New Year in St. Petersburg
Not just go to the bars and New Year in a tavern, but see the cultural program (the Hermitage, the Nutcracker, the Mariinsky Theater, a photo session, the Repin exhibition of the Russian Museum).
We flew by plane: there was still a direct flight from Nizhnevartovsk then (and it ended, that's all, now only through Surgut). The air carrier is Utair. Has gone bad. There are a lot of conventions on baggage and ticket refunds, and even a possible overbooking drives you to check-in. From food - water, enough for everyone. It's good that we bought a ticket in August, went out at 11.280 back and forth with 20 kg of luggage. We have one parallel with Peter, but the mileage is more than 3 thousand. The hotel was booked in a standard room at Griboedov Canal, 35 named "Griffin" for three adults. The hotel is good, breakfasts, constant cleaning and hot water. Of the minuses of the hotel: a room on the 5th floor without an elevator (it is very difficult for people who are tired after a walk to make the last march), the sink is still not quite comfortable, but everything is compensated by the view from two windows of the Griboedov Canal and one of the buildings of the Economic University.
The first day was placement day and ended with a visit to the Zoom cafe (http://www. cafezoom. ru/). Well, to be honest, we dined there, then settled in and walked around, but who cares… The most interesting thing was the second day (and we even had a plan for all days) – the Hermitage with a guide. The tour was called "The Hermitage up and down. " Private tour of St. Petersburg with guide Maria. It was super. Aesthetic pleasure from communication was received in full. We walked for 2.5 hours, and all 3.5 and would have walked more, but we were tired, not Maria. Then, hungry, we went to the Full House cafe on the Griboedov Canal, 27 (https://fullhousebar. ru/). A dilemma arose here: we did not know what we wanted, so we took a tasting set of ale and chose a drink for ourselves and decided the issue with food. The evening passed with us seeing off our friends to Sennaya Square - fortunately, not far away. On the way we went to the bakery, to drink coffee and tea with fresh pastries on Sadovaya, 56, and so the day passed.
December 30, we were supposed to have a photo session, but we postponed it to January 3, as it was a small, nasty rain - mzhychka. We spent the day at home, at the hotel. The next day was December 31 - preparation for the New Year, which we pre-booked a table for three of us and two friends in the former Dizzy, now Rhubarb on the Griboyedov Canal, 36 (https://rhubarb. rf). We ran to buy wine on the 1st (nothing will work), we had it nearby, but I remember where I bought it with my brother two years ago, and we took, probably, good wine (but we didn’t have time to try, there was no time enough), in AltaVina on Kazanskaya, 8-10. And they went to buy delicious buns at F. Volchek's Bakery on Griboedov Canal, 42. The New Year was not bad, but without Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden, under the theme "Hollywood Party". We took such a walk that we missed the fireworks on Nevsky, and when we went there, opposite the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky, everyone was already walking towards us. We thought that there were a lot of them, turned around and went along with them. We took friends to the subway (and it worked around the clock - thank you, everything in this city is for people) and went home - to sleep. There were also plans for tomorrow.
Every year on January 1st we go to the cinema. We do this on purpose so as not to screw up the first day of the year. In advance, we took a ticket to Peak on Sennaya for the "Invasion". The first session started around 2:00 pm, and we were almost late, chewing donuts with coffee / tea almost on the go. Tasty! Then we went to friends in the Ladoga railway station area, where we had a nice dinner and went home, because tomorrow we had the Mariinsky Theater, The Nutcracker. We took tickets for this event in advance, as soon as they went on sale - in early November. The difference between January 2 and December 31 was more than 10.000 rubles per family, so we went on January 2 - in the afternoon. The ticket was more expensive than the air ticket to St. Petersburg. The seats were in Benois, 13th box. I didn't get the "wow" I expected. Maybe it was necessary to take tickets higher, maybe it burned out, but it best reflects the production of our cartoon or the film "The Nutcracker". The dances were interesting exactly until I heard the crash from the landing of the dancers. Didn't like the hard chairs. A clearing for 500 rubles, and some everything small and economical, without significance.
In the evening we went to the author's restaurant Commons (https://www.instagram.com/commons. rest/ ). Small portions, hearty food, cozy atmosphere, overly erudite waiters (now you will not be rejected from an active life position, which simply rushes from each employee in a stream - but such a trick here). Nicely. But not often. The next day - the third day - the rescheduled photo session was booked in advance, called "Road trip and photo session in New Year's St. Petersburg", guide Kirill in a white low BMW with numbers 111. But we started this tour earlier. Thanks to my wife, right after breakfast we rushed to St. Isaac's Cathedral. It's nice that the cost of the tour (350 rubles) includes the services of a group guide. The guide itself was a work of art. She carried herself and allowed us to use herself with such pride that we were very ashamed that we did not know everything that we learned from her, but this is the trick. Therefore, they were not offended, not angry, not sarcastic and not outrageous, although I could reproduce all this.
Then we climbed the colonnade. Here, too, it was nice to know that the radio guide worked in a loop and you could wait and hear a lecture about the view. Great. Now about the photo shoot. It wasn't a photo shoot, it wasn't a tour, it wasn't a conversation, it was just a little bit of everything, and it was also interesting, but expensive. The price reflected all three components and we paid for each. From the interesting: there were good pictures, visiting the island of New Holland, the embankment of the Gulf of Finland, the Icebreaker Krasin, the Vasileostrovskaya Strelka, the Sphinxes. But how wonderful we ended this day at Every Dog Bar - the best beer establishment in St.Petersburg(https://vk.com/everydogbar) . Here I discovered a simple truth: I like IPA. I drank "Excellent Harvest", my wife white wine, my daughter - juice.
The next day was the last full day. In the morning, right after breakfast, my wife and I went to the Russian Museum. "I'll take you to the museum, my wife told me" (in my case). The Mikhailovsky Palace should be visited as we are - early in the morning for the opening, until the wardrobe is full. Then everything. You will wait on the street every 10 vacant numbers in the wardrobe, and then still look for free ones among the many wardrobe compartments. Here I was killed and amazed by Repin's exhibition. Now I'll tell you. If you get close to the picture, you can see oil strokes, small strokes, moving away from the picture, the strokes merge, and then, when you are a little further away, they begin to glow. It's better than any color photograph. These are living faces, each with its own character and emotion, with dignity and disdain, with seeming simplicity and importance. This is a miracle. Here, even the women who looked after the order were with some kind of bright faces. One of them told me - do not go with a red line on the floor - signaling the picture. It was she who prompted, and did not make an order, as in the Hermitage or in St. Isaac's Cathedral.
On January 5, we flew away from St. Petersburg without regret about the money spent, with satisfaction. It was a little disappointing to lose a whole day on the flight back, since now the two-hour difference was a plus for us.
Conclusions: we did the right thing by taking a hotel in the center. There is no snow on New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg and it may rain. We need to devote more time to museums and exhibitions. A decent New Year's Eve cannot be cheaper than 15.000 per person.
Thank you for your patience if you read to the end.
