Russia survival guide for the Green Army...
We’re not there yet but after that James McClean cracker in Cardiff on Monday night, Russia is now looming that bit larger in the Irish consciousness. And St Petersburg, one of the most memorable cities that I have ever visited, has a spanking new stadium ready to host some of the matches, including the semifinals (we can dream, can’t we?), in next summer’s World Cup. So what do you need to know about – outside of the football – if you are lucky enough to find yourself in the vicinity of that wonderful city next June? Here are a few pointers.
Sort out your visa
First of all, before you buy that camper van (as one fan was proposing on radio the morning after the night before) or make those hotel bookings, you need to check out the practicalities of getting to Russia.
If you’re sensible and you’re flying there, you won’t find any direct schedule flights from Ireland. But there are all sorts of options available with different airlines, via different hubs.
Have a look at skyscanner.ie to get an idea of the options and the prices.
And you’ll need a visa. You can organise this through the Russian Embassy in Dublin, or with the assistance of a tour operator if you are booking a package.
It’s not cheap, costing from €86, and if you leave it too late and need it processed quickly, then it will cost you double that amount. So plan ahead.
Green and White Nights
The World Cup runs from June 14 to July 15, so it will be kicking off right in the middle of what’s known as the White Nights in St Petersburg. This means that because the city lies so far north the nights are bright from late May until early July but in mid-June darkness never really falls completely. Essentially, even without the World Cup, this means party time in the city every year, with myriad festivals celebrating those long, luminous nights.
Let’s start a revolution
St Petersburg is where the Russian Revolution began in 1917 with a single blank shot from the Aurora battleship indicating that it was time to begin the storming of the city’s Winter Palace. The centenary of that so-called October Revolution actually falls this month. With the differences in the Julian and Gregorian calendars the revolution actually began on October 25 (Julian) in St Petersburg but is now marked, under the new Gregorian calendar, on November 7. The Aurora itself is now a ship museum, moored in St Petersburg. Well worth a visit.
Living on a prayer
The churches are fabulous. Used for all sorts of other purposes under Communist rule – one was a public swimming-pool, another a warehouse for vegetable storage – the city’s churches have all been reinstated and offer huge diversity, both in their exterior architecture and in their OTT Russian Orthodox interiors.
The Church on Spilled Blood is like something straight out of the Arabian Nights, with its plethora of multicoloured onion domes, while the more austere Kazan Cathedral is striking in its scale and architecture.
With its vast colonnaded wings extending either side of the central structure, it was modelled on St Peter’s in Rome and certainly commands that kind of presence.
On top of that you shouldn’t miss St Isaac’s Cathedral with its golden dome and, on a lesser scale but still one of my favourites, the parish church of St Nicholas, painted sky-blue on the outside and dedicated to the city’s sailors.
Streets ahead
Nevsky Prospekt represents the heart and soul of the city. Everywhere else is relative in terms of location to this 4.5km street that cuts like an artery through the centre of St Petersburg. To walk it is to experience all manner of life and commerce – five-star hotels, churches, beggars, chauffeur-driven limousines. And one of the oldest shopping centres in the world – the Gostiny Dvor. Begun in the 18th century it now houses hundreds of outlets and stretches for about 1km along the street. When I was there it was a two-tier system with market-stall type produce on the ground floor and upmarket designer goods upstairs. Following a makeover in recent years it’s now more fashionable but remains one of the landmarks on Nevsky Prospekt.