"My unrequited Love!" a Saint Petersburg Travel Page by Assenczo

St. Petersburg visitors might be overwhelmed by the opulence of the palaces but not suspect that the “ordinary” homes are not far away from their regal counterparts. There was so much wealth in the city that thousands of apartments in this highly urbanized environment were turned into miniature versions of the Hermitage or the Russian Museum. Many apartment buildings or “dom” were made of five stories or so (never higher than the Hermitage). The first three floors were built with high ceilings and the remaining two were more humble in appearance. Interior elements included parquet composed of several types of wood, ceilings molded in cast compositions and stately chandeliers filling the solemn spaces of the rooms.

Furshtatskaya is one typical St. Petersburg street. The old city gradually regains its previous magnificence with the restoration of the mansions and the apartment buildings. Everybody who has any money and power in Russia is represented in Moscow where the political and business center of the country is. Day by day, St.Petersburg crawls out of the shadow of Moscow and its secondary position, especially after the Russian power circles became more and more St. Petersburg based.
Furshtatskaya is peppered with consulates general of foreign countries and representative offices of Russian federal “strongmen”. Along come the services sought by similar personalities – casinos and beauty salons with their more than exotic staff. The cars reflect the changing nature of the street where the rich and poor cohabite peacefully – thick BMW lurks shamelessly behind a Zaporozhetz.