Санкт-Петербург
This year, I spent the first week of December in Saint Petersburg, Russia visiting one of the offshore teams I work with. As a business trip, one week was simply too short to accomplish everything I'd hoped to accomplish. Despite that, however, I got to poke about a bit in my off hours and I really found myself taken by the beauty of SPb.
My arrival provided a primer of Russian bureaucracy: my luggage got left behind somewhere in Germany and I had to fill out paperwork (by hand) in quadruplicate. In the end, I got my ~1.5days later, so it wasn't terrible - just inconvenient.
I stayed in a lovely hotel in downtown SPb and really went "off label" in terms of not eating as a vegetarian during my stay. We went to an Uzbeki restaurant, where I ordered what amounted to a small chicken / whole cornish game hen; I had to pull it apart and eat it by hand, and was totally mortified, but I did it. At a Ukranian restaurant, I discovered that I genuinely love borscht (particularly when paired with vodka shots). Who knew? At one of the Russian places we tried, I ordered a Georgian specialty which turned out to be "raw chicken, fried on the edges" and just couldn't bring myself to eat it. At the office cafeteria, the offest thing I tried turned out to be something made of lard, bone marrow and mit bits. Very "special" - wouldn't try it again.
In addition to vodkas and various beers, I also had some absinthe and discovered that they served it differently than I've ever seen/experienced... Rather than having an absinthe spoon and sugar cube, they served it in a snifter glass lined with sugar on the inside of the glass; they then fired the snifter glass, poured it into a shot glass, and turned the snifter upside down on a paper "seal" with a straw to suck the rest out of. Interesting and fun; I was definitely an instigator w/my coworkers!
Aside from brief general sightseeing on our first day there (Peter and Paul fortress where the Romanov's are buried, the Church on Spilled Blood, and St. Issac's Cathedral), I did some pre-trip research and found out that the famous Mariinsky Theater was having a ballet (Raymonda) one of the nights we were there; so, we all bought "prime" ballet tickets and had a seriously fantastic time -- gorgeous theater, great orchestra acoustics, phenomenal ballet. (Um, hello, Russian ballet? Yes, please!) I kept remembering that theater as one of the venues Baryshnikov performed at, and it was sooo much fun (because I literally adored him as a little girl stuffed into ballet lessons...).
Other than that, the only thing I really got to do was ditch my coworkers on my last night and head off by myself to attend Friday night service at Kazan, before taking the subway back to the hotel. Before attending that service, I'd never really understood Eastern Orthodox traditions, and I really think I walked away with a deeper, richer appreciation; it was lovely - but not easy on the feet!
In short, I recommend Russia if you have the opportunity. SPb is a beautiful city. I had no idea what to expect and, as a SoCal gal who hasn't seen snow in many years, I was nervous about going to Russia in December. Was it cold, yes; was there snow, yes; were the rivers frozen, yes. And, yet, I really believe that was the best way to really try to see Russia for the first time; it's cold and beautiful, and fires/heat rage indoors and you're never really cold for too long. It all just "works" and that's intriguing and special. I look forward to my next trip - whether for business or pleasure.
