Saint Petersburg General Tips by sennaya

Favorite Thing: This is a cool resource to find most major (148) tourist attractions in St. Petereburg on a map.

http://www.lak-12.org/piter/maps/

Fondest Memory: Peter and Paul Fortress on the Neva River
http://www.lak-12.org/piter/maps/?coords=306,288

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Favorite Thing: There are five free pocket guidebooks to St. Petersburg in 2008.

Our favorite is the In your Pocket guide which is written by people who give a local feel.

Followed by St. Petersburg The Official Guide, which is accurate but a somewhat dry presentation of facts.

Sometimes we feel they all cater to commercial advertisers and give more favorable attention than deserved to some of the big or touristy places. We try to balance them in our tips which are from our own experiences from living here :)

Fondest Memory: St. Petersburg In your Pocket,
St. Petersburg The Official Guide,
ALL YOU NEED St. Petersburg
Visitor St. Petersburg, a smaller pocket size guide just out in 2007,
and
Sky Top Tour

They are available at major hotels and travel desks and at Tourist Information centers.
The main city tourist information center is a Nevsky Prospect and 14 Sadovaya St, see our tip for it in this section.

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Favorite Thing: St. Petersburg was founded and named by Peter the Great in 1703. It was his new capital and eye on europe where he was able to start his Navy.

The name changed to Petrograd in 1914 during a time of Russian patriotism.

Lenin and the Bolshevik's moved the capital back to Moscow in 1918 and renamed St. Petersburg to Leningrad in 1924.

In the fall of 1991 Lenigrad was again named St. Petersburg
A nice chronolgy of russian history
http://www.bucknell.edu/x20140.xml


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Favorite Thing: This is the only guide tip you need :)
New in 2006 the city decided to open some tourist information centers!

At Nevsky Propect and Sadovaya Stret 14 you can find all the tourist handouts in one place.

There are 3 very good guides including:
"In Your Pocket" very usueful and
"St. Petersburg The Official Guide" and
Visitor St. Petersburg, a small pocket size guide just out in 2007.

You can get englsih vesion of Hermitage news ( and russian) and The St. Petersburg times on Tuesdays and Fridays, the only English language newspaper.

Fondest Memory: Nevsky Prospect and Sadovaya street, 14
and on the Palace Square

http://www.visit-petersburg.com//index.php?path=/index/en
info@www.visit-petersburg.com
+7 (812) 310-2822

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Favorite Thing: Starting in 2007 Russia introduced the 5,000 ruble note.
Now the paper money coms in 5000, 1000, 500, 100, 500 and 10 rubles.
The dolalr has fallen in value against the Ruble and the Euro for several eyars now, in fact since the Euro was introduced.
Check teh current conversion rates:
Yahoo Currency converter
5000 rubles = about $200
1000 rubles= about $39
500 rubles = about $19
100 rubles = about $4

Fondest Memory: Russian coins come in 5 ruble, 1 rubles and then kopeks, 50, 10 5 and 1 kopek.
100 kopeks = 1 ruble, so the kopek is really small in value, about 1/30th of a penny.

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Favorite Thing: For an English reader the first look at Cyrillic is quite baffling and exotic.
Russian has 33 letters and some are the same as used in English.

A, K, M , O , T look and sound as in English.

Russian has 7 letters that look like English, but sound different:
B, E, H, P, C, Y, X

It is quite rewarding to get the hang of the conversion of cyrillic letters to roman letters. Many words are the same or similar to English. Here is the Library of Congress recommended transliteration of Russian letters.

Fondest Memory: Russian / pronounced /English If you cannot read this, change View/ Encoding to Cyrillic in your browser.
A,a.../a/...A,a
Б,б.../b/...B,b
B,в.../v/...V,v
Г, г.../g/...G,g
Д, д.../d/...D,d
E,e.../ye/...E,e
Ë,ë.../jo/...YO,yo
Ж, ж.../ž/...Zh,zh
З, з.../z/...Z,z
И, и.../i/...I,i
Й, й.../i/...Y,y
K,k.../k/...K,k
Л, л.../l/...L,l
M, м.../m/...M,m
H, н.../n/...N,n
O,o.../o/...O,o
П, п .../p/...P,p
P,p.../r/...R,r
C,c.../s/...S,s
T, т.../t/...T,t
У, у.../oo/...U,u
Ф, .../f/...F,f
X,x.../h/...H,h
Ц, ц.../ts/...Ts,ts
Ч,ч.../tš/...Ch,ch
Ш,ш.../š/...Sh,sh
Щ,щ.../štš/...Shch,shch
Ъъ... hard sign
Ы,ы.../i/...Y,y vowel sound not in english, uh sound
Ь,ь... soft sign
Э,э.../ε/...E,e
Ю,ю.../iu/...IU,iu*
Я,я.../ja/...YA, ya*

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Favorite Thing: St. Petersburg gets all four seasons, sometimes a bit unpredictably.
The long days of white nights in June do not mean it will be always warm, carry a sweater and umbrella! It can rain most any time of year, though January and February are the coldest and there will be a glaze of ice on sidewalks.
Beign by teh Finaldn gulf, the air can often be damp and chilly, beware of cold drafts, wear a scarf in Spring and Fall.
BBC weather forecast in Celsius
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0057
Weather Underground forecast in Celsius and Fahrenheit
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/26063.html
CNN weather forecast
http://weather.cnn.com/weather/forecast.jsp?locCode=ULLL&zipCode=489288383082
Weather map in Russian
http://www.rbc.ru/meteo_map.shtml
Three day pagoda forecast in English and Russian
http://pogoda.spb.ru/english/

Fondest Memory: Some animated seasons for fun
Seasons
http://www.sennaya.com/seasons/

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Favorite Thing: You need crisp new bills to exchange in Russia.
Damaged bills will be refused. The rates change daily and signs posted outside banks let you know when the exchange rate is.
Generally, you can get a better rate off Nevsky Prospect. And the Government bank, Sberbank, usually is not a good rate. I have good luck on Sennaya Ploschad to find a good rate for US dollars. Bankomats or ATM machines are also excellent for travelers. As usual, the ATM will charge a small fee for the transaction and exchange your currency to rubles. many Bankomats give dollars or Rubles, but rubles are the only official currency of Russia.
In 2007 the exchange was below 26 rubles to the dollar, but euros are 34 rubles. The dollar has devalued over the past few years while the euro has been strong in Russia.

Fondest Memory: The least fondest is receiving a damaged 500 ruble note from the Russian government bank, Sberbank. No one including Sberbank would take it back.
Sberbank also gave me a counterfeit $100 bill that was confiscated by another bank.
Look at your bills when you get them!

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Favorite Thing: The US consulate can help American citizens with passports, reporting crime, registering weddings, visas for Russian citizens, register your trip overseas (online) and any other security needs. If you are not American, check out your consulate site before visiting.

How to contact the US consulate in St. Petersburg:
7-812-331-2600 - Telephone
7-812-331-2646 - Fax
acsstpete@state.gov
7-812-331-2600 - Emergency telephone (24 hours)
15 Furshtatskaya Ul.
191028 St. Petersburg, Russia

Working hours
American Citizen Services Section is open to the public: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 2-5 p.m.,
Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., except on Russian and American holidays.
Telephone inquiries:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 10.a.m. - 1 p.m., Wednesday, 3 - 5 p.m. In the event of an emergency, American citizens may reach the Consulate duty officer after 5:30 p.m. and on weekends by calling: 7-812-331-2600.
http://stpetersburg.usconsulate.gov/citizen.htm

Fondest Memory: http://stpetersburg.usconsulate.gov/citizen.htm

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Favorite Thing: The modern White-Blue-red flag was first used in 1896, then changed to the red Soviet flag in 1917, then back to the current flag in 1991.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Russia


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