What a great trip report. My husband and I were in St. Petersburg in June of 2002. My parents-in-law, in celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary, took their sons and wives on a Baltic capitol cruise. St. Petersburg was our favorite. Unfortunately we were one of those tourists groups you mentioned at the Hermitage who were raced around by the guides. (The only thing I remember seeing was the huge gilded peacock clock and the golden coach.) We always thought it would be nice to go back and spend some time in the city. What I found fascinating were the people. They were all beautiful, slim, tall and leggy, with flawless skin, gorgeous hair and chic clothes. When I think of Russia I think of the stereotypical image of an old toothless women in a babushka. (But a friend of mine pointed out that many of the aristocrats were exiled to St. Petersburg during the communist years.) The other thing I found interesting was that the economy was run on the black market dollar. When we were there nobody wanted the ruble, they all wanted dollars. (This will probably change in light of the falling greenback.) I also loved all the artwork that was available on the street. Paintings, drawings, lacquer boxes, shawls, some of fine quality, some junk. Anyway I enjoyed this trip report immensely.
Thanks for the kudos Ginger. Besides trying to give as much information as possible, I had a great time writing it. We found too the blond haired beauties and the handsome men, it reminded me a lot of Finland and Sweden - which really are not that far away geographically.
We've never even thought of renting an apartment instead of a hotel room and now I try to do this, if possible, when we travel. We got back last month from Kerala, India where we rented a 3-bedroom, 3-bath apartment for $75/night. A small hotel room in a decent hotel would run that much there.
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