in St Petersburg.

I seem to be getting interesting SMS spam on my mobile telephone. One message says: “Знакомства в Хамелеоне дла получения инфо отправьте на номер 0025 SMS со словом инфо (бесплатно).” As best I can translate, “Acquaintances of the Chameleon, obtain information by sending to number 0025 the message ‘info’ (free of charge)”. I don’t know any chameleons, so best ignore these.

Санкт-Петербург, May 1st holiday

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No school on May 1st for the International Labor Day holiday. I took the opportunity to wander through town and see how the city celebrated the holiday. A large part of the plaza was blocked off in front of the Hermitage and all of Nevsky Prospect was closed with soldiers posted about every ten feet. I wandered along the parade route before seeing and hearing the groups marching down the street with small bands in front. My perception was of a large parade group followed by a small gap and then demonstration march. The parade consisted almost entirely of people walking (as opposed to US parades with many vehicles and floats).

The parade group was mostly different groups of people marching along with banners and flags such as in the first and second photos. The flags and signs seemed to be either political organizations or for different regions (or schools) around the city. I didn’t notice many strong political messages other than one group (third photo from left) with their “Estonia disgrace of Europe” banners presumably referring to recent situation in Tallinn where the government, after much unrest, has decided to relocate a memorial commemorating Soviet army sacrifice/victories in the Second World War.

After the main parade group was a gap. It felt tenser as I noticed a few police in riot gear and decided to walk away from the immediate area and down the street. The second group was primarily the Communist Party and different nationalistic or ethnic “Russian for Slavs” right wing groups. Many red hammer and sickle banners but also a small Che Guevara contingent and groups carrying photos of Lenin or the leader of Belarus. There was more of a political demonstration feel to this latter march group with chants, banners and people handing out leaflets, as well as soldiers marching along to prevent conflicts from erupting between protesters and counter-protesters. The fourth photo has initials Communist Party Russian Federation (КПРФ) and banners promoting a Russia/Byelorussia communist federation.

After the parade, lunch and then time to wander through town. The Russian Museum was closed on Tuesdays and the lines at the Hermitage were long so wandered mostly through town and took opportunity to visit nearby St Isaac’s Cathedral including climbing up the staircases to view over the city. The massive church was built between 1818 and 1858. From above, I had some nice views of the city. Otherwise, many people out and about enjoying the sunshine which was a nice change from yesterday’s snowfall.

English is difficult too…

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When working through my Russian lessons, I am reminded that English is difficult! too.

This morning I dropped off my bicycle at бивак велоцентр for service. Some things weren’t too hard to explain, such as showing worn brake pads and asking for new ones. Others were harder to explain such as “preventative maintenance” of my chain even though it wasn’t worn out yet (although to think of it, I also had that conversation at Bike Mart so perhaps the problem is just me :-)). Fortunately, we got a little assistance from another customer. I’m (over)protective of my bicycle on a trip like this, so slightly nervous to leave bike until May 8th, but will see how it goes.

There are fewer cars out on a Sunday morning in St Petersburg, so good day to ride the bike to the shop. Nevertheless did see an auto/pedestrian accident on my way back so useful to be vigilant in this big city. I also noticed more beggars out today than before, not sure if I am just walking past more of them or something different about the Sunday crowds vs weekday crowds.

Today is my brother Tom’s birthday. I too am a year older today, though I get to celebrate 14 hours before Tom does.  I had given my cell phone number to the bicycle shop.  Hence, it was interesting to receive my first SMS message.  On translation, understood it to be the automatic birthday wishes from the cell phone company.

Санкт-Петербург, time to be a tourist

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Weekend was a time to be a tourist more than a student. Though I did spend some time reviewing my vocabulary and grammar from the first week and also reading Dostoevsky (in English).

The school organized a trip to Tsarskoe Selo (Царское село) in town of Pushkin, 25km south of St Petersburg, and site of the huge Catherine Palace created under direction of Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. This was a summer estate of the Tsars. The palace was surprisingly large and ornate with rooms designed and completed in different periods. The entire palace had been gutted at end of World War Two and most rooms restored hence including the famous “amber room” with walls all covered in amber stone. Each of the rooms were almost museum exhibits amongst themselves with large tile fireplaces in one, paintings in others and dining areas in yet others. Tourists were required to put on shoe covers. Mine barely fit which the guide somehow found surprisingly funny. It was packed with tourists. We went with guide from school who knows a lot about all these places and does the tour in English but then we’ll have side conversations in Russian.

We met at the Moskovskaya Metro station and took a small bus round trip to Pushkin. Afterwards I got lunch around Moskovskaya Ploshad and then took the metro back to the center of the city. Still had enough time for another museum and hence found my way to the Museum of Ethnography. This museum had displays about different ethnic groups who lived in the former Soviet Union with many traditional costumes, farm implements and other tools and many photographs. It was interesting to see of the areas I would cycle through what different groups might be found (seems like still mostly Russian but occasional other groups e.g. Tatar areas or Buryat areas. One area chart had a list of oblasts and in each oblast the ethnic mix. It was an interesting mix to see the different peoples.

Санкт-Петербург, impressions from first week

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Following are some quick impressions from my first week study and stay in St Petersburg. It is definitely a different world in this big city where I know just a little (Чуть Чуть) of the language.

Sunday: My home stay location is wonderfully central in the city. I went out for a walk along the main shopping street: Nevsky Prospect (Невскии проспект). I’m surprised at how many people are out and about on a Sunday afternoon. I can spot many tourists with their guide books and maps, though the majority is not tourists. A group of hari krishnas is chanting at the main square. Tourist prices also here with a soft drink costing 2.5x as much as in Gatchina. Quite a few stores are open and I find a nice internet café that allows me to upload photos.

I don’t know if the host family expected the bicycle, though the school did realize that I was “bicycling to school” (only from Amsterdam and not every day. My bicycle is stored away in the apartment).

Monday: First day of school, wow overwhelming! There is a lot to learn. Little bits and pieces come back to me such as Russian grammar but I’m also missing a lot of the little connecting words such as “if”, “then”, “only”, “other”, “that’s all” so conversations are halting at best. My host drives me to school to help me find things and because the assessment test is at 8:45am. On other days I will walk (~40 minutes) through the city. After an assessment test where I miss most questions and realize how rusty my Russian grammar really is, I am on to my lessons. Four one hour lessons with a short break in between. Wow, my head hurts trying to remember everything. However we write things down for later study.

I make a leisurely walk back with stops for lunch, internet and window shopping. I also have a few simple things on the list: (1) get a mobile telephone number – done (2) find bicycle shops – several good candidates including Trial Sport nearby (3) see if I can spot an inexpensive second set of non-bicycling pants – nothing yet in my size and (4) take the subway – will wait to tomorrow. After that time to concentrate on my Russian study.

Tuesday: Making slow baby steps and I start feeling a bit more at home in St Petersburg. Other than school, I wanted to (1) take the subway and (2) find a laundry. I found a laundry, and though haven’t yet figured out whether to ask to use washing machine of the host family or go to laundry. The school sponsored a walking excursion after class and I and ~10 classmates took the subway to Nevsky Ploshad (Невскии плошаль) and then make a walk from there. The architecture around this city is amazing mixture of baroque and classical. I’m very close to the Hermitage and hence good place for further visits (one of my goals is to get a student id card so as to get reduced discount on admission to museums).

The host family is ~45 minute walk from school so this morning I made the walk along some of the main streets. During work days it is a busy city with lots of traffic and many pedestrians. I had another four lessons in a row. I’ve picked up a few more of the little words. There is more to learn about verb conjugations (e.g. the different types of verbs of motion) but this is more memorization and regular practice, so those drills are a bit more straightforward. Still a bunch to learn but feel like I’m making some baby steps of progress.

Wednesday: One goal for the day was to see if I could get a student id. I found a place to have my photos taken. I dropped off the photos at the desk at school – I think they get the id for me. It is sometimes a little unclear but I usually go with the flow and figure things out from there.

Lessons were again a little more straightforward. Most of my fellow students are younger and have more Russian language but there are a few older students. I am left with a little less definite list of things to learn next, but probably can also re-review the previous things again. As I walk back, I see plenty of high heel shoes and a corresponding number of shoe repair places.

Thursday: We visited the Hermitage this afternoon. Impressive from several aspects: the building and its various halls and galleries are huge with many ornate features both inside and out. It is also surprising how much variety between adjacent rooms as if each were set up in a different style. Within the Hermitage is an impressive collection of art (e.g. largest collection of Spanish art outside Spain or largest collection of Rembrandts outside Amsterdam) so one can make a good study of art history just within the Hermitage, as well as a large unique collection of Russian art itself. The school organized a guided expedition to the museum. A quick whirlwind introduction but definitely gives a flavor of why one could spend days in the museum.

Some good solid lessons today, I’ve got some more concrete things to learn. I feel like I’m actually picking up little bits and pieces each day, so that is also nice to have a more intense class. Four hours per day is a good block of time and I also find myself working through things going and coming to school, especially going to school. I’ll recommend this combination of language school and tourism together as a different way to see St Petersburg.

Friday: I have an International Student ID Card and I got my laundry done. Small steps but nevertheless nice to keep progressing with these small steps along the way. It was raining, so took the subway to school. At rush hour it seems like the trains come every minute or two but are still packed. After school sun was shining brightly so nice time to walk through the city including this stop at the internet cafe.

Still working though more Russian grammar. Lots of complexities of the genitive plural case though mostly a case of getting some more practice. I sometimes practice my Russian with my host family but then also nice at school to work through the same types of conversations. For example, a different verb is used to wash clothes than to wash a floor, though my pocket dictionary wouldn’t immediately tell me which one to use.

Nice to have a weekend. Tomorrow I’ve signed up for an excursion organized by the school to the village of Pushkin south of town. This is site of one of Catherine’s palaces.

Санкт-Петербург, into the big city

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Big flakes of snow coming down outside. This sight caused me to pause slightly before setting off this morning. Fortunately, the worst of the snow flurries was past and it was only freezing rain as I left the hotel. St Petersburg has a reputation as a chaotic city to cycle and hence my plan to enter the city on a Sunday morning. Both the road conditions and the traffic were pleasant surprises and it was all easier than a similar sized city elsewhere (e.g. Sydney, Australia).

After 4km, came to the main highway coming from Pskov. The road was essentially a lane and a half wide on each side. This meant trucks and buses could usually give plenty of room though occasionally two (or three!) would try to pass each other. There was a slight upgrade and a headwind so wasn’t going very fast. Looked like mostly open countryside with fortunately some trees to shelter from the winds. The rain showers were intermittent though the road was still wet enough that spray from passing trucks kept things wet.

At 22km, I saw the official city limits sign to St Petersburg! There was a motel not much further and 6km further I passed the airport. At this point the road became a divided expressway with four lanes of traffic each way. Traffic was light, so gave me plenty of room on the right. I also noticed that the road striping was most worn in the left lanes so perhaps also a natural tendency to go into the fast lanes.

At 35km, I came past a big traffic circle at Плошаль Победы. There was a big supermarket here and internet cafe and this generally seemed to start the built up areas. The rain started coming down harder so took the photo at left from a distance as I took shelter underneath eaves of the building. I figured I could walk from here but kept riding since road was still good and I didn’t want to cool down too much. The right lane was used for buses and minibuses to pick up passengers so we would weave into each other. Nearby was Moscow Metro station, the first of seven I would pass. A slow steady ride as I came closer to center of the city and passed four canals. From here I found my home stay location and met my host. Plan is to be here for three weeks learning more Russian language. I don’t expect to make daily posts until I start cycling again. After that they will likely also be posted less frequently as camp a bit more as Mickey and I cycle together from here and as distances between towns increases.

46km today. 2498km across Europe. 4136km total.

Гатчина, another quiet day

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Another quiet rest day in Gatchina. Looks like I’ll have some light rain and headwinds riding into St Petersburg tomorrow. The approximate distances I’ve cycled by country include:

  • Netherlands – 210km
  • Germany – 506km
  • Poland – 511km
  • Lithuania – 102km
  • Latvia – 404km
  • Estonia – 373km
  • Russia -256km

From here, that Russia total will keep rising as I go to Vladivostok.

Гатчина, rest day in the rain

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Nice easy rest day as the rain and drizzle falls down outside. The hardest part about crossing the border yesterday was finding it. After that I cycled through 127km to this small town south of St Petersburg. I’m using internet at local post office, so yesterdays report will be sent up later.

I found a nice hotel with help from friendly folks at Experience Plus bicycle tour company. The hotel only had place for one night, so today moved to sample the other hotel in town. Plan is to stay here until Sunday morning and then ride into the city. It is mostly a drizzle and light rain but still nice to take an easy day (or two) here around Gatchina, reading and relaxing.

2km today, 2452km across Europe, 4090km total.

Гатчина, Russia at last!

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Made it to Russia! The hardest part about crossing the border was finding it. My hotel was close to the border, so cycled inbound and followed the signs. The border station signs pointed to an area with rows of large trucks waiting. This didn’t seem right so I kept going and it looked less and less like the border. Finally, asked someone and from his Russian explaination I could get enough to know: back to the traffic circle and left. Cycled back and found spot for normal cars and also for pedestrians. Saw another bicycle use the pedestrian path, so followed.

I walked up to the Estonian exit, had my passport stamped and wheeled the bicycle through. After exiting Estonia, there was a place to change my Kroon to Rubles, so no more Estonian money. From here the pedestrian path went downhill and across the bridge. Crossing the bridge was a neat view with large old fortifications on each side: one flying the Estonian flag and one flying the Russian flag. Decided not to take photos since I’m never quite sure what is allowed.

On the Russian side of the river was a similar border control building. I followed other pedestrians in. There was a sign with customs. A helpful lady gave me a migration card and helped me fill in the right blanks. The passport was stamped and that was it! I wheeled my bicycle out the building and walked for a bit along the fence separating pedestrians from automobiles and eventually had the first photo of Ivangorod (Ивангород) and start of the M11 motorway.

Stopped at the first gasoline station to buy a map and was soon on my way on the motorway. This road was surprisingly quiet and surprisingly variable as far as road conditions go. Some very nice smooth places and also some areas near Kingisepp (Кингисепп) where it was just one pothole after another. I tried different techniques: slowing way down, riding the shoulder, walking the worst bits, cycling on the other side of the road but it was all pretty slow going. Fortunately at 30km after Kingisepp the motorway was generally better condition.

At 44km was a big orthodox church and turnoff to the smaller P-38 road. With some email help from helpful folks at ExperiencePlus I had identified a hotel in Gatchina (Гатчина) that seemed like a useful destination. (ExperiencePlus has run a trip as part of their Expedition Plusseries from St. Petersburg to Istanbul. If you want to do the same ride I did today but in reverse and without baggage see their trip).

The quiet road really started out quiet and in reasonable shape. It was variable in parts – where the road would be marked as bumpy for 1 or 2 or 2.8 or 5.5 or 6km and then better after that. Seemed like there were some gradual climbs but overall quite flat. Some forests but mostly wide fields, some with tractors preparing the fields for planting.

It was nice traveling along this side road. Every 10km or so, would be a small village, some with stores or large concrete block apartments, others with just little houses. Stopped briefly on other side of Volosovo (Волосово) for candy bar and a coke and kept going. The rough spots kept my overall speed down and there wasn’t much wind so it was a slow steady slog. Finally at 116km, came across the main ring road and then just another 7km to the line of Gatchina (Гатчина) . Hooray!, I had arrived. It was a few kilometers of mixed walking and riding and I found my way to the hotel.

The hotel only had room for one night, but they called to other hotel in town and made a reservation for two more nights. Place is to take some easy rest days here before going into the big city on a Sunday morning. Apparently no internet in the hotel, so will see what chance I have to update things.

127km today. 2450km across Europe. 4088km total.