just got back from a few days in st. petersburg. such a crazy city, almost five million people living in a city seemingly in a constant state of disrepair. we had ten or so hours on thursday and about 7hours yesterday to look around so we only took in the main parts of the centre. most people on the cruise had a different visa to us, so they had organised trips. we got our own visas and went off on our own. the connection between the ferry terminal and the city centre is by the 128 bus. “bus” is a loose term. it seemed to be a van driven by random men with no real official status apart from the route number stuck on the inside window. for 14roubles (30ish cent) we got to the city centre. quick and not much hassle, but bizarre.

the city centre was pretty big, the main street cutting through the centre with lots of beatuiful buildings and churches and museums everywhere. but for every one fantastic building there was ten in need of repair. apart from a few coffee shops we didnt go into anything, which is a shame, but due to their size you’d need a full day at least to see even get a start on some of the musuems (hermitage for example). so the thursday we walked back to the ferry, constantly thinking we were closer to the ferry than we were. many many streets later we found it.

i knew of russias reputation for copyright flouting, but it was pretty bizarre to see the extent of it. some stores openly sold most computer programmes for only a few euros, they sold films (that have only just been released in america) on a choice of divx, vcd or dvd for only 3 or 4 euros. these shops were not hidden away in alleys or side streets or in briefcases, but in modern well laid out stores on main streets with friendly and overly helpfull staff. although in some places the staff were too overly helpful and overly plentiful. in one cafebar, there was seven people waiting on the bar. at most they needed four. three were always standing around doing nothing.

all photos here: 2004.08 st.petersburg

i’ll think of more later perhaps, i’ll leave you with a photo of the building beside where we docked, its a hotel / ferry terminal / illegal cd shop place and a beautifully ugly building.