Get out of here STALKER!
St.Petersburg is a beautiful city with, to my experience, very nice people. Of course, I visited it during the early summer when schools had just ended and the Navy personel had some sort of celebration going on too. I can understand that it is a dangerous city if you are in the wrong place in the wrong time but then again so are any other major cities. My trip lasted from thursday (arriving to st.petersburg at around 5 PM) until sunday (left the city at around 2 PM) but still managed to fill those days with a lot of great experiences.
I stayed at Azimut hotel and have nothing to complain about it. The hotel is not that far off from Neva so I had some nice walks in the surrounding area along Neva, met a lot of nice (tipsy) people. Had a great moment to watch a photoshoot in a closed street just next to Neva. Was told by some of the staff members that I would have to either go around the block or wait until they are done but was free to stay if I felt like it. Of course, every guy who were there right at that moment decided to stay because they had such gorgeous models posing in all sorts of sensual ways.
Food was great too, not just in the hotel but anywhere I went to ranging from small coffee houses to fancy restaurants.
I have no idea how the city is in a "normal" state because during my trip there Sarkozy had decided to visit russia too and he was in the city from friday to saturday. Had military polices EVERYWHERE. Maybe thats why I was given the impression that the city isnt as dangerous as I've always been told it is. Not to forget that my trip hit spot on with the school ending/start of the summer celebration so everyone were happy and drunk.
Visited quite many churches and other places of worship too and was just stunned of the sheer size of everything. Unfortunately the artillery museum that I had planned to visit was closed during the weekend, but I did look at all the different guns through the iron bars like a desperate convict wanting to get out from his jail cell.
On sunday (my last day there) I decided to go around the shops. I had nothing specific in mind that I'd like to buy but I thought I'd see if I could find something nice, for at least as souvenir for my nephew and niece. Stumbled upon this huge bookstore and was it filled with so many interesting books about WW2 that I would have wanted to just stay there for the whole day. Too bad I cant read russian and unfortunately I dont remember the name of this store nor I cannot pinpoint it's location. However, that store was worth the visit, never been in such a huge bookstore.
Overall my trip was just perfect. The people I met there were great and I hope to hear from them again. Maybe I should throw them a mail...