36. Top 10 (less obvious) favorite things about St. Petersburg (so far)
After living here for close to two months, I have a good feel for the city. I certainly haven't seen or experienced everything, and of course it's hard to fully integrate into the culture with such a limited ability to understand the Russian language, but from the perspective of an American expat, I think I have a good handle on things.
I'm not including the most obvious choices on my list of favorite things in St. Petersburg. It should be clear from my blog posts that I enjoy the profusion of museums and palaces, and have spent a significant amount of time at the Hermitage in particular. So even though those things would occupy at least half of my legitimate top 10 list, I'm not including them here. These are my less obvious favorite things about life in St. Petersburg (not really in any particular sequence):
01. People watching on the escalators in the Metro
02. Lack of tall or modern-style buildings in the city center
03. Rivers and canals everywhere you look
04. Dense concentration of restaurants downtown
05. Cleanliness of the streets and Metro
06. Souvenir shops without bus parking outside of walking distance from cruise ship berths (these are much less crowded and have significantly less aggressive staff)
07. Funny interactions at restaurants where the staff speaks to me only in English and I reply only in Russian (I think my limited vocabulary and bad pronunciation are a dead giveaway of how they should interact with me)
08. Ornate buildings on every block
09. Daylight until after 11 pm at this time of year
10. The weather at this time of year - from day to day it is rarely too cold, and never too hot
I'm not including the most obvious choices on my list of favorite things in St. Petersburg. It should be clear from my blog posts that I enjoy the profusion of museums and palaces, and have spent a significant amount of time at the Hermitage in particular. So even though those things would occupy at least half of my legitimate top 10 list, I'm not including them here. These are my less obvious favorite things about life in St. Petersburg (not really in any particular sequence):
01. People watching on the escalators in the Metro
02. Lack of tall or modern-style buildings in the city center
03. Rivers and canals everywhere you look
04. Dense concentration of restaurants downtown
05. Cleanliness of the streets and Metro
06. Souvenir shops without bus parking outside of walking distance from cruise ship berths (these are much less crowded and have significantly less aggressive staff)
07. Funny interactions at restaurants where the staff speaks to me only in English and I reply only in Russian (I think my limited vocabulary and bad pronunciation are a dead giveaway of how they should interact with me)
08. Ornate buildings on every block
09. Daylight until after 11 pm at this time of year
10. The weather at this time of year - from day to day it is rarely too cold, and never too hot
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