Tuesday 26th March 2013
It had finally stopped snowing when we woke this morning. Yesterday we organised a taxi with reception to pick us up at 11.30am to take us to the railway station, where we would get the train to St. Petersburg. We had decided an ‘official taxi’ was probably the best, and more reliable than trying to find an unofficial one. Although, when we researched taxis on the Internet, both official and unofficial had bad press. The taxi company has quoted 460 rubles for the first half an hour and 12 rubles per minute after this. They estimate an hour for the journey, which would make the cost 820 roubles – 19 euros.
When we left the hotel there were flurries of snow again. On the way to the station we saw men once more stood on tall buildings pushing the snow off the roofs and cutting off the huge dangerous icicles.
The journey took just 20 minutes and we were charged 500 rubles – 11 euros. It was just a shame that the coffee shop we chose at the station charged 550 rubles – 13 euros for a coffee and a tea, both of which were served in tiny cups!
The Sapsan train takes just 4 hours from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The Russian word ‘sapsan’ translates as peregrine falcon. This bird is the fastest in the falcon family and speeds of 389kph/242mph have been recorded. The Sapsan is not quite that fast but does have a speed of up to 329kph/205mph. The train was spotless; there was a wardrobe to hang coats etc in and an automatic shoe polisher in each carriage. A digital sign advised the time and the current speed. The train departed Moscow at precisely 13.30 which was the scheduled time. We were impressed.
The journey was like travelling through a winter wonderland, snow covered woodlands, fields heavily laden with snow, wintry scenes with snow overhanging from the steep roofs of the village houses. It was beautiful! The speed of the train reached 200kph. The temperature gauge ranged from minus 7degrees Celsius to 0 degrees. We arrived in St. Petersburg on time, it was snowing lightly and the temperature was minus 1.
The first taxi driver to approach us quoted an extremely inflated price of 1300 rubles to take us the short distance to our hotel. The second driver’s first price was 600 but he did then agree to our offer of 500. Our accommodation was situated not far from the city’s most famous thoroughfare, Nevskiy Prospekt. The architecture was impressive; wherever we looked there were huge ornate buildings.
The hotel was okay but not as smart or as modern as the one in Moscow. The room was clean and spacious but the corridors definitely needed both decorating and new flooring.
Olga, the receptionist, spoke excellent English and she quickly dealt with the check in procedure. She then handed me a red envelope with my name on, which had been delivered by courier – our ballet tickets – yippee! Unfortunately, my feeling of euphoria was short lived. We had paid double the price that was stated on the tickets. We started to wonder if we had been issued with incorrect tickets and would not be sat in the seats that we had chosen. The writing on the tickets was of course in Russian, so I asked Olga for her help. She confirmed that we did have the seats in the royal box circle. Olga also calculated the exchange rate between dollars and rubles and agreed (when I showed her our paperwork) that we had been charged double the ticket price. She rang a contact number for me that was with the paperwork and managed to find a lady who spoke English. I explained to her that we had paid 100% more than the ticket prices. The lady responded by saying that their company was legitimate and paid taxes. I told her that the Internet site had led us to believe we were dealing direct with the theatre and not with an agency. I added that if their company was a ticket agency, we would expect to pay a commission but NOT 100% of the ticket price, this cost was extortionate. The telephone conversation lasted some time, the lady repeatedly told me that I had not been charged a delivery fee and that the company was legitimate. I asked her to pass all my comments on to the managing director and to say that I expected a refund for some of the charges. She replied that in her opinion I would receive a refund and agreed to telephone me the following day and also to send an email. Olga agreed to take the call for me.
We left the hotel, hoping to get our bearings and to find somewhere for dinner. The snow was coming down thick and fast; the snowflakes were the largest we had seen since we arrived in Russia and it was laying quickly. Just five minutes from the hotel we passed the renowned St. Isaac’s cathedral, one of the biggest cathedrals in the world. We continued onto Nevskiy Prospekt and decided to concentrate on looking for somewhere to eat.
We came across a restaurant/café named ‘Dachniki’. It was very cosy inside like one would imagine a Russian dacha (a Russian holiday home in the country) to be. The furnishings were from the sixties decade. The cover on the menu read ‘Big Cookbook of the Union of Soviet and Socialist Republics’. We ordered a small feast of traditional Soviet food; ‘pelmeni’ (tiny vegetable dumplings), chicken kiev, a pork, onion and tomato casserole, cauliflower and mashed potatoes. Dave chose a ‘dark beer’, which he said tasted like stout and I had a glass of mead, which was described as a honey beer. There were various games around the restaurant, which a few people were playing. There was a set of dominoes on our table so we started to play while we were waiting for our food to arrive. We played until Dave noticed that he was about to play the same domino that I had just laid down. He then spoilt it further by working out that there were four duplicates, therefore there were four missing dominoes including double six! We laughed!
After our meal, all of which was delicious we walked back to our hotel, it was after 11pm and we were ready for bed.
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