The seedy side of Piter

10:22 am August 18th, 2005

Last night before catching the train to Moscow, we went on a walking tour of Piter run by Nochlezhka (Night Shelter). They are an NGO that looks after the homeless in Piter. Homelessness is a huge problem in Russia, with 10% of the population affected, including 54 000 in Piter alone. The big problem is because all Russians have a passport, but the passport needs to have a registration stamp with your current address in it. If you don't have this stamp you can't get a job, you can't get medical treatment, and you are not allowed to leave the city you are in. What a stupid system! The people that need the help can't get it. They end up sorting through garbage for something to eat and bottles to recycle. Our guide said she was touched when she saw someone sitting on the garbage reading a book she had found in it :)
 

We pretty much just walked around Nevsky (and a few of the more dodgey areas just to the north), but it was interesting to hear a few new facts about Piter. For example, the bridge with four horses and four naked men holding them is locally called "18 ball bridge"... counts... 16 for the statues, when we asked why 18, she said it is because there is always a policeman standing on the bridge :)
 

The Catherine the Great square is strictly divided down the middle, with one side being the popular gay hangout, and the other being the old Russian chess champion side :) We went to an old alternative theatre where they show Japanese movies from the 50's (apparently it is the only place in Piter which always smells like hash), and a local theatre that is the lesbian culture centre - interestingly the lesbian symbol in Piter in a double headed axe for some reason. We saw a Roma doing an act with a crocodile, and we passed by two pubs, one which has New Years Eve every night, and one which has a wedding every night.
 

We saw Paul I's castle, which he had painted peach because it was the colour of his lover's gloves. Paul I was murdered like every tsar except Alexander I (who drank himself to death).

 
In the bad neighbourhood we saw the common flats, where multiple families live in the same flat. Our guide told us that to divide the electricity bill, the single toilet in the flat can have a dozen light bulbs with a dozen switches, so each family uses their own light bulb. 15% of people in Piter still live in these common flats. Also, our guide read out the local graffiti, which is always things like "I love you". There is almost never mean graffiti in Russia :)
 

Finally, we saw the small sparrow statues, down in the canal. The small gray birds flitter down around the canals. This statue is just by the law school, which is all boys and they are surrounded by a moat and wear all gray. There is a nursery rhyme which goes (when translated) "little gray bird where are you going, I'm going to the canal to have a vodka, two vodka, three vodka". Every child sings it :)
 

Moscow
 

Overnight train to Moscow, how exotic! The largest city in Europe with 13 million people, but unlike Piter it has a wholly Russian feel to it. It was founded in the 1500's by Yuri Longarm who defeated the Tartars. It was made great by Ivan the Terrible, who founded the Kremlin and built St Basils. In 1703 the capital of Russia was moved to Piter, but the city still remained the hub of Russia, which has only increased since the Soviets moved the capital back.
 

We saw the seven sisters, huge neo-gothic skyscrapers built because Stalin feared that New York looked more powerful than Moscow. Lucky for him he had the guy who designed the Empire State Building in the Gulags, so he pulled him out of the labour camp and had him build the seven sisters.

We caught the metro through the city. Like Piter the stations were magnificent, with a variety and quality of decoration equal to that in the Hermitage and the best cathedrals. The stations were deep (they were built with bomb shelters in mind) but not as deep as Piter's. The metro network is the largest in the world, with 120 stations and 9 million users per day. I love a good public transport system :) We caught a ferry along the Moscow River and saw the gold tipped onion domes of the Church of Christ our Saviour (built after 1812, destroyed by the Soviets and recently rebuilt to the original plans), as well as many small but exquisite Russian orthodox churches. We past a 70m towering statue of Peter the Great. At least they call it Peter the Great, but actually it was commissioned by Santiago in the States as a statue of Christopher Colombus. They paid in advance for French architects to make me, but were horrified to see the result and turned it down. The architects tried selling it, but eventually they changed the face to pretend it was Peter the Great (still wearing old Spanish clothes) and gave it to Moscow. The residents of Moscow hate it so much there are attempts to blow it up every year, so it is under 24 hour surveillance. Walked around the Kremlin (all 70 acres of it), a massive red fortress wall containing many churches and political buildings, and saw Red Square and the amazing St Basil's church (with the most colourful patterns of onion domes). Saw the outside of the Mauleseum where Lenin's embalmed body is kept, and the building where the CHEKA (later to become KGB) was set up. Tried to find Noveskya, but failed.