Capital of imperial Russia. Display of fairytale architectures. Home city of Tchaikovsky. UNESCO World Heritage. The crown jewel of Russia – better known as St Petersburg.

 

Alhough Saint Petersburg isn’t the best known city of Russia, that title is reserved for Moscow, it still gains a lot of interest from all around the world. Still, it never really got my attention. That was until I saw a little promo video about the White Nights. The White Nights Festival is a yearly event where St Petersburg celebrates the end of the dark nights and the nearly round-the-clock daylight. During the festival, the city goes all the way. There are countless performances of ballet, opera and music  during the allmost 80 days period.

I was fascinated by the art extravaganza and the mystic of the sunset flowing immediately into the sunrise. It didn’t take long before the airplane ticket for St Petersburg in may was booked – and what a surprise the flight only takes 3 hours. As an independent traveller I’m used to prepare my travel destinations. But preparing for visiting Russia from Europe is maybe a little trickier. That is because you can’t just buy a visum, you have to get an invitation from Russia. I found out that the easiest way to do this, is through a Russian hotel where you will stay. Take notice that it takes a long time before the visum is delivered, so apply early for the visum.

Once arriving in St Petersburg, you’ll find that it’s like most world cities. You can easy travel from the airport with buses or taxi’s to your hotel or the nearest metro. Because like every large city St Petersburg has a huge metro system which takes you real fast from one place to another. Since many Russians are not familiar with English or Western languages, and Russia uses the Cyricillic instead of the Latin alphabet, it’s handy to know where you have to go before you arrive. So write down the adresses and the directions, preferably with the Cyrillic counterpart too.  It may sound complicated but after I started using the metro, I recognized many places or adresses in Cyrillic quite fast. But some preperation beforehand, can make your arrival easier.

I stayed for five days in St Petersburg. It was enough to get a good impression of the city, but there is much more than what you can do in five days. I made a list of the things I wanted to do, and arranged them according to the weather of the moment. The night of arrival, I went to the Mariinsky Theatre for a ballet performance. I booked this in advance because during the White Nights Festival, it can be sold out very fast.

The next day there wasn’t any sign of the rain the day before. It was even a real sunny day. Perfect for walking in the city and visit the most famous sights like the Winter Palace and the Church of the Savior on Blood and many more. But St Petersburg offers more architectural beauties then those known and crowded monuments. All around the city there are canals with stylistic bridges and on every side you can see marvelous and colorful buildings reflecting the rich history of St Petersburg. So take your time to walk around the city on a sunny day. Everywhere you look there is a hidden gem to discover.

The rain returned the next day. Perfect timing for exploring the metro. I knew that the underground railway of St Petersburg isn’t like most underground networks. But it was still a surprise what beauty lays underneath the city.

But there are more hidden places in the spectacular city. Fancy restaurants can be found behind doors covered with ivy, some hipster bars are in secret alleys and in the most expensive looking building can house a fine dining for little money. Even the Russian food was a very pleasant discovery. I loved the modern twist of traditional Russian food but I adored the classics like borscht and blini’s. I found out that St Petersburg is a vibrant city. Behind its fairytalelike 18th and 19th century walls there are plenty of nice restaurants, modern shops and fancy bars.

St Petersburg left a huge impression on me. It’s a city with a history that’s everywhere  to be seen. But at the same time it’s a modern city that gathers creative & modern people from everywhere. It’s a place where couples can stroll around the canals and get lost in the romantic atmosphere but also a place where trendy people hang out with friends. A city which has something to offer for everyone, above ground and underground.

Some last tips when you visit St Petersburg:

• Weather: plan your stay. During good weather, walk through the wonderful streets. During bad weather, use the metro for quick transportation and admire the underground architecture
• Food: try some of the traditional food like the soup, borscht, and the pancake-like, blini’s. The biggest surprise for me was the delicious Chicken Kiev (which is actually from Ukraine)
• Museums: St Petersburg has many museums. I visited the Hermitage. It’s an incredible large art collection is the former palace of the tsar. Make a choice what wing you want to visit. The first Thursday of each month there’s free admission
• Visum: start early with arranging your visum. If you don’t know how to get an invitation from a hotel, book the hotel with a travel company who’ll arrange it for you