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In St. Petersburg: Saturday, July 31st, 2010, 5:14 am (GMT+3) Weather Temperature: C (32° F) • Barometer: 30.03" Hg C • (32° F) • Lo 18° • • Sunrise: 5:37 AM (939 mmHg) • Feels like: 17° • • •

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I hope you remember your old friend from St. Petersburg. I was out of the city wandering the world for a while. But there’s nothing more beautiful than spending time in Russia with my friends. So, I’m back and keep on informing you about life in St.Petersburg.

Happy to tell you that RST/EducaCentre have moved to very fashionable area of St. Petersburg downtown, Petrogradskaya storona. It's a one of the “porche” spots in the city filled with cafes, reastaurants, boutiques and cinemas. Elite park on "Krestovskij" (Cross) island is close, so active people go there for rollerblading, boating and even feeding monkeys. In the winter snowboarding and skiing are possible. You can join us by coming to St. Petersburg whenever you want, say ...

Monkey Landing in St. Petersburg

If I asked you to tell me the first thing that comes to you mind when I say Russia, the answer probably would be COLD and VODKA. No comments about vodka at the moment but I can surprise you about constant ice-age in St.Petersburg. This summer we had a monkey landing on one of our islands. 7 brave monkeys were brought here to live and multiply. You can observe and feed them by taking a small boat or katamaran. It’s pretty exciting for Russia, huh?

PUB/CLUB/BAR or How to Count Till Ten!

The most appropriate word for a pub would be a KLOOB (club) or BAR (bar). This is a place where you can have some drinks and dancing, up to the whole night till 6 am. Usual KLOOBY (clubs) differ from NOCHNOJ KLOOB (night club), which assumes some exotic and private dancing, etc. It up to you, but we recommend to start with usual clubs by going there with some friends for the first time (see social activities).

Say, you made it to the bar and you want to order a drink. People start with PEEVO (beer), then continue with VODKA.
All you have to say is odnu vodku, dve vodki, tri vodki, chetire, pyat’, shest’, sem’, vosem’, devyat’, desyat’. At this moment I would stop and order a bottle. However, this might be enough for your first KLOOB experience. Also, this is revolutionary method to learn Russian numbers from one to ten, patent pending! :)

Very useful expression that you might need after this great variety of drinks is “Gdee zdes’ tooalet?” (where’s a restroom?). Then you can practice you knowledge of numbers once again and then the only expression you need to know is “Pozhalujsta, otvezite menja domoj” (Almost like in this famous song “Take me home, take me home”…please). Don't forget the next morning you should be ready for the morning lesson of Russian!

p.s. According to the BBC News Russian vodka "Stolichnaya" is on the second top list in Great Britain among hard drinks!

Exchange some CKB for Y.E.?
column by Petr Kozyrev,
Peter's Walking Tours
e-mail : info@peterswalk.com

Today we'll be talking about one specific aspect of the fascinating phenomenon of Russian abbreviations. You come across them way too often in this country - and the ones that are particularly important for a foreign visitor to know are those that have to do with everyday practicalities, money exchange for instance.

Many exchange offices in St. Petersburg are marked by a mysterious sign, looking very similar to ObMEH CKB, or sometimes the abbreviation CKB preceded by some other words. What is CKB?

CKB is actually a Cyrillic-letter abbreviation, pronounced SKV (the letter C is S in Russian, and the one that looks like B is actually V; K is K). It stands for Svobodno Konvertiruemaya Valuta, or freely convertible currency. The word ObMEH means 'exchange' and is in fact spelled slightly differently. It is pronounced 'obmen', stress on the 'e'. The Russian 'b' looks a bit different than the Latin 'b' - we cannot show it here due to the imperfection of modern computer technologies. Refer to your Russian text book.

Another weird one is 'Y.E'. This one is not as frequent these days, but you still find it on menus of some tourist restaurants and shops. It would say something (in English) to the effect of: 'Prices indicated are in Y.E., payable in rubles at the current exchange rate'. What the hell?

Once again, welcome to the intricate world of Russian abbreviations. Y.E. stands in Russian for 'uslovnye edinitsy', or 'conventional units' - read 'US dollars' or Euros. The rate is usually (but not always) indicated somewhere one the menu, and is roughly equivalent to the rate of USD or Euro. This has to do with the fact that in the 1990s, during the years of hyperinflation, businesses were trying to secure their income by linking their retail prices to a stable equivalent, US dollars being the most obvious one. It is illegal by Russian law to accept foreign cash as payment for goods and services, so such businesses were quoting prices in Y.E. - neutral enough. You pay the bill with rubles anyway, but the point is that the restaurant would not have to print a new menu with the inflation, just change the current rate of Y.E. Ridiculous - yes. Complicated - yes. But then things are never easy in Russia.

The hyperinflation has been stopped a few years ago, the Russian economy is on the steep rise now, and Russia is steadily and confidently making itself comfortable on the international economical and political scene. Yet there's still no shortage of signs of the old-school mentality around - stay with us and you'll find out about more exciting Russian complications in the next issues of the newsletter.

A few useful tips on the exchange of foreign currencies in Russia:

Wherever you change your money you'll be asked for your passport, regardless of the amount. This is a legal requirement.

Also, some impressive amount of paperwork will be produced - you'll have to sign up to four different papers, depending on the establishment. This one has to do with our obsession with paperwork - be patient and respect local culture.

The Russian word for money is 'dengi'. When exchanging foreign money, you'd have to use the word for currency - 'valjuta', or, once again, 'SKV'.

With best regards, Peter's Walking Tours, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Social activities in October:
Oct 7 - International party with Hot English Magazine
Oct 15 - Live concert of "A Knife for the Frau Muller" local band
Oct 22 - Russian Party at Krestovkij Island. Walking, boating, feeding monkeys (if they are not frozen) or even ostrichs that belong to one of the restaurants.
Oct 28 - Bowling and billiard/pool and other sport activities.
In November - banya (Russian bath house), snowboarding, ice-skating, karaoke party.

Exclusive offer for Russian language studies, valid till Jan 1st, 2005
We offer two weeks all-inclusive program for 570 EUR only, you will have:
• 20 lessons of Russian per week, with study materials
• city centre homestay accommodation
• visa support, arrival transfer, EducaCentre certificate
• exciting social program.
So, make up your mind and join those inquisitive and brave people who decided to communicate in Russian!
Order here!

5 star hotel weekend for 185 EUR, valid till Dec 31st, 2004
Weekend in Grand Hotel Emerald ***** for only 185 EUR
The package includes:
- 1 night in Standard SGL or DBL room,
- early check-in and late check-out,
- buffet breakfasts, plus bottle of champaigne in the room,
- free voucher for 25 USD for “Emerald” casino,
- Transfer to and from the Hotel

Order here!

Tourist visa invitation for only 15 EUR, offer valid till Dec 31st, 2004
Invitation letters for getting Russian Tourist visas for only 15 EUR (valid till Dec.31st, 2004). So, hurry up and spend a New Year’s Eve over here, pretty cold but it’s worth it!!!
Order here!

Smoke on the water.
They are coming to Russia!!! Deep Purple will present their new program Bananas Tour on the 22d of October in Ice Palace in St. Petersburg. That must be amazing! You can order tickets through RST.

St. Petersburg Open tennis championship.
The XXth annual worldwide tennis cup St. Petersburg Open will take place in St. Petersburg from 25th to 31st of October. Everybody’s welcome to support our tennis players. More info available at http://www.spbopen.ru/eng/ , you can ask RST
for travel arrangements.

Robots to guard Russian museum in St. Petersburg
Russian museum, which encompasses the biggest collection of native art in St. Petersburg, will be guarded by robots. Museum-s management informed the press of their intention to purchase hi-tech security devices for $16 000 USD each. The museum will be the first in the country with robots on guard.

Chinese investors to invest 1 billion USD in Russia
Chinese investors may invest up to $1 billion in a high-speed toll road between
St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russian Minister German Gref, said during during an official visit to Beijing last week. "The final decision hasn't yet been taken but we have signed a preliminary agreement," Interfax quoted him saying. "Total investment may reach $1 billion."

Train Service Berlin-St. Petersburg to Start in 2005
The Talgo train will come into service along
the Berlin-St. Petersburg route in May 2005.
The tourist orientated train service will
run a Berlin - Kaliningrad - Vilnus - Riga - Tallinn -
St. Petersburg route starting May 26, 2005. The Talgo project was proposed by German railroad professionals The opening of new transit points is especially necessary for the Christmas and New Year periods when the volume of travelers increases.


	!!! See you November 2004 with my new stories !!! And if you have QUESTION, please ask at peter@russian-st-petersburg.com !

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