Dear everyone!
For those of you who have missed it, last week some of us went to Saint Petersburg, taking advantage of a trip organized by KY association. We all had quite some expectations, but it's safe to say that SPB exceeded all of them! Here is a bit of what happened over 3 days and a half:
Fri 21.03:
As you can see from the picture, there was a bright, promising clear sky when we departed .... Ok, joke, it was gray as usual! but thanks anyways to our dear president Patrik for his editing skills and this poetic touch in the picture!
At about 18.00 we sailed, and almost all of us went taking property of the "cool" bar inside the boat. The evening started with a number of beers (surprise?) and went on with us trying the kitchen of the pub, of course regretting it completely. How could we imagine that "Fried Cheeseballs" actually meant "Greasiest-full-of-oil-and-garlic-garlic-OhYesGarlic-Cheese Cream" ? Garlic is not the best thing to eat when you're 4 people sharing 3x2 meters room, I wish someone had told the masterchef.
Nonetheless the night went on and at 10.00pm a show started inside the pub. At first it was just an old man showing off with his chilled attitude and an electric guitar but then...then a group of russian dancers (professional ones) showed up and they gave us quite a show! They did a number of performances over 2 hours, none longer than 15 minutes but enough to leave us impressed!
Sat 22.03
The morning started with us getting off the boat and heading immediately to Peter and Paul Fortress in SPB.
There we were greeted with the local cannon firing in the sky every day at 12.00 (apparently a centuries-old tradition to signal the noon). Then we were guided through a tour of one of the many Cathedrals of the city (all of them with very impressing golden roofs), a still-working mint, the residence of the general in charge of the fortress, and a very weird statue (check it on the right). Apparently the guy who made it thought he had to give no explanations for making appear czar Peter as a weird comic character. Whatever!
We were then showed a bit of the city's main attractions from the bus, and were finally brought to our hotel to leave the luggages, get a shower and come prepared for the evening. We had the lowest expectations for the hotel's rooms but they were all 3-stars ones for real, with very decent cleaning and no scam at all. Great!
The evening then started with us meeting the guys from the local CEMS SPB Club, who were kind enough to greet us at a central, traditional russian restaurant. Food was great, some traditional dancers entertained us every hour and most of all our SPB Cemsies delighted us with their great company and tales of their russian experience. They surely are enjoying it a lot!
They then guided us to a local famous discobar, Soul Kitchen. The place itself was great, but even better were the flaming-absinthe shots that most of us decided to try. A few throats got burned (cough cough), but no accidents happened: we know how to party hard!
The night ended at Schneider, a local club in an old soviet building, where some of us stayed until 5.30am. Too bad that the place was closing at 16.00pm of the day after, but we were too tired for that!
Sun 23.03
The day started rough after last night, but we all managed to hit the morning tour to the Hermitage museum. They say you would need a lifetime to visit the museum. It's hard to say how much truth there is in that saying but the museum, divided in 4 buildings, surely felt like one of the biggest and best we all had visited. Its collection ranged from Da Vinci's paintings to Cezanne, Gauguin and Picasso's. Not happy of that, there were halls full of indian and japanese arts object as well. Imagine, all of this inside 18-19th century halls which once were home to Russian czars and princesses. It was definitely awesome.
After that, in the afternoon we all split and went for different monuments and locations.
In the evening we got back together to have dinner with some of our Cemsies from SPB. We went to a soviet-era restaurant called "The Idiot", taking its name from a local famous story. The place felt great with its sober yet cozy atmosphere, and the food was great as well.
We then went to a pub to have more rounds of beer and vodka, walking around the city centre and just enjoying our time together.
Mon 24.03
Many of us got woken up by the Hotel's personnel at 12.00 with a bad hangover, as that was supposed to be our check-out time, while others managed to visit more the city. The others rushed out of rooms and went to city centre to have a decent meal and wait for the 16.00 meeting to get back on the boat.
There is not much else to say for the day except that almost all of us went to bed as soon as we put our feet on the boat, desperately needing some well earned sleep. The evening went on having some beer at the pub, and trying to make some pranks to the others who were sleeping alone in the cabins. Unfortunately Cemsies sleep with one eye open, just like Rambo, so none of the pranks was succesful. Atleast we tried!
We woke up the day after at 8.00am local time, and all of us got back to their homes, lives and (most of all) our duties. Being away for 4 days always means having a lot of work when you get back, and that is twice as true for us busy Cemsies and our Business projects' duties!
Nonetheless it has been a great trip, we had tons of fun (for which we really have to thank our friends from CEMS SPB) and managed to visit all the main museums, monuments and attractions of the city.
Thank you guys, and see you on the next trip!
