I learned Russian when I was about 5 years old. My material grandmother raised me and she couldn't speak English, or just barely. I came over to her side. (She came to the US when she was 16).. And my grandparents used to get newspapers from "the old country", but that was beyond my comprehension.
I never really learned reading and writing but can struggle and somewhat read and write but it takes forever. It's a difficult alphabet. It was my parents and grandparents who came to the US, so my first language was Hungarian. Being a child, I learned English quickly in kindergarten.
I think it's probably fair to say that St Petersburg is the only place where I have seen a Baroque public toilet.
I guess I mentioned before, elsewhere, about my traveling aunt and a book she put together of Red Square and her travels to Moscow and the countryside. Although the book and pictures are all pre-Internet quality. I guess the movie Dr. Zhivago set them off in their dream trip to Russia, and mostly their desire to travel across Siberia. But they didn't go during the winter. It was June 1972. The Trans-Siberian train trip took them across 5,600 miles, over 7 days/nights @ 30 mph, with 83 stops. Leningrad, Kiev and Moscow. I know they went to Red Square at night, wanting to see the lights & changing of the guard. Very funny customs problem .. even back then ... they had packed some Woolite in little baggies for clothes washing. It was examined by three officers and they wrote up a very detailed statement about the laundry soap. They said they would have to analyze it ... more officers were called in .... they suggested testing it in a bottle of water. Sure enough, foam!
Yes Tom I have passed it when out walking, but have never actually dined in it, there are so many restaurants here now, over 8,400 on Tripadvisor alone, we have been to one called Ukrop which is across the road here, it's nice but nothing really special about it. Vegetarianism goes against the tradition of Russian cuisine, but there are a lot more vegetarian restaurants these days, because of tourists demands. Our favourite Georgian ones also do vegetarian dishes and of course Lobio a common one is meat free, Ukrop Lobio
We didn't get to many restaurants in St Petersburg. The Idiot was just across the canal from our hotel, so was an easy choice, having a good vegetarian menu. There was quite a decent Indian restaurant quite close as well, which was fairly cheap. In fact, the beer was pretty cheap there, too, even if it was just the dreaded Baltika. One place that didn't sound ideal for vegetarians was Meathead, though it might have been amusing to go to The Idiot and Meathead on the same day. We liked the Craft Bier Cafe in Gagarinskaya. Not sure I remember much about the metro journey back, though...
I like that one also, Terry! Depends on how I'm feeling. If I was on a first date, I'd take the Idiot, the lighting is more flattering.
We finally made it to the Frida Khola exhibition, and enjoyed it, I was surprised to be so affected by the painful emotions Frida has captured in some of her works. She had a serious traffic accident in her teens and married the artist Diego Rivera twice, both times the marriage didn't really work and caused much emotional pain. The palace housing the exhibition is beautifully restored and houses the Faberge museum. A few photo's I took below. The Mask of Madness
A couple more photos The impressive staircase The walk back was cold this is the frozen Fontanka canal .....and our local bakery
We went on our No 16 tram ride and walked in the park, though it was a tad cold a few degrees below freezing all day, the meal at the restaurant in the park was warming though and washed down with wine and beer. We both had a dish called "The Soul of the Monk" based on pork with a side dish of chips (fries) Some snow sculptures