be sure to buy this?

[amanda blake]

what is not to be missed as a purchase in Baltic ports....

love to shop...so give me a heads up....

 

in copenhagen, in stockholm, helsinki, St. petes, talin, klaipeda, riga....

[elynch]

Hi Amanda, Your question about shopping is on mly list to the TA. I love to shop!!!! We'll sent our husbands off and take off to the shops.... of course we will buy them something.

 

Elaine

[amanda blake]

Elaine,oh me too...love it...it just isnt a holiday if shopping is not part of it...lol...

 

tell me also when I have to send the passport numbers to RO....we are getting new ones this month...but if I have to send them numbers now, I will send the old numbers and then just update....

 

we waited for a sale on air...got one..not great but not bad...and the flight is direct from Toronto to Heath.....7 hours....

 

TA said the sales would be even better in February and March...but we got nervous and wanted it wrapped up....

 

still watching the rates for the Thistle Marble Arch...that is where we will stay with Eddie and his gang....

 

I was told that Talin is the place to shop....love your middle name...it is the same as mine....lol...we will have fun....

[realproperty]

We did the Baltic in 2003 on RCI. You did not say whether you are a fancy or quality shopper or just like to shop. We are not souvenir shoppers so we may be coming from a different point of view. Oslo reminded me of Halifax and the shopping is on a par. (I note you are from Toronto so you probably know what I mean.) Stockholm is crystal but find a high end shop and ask them for the unique or limited edition pieces (they keep it in the back) not the mass produced stuff and you should find something awesome (but not cheap.) Helsinki is Marimekko and herring (lots of choices of herring.) St. Petersberg is expensive enamel boxes and souvenir crap. Talinn is amber, lots of it to compare and our cruise was selling it on the boat before we got to Talinn so choices will be difficult. Copenhagen is probably the most cosmopolitan of the cities (with Stockholm a close second)-lots of china.

 

If you are looking for good stuff, be sure to price before you go. Even with VAT refunds, prices can be high and some stuff you can get at home. If you are looking for junk, they sure have that too. The Baltic is a wonderful cruise destination. We had a blast.

[Jane110]

I agree with realproperty. It would be easier to answer your question if we knew exactly what kind of shopping you wanted.

 

I'm typically a high end shopper with a need to buy some inexpensive "souveniers" for nieces, cat-sitter, etc, but I don't items like tee shirts, shot glasses, souvenier spoons.

 

All over the Baltic you'll see lovely crystal - I prefer the items in Copenhagen, which are more modern....a la Georg Jensen. There are also Rosenthal China stores in every city and the price an espresso set I liked was just about the same in all cities.

 

Amber is very popular and you can buy items for $15. or $1500. Generally speaking I found the best prices in Gdansk for both high end and souveneir quality items.

 

The open market in Helsinki has some very lovely things and I bought a fox hat for $100. which sells easily for over $400. here in the US. I also bought shearling mittens, gloves and baby booties. I bought a cotton handknit sweater for a friend w/ a newborn for $30. which would be double here. The Marrimekko shop, as noted, is great and there are some wonderful housewear stores with very modern designs in plates, glasses, pitchers, etc. Everyone will ship to the US if you like.

 

In Russia, the flea market outside The Church of the Spilled Blood has lots of vendors selling all kinds in inexpensive souveniers along with some beautiful and expensive hand carved chess sets. If you're touring with Red October they'll take you to their store as well, which is just about the same price as the flea market but might have some wider ranges of color choices.

 

In Tallinn don't miss the candied almonds sold by the street vendors.

 

Jane

[stanj]

Hi Jane

As a high-end shopper with needs to buy less expensive gifts, the normal tourist traps might not be the most satisfactoy for you when you reach St Petersburg. Of the tourist markets, there are two near the Church of the Resurection( On Spilt Bood). One is located across the street to the east. I do not recommend this one because it is famous for picpockets and the quality of the items is lower. Another one, much smaller is directly on the other side of the church, west, along the canal. It is a gift kiosk/ series of stalls attached to the Russian museum and profits help support the museum. Better quality items are available, at about the same prices in the Prasage shopping center directly across Nevsky pr from Gostiny Dvor. There are also nice Russian gift shops on the first floor of Dostiny Dvor. Also across the street from G.D. is Grand Palace, a new elegent and modern interior 4 story shopping center. As will many buidlings downtown the exterior is restored original design but the interior is very modern. Although most tourist buy wood boxes, amber, nesting dolls, and fur hats, that is not what St Petersburg is known for. It is a fashion capital with well known designers of clothing, furs, jewelry and objects of craft arts. A practical and appreciated gift would be fine china from Lomonosov. The factory is near the Neva river boat terminal and it houses, on its 4th floor, the Hermitage's new permanent exhibition of porcilan objects, an art St Petersburg is famous for. Lomonosov has an interesting history and the Hermitage museum annex and factory store downstairs on the first floor at Prospekt Obukhovskoi Oborony are not well enough known or visited by short time visitors. When I send gifts, Lomonosov china and objects of porcilan are always well received.

If you like the talents and creations of the famous House of Faberge you will love to visit the beautiful showroom and gallery of Ananov right on Nevsky Prospekt #31. for a review of some of the items for sale check Ananov's web site

Ananov is a master jeweler and produces incredible creations in his local workshop aided by a small army of talented of craftsmen. A small tour group ought to put that store/museum on their list of sights to see.

Photobooks and books of any type are good bargains in Russia so books featuring beautiful photos of St Petersburg and Russia in many languages are always good choices for gifts. If you visit a typical Russian apartment, for example for lunch, notice the livingroom has a large, quality, dark word

bookcase/memento display case which is filled with books, hardbound classics primarily. The pubishing industry was subsidized for many years so anyone could buy books and they did. As a side note concerning reading: I have never gotten a reasonable answer to my question but when I am in a metro train car or on a tram, I notice most other passengers are reading books or magazines or doing crossword puzzles. What I do not understand is why hardly anyone is wearing glasses to read small text on a swaying, jiggling train car? At home in San Francisco 75% over 45 would be wearing reading glasses....including myself.....a mystery.

If you are a fur person, St Petersburg has some great designers and showrooms, some right near the center. One high fashion oriented store is located next door to the famous Nevsij Palace Hotel on Nevsky prospekt.

Gold jewelry is very popular but notice the common colors in Russia have more copper added then in the west where other agents are added to create its color. The copper renders the gold to have a reddish tint. Russia is a major diamond producer so naturally, good deals can be had on diamonds. St Petersburg is the Eastern Europe art capital with many established as well as up and coming arts, with galleries of all sorts. There are two of Eastern Europe's most respected Art Institutes in the city. Also along Nevsky pr is a artist cooperative gallery where bargains can be found directly from the artist. This is not the tourist art that can be found in shops and a square just north of the Europe Hotel and Nevsky pr.

One idea miight sound corny but some of the street artists who do portraits of passerbys are really quite talented. There are two main areas for them to work, one much better than the other. There is a famous monument and park dedicated to Catherine the Great a block south of Dostiny Dvor shopping center on the sidewalk in front of Ostroskovo Square is a group of 10-15 sidewalk artists, about half of whom are about as talented as I have ever seen. For less than 500 Rubles they can do portraits in a variety of mediums but mostly chaulk or pastels. On a sunny morning I often watch for a hour or so if I have time to kill. The park right behind that artist gathering spot is a lovely park with benches in a larger circular cleaning surrounding the Catherine monument that is relaxing to sit in the sun and people watch.

I could go on about shopping suggestions but this is probably too long as it is.

By the way, the reason I noticed the quality and styles of the shoes was that during the 80s as a side line unrelated to my main business( owner of a major recording studio), I created a successful fashion women's shoe store featuring primarily quality Italian, Spanish and Brazilian brands...and no practical shoes allowed, just pretty, feminine and stylish shoes. I also created a high-end dress store but that is another story.

Good shopping

Stan

[travelingmcmahans]

This is from a post I made on the old boards... hope it helps

Shopping in Tallin

 

St Petersburg shopping

 

shopping in Copenhagen

 

stockholm shopping

 

Helsinki shopping

 

Berlin shopping

[amanda blake]

ooh such wonderful ideas...thank you everyone...

 

I am not into souveneers....but would like a samovar....although the silver ones are probably out of my price range....

 

am I a high end or low end...well I dont like junk but I do like good deals....

 

and of course looking is always fun....

 

I was born in Siberia.....but came to canada at the age of 8...so this is a homecoming for me of sorts..still speak some Russian...spent 3 months in Riga, Latvia....when I was 7...so this is a very nostalgic trip for me...

 

thanks Stan for all that info...

[cadreamer]

The places you mention sound great and some sound expensive. I am wondering if credit cards are accepted or are we talking about carrying a fairly large amount of cash? I realize it would be more expensive to use a credit card but maybe worth it for the security. I really appreciate your suggestions and look forward to finding some of the places you mention. If you have more ideas. please go on.

[Jane110]

Stan,

 

I don't think you read my message clearly. I'm not looking to shop, I was giving advice to another poster about shopping.

 

You made some good points, so I'm sure the original poster read them.

 

Jane

[amanda blake]

oh yes have read all of it and looking forward to more....

[stanj]

The places you mention sound great and some sound expensive. I am wondering if credit cards are accepted or are we talking about carrying a fairly large amount of cash? I realize it would be more expensive to use a credit card but maybe worth it for the security. I really appreciate your suggestions and look forward to finding some of the places you mention. If you have more ideas. please go on.

 

Hi CA Dreamer

Credit cards are accepted at any store that his higher end items and many mid line stores accept them also. Now, with ATMs around every corner and a growing number of locals carrying Debit cards (their employer direct deposits into their account and the employee uses an ATM to withdraw their pay...people do not use checks). The common way to buy in discount shops, markets and most services is with Rubles however. This is a very rapid change from an almost all cash society only a few dozen months ago. Consumer credit has come to Russia recently also, and so has the previously strange concept of the "sale". In the past, an item that was discounted would sit on the shelf unsold because the assumption was that if the seller was discounting it, the item must be defective, inferior or otherwise undesirable. Now, just 2 years later, clothing, home electronics and appliance stores have full time signs with 3 ft letters "SALE" or "%%" and if it doesn't offer a real sale or discount it is empty. "Sale" is often written out in Latin alphabet the English word Sale. Terms like credit, discount, sale, fast, new, custom, deluxe and others are often the English word either in our Latin alphabet or writen phonetically using Cyrillic. If you spend a little time, a hour or two, memorizing the 33 character Cyrillic alphabet you will be able to read an amazing number of signs. Although the letters look strange to westerners, they are easy to read phonetically so sound out familar English words as well as Russian words. Reading signs phonetically you will recognize Restaurant, cafe, toilet, metro, stop, and hundreds of other words

 

My recommendation is to carry as much cash, in Rubles, that you need for your immediate pirchases....food, tips, transportation if you are independent and bargain shopping and leave larger purchases to credit cards. So if you really can't live without that new 12 place setting of Blue Cobalt Lomonosov china, you can use your credit card. Avoid any purchases of items that are imported because they will not be bargains. Unless made in Russia or one of the CIS countries the import duties will force the price up to or above US prices.

One thing that is a real bargain but few people talk about it because it is controversial....DVDs, CDs and computer programs are sold everywhere and are dirt cheap. Most are copies but of high quality. Almost any movie is available on DVD for between 90 and 120 Rubles($3-4), CD-Roms full of the latest computer programs, some very high end programs like AutoCad and Oracle among them. A typical CD Rom will have dozens of similar themed titles on it. For example a $2 CD Rom for PhotoShop will have 10-15 similar programs on it. Easy access to programming tools and developer software has created one of the most technology savvy countries in the world. St Petersburg University students run away with almost every world wide programming contest betting MIT, Stanford, Cambridge every year.

Music CDs include regular releases of locally produced artists(Russian pop music is heard everywhere you go in St. Petersburg and some of it is very good) and copies of western albums of all types including jazz, rock, blues, classical, show tunes, folk and dance. In addition to regular music CDs there are compilations of all the collected works of individual artists on one MP3 CD, for example one disk with all known recordings of Muddy Waters, 187 songs....a disk I an currently listening to. Or Everything a particular jazz great recorded. These generally go for 60 Rubles, a little over $2. At the entrance to Metros(subways) and many kiosks around the city, these disks can be found for similar prices. One modern chain store of music, programs and DVDs is called "505" and there are two on Nevsky prospekt and one on Bol. Konyushennya, near Nevsky prospekt only a couple blocks from the Hermitage. They have a lot more outlets but these 3 are in locations you will walk or drive by.

 

One IMPORTANT note about credit cards: Notify you card issuer that you will be visiting Russia and Scandinavia in advance of your leaving home or you might find your second and all later use attempts blocked for security reasons. If you have limited past card usage history in these countries on record, your account will be flagged for "unexpected use pattern" and they WILL lock it until you can call them and tell them it is you using the card and you are on vacation in those countries.

 

There are some great antique stores that are like museums in themselves. One word of caution: Any real antique is restricted for export unless a waiver is obtained from the Ministry of Culture. Good antique stores can arrange this for a small fee but the item does not leave the country without the export license.

 

Happy shopping

Stan

[amanda blake]

ooh stan you are incredible...

 

one more thing...do you go to a bank to exchange dollars for rubbles?

[Princess Di]

Rouble, Rouble, Rouble :D

 

abbreviation: RUB

 

Q: What is the exchange rate for Roubles to Pounds to Dollars???

 

A: It takes Pounds of Roubles to make a Dollar. :p

[stanj]

ooh stan you are incredible...

 

one more thing...do you go to a bank to exchange dollars for rubbles?

 

Now, if only a woman would tell me that ...who was NOT married..;>)

 

Money...

The Ruble is not a convertable currency which means it is not traded outside Russia, not legally anyway. So you will have to wait until you are in Russia to exchange dollars or Pounds for Rubles.

Exchange banks seem to be around every corner in St Petersburg and they come in 3 main forms. The first being Hotels and large commercial banks which have their exhange services but the most common ways to get Rubles are small exchange shops, which are called banks but they are little more than closets in size and through ATMs

ATM charges can be high for small amounts, sometimes $3 per withdrawl.

Exchange banks can be identified by the signs which list a dozen or more foreign currencies and the asking and bidding price, or simply, the price they will sell and buy currencies, The Spread or difference between those values is their gorss profit. Currently the rate is about 29:1 for dollars

but you can check for the minute to minute rate at http://www.mataf.net/en/exchange-RUB.htm

 

The Ruble has been the most stable currency in Europe over the last 6 hears after the monetary Crisis of 1998 and Putin has promised to make the Ruble converable within 3 years so its value will be determined by international markets. There has been a public policy of propping up the dollar in Russia for the last year so Russian products would find easier sales in western countries but until recently the dollar has been slipping faster than the Russian central bank could buy them. Now it rebounding and next summer the rate should be 30 or more Rubles to $1

 

Note that exchange rates posted on the outdoor signs are often better than what you actually get for reasons hard to explain or justify plus many small exhange banks charge a 20-30 Rubles as a transaction commission.

 

To use a small exchange bank just enter and wait until a guard directs you to an open teller window. Present your passport and visa or travel document along with your money, usually $20, $50 or $100 bills in the sliding drawer and a 30-60 seconds later the teller will slide the drawer back towards you with a receipt which might be needed to exit the country with more cash than you entered with, and your Rubles. Rubles will be in 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 Ruble notes and change coins in values of 1 or 5 Rubles and various values of Kopecks, of which there are 100 per Ruble. Most clerks in stores will act irritated if you do not have exact change..ignore them, it is an old Soviet era habit that is quickly fading. Kopecks are worth very little, about $0.00033 each so are only offered for change, not for buying typically. Even children will not stop to pick up a coin less than a Ruble. The values of dollars used by Russians are usually $100 but sometimes $50s and $20s but seldom do they carry anything smaller.

Note that higher priced items have a lot of zeros, so you will often see price tags in "y.e." which seem to be lower. These are carry overs from the early 90s when the value of the Ruble flucuated daily. "y.e." is equivalent to the current value in Dollars, converted to Rubles. Expensive restaurants often price their menus in "y.e." instead of Rubles even though there is little daily flucuation. Now it is used simply to not scare customers with gigantic price tags priced in Rubles. Seeing a price tag of 30,000 Rubles for fur coats seems more reasonable with it says 1071 y.e.

 

Happy shopping

Stan

[travelingmcmahans]

Strangely, getting rubles from an ATM was something I kept dreaming about before our trip. I guess I was mystified by rubles - they sounded so exotic :p

 

Our guide took us to an ATM located (safely,I assume was the reason) inside the lobby of a large beautiful hotel. I don't recall any kind of exorbitant fee - no more than one would pay elsewhere in Europe. The only drawback is that it only permits withdrawals of up to the equivalent of $300 US. So in order to pay our guide and all of our other expenditures, we had to return to another ATM the next day.

 

After seeing the Estonian kroner (sp?) the ruble was slightly less exotic...:rolleyes:

[Princess Di]

Well, the nice table format got all convoluted in the copy & paste; however, if you go to this website, you can copy & paste these 2 tables into an e-mail or document, print them, glue onto a recipe card - I glue $ to Roubles on one side and Roubles to Dollars on the other side, cover with tape, and carry in my wallet with my money. Then you will know exactly what you are paying in case it is priced in Roubles. I do this for each country's currency. :D

The format on the website exactly fits the recipe card. :cool:

 

http://www.oanda.com/convert/cheatsheet?exch=USD&expr=RUB&result=1

 

USD RUB USD RUB USD RUB

1 = 28.02 10 = 280.20 100 = 2802

2 = 56.04 15 = 420.30 200 = 5604

3 = 84.06 20 = 560.40 300 = 8406

4 = 112.08 25 = 700.50 400 = 11208

5 = 140.10 30 = 840.60 500 = 14010

6 = 168.12 35 = 980.70 600 = 16812

7 = 196.14 40 = 1120.80 700 = 19614

8 = 224.16 45 = 1260.90 800 = 22416

9 = 252.18 50 = 1401.00 900 = 25218

 

FXCheatSheet for Travelers

© 1997-2005 by OANDA, Corp.

http://www.oanda.com 60 = 1681.20 Interbank rate

US Dollar (USD)

Russian Rouble (RUB)

January 26, 2005

70 = 1961.40

80 = 2241.60

90 = 2521.80

 

Put it into your wallet before you travel..

 

RUB USD RUB USD RUB USD

10 = 0.36 100 = 3.57 1000 = 36

20 = 0.71 150 = 5.35 2000 = 71

30 = 1.07 200 = 7.13 3000 = 107

40 = 1.43 250 = 8.92 4000 = 143

50 = 1.78 300 = 10.70 5000 = 178

60 = 2.14 350 = 12.48 6000 = 214

70 = 2.50 400 = 14.27 7000 = 250

80 = 2.85 450 = 16.05 8000 = 285

90 = 3.21 500 = 17.83 9000 = 321

 

FXCheatSheet for Travelers

© 1997-2005 by OANDA, Corp.

http://www.oanda.com 600 = 21.40 Interbank rate

Russian Rouble (RUB)

US Dollar (USD)

January 26, 2005

700 = 24.96

800 = 28.53

900 = 32.10

 

Put it into your wallet before you travel..

[amanda blake]

Stan are you originally from Russia? and do you go back? what is your occupation?

[stanj]

Di

That is a good idea, maybe a good tour operater will pick up on it and give out little flash cards to their clients. I did that for visitors from the US and Europe who wanted to be out on their own without me needing to show them around. I created cards and laminated them in a machine at a metro station on one side was Ruble/Dollar conversions and on the other side was a list of words as seen on signs in Cyrillic and their English meaning. It included names of the main metro stops so comparing the signs to the card, first time users could tell where they were headed and how to get back. A lot of people use little travel dictionaries but they are not convenient to pull out on short notice to just check a metro stop name or what a city center street sign says.

 

 

Amanda....a name brings to mind my crush on Amanda Blake when I was little because she was on my favorite TV program, GunSmoke....along with Mr Wizard..the original one;>)

 

No, I am not from Russia. I grew up in Sacramento, 5th generation Californian... before John Sutter, and moved to San Francisco area and Sausalito right after high school and out of the house for the first time.

My profession which came as most, by accident, as a recording studio engineer and owner ( my degree is in electrical engineering) allowed me to travel extensively between albums. My habit that also started by accident was to simply go to the SFO airport with my reserve-always-in-the-trunk suitcase immediately after the final wrap of mixing and acceptance of a new record. Arriving at the international termina, i would walk down the line of agents watching the signs to buy a ticket on the next plane out....where ever it was going. That was in the day with discount tickets were not generally available so everybody paid book rate. It was also before the massive security checks and delays so arriving at the airport to sitting in my seat could be as little as 10 minutes, most of that walking to the gate. As a result I visited 86 countries, many of which I never would have planned a trip to if not for this system of forced "diversity" . In 1979 I was in England visiting my sister who lived there for 5 years and her travel agent neighbor came for tea and asked her if she know anyone who wanted to go to the USSR on a group tour of Moscow and Leningrad(now called St Petersburg) because they had one spot open. Four days later I was sitting in the Moscow airport for the first time and realizing that all my study was useless because everything I knew was wrong. When the group got to Leningrad, I fell in love with it. It was and still is amazing. I love Paris and Milan but I feel real passion for St Petersburg. That has not deminished over the 26 years since that visit. I visited as a tourist 2-3 up to 7 times a year through out that period.

My name as an engineer and producer was well known in Russia even at that time so it opened a lot of doors and I even consulted with the Ministry of Culture about a worry of theirs at the time of the rising popularity of rock & rock which was centered in Leningrad.

The record industry in the US died in the early 90s so I moved on other projects and lowered my lifestyle and expectations a few orders of magnitde but my interest in travel never left and travel to St Petersburg increased.

I was pretty lucky in falling into many things in my life but being open minded and a bit of a romantic at heart provided lots of positive impressions of every place I found myself. For example my first attempt at recording was a total fluke. I agreed to fill in for a load in to answer technical questions that would have been covered by a friends who WAS a recording engineer who could not make the first day. I was assured I would be there just to answer questions from the producer and group when the equipment was loading in from the trucks and general set up and my friend would return in time to take over the actual recording activity. As it turned he was wrong, the group had already loaded in the night before and were expecting to start right away in recording basic drum tracks an hour after I arrived. I knew electronics and acoustics but was not even a musician or ever recorded anything before. I winged it. And invented new ways because I did not know what nornally would have been done. At the end of that day the producer insisted I take over the whole project and my efforts to bow out were met with great resistance. So my very first recording sold 12.5 million copies. If you have albums from the 70s and 80s it is likely you have some with my name on them. I ended up buying the studio shortly after and it become one of the most successful studios in the world through that period, and producing more hit records than any other for 6 years in a row.

 

So, in my normal long winded way, I answered the question whether I was Russian, no, Scottish ;>)

 

Stan

[SaylorGirl]

Stan - I must admit I was curious also. That was a fantastic answer thanks for posting your information. It sounds like you have had an intriguing life. Keep up all your great answers!

[amanda blake]

yes Stan you answered it in a most interesting way....thank you....

 

now I understand your first hand knowledge of the workings of that part of the world...

 

wish you were coming on the cruise with us....it would be something to have an expert along...

 

my contribution will be that I speak russian fluently, was in Moscow at age 7...but that doesnt count...I still remember Lenin and Stalins tomb...and I remember the GUM store...some of my favourite foods...piroshky sold by the vendors in the streets..filled with cabbage, potato, meat, or jam....

 

I have never been to Leningrad....I just want a sense of the life of the city...I dont care about seeing all the museums and all the chuches and all the galleries....that is not what gives you the feeling that you know a place....

 

in Riga I want to go to the building where my mother was born....I was there also when 7...all I remember is the open air markets....

 

so stan as you see this is a bittersweet cruise for me...one of going back...not the sort of cruise I am used to of sun, sea, shopping, and relaxing....

 

where is your next trip?

[cadreamer]

I too have been very curious and enjoyed learning more about you and your fascinating life. Your passion for St. Petersburg comes thru in everything you write. Thanks again for your efforts.

[stanj]

wish you were coming on the cruise with us....it would be something to have an expert along...

 

Helllo Amanda. That would be great fun but I am affraid cruise lines would not consider me an expert. They often give passage or discounts for "experts" to give lectures and act as guides but they expect the person to have a PhD or be the author of a book on the topic;>( I suppose there are different types of experts and on many topics you would be better to have along than an "expert" due to your life experience and language skills.

 

my contribution will be that I speak russian fluently, was in Moscow at age 7...but that doesnt count...I still remember Lenin and Stalins tomb...and I remember the GUM store...some of my favourite foods...piroshky sold by the vendors in the streets..filled with cabbage, potato, meat, or jam....

 

If you can compare your distant memories of Russia with what you find this time, your surprise will be more than for the first time visitors. Quite likely you will have the most profound realizations of the group. GUM will always be there but Moscow is amazingly developed, still beautiful in the city center but now too modern, expensive and fast for me.

The piroshky ladies are still out with their carts in all weather. I used to grab one every morning walking from the metro to my office...10Rubles all the way up to 20 Rubles depending on the filling. Gone are the barrels of Kvas however but it is making a comeback, young people are starting to discover it again and even some trendy nightclubs offer their own homebrew. In the last year, I found one brand that I really liked and drank it often. The open markets are still found but in the suburbs where all the space for new construction is, you would be amazed at the number and size of the supermakets and super stories.

 

I have never been to Leningrad....I just want a sense of the life of the city...I dont care about seeing all the museums and all the chuches and all the galleries....that is not what gives you the feeling that you know a place....

 

Personally I am not the one to visit one photo opportuniies after another, but prefer spending lots of time absorbing the content of museums because not only are they facinated but they offer a snap shot of what They think is important enough to exhibit, they are the culture's snap shot photo album. But walking and just interacting with where ever I am is my greatest joy in my travels and few place are better for that than St Petersburg. Visiting open markets or parks where ordinary people relax with their families or cafes and restaurant where they celebrate special occasions or even visit ZAGs to witness weddings( I've just dropped by and been welcomed into wedding parties. For those not familar with ZAGs it is the civil wedding hall where official weddings take place. Church weddings also exist but they are not offiicial until registered with ZAGs.

Or best yet, being welcomed into someone's home and being embarassed by the degree of generosity and good will expressed my a typical Russian family for any stranger to their home. And the food! Being perfect and attentive hosts to visitors to ones home is a high priority goal in Russia. The thing that surprises foreigner most I think when they meet locals in their homes is just how social and joyful people are behind closed doors. Real humanistic humor and kindness is the norm. In public most Russians seem pretty reserved and seldom smile unless there is a funny incident or situation which leaves many visitors with the impression they are not happy people. Sitting around the small kitchen tablesharing stories, small talk, concerns, and seeking advice over finger snacks and tea is one of the most satisfying things about Russia. Amanda, have you noticed how these kitchen sessions with neighbors and friends seem to be a great stablizing influence. There is little neurosis in Russia but phycosis is pretty much the same rates as in other countries. Overall, I think that ubiquitous kitchen table talk is one of the reasons Russians seem to have a high degree of mental health.

 

In Riga I want to go to the building where my mother was born....I was there also when 7...all I remember is the open air markets....

 

so stan as you see this is a bittersweet cruise for me...one of going back...not the sort of cruise I am used to of sun, sea, shopping, and relaxing....

 

I think you will find a great deal to appreciate in experiencing a furtherance of your connection to your heritage. I predict that you will be back again. Your usual vacations filled with sand, sun and warm blue skies don't have to be in the tropics, try Sochi or Yalta on the black sea.

 

where is your next trip?

 

Ukraine and Germany to see friends, nothing exotic, just relaxing and visiting with people I have been lax in getting back to visit as promised.

Have a great visit, if we are in the city at the same time, we might plan to run into each other.

Stan

[amanda blake]

ooh would love that Stan.....

 

thank you for reminiscing with me....

[mikenmar]

Stan thank you for all your information. It is very interesting to read about people. You left out the name of your company. That would be interesting if I have your recordings.

 

Marion