World Cup finals

It was a weekend of farewells.Pepe & Rohit were going back home to Italy and India.And my dear Natasha was going back to Ukraine a day after them. The night before Natasha left, we threw a party at our place and it coincided nicely with the World Cup Finals.

Our host Sergie was invited.and his eyes widened...."You are inviting me to a party....in...My apartment ?"

Spanish Supporters

Farewell for Natasha

Sitting in Front of the tele

Plov :)

Our uzbek buddy , Mohammedayub suggested making uzbek plov for dinner!The master chef taught me how real plov was made.And after I saw the whole process.....I swore to myself not to eat too much.While rice in Singapore is normally cooked with water , plov was cooked in oil.

After the match ended,a group of us restless with the summer heat , went for a walk to Lenta.The metro had closed before the match ended and most of the interns decided to stayover and hang out.A cool 30minutes away,we were sitting at the playground ,sharing a tub of ice cream and playing a country/city/capital naming game in russian.It was tough for a newbie to stay in the game for long as  many countries/cities/capitals are pronounced differently in russian and english.

As we walked back to the apartment to watch Natasha pack for the trip home , i thought to myself....
LIFE....is great :)

The Picasso Collection at the Hermitage with the Buddy

I met up with my buddy.Sasha 5 weeks after our first meeting when i arrived in June.
With the Indonesian girls , we headed to the Hermitage to check out the Picasso collection.

The Picasso collection will be in the Hermitage as a temporary exhibition, and that was the only thing in the Hermitage that i actually enjoyed.Eccentric art.This was my 2nd trip to the Hermitage to see the Picasso collection.The first trip with Andrie had been pretty enlightening as he was a fan of Picasso and knew some facts about Picasso's life.Only 1% of the Hermitage is properly air conditioned.I can't imagine how all the art pieces are surviving the summer heat, but they are.

Walking around the museum,i was more preoccupied talking to Sasha than noticing anything around me.I found out that Sasha loves acting .It was amazing to see how his eyes shone when he talked about his school plays and his dreams and aspirations.

Although he works from day to night at a restaurant through his summer vacations to earn money to pay for his university fees and yet he never once complained about it.Despite the early mornings and tiring long days , he told me that he enjoyed his job.

He may just be a 19 year old boy , but there is alot that people can learn from a guy like him.

Picnics in Saint Petersburg

One of the nice things to do during summer in Saint Petersburg is just chilling at the park having a picnic.

Bring a mat , some sports equipment and find a spot at Pavlovsk.Nothing beats lying on a mat surrounded by overgrown grass and staring at the sky and talking about.....life :)

Or you can find a spot in one of the many parks near a metro station out of the center of Saint Petersburg and have a barbeque party!Buy your own DIY barbeque pit from Carousel - supermarket for 200Rub! (10sgd) ....who knows...if you find a nice green spot of grass in front of your apartment , you might even find people barbequing there!

Clubbing in Saint Petersburg

Clubbing was quite disappointing in Saint Petersburg after experiencing the Moscow Night Life.

THE BEST
Central Station
This is a gay club and the best club I went to in Saint Petersburg.Men get in for free and for women...we have to pay.
Maria , a Latvian girl  and I negotiated like hell with the bouncer and managed to get in for 400 roubles.Ben ,our charming british intern got in for free.We spotted him at the "Men only" lounge drinking free champagne later on.It was really an eye opening experience in there.The transvestite host was offering 1000 roubles to each of the 10 people who were willing to come on stage , strip naked and dance for a minute.And people were scrambling up to do that.
No, I couldn't watch the whole show. After drinking a tad too much alcohol too fast before coming the Central Station , I was leaning against the wall trying to shake myself sober.

http://www.centralstation.ru/

Gay Bar ( I forgot the name )
No surprise here.The next best was a gay bar.( we ended up there by mistake , thinking that it was central station ) It was down the street from Central Station near Metro Gostivy Dvor.The bouncers refused to let me because I am female.But Ben worked his charms and got me in.The bar played the best music and was ...........empty.There is the signature rainbow flag hanging outside though.

MOD  Rooftop Bar

 On my last night in Saint Petersburg,I wanted to check out a lesbian club Tri - El.It looked so boring that we left and walked to the city center on foot.Took us a good 2 hours or so.While the girls were exhausted from the walk and wanted to just chill in front of the Hermitage , Ben brought me to this cool rooftop bar that his Russian friends brought him to previously.My last night in Saint Petersburg wasn't that disastrous after all.

We met 2 American students there.Both were in Saint Petersburg for a summer study program and spent most of their nights at clubs and bars drinking their money away and spending it on Russian girls who came to chat them up.As the 4 of us left the bar at 6am , ....( yes...the bars are still open at 6am).1 of them literally had his money flying away from him.Blown straight from his hand and almost into the canal by the wind.And that happened after he gave more money to a Russian girl who wanted money from him to take a cab home.Poor guy.


THE MUST TRY
After my stay in Saint Petersburg , a Russian living in Singapore told me about 2 super cool clubs in her home city. ( I hate myself for not asking her earlier! )
Purga
Apparently they celebrate New Years Day and weddings every night here.Sounds bizarre and so Russian!
http://purga-club.ru/main.phtml

XXXX
My friends and I had contemplated going to one of the XXXX clubs in Primorskaya but didn't make it there in the end.The bouncers told us that they will let us in for free...if we removed our underwear.

http://www.xxxxbar.ru/

THE DISAPPOINTING

Club Revolution
A club for kids.Free admission for students.Music was ......hip hoppish and the crowd was mainly teenagers.Would have been boring if not for my amazing friends!

Rossi Club
The music was ok.But the crowd was old and lecherous looking!Avoid!
http://www.rossis.ru/index2.php

The fun part of the night was hanging out with friends in the nearby park drinking champagne,shivering and chilling out.And that is me being stupid at 4am in the morning.It was White Nights.So the sky was bright at 4am!

Fidel
Many people rave about this bar.Only for fans who love listening to english songs.And when i say english , i mean...Y-M-C-A...expect that kinda music.Bad....There alot of clubs and bar along that stretch .So if you get bored at one , you can hop over to another.The good gay bar and club is just around the corner


Tri -El
A lesbian club that was empty on a Thursday night.Located in a factory and not near to the city center.Lesbian or not , just don't bother coming here.It's boring and empty.We took a peek in and left.

THE EARLY MORNING
The nice thing is that people here know their limits and don't go around puking all over the streets after a night out.
While waiting for the Metro to open at 6am , you can take a walk along the main street towards the river where the bridges are to watch them close at 4am.During summer , the bridges open at 1am and close at 4am to let ships pass through.Cars are not able to use the bridges during that period of time.

Or you can just lie down in front of the Hermitage Museum and chill.

Or take photos with no tourists in the background

Buddhist Temple

Few people know that Buddhist datsans ( temples ) exist in Russia.Fewer people will know that there is one is Saint Petersburg. Located a 5 minute walk away from Metro station Staraya Derevnya , the datsan sits right next to the canal.


I went with Stacy , an American intern from Aiesec to check out the zen scene one afternoon.This temple is similar to the ones from the Buryatia Republic in Siberia.And it is no surprise that it is.There is a decent population of people from Ulan Ude living in Saint Petersburg and I was told that many of them live around the Primorskaya area.

During certain times of the day , the Buddhist monks will gather in the center of the hall and start chanting.Take a look around the hall and most of the people there are Asian looking Russians.Sneak a peak around you and you will notice them staring at you, the strange foreigners, from the corner of their eyes.They have a decent Buryatia cafe at the basement as well.

 I feel at ease at temples regardless of where it is located in the world.Perhaps it is a sense of familiarity or an ability to connect with the surroundings since it has been a family tradition to go to temples to pay my respects to ancestors and beyond.For Stacy , it was her first time in a temple and witnessing the service.The first step towards a better understanding towards different religions is always a good thing for everybody.


Check out the datsan's website
http://dazan.spb.ru/


Peace to all.

Zenit Football Match

The girls and I decided that we will not leave Saint Petersburg without watching a Zenit football Match.
The Saint Petersburg home team has been performing really well recently thanks to the tremendous funding from their sponsor, Gazprom.


Acha and Shakina each bought a jersey each as gifts for their brother/boyfriend etc back home.Seeing the two of them twirl around in their Zenit Jerseys, I succumbed to peer pressure and bought myself one too.

One entire section of fans in the stadium were from the official Zenit fan club and they cheered in sync.Apparently, those in the fan club get the entry tickets for free.But there is a catch.they have to practise to make sure that they cheer in sync and they are the last to leave the stadium.

The highlight of the match wasn't the footballers or the match but actually the fans.As they screamed , cursed and do anything to entertain themselves.

An evening of entertainment , it definitely was!

The Team's website
http://www.fc-zenit.ru/

Couchsurfers

I met some couchsurfers in Saint Petersburg who made life quite interesting for me.
Margo , a russian girl who moved to SPB from Yeketerinburg organized an outing to Pushkin.There were initially 7 of us.But somehow , everyone met friends and other couchsurfers coincidentally at the park and our numbers snowballed to 12 people!

Margo later came over to my place to help me with learning Russian!She's a strict vegan and does not even eat сметана( sour cream ) anymore the comfort food for all russians and hers when she was younger!

Another couchsurfer was Sasha!
On my first week in SPB ,through CS , i met a researcher and curator of the Tibetian Collection at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.Sasha .
He is a russian who specializes in Tibetian buddhism and enlightened me about buddhism in Russia ,the travel opportunities that his specialization has given him and his hitchhiking experiences around Europe.As we debated and discussed over tea and cakes , i made it a point to myself to read up a little more on this field for I have already been to the 2 republics in Russia where buddhism is the main religion.Buryatia and Kalmykia.And although ,I have absolutely no inclination to travel via hitchhiking , i am always keen to hear about their crazy adventures

Sasha called me a few weeks later to check on how I was doing in SPB!And I invited him over for a dinner at my place with Shakina and Xusu.Acha had to get her thesis done and was unable to join us.

We discussed about practiceses of different types of buddhism and corruption in different countries over chicken rice and wine :)

For those curious , here is the link to his website.

http://www.sashastr.narod.ru/