First Night in the City of Peter the Great

St. Petersburg is often dubbed as simply Peter by the Russians. The city was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 as the window to Europe; it was uniquely situated to become the marine gateway to European ports and open Russia to European traders.

Geographic benefits outweighed the geological challenges the builders faced. The city is built in a giant swamp, and at the time the idea of building a city and a port here was sheer utopia. Yet the it was built, and became one of the most beautiful cities in Russia and Europe.

If you look back at the history of Russia, utopia might just be the leitmotif for it. Making impossible happen at the cost of thousands of human lives for the sake of some glamorous idea - that's the secret recipe there, and it was exploited by many of the cooks in the Russian political kitchen from the early earls of Moscow Russia to Stalin.

Over the years, the city changed many names - Saint Petersburg, Petrograd (the city of Peter), then Leningrad (the city of Lenin), and it got around back to its original name shortly after the Perestroyka times.

St. Petersburg is dubbed the Northern Venice for abundant rivers and immediate proximity to the Baltic Sea. The downtown area consists of 600+ islands divided by those rivers and artificial waterways.

We met up with the Doolittles at the airport, and after a fairly long ride in the hotel's minivan (traffic was horrible) we were at the Petro Palace hotel. The hotel is situated in the historic center of the city, only a few minutes from St. Isaac's Cathedral, Nevsky Avenue and Neva river.

One checked in - and it was quite late in the afternoon - we went to have some food in the nearby Baron restaurant. The restaurant had a traditional Russian flavor, and featured a Gypsy live performance by a small group of people. With the traditional Russian fare, which included Beed Stroganoff, Roasted Duck, Venison and many traiditional appetizers, the place offered good service and steep prices. For a dinner for four, we ended up paying about $300.

Here's the first picture to the Funny Pictures of Curt Fund.