anyone been to St Petersburg?

Yes, I know its not in Poland, but just wondered if any of you much travelled people know the city and have any tips.. Im thinking about going there for a weekend break.

Have been there but not for 7 or 8 years now. The inyourpocket.com site has a good section on the city.

Don't want to frighten, but unless your a local or have white skin be very careful, A lot of neo nazi's in that town who hate foreigners and mean business.

Personnaly no, but have had warnings from POLISH friends on the eastern border.

If you are a white female on your own... your a prostitute.
If you are a white male that looks like you may not be russian... well, watch your wallet and that knife in your back!

Very dark skin... ... ... worry.

This is not my opinion, just the opinion of people that have experience of the country. Sorry it's not a pretty picture, but I think Putin has made it worse.

thanks for the advice. I am a white female and would be travelling with my Polish boyfriend who speaks some Russian so I guess I would be OK

It's not the wild west town that it was 10 years ago. The basic safety rules still apply however. There is a good section on safety on the main city website, which is also full of other gems of information. There are large numbers of tourists off the cruise ships and by day the problems are no worse than in other big tourist cities. You can get fleeced or robbed if you look like a tourist but you can in Rio. Night time used to be an issue but only if you went to the wrong areas or estbalishments.

petersburgcity.com

Very true, I did say from Polish friends!

All advice is still well taken from both parties. Caution, but enjoy. Essentially, as with travelling abroad in any country, COMMON SENSE! OK?

St Petersburg is a great city to visit!
I have been there several times. I never felt unsafe but need to take the usual precautions.
A few years ago they celebrated the 300 years of the creation of the city by Peter the Great and the city was all cleaned up and tarted up. It is now quite beautiful. The only snag is the hotels that cost a lot of money and are generally poor quality. I recommend the Moskva which is very near Nevsky prospect, the main artery in the city centre. Go in the Summer and the trip should be quite nice.

Yes, I was there once about 10 years ago when I lived in Finland - dreadful place! Everyone was trying some sort of scam. The buildings were lovely though.
And when the Russians found that I was the only non-finn on the bus, they wanted me to give them money to let me out of their country, muttering something about visas (which I didn't need).
Nothing like a 17 year old border guard with a machine gun to focus the mind - lol.
It all ended well, but I wouldn't go there again.

Still, i'm sure it's a much nicer place now. :)

I bet you have used this story to good effect for 10 years...
it was worth something then!

When I was a student in Moscow in 1984 we went for a trip for a few days to St. Petersburg. I imagine that it has changed somewhat since the days when I was there. It was quite nice and the people were certainly more friendly than in Moscow. If you asked for directions they would help you more so than those living in the capital. They seemed to have more time for foreigners than the Moscovites, but that was then and of course, only my opinion. I was there in January so if it is winter time I do warn you, it can be *******cold!

Yeah authorities can be nightmare there. Regular people on the other hand are nice.

I had a friend that went, he said that you have to get a hotel sorted out and get them to invite you in order to get your visa - thats if you're doing a trip independantly, if you're going with a travel agent I'm sure they'll sort it out...It's on the top my places to visit

From what I remember, the museam is nice, I can not remember even if I went inside but otherwise Stockholm in Sweden would be just as interesting really. There is nothing special about St. Petersburg, it was interesting for us as we were students of the Russian Language in Moscow at the time and we went to St. Petersbug to see where the Revolution in 1917 took place. Neasden in London may be a better choice without the need of a visa! As a student of Russian maybe, otherwise give it a miss.

I would say that people differ drasctically from Muscovities. They're probably more cultured and polite 'cause they're not so concerned about money and SP has less visitors from ex-SU block and russian suburbs in comparison to Moscow who cause there up to 70% of all crimes every year. If you are foreigner in the country you are currently on visit you have to be always careful: I've never been robbed in Russia, but I needed only to go abroad in the very first time to be robbed. But I hope your experience will be only positive...

Offtop: Does anybody know about polish-russian societies and(or) forums of friendship or it sounds fabulously? :)
Thanks in advance, guys!

After decades of negative conditioning, I would be suspicious of any organizations with "Polish", "Russian" and "frienship" in their names. The last time I was aware of such an organization Poland was occupied by the USSR.

But hey, try your luck. The KGB (or whatever the NKVD is called now) are always on the lookout for a few "good" Poles ;)

realrussia.com

Awesome site. Very reasonably priced too.
They organized everything for my trip. Visa.. Trains.. Taxis. Covernotes.
And it all went without a hitch.
You MUST Get your paper stamped at your hotel within 72 hours though.
( The site will organize the invite paper for you.)

I was there last year. ( White Male. Alone )
And apart from 1 Begger and some very curious looks. I had a great time.

Stick to populated areas. Watch your valuables. And dont carry too much cash around.

Apart from normal security precautions. Its fine.
Go. Have a great time. :)

I did. ( Apart from standing on an old ladies foot by accident ) LOL

I think i still have copies of all my Docs scanned into my Pc.
If you cant find any there. Pm me and i will look.

I know, but anyway there should be some people who are able to distinguish government's actions from people's own free will.



That's what I do. I'm trying. :) It's called now "FSB".

about Russia
http://www.rosjapl.info/forum/index.php?redir=1
about St Petersburg
http://www.petersburg.ovh.org/

unforntuantely in Polish.

It is said that 10% of St Petersburg citiznes have Polish origin.

Не принимай близко к сердцу тем чего здесь мы пишем о России, в Польше россияне почтенные ;)

Lukasz, thanks for links. :)



Can easily be. Even in Moscow I happened to work with Pole (the only things that said about his polish forefathers were his last name and catholic faith though). As for SP it's genetically much more "europeanized". There are lots of so-called Russian Germans (русские немцы) and perhaps Poles.



Спасибо, Лукаш (я правильно написал Ваше имя?). :) Hopefully I have common sense enough to separate the husk from the grain. Yesterday I read a bit thread "your intimate feelings towards Russia... and so on..." and noticed your even temper there but unfortunatelly didn't have much time to express my view on everything. I will. The question brought there up is provocative per se and isn't expected sober response. Maybe we dealt with another "putinjugend"... :) I don't know. I have to read that carefully.
Take care!

Cаша, правильно. :)

Welcome to the forum I hope we are going to see some interesting posts

Oh sh*t, I am f*cking bored, moreove I am vomited! I am in affection of this snotty fraternization between Russian and Pole! Disgusting!

Wow, that's sth new! Doesn't happen every day! May I ask you to post your photo after being vomited? I assume you must have been eaten first - how come you're still alive???

I am vomited by the fact that somebody is trying to show its love toward Poles, suppose it is rather insincere!

Are you trying to suggest that Polish-Russian relations must always be based on mutual resentment? Personally, I bear no grudge against Russians - why should I?

Well, the same with me..., as Poles always say about Russians, I could say someting similar 'I like Poles but I hate their government'

Well, but of course SPb is a most butiful city you have ever seen!

It certainly is! I was impressed, really. I'll probably go there again this summer :)

But moscow is much vigour and full of life

There's nothing more hilarious than PJ daring to manipulate with word "friendship" which has never existed in folksy putin's vocabulary. I'm actually glad that this makes you spew up.



Are you?



Good catch, Jova. Hm... think he was eaten by the system already. Ah! My gosh!!!! Speaker puke!!!!!!!! :0




Why not? Try at least that for now...



full of lust and sh#t I guess...