Probably not much. Almost definitely not much.
Let me share with you my life as a St. Petersburg resident.
More stories!!!
So again, I live on Vasilievsky Island. It's waaaaaaaaaay away from my school - across the mainland, over the bridge, and across almost the entire island, to be exact. Obviously, walking's out. There's no way I'm walking for an age and a half to get to my destination, only to realize upon arrival that it's time to leave again to make it home for dinner. The buses and marshrutkas (the communal taxi service) go places, but they're dependent on the traffic. Think New York City in rush hour, but with Boston drivers and no pedestrian laws. You take life into your own hands trying to cross the street - I'm not gonna trust my life to street transportation when the cars act like the metro during rush hour, jockeying for position and barely scraping by just to be an inch or two ahead. Thus, I take the metro everywhere.
It doesn't look so bad, right??
My apartment complex is built like a fortress. To get out, I don my multiple layers of clothes, coats, gloves, hats, and my ski jacket and unbolt the door, relocking it behind me. Now in the hallway, there's a big door about 30ft in front of me. Turn the knob a couple times to unbolt it and push it open. This thing looks like it should be the door to a bunker or something, all dark metal and incredibly heavy. Make sure it clangs shut and turn a second key a couple times to make sure it bolts again. Take the elevator down to the ground floor and exit through another repurposed bunker door. But wait, then I'm just on a street in the apartment complex. It takes another key at a gate to get free and walk out onto the street. Such an ordeal.
Once again, this is my building. I took it from the street on my way to the metro one of the days I don't have to wake up ridiculously early for class. And really, the entire street looks kinda like this building. Tall, gray, kinda featureless. Yeah.
Nothing too fancy. There are some oddities here that I have yet to see in the States.
I mentioned Russian drivers earlier. They have the most interesting parking policy here in St. Petersburg, and it is a great source of confusion and amusement as my friends and I walk places.
It's called "No parking?? No problem".
Amaze. Such parking. Wow.
I have seen soooooooo many cars here in my wanderings propped up on the curb, one wheel, two wheels, the entire car. Today I went to hang out with a friend and we passed by a parking lot. The spaces were all taken, so people just starting double and triple parking, literally wherever their car would fit. Unfortunately, some poor guy was trying to get his car out back onto the street through gaps that barely let me through. There's no pedestrian laws here, so some of the cars will drive on the sidewalk before finding that perfect place to park and forcing us walkers to tempt fate and oncoming traffic as we try to walk around.
Second thing St. Petersburg has, which is also on my way to the metro. We have 24 hour flower shops here.
Yes. Flower shops. 24 hour everything is pretty big here in St. Petersburg - I'm not entirely sure if it's because once the river thaws the bridges go up at night and stranded people need a place to go or because Russians are complete night owls - but I still don't understand why a flower shop needs to be open 24 hours a day. I asked Mihail, my conversation professor, and he said "Well, what if it's 3am and you need flowers?? You run down to the flower shop and say I NEED FLOWERS and you will get some and bring them home." But but but Mihail, what the hell do you need flowers for at 3am?!! And why can't it wait until morning?? This confuses me.
Anyway, I get around here by metro. Plain and simple. And you know what?? The St. Petersburg metro system puts the DC metro and the Boston T to shame. Absolute shame. Trains here run every 2-3 minutes constantly from open to close, and there's a clock on each side to tell you how much time has passed since the last train left the station. And the metro is PRETTY.
It is clean. It is efficient. A lot of them have plaques and statues and stained glass and things adorning the walls. What does DC and Boston have?? A lot of grime and a lingering smell of latrines.
Also, my metro stop is one of the LEAST decorated metro stops I've seen here in St. Petersburg so far. Many of the others are much more ornate, with bright tiled walls and chandeliers and bronze carvings ranging from a simple fence of what looks like spears (at Ploshad Vosstaniya) to giant scenes of glory (like Alexander Nevsky's victory towering over metro riders at the Ploshad Alexander Nevskovo station).
So this is my route to school, essentially. Every morning, in darkness ranging from pitch black to dull and dreary, I walk from my apartment to the metro. Depending on the time of day (or the level of darkness, whichever scale you prefer), I may or may not be sardined by a teeming mass of snappily dressed people. The closest metro stop to my school is a 20 minute walk away from Smolney, so I have two choices. I can wake up early and feel like I'm in a daze as I try to fight my way to the right metro stop and catch the program van to school. Or, if I don't have early morning classes (and yes, 10am is "early morning" here, since it means my alarm goes off at 6:45am), I can walk down some streets and through a lovely park to get to school.
At some point I'll post about Smolney and the St. Petersburg State University and such. There will be gorgeous pictures, perhaps the dour looking ladies who man the coat check, and just a general rant/gushing about my school here. For now, it's midnight. Time to catch some zzz's.
'Night everyone!!
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