Saint Petersburg

St Petersburg is another city of canals

Travel Dates 4th-5th June 2011.
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I write this blog for my future self to read in my dotage when the memory is gone. I decided the time has come to catch up on some past trips before it fades completely.

I flew in comfortably on Malev from Budapest. My first glimpse of St Petersburg showed cookie-cutter outer suburbs; a little surprising.

My brief visit to Russia in 2011 was difficult to arrange, messed up by my Russian agent, very frustrating at times and, despite the problems, absolutely fascinating. I am very glad I went but if I ever go again I will know how to do it better.

With only a short time available I obviously wanted to see at least St Petersburg and Moscow. When researching my visit I decided the boat trip linking those cities was a good way to see some of the sights between them. After a lot of research I chose the Lev Tolstoy, mainly because it is one of the few ships offering single berth cabins without a nasty single supplement. I’ll say more about the ship and the cruise in a later post. I will also comment separately on the Peterhof and the Hermitage in a later post.

The best price appeared to be via the Express to Russia agency. Possibly the main advantage of booking via Express to Russia was their assistance obtaining the visa. Hopefully the system has changed now but obtaining that visa was a tedious process. I contacted them in early November 2010 to enquire about the seven-day cruise on MS Lev Tolstoy in June 2011. Elena from Express to Russia replied that there were no cabins available, but a few days later she advised a single cabin had become available on the cruise departing 4th June 2011. After some correspondence about details, including confirmation that the other passengers would be English-speaking, I booked the cruise and paid a deposit.

That week was part of a complex 7-week European itinerary. After I had booked the Russian cruise I made several other bookings most of which could not be cancelled for trains, flights and hotels in France, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Hungary and the UK. A month later Elena informed me that a French tour group had booked the boat out and I would be the only English speaking passenger. Wonderful. I could not change the dates of my other bookings; I was locked in. After some discussion Elena confirmed that I would have a personal English speaking guide during the trip. On that basis I confirmed the booking rather than change my week to a rail trip from St Petersburg to Moscow.

I also booked the Northern Lights Hotel through a different site, discovering after the event that it is also one of their hotels. The room and breakfast were OK but there was no elevator and 70 steps – equivalent to five storeys - up a dim stairwell to the front door. Exhausting.

The hotel's location was excellent, allowing me to wander the inner city by foot. The main square and the Hermitage were close by.

 

The city was renamed Petrograd in 1914, apparently that sounded less German, then became Leningrad in 1924 following the revolution and reverted to St Petersburg after the collapse of communism in 1991.When reading Russian history it is rather surprising that the people did not succeed in a revolt against the Tsars until 1917 because there were some very, very nasty Tsars over the centuries. Peter 1, who ruled from 1682 until his death in 1725 and was also known as Peter the Great, was a tyrant. He was called the Great for his conquests increasing Russia's lands and for bringing Russia into modern Europe by reforming  the army and the education system but he used his people, particularly the peasants, ruthlessly and mercilessly. To him they were simply useful work animals. 

Peter wrested control of the marshy, often flooded or frozen solid, Baltic shore at the mouth of the Neva River from the Swedes in 1703 and built the Peter and Paul Fort which became the beginning of St Petersburg. Peter wanted a permanent port giving summer access to the Baltic and Western Europe. Over following years he created the city using peasant labour from all over Russia forcibly transported in at the rate of 25,000 to 40,000 a year. Many died from the harsh working conditions, the cold or wolves. Thus St Petersburg became known as the City Built on Bones. 

He was passionate about building a great city to become his capital and the envy of Europe. He used French and Italian architects and forced families, including many aristocrats, to move to the city at their own expense. A sad history to create a beautiful city with wide boulevards, parks, many canals and beautiful cathedrals. At least it is beautiful in the summer. I would not want to be in St Petersburg in winter.

I found a restaurant with music in a cellar under a building near the hotel. I took my time enjoying a delicious meal while listening to the music.

Some of the following pictures were taken on my first day as I walked around the centre of town and some were taken during a guided tour as part of the boat trip. 

  

 

I am not sure what this represents but I found it interesting; a combination of cannons and chains.

I was surprised to find so many well preserved churches and cathedrals in Russia after over seven decades of communism. This is the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood which was built  by Alexander III as a memorial to his father Alexander II who was assassinated at the location. Construction began in 1883 but was not completed until 1907. I gradually realised during the trip that the Russians did not believe in building simple churches; the more ornate and decorative, the better. 

 

Nicolas I was not a particularly memorable Tsar but his statue is interesting because only the horse's rear hooves attach it to the base, an example of impressive engineering and balance in the work.

One of two Sphinxes on a quay. The British were not the only ones to remove antiquities from Egypt.

This is one of the Rostral Columns, originally built as guiding beacons for the ships approaching the old port. Their design was intended to show visitors the wealth and power of Russia. They are 32 metres or 105 feet high, equivalent to a ten-storey building.

The Peter and Paul fortress. The walls and structure are massive. For many years it was a prison, including the Bolshevik era when it was also used for executions, it is now a museum.

Cheers, Alan

Budapest, Hungary

Travel Dates Spring 2006, 2nd - 3rd June 2011.
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I visited Budapest twice. In 2006 my wife and I drove to Budapest from Slovenia, skirting Lake Balaton, on our journey by car through Eastern Europe. We stayed for three nights, then continued via Visegrad to Slovakia and beyond. I last posted a report about that journey back in  2007: Slovenia. More recently I dropped in for an overnight transit en-route from Sarajevo to St Petersburg in 2011. 

For reasons lost in the mists of time I stopped posting about that journey after Slovenia and did not post again until I departed on my third 'round the world trip in 2008. I am trying to correct that lapse now. Serendipitously I discovered an old draft from that time as a backup word file despite three changes of PC since. The first section below was written while the memory of that first visit was fresh. I'll add a few notes on the more recent visit after that. 

Budapest 2006 

After an excellent breakfast in the Lenti Hotel, just over the border from Slovenia, we decided to head towards Budapest. While in Lenti I used an internet café in town to book at the 3* Hotel Charles for three nights. We selected the minor roads closest to the northern shores of Lake Balaton, rather than the quicker freeways.

The towns and villages along the lake reminded us of waterfront holiday towns in any country, but were a step back in time for us. They reminded me of lakeside and seaside Australia in the ‘50s. Unfortunately, for some reason gremlins stole my photos of the area. 

Once we reached the outskirts of Budapest it was like any large industrial city. It was dirtier than some, but all major cities seem to present their worst face to incoming motorists. This was the first time we had used the map provided on a booking web-site to find a hotel. It wasn’t the last time we got totally lost as a result. Eventually we got there after an unintended tour through the centre of town. The lesson I learned from that, and later efforts, in those pre-smartphone days was to always go to a good on-line maps site to check hotel locations by inserting the address; never trust a booking site map. That often also led to discovering that hotels are not quite as close to things as is claimed in their advertisements..

Note that my comments on the hotel relate to it in 2006 and would not be valid today. For me it was an interesting experience as my first encounter with a large hotel in a country behind the old Iron Curtain. The Charles Hotel appeared to have been elite single-bedroom apartments during the communist era. Several of the rooms and some whole floors were privately-owned apartments. The room had an en-suite bathroom with a separate tiny kitchenette and a huge bedroom. It was shabby, but with a comfortable bed. I needed telescopic vision to see the small TV in the distance. As I chose the place because they had a kitchenette it was a bit disconcerting to find that there was a stove and a fridge but no cooking utensils, just a jug to boil water. When I asked for them to be provided: "but no-one cooks in Budapest". When I discovered the quality of their breakfast and the range and price of foods in the Budapest restaurants I understood why and stopped complaining. Undoubtedly this hotel provided the best breakfast quality and choices we had on that entire trip - or any trip since.

The staffing was way over the top by Western standards – people everywhere but very few who actually seemed to do much or react when you needed them. This was our first real experience on that trip of the strange difficulty larger hotels in ex-communist nations seemed to be having coming to terms with modern tourism. Repeatedly there was an underlying feeling that the customer should feel privileged to be allowed to stay at that hotel. Budapest was the first place we struck it – but as we travelled we found that attitude to also be the culture in all of the larger hotels we stayed at in Slovakia, Poland, old East Germany and some parts of Czech. Smaller or family-run hotels and pensions were quite a contrast.

I don't wish to overstate it; it was more nuances than anything obvious. But I stayed at enough hotels to notice the difference. The most extreme one was in Slovakia - but I'll mention it later. 

The hotel was about one kilometre from the bridge opposite the Citadel across to Pest. 

Buses ran regularly into town. The staff were helpful in explaining the bus and train system and sold us the initial tickets. Later, downtown, we bought day-passes. I discovered months later that one of the three separate subway lines apparently doesn't accept those - but we didn't know that and we didn't meet any inspectors. It's the odd line with the smaller, low carriages. 

One difficulty we discovered was that most of the subway stations are down long flights of stairs. We didn't discover many elevators or escalators, so it was a little difficult for those with arthritis. But we went anyway, just a little slowly at times.

We spent our first full day just wandering, stopping in shops, browsing through street markets, fascinated at the people and the little differences in cuisine, styles and ways of doing things.

This was a busy covered shopping strip or market down-town.

A restaurant with a rather deadly Arabic name selling Italian food in Hungary. I wondered whether the proprietor was aware of the meaning of that name in English.

We did not eat there; we mainly patronised little restaurants or cafeterias where the locals ate, but we also ate some street foods. I enjoyed Hungarian cuisine but cannot recall the names of the dishes other than goulash.

I spent an interesting afternoon visiting the Citadel Museum. I took the bus to the top of the hill and walked back down afterwards. This was the most picturesque fast food stall I have seen, just next to the Citadel monument.

 

The solid rock of the peak was excavated in WWII  to become munitions bunkers for the artillery sited there. 

Right click and expand to read the story.

The bunkers have been turned into a small museum of the Hungarian experience of that war. It was a very sad period for Hungary, which had soldiers and supporters on both sides. Until 1944 there was an uneasy alliance with Germany with the leader, Horthy, trying to maintain some degree of independence, including resisting deportation of Hungarian Jews and minorities to concentration camps. In 1944 the Arrow Cross, Hungary's Nazis, gained control and effectively the Germans ran the country; mass deportations commenced. Most never returned.

A year later when the Russians conquered the city the siege was long, merciless and immensely destructive. Compare the bridge then and now.

 

   

The building above the bunkers has become a boutique hotel. It still shows the scars of the siege.

 

A German DSF230 supplies glider fell into the building at 37 Attila Street. The 17 yo pilot was decapitated.

 

Unfortunately I was still using Kodak film in 2006 and one of my rolls of 36 disappeared, with most of my other Budapest pictures.

Budapest in transit, 2011

I used Malev Air to fly from Sarajevo to St Petersburg, which required a stopover in Budapest. I stayed at the Artotel, booked via Priceline. It was a comfortable room with a scenic view of the river.

 

The rear-facing rooms had this excellent view.

The pictures on the wall are all supposedly fine art. OK, I know I am a philistine but, seriously, this has to be a joke by the artist who must have laughed all the way to the bank when it was sold.

I was only there for the afternoon and evening, spending my time strolling around the district near the hotel and enjoying another tasty goulash. I also enjoyed re-discovering excellent Hungarian red wine. 

Cheers, Alan

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Holiday Inn, a haven for journalists during the war

Travel Dates 31st May - 2nd June 2011.
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I have let too many old trips slide into obscurity without recording them. The next few posts will conclude my 2011 trip to Europe and Russia. After that I will add my 2008 trip to Mexico, which was part of the 'round-the-world trip at that time; it follows this past post on Egypt. I hope to add several nostalgia posts on past trips to the USA ('03, '06, '08, '10), Canada '06 and the UK ('03, '06, '08, '11) after that. Possibly I might slip Fiji '05 and New Zealand '06 in the midst of those.

This post follows this earlier report: Mostar to Sarajevo By Train. 

This impressive new building near the railway station was an indicator that the city was rebuilding after the terrible Balkan wars.

 

I took a cab from the station to the hotel I had reserved by internet based on tripadvisor reviews, but decided it was grossly over-priced. I cancelled on arrival (luckily I had not paid in advance) and strolled around the district. I quickly found the ETN hotel for half the price with better facilities. It had one rather strange feature: a full-size automobile lift in the lobby. I did not have a vehicle but it was also used as the passenger lift to higher floors.

 

The hotel was in Safet-Bega Basagica street a hundred metres from a major tram stop on Mula Mustafe Bašeskije street which made access to most of the older section of Sarajevo very simple. I bought a cheap daily tram pass each morning then wandered where the trams went. The district was hilly but not too steep and not far from the river.

Just across from the tram stop was a small shopping square which became a permanent market as I walked deeper into it. 

I was very interested in the history of the war and went looking for the museum dedicated to it. The museum was surprisingly hard to find, partly because none of the locals I asked for directions appeared to know about it, or did not want to discuss it. It is in this nondescript building with no signs on the front. The direction sign in the street sent me off on a walk through a nearby park until I realised the arrow was misleading.

 

I was almost alone in the museum, with occasional visitors arriving but not staying long. I can understand; the pictures and stories are horrifying and depressing but I believe visiting places like this remind us of the folly of war. Every politician should be required to visit this museum, Auschwitz, the many WWI and WWII graveyards in Belgium and France and the many other reminders of past horrors around the world. Maybe then they would be a little less prone to going to war. Yes, I know, a forlorn wish, but if only it could be true. Photographs were not allowed, but as I was alone I sneaked these small samples of the display.

After the museum I walked up the road to the famous Holiday Inn. It still bears some scars from the war.

I had an over-priced beer in the bar for the atmosphere but it slipped by; it was just another beer in just another four-star American-style hotel bar. I headed back downtown to the real Sarajevo.

The daytime and evening café culture was similar to Croatia. I do not know if the majority of the population are independently wealthy or just unemployed but most of them, especially males from teens to middle-aged, filled the cafés, sipping coffee and chatting, almost all day and well into the evening.

I like to take local buses, not knowing where they go, to see a little of the town outside the central and tourist districts. At the end of the line I get off, have a meal and hopefully find a bus heading back to the centre. This lunch was somewhere in the outer suburbs.

 

 

I enjoyed wandering along both sides of the river for long walks. As I walked the pleasant views of the surrounding hills took on a new meaning when occasional scars of battle reminded me that those hills were used as gun emplacements to shell the inhabitants.

 

 

 

 

I tried these delicious snacks as a light lunch. They are similar to our sausage rolls but much lighter in texture. The filling is minced meat and vegetables with some spices in a puff pastry. 

 

This old site reminded me that Bosnia is one of the oldest settled areas in Europe. The thin bricks imply a Roman presence, but I suspect some parts are much older than that.

Down-town is like any other modern European city.

I enjoyed my brief stay, but I found it impossible not to reflect on how easily this region descended into savagery so recently, and how often the Balkan region has been fought over in history. I left feeling sad, as I will never understand why that happens so often in Europe.

Cheers, Alan