Wow, St. Petersburg was great, I knew very little about the city before I arrived so I had no real expectations or preconceptions – except maybe that is was poor and unsafe, which it wasn’t (Mexico and the Caribbean islands I’ve visited seem way more poor and unsafe) . The city reminded me of Helsinki because of the architecture, landscape, climate…and reminded me of New York because of the people and culture. My girlfriend and I made sure we spent some time out of the tourist district, we went on the subway during morning rush hour – the visitors who never leave the downtown area obviously never get to see the true city, and visitors like me who never get to the outskirts of the city never get a true sense for it either.

I especially enjoyed the very liberal aspects of the city – it seemed like anyone and everyone was an entrepreneur – everyone had their own little shops, and if you didn’t have a building you brought your shop with you on the street, or out the back of your car trunk, or in your hands. So many shops open 24 hours, each shop had about two employees for each customer, and each shop had at least one security guard and seemed to have more “control” over their property (they were able to kick out whomever they damn well pleased, so their shops weren’t littered with loiterers). Alcohol was able to be sold at just about anywhere at anytime from anyone. Plenty of public transportation available, little (private?) white vans go where buses and trams don’t go, and anyone with an automobile could be a private taxi.

I was very impressed with the Russian people – just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you can’t take care of yourself. Most everyone was clean, well dressed (“dressed to impress” is more like it), took care of their figure, took care of their hygiene worked hard, and spent their 400e/month very wisely…I can’t say this for all the other poorer countries I’ve visited.

My girlfriend couldn’t get over how much the place has changed in the five years since she’d been there. The people have westernized, they looked more wealthy, the city looked much safe and cleaner (the streets were spotless in the tourist area and quite nice in surrounding areas) – our tour guide said the amount of cars have tripled within the last five years. St. Petersburg appeared to be a city really on its way up – Helsinki better watch out, they’ll be a huge economic competitor in the near future. Looking forward to visit again…

Here’s me trying to pretend all classy and shit. The book in my hand is “Ken Warren teaches Texas Hold’em” and a few minutes after this pic was taken, I was in my cabin stripped down to my boxers drinking warm Heineken from the tax-free shop watching The Simpsons.