Russia's former capital has a short but turbulent history, as you quickly realise when you visit, writes Alice Ryan
FINGER-NUMBING cold and grey skies greet us when we step off our flight, wrapped up in long-eared hats and woolly scarves, ready to take on Russia. No smiling security officers welcoming us. No chirpy waitresses introducing themselves American-style, telling us everything but their pets' names. Arriving at Pulkovo-2 Airport, in St Petersburg, is a bit like falling down a mineshaft.
We have travelled to the city to visit a friend who is studying here for the year - and who, fortunately, meets us at the airport. I'm not sure we could, on our own, orchestrate the bus, two metros and lift in a Lada that we take to get to where we are staying.
It is common, and fairly safe, to take lifts in St Petersburg. For passing drivers it's an easy way to make a few extra roubles; for the people they pick up it's a handy way to travel.
At one point in our journey we take a steep escalator that grinds down a seemingly endless tunnel to the metro - where a rabble of slick-haired, leather-jacketed men try to rob us. Fortunately, the five of them more dance around us frantically than viciously attack us - and so only add to the excitement of landing in the motherland. We battle them off with yells and flailing hands, and feel victorious as we march out of Vasileostrovskaya metro station into the snow, as if we have won the cold war.
We set off the next day on beautifully snowy footpaths, crossing huge and relatively empty grey roads on Vasilevskiy Island, on which the city partly sits. Unlike in Ireland, where few of us wear traditional Aran sweaters or Peig Sayers-style shawls on Grafton Street, the pavements of St Petersburg are full of women in long fur coats and dashing blond army officers in full uniform, and we spot plenty of traditional ushankas, or round fur hats, bobbing up and down Bolshoy Prospect.
Crossing over the Neva, which has just melted after the winter, on our way to St Isaac's Cathedral, we see a statue of Stalin in a snowy park. Standing tall, upright and eerie as ever, he evokes memories of Leaving Cert history classes in us as he watches the people of St Petersburg go about their lives.
The dramatic history of the city, which was founded only in 1703, by Tsar Peter I, becomes even clearer as we reach the top of St Isaac's Cathedral and see the city spread out before us: a statue of Peter the Great, the Admiralty and gold-flecked buildings such as the State Hermitage Museum rise up in the midst of communist grey.
The next day, to get to the Church on Spilled Blood, we take a marshrutka - literally a "routed taxi" but in reality a dirty Hiace van driven at breakneck speed by a Fr Ted-like character while his passengers bump along in the back.
The church lives up to its dramatic name. We gape at its breathtaking multicoloured spires. Built in 1883 to commemorate the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in his sledge, the Church on Spilled Blood is reason enough to travel to the city. Inside, jasper, Italian marble and rhodonite make up bewitching mosaics. The colours and shapes are a feast for even slightly hung-over eyes; we discovered the night before that the motherland can be a dangerous place for Irish girls who know only two words in Russian: "mozhna", or give me, and "vodka".
Another must-see is the State Hermitage Museum, which incorporates the Winter Palace. Its highlights for us are the magnificent copies of Raphael's frescoes for the Vatican loggia, in which the Romanovs' two-headed eagle replaces the pope's coat of arms. It is hard to believe that this beautifully kept palace, where the white paint is pristine and the gold still glimmers, is in the same country as the grey pavements, dank metro and rundown Ladas that we have grown used to seeing.
The culture of the Hermitage seems at odds with the rest of the city. Hopping on a bus at one point, we sit down beside a large, fat grey rabbit that is peering intently out of the window. Seeing our amazement, its owners produce several other animals from plastic bags - possibly not the best storage system - until the bus is like a travelling zoo. The fact that the animals' owners are twins who look, strangely enough, like pirates adds to our odd yet exciting experience of public transport St Petersburg-style.
That evening we are in for a very different cultural experience, as we brave the metro again to get to an ice-hockey game between SKA St Petersburg and Spartak Moscow. It's hard not to get swept into the chants of "Peter" and be mesmerised by the flying skirts of the cheerleaders who are dotted on podiums among the crowd. Ten minutes into the game and it may as well be Italia '90, as we yell our lungs out while the players speed by, shoving each other on to the ice and into the barriers. A fight breaks out, and soon the sin bin is overflowing. It rapidly becomes clear why the white-and-red sea of Moscow supporters is surrounded by armed police.
Making our way home on the thronged metro, it is hard, despite the rabble and the travelling zoo, not to find ourselves falling in love with the rough and tumble of life in St Petersburg. The city offers an unparalleled sense of character, history and adventure - best discovered via Hiace vans, lifts in Ladas and cheap vodka.
Where to stay, eat and go
Where to stay
Most people visit the city on package tours that take care of
organising their hotels - a good move given the complications of
visas and language.
If you are travelling independently, Northern Lights (50 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa, 00-7-812-5719199, www.nlightsrussia.com) is a very small hotel in the city centre with rooms from €50 per night.
Where to eat
The spaghetti Bolognese is seriously delicious at
Zoom Cafe, a buzzing basement restaurant (Gorohovaja Gorokhovaya
Ulitsa 22, 00-7-812-9721805)
Where to go
State Hermitage Museum. Dvortsovaya Ploshchad 2 (2
Dvortsovaya Square), 00-7-812- 7109625/079,
www.hermitagemuseum.org. You won't run short of things to see
at the Hermitage, which includes the Winter Palace. Consult the
website for the sometimes complex opening hours and entry fees.
Go there
Air France (
www.airfrance. ie) flies to St
Petersburg via Paris from €570 return. Lufthansa (
www.lufthansa.ie), connecting
in Frankfurt, costs about the same. Germanwings, via Cologne (
www.germanwings.com), has
fares at about half that.
Escorted tours to Russia often include time in St Petersburg. The Travel Department( www.thetraveldepartment.ie, 01-6371600) has packages from €1,599; Slatterys ( www.slatterys.com, 1890-200625) from €1,799; CIÉ ( www.cietours.ie, 01-7031888) from €2,724.
Dos and don'ts
Do . . .
Get a visa in plenty of time, as the process is
complicated. See
http://dublin.rusembassy.org.
Go to an ice-hockey match - the excitement is unparalleled.
Go to Mariinsky Theatre (
www.mariinsky.ru/en). The
evening's ballet or opera tickets sell at a discount.
Don't . . .
Take the metro at rush hour, when it's easy to get
lost or trampled on.
Take a lift in a flashy car. The nicer the car, the more
money the driver has, so the more questionable his motives in
picking you up.
Forget that you will have to register your visa unless your
hotel does it for you.