I know, most people say that their home city or town is the best, but my case is different. St. Petersburg is really the best city in the world.
It’s full of contrasts and controversies; it’s impossible to live in and impossible to leave. We say that whenever you don’t know what to do, go to Piter (it’s one of St. Petersburg’s nicknames). Why? Because it will have all the answers, it will support all your moods, it will have something unique and personal saved just for you.
No matter what’s going on in your soul, there is always a hideout for you. Downtown is wide and solid. A walk down main streets always feels like a celebration, when you become a part of something great and exciting. But step off the wide arteries and you will find yourself in a small, detailed and very intimate yard that still remembers the nobles’ intrigues and servants affairs and that knows how to keep secrets.
If you feel like your spirit is hovering, get up on a roof of one of the 18th or 19th-century buildings and the old city will turn into your magnificent toy, with miniature churches and statues framed by park-greens and like split into many islands.
Rivers and channels, elegant like czarina’s necklaces, decorate the downtown and bring all paths to the city’s heart artery – Neva River. Gorgeous, strong and powerful water is of the colour of mercury.
Peter the Great, the czar who built this city in the middle of nowhere on the swamp and turned these lands with terrible climate into the Russian capital (it remained in that role for over 200 years), and his heirs tried to chain the river dressing its banks in granite and binding it with bridges, but up to these days the Neva still remains wild and capricious.
But if you managed to score points with Neva River and if it’s well-minded, it will allow you to see St. Petersburg the way it sees it, from the water level. Just pick one of the river cruises and enjoy the beauty of history and art rising on its embankments.
St. Petersburg has many nicknames: Cultural Capital, Northern Venice, the Window to Europe, Northern Palmira, the Cradle of Three Revolutions. The history was created here for centuries. The history of the city, the sole-stone art piece that was built on the grounds where there were no rocks. The history of the country with all czars living, ruling, dying or being killed here. The history of the new state that was born in canon fire in 1917, the year of the Bolsheviks’ revolution. The history of millions of people.
The history of Russian classical music and then Russian rock also started here. Culture, architecture, visual arts, ballet, poetry and prose, you name it. It’s all here.
Unlike many other Russian cities St. Petersburg is modern, stylish, European and flirty. In summer, this city cannot sleep at night as the sun manages to just slightly touch the horizon bringing the relief of grey twilights. Every night in summer, lighted draw bridges try to reach out to the clouds, allowing ships to go through the city and making viewers feel as they are experiencing some kind of wonder.
But St. Petersburg is not only about celebration. If you are depressed, lonesome or feeling as if you lost yourself, St. Petersburg will welcome you with open arms as well. The city of Dostoyevskiy, Brodsky, Yesenin and many, many others. Its yellow streets, low heavy grey skies, its rains and winds, its pressing and haughty beauty will make you feel miserable and will allow you to get even deeper into your own sorrow. But at the same time, being the city where Pushkin lived and wrote his magnificent and inspiring pieces, where he laughed, loved and danced, St. Petersburg is always ready to cheer you up and amaze.
It’s the city of hundreds of churches and many religions, where anyone can find own lifestyle and own corner. There are no real seasons and on average there are only about 60 sunny days a year. The rest of the time it’s mainly rain, or snowy rain, or pouring rain, or a hundred per cent humidity (which feels like a spider web hanging in the air). St. Petersburg literally knows all 50 shades of grey and those who were born here can talk about its gradations and edges for hours. Does it sound sad (especially in comparison to sunny Saskatchewan)? But if you ever get a chance, just give it a try and you’ll see what I mean.
If this city accepted you, it will always give you its love and you will love it back forever. It will be your best friend, understanding, charming, fun and sophisticated all in one. Once it’s taken you, it will always feel like home and it always will have something to surprise you.
On May 27 St. Petersburg turned 316 years old. So happy birthday, my best city in the world.
