St. Petersburg

Snowy Easter days

In April 2012 KrishnaMa and I went to St. Petersburg to spend Easter days there. That trip was my present to her 40th birthday...

In the morning of April 4th KrishnaMa and I went to the airport. Departure time in Hamburg was 10.20 am and early in the afternoon we arrived at Pulkova II Airport in St. Petersburg. Phew, it was gloomy and somehow depressing. The check-in took a while and we were glad when we finally got outside to breath some fresh air. Fortunately we were picked up by Alexej, our driver, who brought us to our hotel. A friend of KrishnaMa had organized him for us.

Nevsky Grand Hotel. 4 stars. We expected a luxury acommodation but it turend out to be an old and very simple stay. We had such a small room, that we even had problems to get our suitcases inside. Wow! We made a fresh start to explore the city when it started snowing. We were freezing very much. Even in Hamburg it was already a lot warmer. In the evening we made ourselves comfortable on the stairs in front of our room, because smoking was allowed there. We talked for a long time.

Eremitage and Full Moon

The next day after meditation and breakfast, we set off again to explore St. Petersburg. The sun was shining and it had stopped snowing. The city was really nice, great imposing architecture. We were amazed and ran to the famous Hermitage. For almost four hours we strolled through the never-ending halls with thousands of wonderful arts. KrishnaMa was thrilled.

We walked along the river Neva, visited the Winterpalais and the "Auferstehungskirche". Some Sightseeing in the second largest City of Russia with more than 5 million inhabitants.

In the evening we met up with Mahmut, another friend of Roman from Hamburg. First he took us to an elegant restaurant, where we had delicious Pelmeni, a Russian dough specialty, and listened to Mahmuts stories. Then he dragged us into a nightclub. Typical Russian. A tabledance bar, where almost naked beauties scrambled on the bar and the men inhaled vodka. It was strange. But Mahmut, who apparently had no other person to talk to, chattered and chattered and said that in Russia it was quite normal for women to sell themselves and their bodies. “You urgently need to go to Moscow or to Ukraine. There live the most beautiful women.” We laughed. We did not really care.

The night was restless. The full moon! Once again I had a process going on. First I fought with my ascending emotions. Then I gave them free rein and sobbed into the pillow. The next morning, I felt somewhat dazed, but somehow also free and happy. What was that again? Well, actually synonymous no preference. Head again a step further towards inner peace. KrishnaMa looked at me as she awoke and seemed pleased. Sprayed another two spiri sprays to support me and my awakening.

Peterhof - Palace directly by the sea

After a few bites at breakfast we took metro and bus to get to the world-famous Peterhof, the splendid Palace directly by the sea, the south coast of the gulf of Finland. It snowed again, but it looked really nice, the huge snowy plant, the sea despite Goethes Osterspaziergang still not free from ice.

The poor people of St. Petersburg. I could never stand this cold weather. I love it warm, best tropical.

On the way back KrishnaMa was silent and made a depressed impression. "Something is very hard and I feel that my help is needed. But I can't and I don’t want to. It’s scary," she explained. We took the bus back to St. Petersburg.

Sightseeing and delicious diner

KrishnaMa went to bed, completely exhausted. I was as fit as usual, so I struggled through the city, strolled through the shops, visited the Resurrection Church and a typical Russian market. In the evening, KrishnaMa was fortunately back on track and we went to an original Russian restaurant and let us spoil ourselves culinary.

Doswidanja and Spasibo St. Petersburg

The next day when we had to pack our stuff and head back to the airport, I would say: Both ouf us weren’t really unhappy about our departure. St. Petersburg had pleased us, but especially the cold and the Russian heaviness were really exhausting. For me, the process from the full moon night was aggravating too.

In spite of this, we had the most interesting experience and will never forget our time in St. Petersburg. Thank you!