(Touristic article)

“Saint Petersburg is the window through which Russia looks to Europe”
Yes. We will talk about the city that has the status of gray and dull, cold and rainy. About Saint Petersburg.

We know about it from the novels of Russian Classics: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin.

We know about it from the cinema in the Soviet Union. Have you watched “Adventures of Italians in Russia”? How many lions did they count…and you?

We know it from “Bandit Petersburg”.

I explored this city personally.

The plane landed at 16: 36. Through the porthole, all that was visible was grayness and drops trickling down the glass.

Back at the time, there was no such rapid “global warming” and March 10 was cold.

Plane. Ladder. Customs. Taxi. Porter. Hotel.

Everything was grey. Cold.

And only a hot cup of tea in hands shaking and red from the cold.

“Well, Hello, the City of White Nights.”

At that time I became acquainted with the museums… Kunstkamera… Hermitage where, after all, the Royal family had walked along its corridors for hundreds of years! Porcelain dolls…Matryoshkas…Restaurants.

It was cold all four days. It was winter. The city spirit warmed me. Samovar and gingerbread. And aristocratic decoration architecture. When you open your mouth from wonderment, you even don’t think that your saliva freezes.

I was leaving. Saying “See you later.”

Summer. June.

The plane could not land for a long time and was circling over the city. Thunderstorms and torrential rain. After a couple of three circles over the city, we landed at last.

And the rain again. What was it?

But this time we arrived for a month. The sun would be there. I felt it!

Plane. Ladder. Customs. Taxi. Porter. Hotel.

The rain stopped. It was fresh outside. The hotel was right at the canal. We crossed the road and the embankment. I flipped a coin.

“We’re not leaving yet.”

“I just want to appease the spirits of the city for good weather.”

We did it. Yes, we wore trench coats and light jackets in the summer, but we bathed in the sun, saw white nights and were not covered with a crust of ice while getting wet in the rain. I even managed to take a couple of photos in a trendy top and stylish shorts! For  the Northern capital, it was not cold.

That’s what I found:

Books. There were dozens, hundreds, thousands of them!

Candy stores. Real Saint Peterburg`s sweets.

Bridges…there are more of them there than in Venice. And each one is decorated. Stucco, swirls in the Baroque style, horses or lions. On the bridge of Anechka, make a wish…It fulfills…I checked.

Palaces and parks. Ah, what an alley there is at the Mikhailovsky Palace!

Embankment and Peter and Paul fortress. 40 minutes walk along the embankment, 10 minutes on the bridge and you would be in the fortress. I met Peter. With all his disproportionate appearance. I stopped in front of him for a few minutes and asked myself, “Were You like this? And became so great?”

A ferry ride through the canals.

And the Gulf of Finland. Yes. The picturesque bay in Petergof…A place with Disney pictures. Perhaps if I had waited, Ariel would have sung you a song.

Petergof had a special charm. It was impossible to describe it in one word. Except that…did you hear? All in three dots.

I visited Dostoevsky’s house.

It surprised me…

I still remember the wall, the wallpaper, the floor lamp…a bare wall, an empty room. The place seemed absolutely lifeless. Abandoned.

But no…

Breathing was audible. A quiet but clear pulse.

Icon. On the wall. A small icon on a large wall.

Dostoevsky still live in his beloved Petersburg…I felt his spirit…

I came to St. Petersburg for a dozen times. At different time and in different seasons of the year. It met me with rain and saw me off with the sun. I bought more than one umbrella and raincoat there.

It is better to buy an umbrella. The quality of the raincoats is not very good, and the whale will suffocate.

Peter, Petrograd, Leningrad, Saint Petersburg.

It is worth attention. Definitely.

When you are there, go to the house of Books on Nevsky Prospekt. On the second floor, there is a coffee shop and a panoramic window.

If you are lucky, you can sit at a table by the window and enjoy hot tea, the smell of books and the Kazan Cathedral.

This is my St. Petersburg.

This is my Petersburg’s window. The window at Saint Petersburg.

Maybe the city is called a window to Europe. But it is better to look not at Europe, but at the city.

“See you soon, Saint Petersburg!”