RUSSIA!

From Estonia, we chose to fly to St. Petersburg rather than battle the supposedly challenging experience of driving across Russian borders. In fact, I think the term we heard from others was more 'harrowing' than challenging. Flying via Helsinki, we had a few hours flying ahead of us when we realised our first flight was delayed to the extent that we would miss our connecting flight. Having experienced this in Madrid flying to Barcelona, we did what any good travellers did:

1. Ran to see if the plane had left (around 1km in the terminal - turns out, as per Madrid, it had)

2. Looked feverishly around for English language signs to direct us to the ticket help desk (which, as per Madrid, were in the middle of nowhere on the opposite end of the terminal)

3. Tried to communicate our issue in a foreign language (this time the understated Finnish language) to the help desk lady (again, a middle aged underpaid, unengaged lady)

4. After a combination of begging, pointing and at least one infuriated outburst from yours truly, a later connecting flight became arranged.

We arrived in St. Petersburg quite late as a result of this process (which between you and I takes a while), and were a little nervous and watchful of our personal belongings walking to our hotel. The hotel itself was very central and quite nice and secure, and included breakfast. We were to stay there for four nights in total, and what an adventure it turned out to be…

From my observations, foreign travellers are generally drawn to Russia to encounter something different, a friendly but dour ex-Soviet giant awoken from its century-long developmental slumber post failed Tsarism and Communism. I'm certain there's an expectation that the 'Russian experience' would contain traces of others which had been encountered before, and an assumed knowledge of the 'Russian way'. How much further off the mark could these travellers (including to an extent, myself) be?

The true Russia is a complex, multi-layered and 100% unique beast. Russia is not 'like' anywhere; it did not 'remind' us of anywhere. Russians have their own verifiably distinct culture and a very set approach to 'how things are done'. On our travels I had not encountered so many contradictions, complexities and socially jaw-dropping moments in such a short space of time.

The first thing that strikes you about Russia is the vast and obvious dichotomy between rich and poor. The richest of the rich live here (oil barons, those rich enough to buy entire English Premier League football teams etc.), but so do some of the poorest of the poor. It's clear that there is money here - the Maseratis are mixed with the Soviet-era 'one size fits all' vehicles (most of which are still used as Police vehicles).

There were amputee beggars, businessmen, ex-war veterans, young Government-level employees, old hunched-over begging war widows and camera clad tourists trying to spend Euros instead of Roubles all literally rubbing shoulders along Nevsky Prospekt.

But equally as clear is the lack of money more overtly - Government-level spending on society seems non-existent. Maybe it just seemed so with the barely maintained roads, or maybe it was more to do with the newspaper article explaining that the water should not be drunk due to unmonitored and unpunished expulsions of paint thinners and other chemicals into the water supply (Giardia apparently gets around).

The even more incredible part about this scene is of course that Russia has not always been like this. Around 100 years ago the Russian empire (although near the brink of its class system-driven downfall) was rich and, more importantly, incredibly powerful. This is evident in the grandiose architecture; the palaces, museums and cathedrals which still glitter like gold in the hazy St. Petersburg skyline.

But all of this stopped when it all hit the fan, starting with the Japo-Russian war in the early 1900's, which Russia lost, then progressing to the deposition, detainment and murder of the entire family of Tsar Nicholas the II (the last Tsar), and eventually to the rise and rise of the Socialist empire which dominated the Russian landscape until the mid 1990's. The riches literally stopped, and in their place was line after line of 'soviet era' architecture, tighter governmental controls (including enforced labour camps in Siberia) and both general and specific repression of art, culture and religion.

This is none more obvious than observation of the simply breathtaking collection of art and historical artefacts housed at the State Hermitage museum. I noted that most works were acquired in the 1800's through to around 1912, and then the acquisitions mysteriously halted for 70 or so years.

The sense of Russia hitting the progression 'pause' button was also pervasive in the tour we undertook of the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood, which mentioned that in Communist times, the church was disused as a place of worship or commemoration and was instead a ridiculously ornate storage warehouse. It even had an undetected, undetonated German bomb dropped during an air strike on St. Petersburg. Undetected until the 1970's.

The rich/poor divide, which is the key underpinning juxtaposition in Russian culture, was also quite clear in our two nights out on the town in St. Petersburg. We had met up with some Australians at the airport, who had been through the same ordeal as us just getting there, and met up with them on a couple of nights for drinks.

The first night was spent in a sweaty, Soviet concrete bunker, full of young Russians whiling their time away drinking the local brew. It was dirty, it was hot as buggery but it was fun - a clear example that Russia's future does have a pulse which is not tainted by dreams of power and corruption. There were smiles a-plenty, lots of broken English-Russian chatting (for me, it was with Yevgeny, a St. Petersburg boxer with hopes of one day beating the bloody Moscovites - his challenge of an arm wrestle in the club were politely declined) and drinks all round.

The following night was our counter-punch from the 'other Russia'. Our Australian friends had heard about a bar 'with a bloody big Hippo out the front', and we edged in there after our Ballet viewing early (for St. Petersburg anyway). The first thing I noticed was the swarm of 6ft tall (with the help of massive stilettos) Russian women wearing short and tight dresses, and the very few men there (all of which were ugly, had mullets, wore singlets and were obviously dour). This only got worse as the night drew on, and after a few drinks I realised that these were not just ordinary ugly Russian men, but millionaires (possibly even billionaires, based on our sighting of the guy with his own personal security and his own roped off area of the karaoke area out the back).

The women? Likely if not definitely blood-suckers, looking for a bit of cash, a few free drinks, and (if the stars aligned) a fortunate marriage eventually. By god were the drinks expensive and the attire overdone. One of our Australian friends put the exclamation mark to this already startling evening by pairing up with some Russian girls of his own and ending up on a rich guy's boat in St. Petersburg harbour at around 5:00am - the photos were ridiculous.

It was a truly eye-opening experience. St. Petersburg is an amazingly beautiful city, full of history, grandeur and cultural pride. But it is missing something, perhaps about 70 years of social and cultural progression. The result is a fascinating, thought-provoking and challenging travel experience that I would recommend to anyone, but with certain caveats.

Almost poetically, on our final Metro trip out of the city to the airport, my thoughts about Russia were bent in another direction. Leaving without my wallet was a bit hard to bear at the time, but thinking about the lives of the pickpockets who so artfully extracted it, it made complete sense in the context of my previous few days.

The people…

Dour, introverted, surly, drunkards; the Russian people have a vast range of usually negative stereotypes. I'm glad to say that we confirmed each of these, but also found an virtually uncountable number of others. Most of what is seen among Russian people today can only be attributed to what has shaped their world in the last century. 4-5 generations of Russian people have been through a failed class system, to a failed 'class-less' system, which has seen some pockets being well lined and others taken from silk purses to sow's ears.

No wonder people in Russia are how they are - such a long-term and overwhelmingly significant cultural diversion can only influence its people and bend and shape how they think and feel. I'm not saying they're the friendliest, warmest and most outgoing people around, but I can say that I can see where they're coming from. The future is a little brighter; as we mixed shoulders with the youth of Russia in one of its bars, I noted smiling faces, hope and a resolve for a better future (but still an overarching and fierce pride in being Russian).

The difference between older and younger Russians is remarkable. Older (and poorer) Russians are still highly superstitious and even racist (an example of which was shown in Nicola's encounter with an old lady in a market area - see below). The young people are quite progressive, open to new ideas and change, and hopefully represent the Russian people of the future.

Highlights…

• The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood - a really beautiful piece of architecture, built not as a place of worship, but as a place of honour for slain Tsar Alexander II ('Alexander the Great'). It contains around 7,000m2 of tile murals inside, which are all stunning.
• Meeting some good Aussie blokes, who we teamed up with to tackle St. Petersburg nightlife.
• St. Peter and Paul's Fortress (and Cathedral), stunning examples of Russian architecture and the burial place of former Russian Tsars.
• Dinner at an authentic Caucasian restaurant - magnificent dumplings and kebabs.
• Watching a performance of Swan Lake at a Ballet theatre - beautiful and flawless.
• The State Hermitage Museum - a collection of stunning proportion and magnificence, including a genuine preserved Egyptian Mummy, artwork by Da Vinci ('Madonna and Child'), Monet, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Titan and Rodin. 3 hours well spent.
• The heat, which was beautiful more so at night.
• Learning Cyrillic symbols was a lot of fun (learning that 'C' is actually 'S' and so on). The only issue is that once you've converted it, it's still in Russian...

Lowlights…

• Being pick-pocketed on the way home - looking back on it, it was obvious, but they are good at what they do. Not much money lost (about $30AU), but it was more the massive and still ongoing inconvenience of missing my bank cards.
• Nicola's encounter with an old hag in a St. Petersburg street market area. She simply walked up to Nicola and put her hand on Nicola's face, shouting something angrily at her. After I got my thoughts together I shouted as many profanities in her face as I could muster, and suggested she move on politely. Realising the language barrier, I followed this up with a middle finger salute. More about this in the 'people' section below.
• The guy with live monkeys in the streets a) freaked me out, as I don't trust Monkeys just as I don't trust Spaniards b) didn't appear to be taking care of the poor animals and c) presented a real threat of rabies.
• Again, the heat, which was uncomfortable for sleeping, had ugly men diving into fountains and generally raised a bit of a stench around the place.

In summary...

As for me, I would certainly go back to visit - I've never been to a place which presents such an interesting, thought-provoking and truly unique experience. One thing I've learnt is that you don't go in without a bit of 'street smarts'…

I would liken it to…

A giant, dusty Rubik's cube which used to be covered all in red squares, but which is now slowly letting other colours in, and is becoming more complex than before.