Balancing out: What I'm enjoying about St. Petersburg

To balance out what I think have been a couple salty, yet true, posts I want to write about a couple more positive things about this country so I don't scare all of you away from visiting. These past couple days I've explored the nightlife of the city even more, talked to the people in the Productы (insert guttural sound at the end), went on a daytrip to Gatchina, and sampled the sweets.

The last week here has been beautiful every day, with highs around 80, almost no humidity, and then dropping to a comfortable 60 at night. Perfectly blue skies every day have made for a couple postcard-ready pictures. (sans construction, of course). Below, you can see Palace Square in the top left corner.

I've also been frequenting a bar called Dyunie (I believe this means dunes) where some Germans have found an empty courtyard near the Church on Spilled Blood (view from the bar, to the right) and have dumped a big pile of sand, added lawn chairs, and stuck some wood in the ground for bathrooms. They play a mix of euro hip hop, reggae remixes, and 60's motown and soul music. Weird mix, but it actually works and we all keep going back. You can get beer for around $2-3 and you can then add all different kinds of syrups to it. We kick off our shoes and just relax. For me, getting home from this area is a bit of a walk (around 40 mins) after the metro closes, but my feet have gotten used to it and I've enjoyed peeking into all the other little stores that are open late, sampling Moroshenaya (ice cream) and laughing to myself about the people stumbling home.

Dyunie, very early in the evening

My friends from the discussion club have also been eager to show me some of the sites of the city they call home. One of them took me to a little art exhibition with some cool photographs and some promotional materials for what the new city of St. Petersburg will look like. I felt very in-the-know with my own translator by my side. Another friend took me to a little doughnut shop, called Pishki, right off of Nevsky Prospect that serves doughnut-sized funnel cakes, covered in powdered sugar. They were very good, but I actually preferred the candy they sold there, and I plan to bring home a bunch of it to share with all of you (hope it doesn't melt).

She then took me to the edge of one of the canals where if you throw a coin on this little oft-stolen bird (called Chizhik Pyzhik) you're supposed to have good luck. My coin landed on the bird (action shot shown below), but it fell in the river. Oh well. There's a song for the bird too that goes, Chizhik Pyzhik Gde Tы Bыl, Na Fontanke Vodka Pil (meaning "Where have you been? I was on the Fontanka [canal] drinking vodka"). It was named after the group of students at the Chizhik law school who went there often to unwind after classes.
My day trip to Gatchina was kind of spur of the moment, but it turned out to be a nice escape from the city, and I welcomed the fresh air (bus ride home in hot, sweaty-smelling Marshrutka balanced that out nicely). My german friend and I left on an elektritchka (electric commuter train) and the trip took about an hour. I snapped this picture quickly from the train.
It was a beautiful day and some of the art in the Palace was very nice. The park was pretty also but it was so big we didn't get to see all of it. Hands-down, the cafe there made the best cinnabon-like things I've had here. Speaking of food, here's a nice picture of the beautiful, sweet pirog's at Cafe Stolle.
So, there've been many positive things that I've grown to love about St. Pete and this region. Most importantly, I never really could grasp the concept of the "Russian soul", but I think now I'm beginning to understand what that means. Hopefully I can put those thoughts into words when I get back from Moscow next week. I don't think I could ever live here, but I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to come back for a little while someday (provided I have time to buy a jar of peanut butter).