In a city with 5 million people not including the population of the entire metropolitan area, St. Petersburg, Russia offers a terrific combination of top notch women at high quantities. The sightseeing, charming neighborhoods situated on different islands, cost-effective public transportation, women, popping nightlife on weekends, free wifi in city centers, and interesting 24/7 cafe culture will keep you busy whether it be in regards to visiting or living there on a year round basis.
Nights Stayed 5
December 18th-23rd, 2013
Average Temperature During Stay 33-42 Fahrenheit, 2-6 Celsius
Pros of St. Petersburg
1) Wide array of nightlife options scattered throughout 5 different neighborhoods
2) 24/7 Cafe Culture. - Also many good bakeries serving reasonable breads & coffee. Free wifi all over city center.
3) Friendly & approachable locals. - Not to mention pretty strong English levels.
4) Good sightseeing. Check out the Administrative District (Admiralsky), Hermitage Museum, which according to some is better than the Lourve in Paris, canals comparable to Venice, Italy, and the neighborhoods scattered through the different islands north of the Hermitage.
5) Safety. I met multi-ethnic ex-pats from different parts of the world living in Piter as we all confirmed feeling very safe walking around alone at nights. I could plant myself at a cafe doing work on my macbook pro while looking to converse with chicks whereas there is no way my laptop would leave my hotel/apartment in a major Brazilian city.
6) Public Transportation/Street Signs - One way rides on the Tram, Buses, and Metros are 28 Rubles or less. Very efficient too. Street signs are also listed in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.
7) Food - I actually enjoyed the food selection from European cafeterias, bakeries, cafes, and local Russian varieties. Coffees were great as I typically love EE pastries. There is a small food stop off of Admiralsky Prospekt and Nevsky Prospekt that have cheap breakfast options, pastries, and pizzas. Can't remember name. Burgers I binged on were great too. Only thing I didn't like were the crepes, haha.
8) Women - City of 5 million people packs relatively outgoing & gorgeous women in high quantities whether it be young professionals or university students. Cafeterias & cafes could make for good daygaming.
9) Edginess of the gaming scene. Russian women are approachable & friendly but they make you work for every inch. Top tier challenge with one of the highest calibre of women in the world going up against merciless Russian dudes. I dig the atmosphere.
10) Airport - The airport is an eyesore. No doubt about it. But once my luggage was lost entering St. Petersburg, the staff was very attentive & took great care of me ensuring I would get my bags the next night (which I did). I didn't even get that kind & efficient treatment from the condescending employees at Houston or Dallas/Ft. Worth airports on my way back home forcing me to find the whereabouts of my luggage through multiple calls to American Airlines & British Airways independently. (My luggage got lost on way back home too FYI)
One can also get a 200 Ruble Beeline Sim Card at the airport for all different types of basic or smart phones too per Dr. Benway. Convenient & cheap for the minutes, text messaging, and data plan received. Employee will install and make sure it's functioning too.
When arriving late at St. Petersburg on way back home to the US, the staff took great care of me once again ensuring my luggage was rushed and went out of their way to push me past a crowded security line ensuring I'd be able to catch the flight. Despite some asshole bouncers at certain night clubs, I thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality of Piter.
Cons of St. Petersburg
1) Despite wide array of nightlife, Sundays-Thursdays are dead during the winters. A 5 day stay from say Wednesday-Monday could result in drinking alone with the bartender on Wed/Thurs night (raises hand). It was my bad not being able to locate places like Rossi or Laque on a Thursday night even with Google Maps on my phone. There is however a place called Lomosonov that has industry nights on Sundays, but it's really just Russian speakers with non-existent English levels.
2) Smoking allowed indoors at non-upscale bars. Unless it's say Cafe Paradise or Buddha, you can smoke indoors at these venues. Not good if say wearing a suit or nice sweaters for people like me.
3) Bouncers & Face Control at upscale places - It sucks. It is however big city Russia. There are ways around it at Buddha or Cafe Paradise, which have the city's hottest after dinner clubbing scene as of December 2013. Both venues serve dinner, have websites, and English speaking receptionists so you can book dinner reservations for say 10-10:30 PM. Since service is going to be soso, expect your meal to take awhile especially if ordering appetizers too. Once your meal is over 90 minutes to 2 hours later, then the mingling & hordes of women will be in full effect. What's cheaper? Dinner and drinks or having to book table service for a bottle minimums?
4) For a 5 night stay, you could pull a SNL if lowering your standards or by just being at the right place with tight game. A 5 night stay will however not allow you to test out all the different nightlife options not because of the logistics, but mainly because weekdays are so dead. Therefore it's preferable to experience at least two weekends in St. Petersburg in the non-summer months to get a better feel for everything.
5) Too many artsy hipster girls? - This was an epidemic at most bars. Whether it be day or night, I saw many more young professionals & university students of the preppy types on the streets, cafes, cafeterias, etc etc. Majority of the university students frequenting "nightlife" spots were however of the hipster or artsy variety. Some might dig that as do I (at times), but this is were I preferred the student scene in say Poznan or Wroclaw, Poland where the young females were dressed more formally at bars. (The female dress code at Buddha or Paradise is much different however). It should be more about the decked out women in Slavic countries IMO.
6) Nevsky Prospekt - The best street to stay off of for logistics. Despite all the great things to see around the city & me liking the resources of Nevsky, being around this street can start to feel like groundhog's day with each passing moment haha.
7) Finding certain bars. Despite having 3G data, addresses, and google/apple maps. I was never able to find Laque or Rossi's being two venues I wanted to visit as many places tend to be hidden or tucked away off main streets. This could be the case in finding other bars as well. Might be better off asking people passing by (should've done that myself).
8) Convenient layout of city can be deceiving - The layout of Piter appears simple enough to conquer in less than a week, but it's deceptively intricate if wanting to experience everything of importance in say 5 days. Abstract feel that is hard to explain.
9) Airport - Despite hardworking & friendly staff, the airport was still an inefficient eyesore. Traffic into the city was a bitch not to mention it took my cab driver 70 minutes to go 10 miles returning back to the airport when leaving St. Petersburg (Fixed 1000 rate from Nevsky Prospekt to Airport minus good negotiating skills in Russian). Horrible traffic & infrastructure.
As a positive, I hear the airport is going through some expansion projects that will hopefully make the facility more bearable for years to come.
Points of Interest Map
![[Image: 11663218445_9ddd8869bb_b.jpg]](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5484/11663218445_9ddd8869bb_b.jpg)
Map Legend
A) Admiralteysky District,
B) Hermitage Museum,
C) Vasilevsky, Kirovsky, To-Radio Antenna Islands,
D)Museum Nightlife,
E) Kazanskaya Ulitsa/Griboyedova Canal,
F) Mishka Bar,
G) Ligovsky Prospekt (Would not recommend these days),
H) Dumskaya Ulitsa,
I) Buddha Bar
Intro - The big black line I drew is Nevksy Prospekt. The main areas of the city revolve around this street. Lots of free wifi, cafes, 24/7 eateries, and resources here on Nevsky.
A) Admiralteysky District - Great for sightseeing, upscale cafes, government buildings, embassies, and all sorts of neat stuff. Go explore it during the daytime.
B) Hermitage Museum - 400 Rubles for Foreigners. With a passport and student ID, you can get in for free. Many have said this museum is better than the Louve in Paris or comparable. I'm not a huge museum guy, but it was fun getting lost here
Dr. Benway mentioned there's a cool nightlife venue nearby called Mope Gallery Bar in his data sheet add-on. I never got to check it out. It's apparently tucked south of where Admiralsky Prospekt and Nevsky Prospekt meet.
C) Vasilevsky, Kirovsky, To-Radio Antenna Islands - Peter & Paul Fortress is not to be missed here. Walking on bridges will get you to these islands rather easily too. I imagine there are quite a few outdoor drinking patios here in the summer time, but not so much when I was visiting in the winter. Charming neighborhoods that remind me of certain ones in Brooklyn, NY. Cheapest place to buy toiletries compared to Nevksy Prospekt (applies to me since British Airways lost my bags for 1.5 days). The bakery kiosks serving coffee & cheap pastries are awesome. Great spot to sight see.
D) Nightlife Near Hermitage - Enough of me being lame. Here is where more nightlife insight comes into effect. In this area, there are interesting venues such as
Paradise Cafe,
Lux, and
Stackenschneider.
Stackenschneider as mentioned by Dr. Benway might be better in summer time because there is a bit more open space to utilize. Much of that is unfortunately closed off in the winter when I visited. Cool hipster bar with few high end gals, but mainly of the hipster university variety (though the prettiest hipster gals I met in Piter). Great English levels. You can smoke indoors, which can make it stuffy (story of many venues). Deep groove & house music.
The one girl I hit it off with the most ended up getting dragged out by what was seemingly her boyfriend she didn't tell me about after 20 minutes of grinding & flirting. Then there was a freckly blonde that I conversed quite a bit with, but she was apparently there with her boyfriend who disappeared occasionally resulting in dudes trying to swarm her on an individual basis once there was 5 seconds of breathing room. The hottest girl I approached was a blonde 8.5-9..a bit older, but she was also surprise surprise at the bar with her Russian boyfriend though originally born in San Francisco. Persistent with her flirty vibes in front of the BF, I politely walked away once the guy started getting visibly jealous.
Paradise Cafe - I got turned down twice. Friday night = private event. Saturday night = basic face control. It's a restaurant during the daytime to late evening and then a nightclub starting at 11PM. The best way to get in would be dinner reservations via phone or just walking there. Since it is so closed to Nevsky Prospekt in a touristy area, I would just walk in during the daytime with a passport booking dinner reservations at say 10:30 PM Friday/Saturday. Lots of people were turned down when I went Saturday, but all hot chicks decked out to the 8's/9's were automatically let in (not the case at Buddha). Action supposedly gets started after midnight-1AM so by the time dinner is over, the gaming should be good to go. Having dinner & being able to roam around freely would be better than overspending to be confined with a bottle at a reserved "table."
Lux is a bar with mainly meathead Russian dudes (couple of fights during my visit), mix of university students, some high end chicks, and douchebag door guys who will charge foreigners 1000 Rubles after midnight (I paid it like the sucker I was). There is also a bed inside as well. Very hot staff. Some dancers up front & hard electro music.
I hit it off well with a 19 year old chick from Kazakhstan who loved practicing with a native English speaker. She had to translate for her two friends since they were curious about my whereabouts too. She was definitely cute & felt safe around me when I guarded her from the fights that broke out, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to bang. Bad communication because of the loud noise & I kind of regret not walking out with her when she decided on leaving the bar.
I did however have one final shot to get laid Friday night at 4AM in the next neighborhood though....
E) Kazanskaya Ulitsa/Griboyedova Canal - Dr. Benway mentioned more venues on his sheet, but will discuss the two places I experienced.
Radiobaby - So this is the bar I visited after walking out on an opportunity at Lux. This is the one venue that is open till 6AM 7 nights a week no matter how dead it is. This was my last resort bar for all 5 nights of my stay, haha.
Wed - Dead. Got to mingle with Serbian bartender.
Thursday - Dead. Got to mingle with some people at the bar and had drinks with a Russian couple.
Friday - Ok after Lux, I arrived into a festive atmosphere at Radiobaby around 4AM. Got acquainted with 3-4 chicks amongst a mixed group of certain guests visiting from Moscow. One gal was really intrigued with my hair and kept playing with it. Then there was a 7.5 late 20s tanned athletic brunette that I tried escalating hard with though didn't work out. The last gal had curly blonde hair also wearing a blue tank. While sitting down, we conversed about how much I was loving St. Petersburg transitioning into some quick touching & building more comfort amongst each other. That was followed by a group clockbock of everybody wanting to go back home together & therefore stealing her away from me. Damn.
Saturday/Sunday nights were sausage fests as those last resorts didn't come as close as my Friday visit there.
Barrel - The small upscale bar lounge I stopped at Saturday night right before the hail mary run at Radiobaby had solid decked out talent though a bit expensive. Good English levels. The second set of gals I opened talked whiskey with me. When I mentioned really liking Maker's Mark, they replied with all these other presumably high end bands that that I never heard of. Convos ended quickly thereafter with my ignorance of high end liquors.
Last gal approached was one who spent some time studying English in Toronto though she claimed it was poor. Brought up great European countries we both visited as she got excited when I mentioned my Portuguese knowledge & Brazil. She was definitely of the rich upper echelon breed (or maybe had elite dudes sponsor her exotic vacations in the past, lol). In the background were some thirsty Turkish dudes going all out on her one friend so she left promptly once her friend was rushing out with an arranged Acura DMX waiting to take them home. A pity I must say.
F) Mishka Bar - Little isolated area here with a cool bar called Mishka. Went on a Friday night as it was packed with great talent. Few high end but mainly university chicks with some being flannel wearing hipsters and others exchange from say Germany, Scandinavia, and Ireland.
Hit it off well with an Irish chick since we had similar characteristics in our graduate programs, but it was 1AM when I decided to peace & search of other venues since the point of Russia wasn't to capture Irish flags in a short stay traveling from such a long distance. When I suggested keeping in touch via facebook as a sign of sincerity, she started getting defensive snarkly replying "what's the point of that? What good does that do?" "Oh ok nevermind bitch" was what I immediately thought drifting away surprised yet disguised in a polite manner.
Had some great discussions nevertheless with many gals as this was probably my favorite venue visited packing the best looking girls and best drink prices under one roof during my December 2013 stay. Mishka is a smaller underground version of Stackenschneider that is more happenin in the winter.
G) Ligovsky Prospekt area appears to be an obscure warehouse district where Jesus Bar used to be located. Wish I didn't waste my time going there (forgot to read Benway's update about Jesus Club being done now) because all the bars there were dead & worthless. The main shopping mall being Galerya is located just north of here however.
H) Dumskaya Ulitsa - Let's start with the bars I didn't go to.
Fidel (Benway advised against this bc of hooligan fights/skinheads),
Belgrad, Atelier and
Dacha. I did however visit....
Barbara - First visited Thursday night. Totally dead. It was literally me and the bartender despite the multi-level bar with a dance floor too. Saturday night had a few more people as I entered midnight. There were more folks in there including some gals with no English interested in me (I don't speak Russian as you can tell). Had it been later in the night, I would've tried to close them but with last call at around 5:45 AM, I decided to test out other waters in what was an early Saturday at that point.
Lomosonov - Busy with events throughout the week, this is one of the few places active on Sundays holding industry nights. Lots of chicks dancing on bar & nobody seems to speak English here. Kind of a clique-ish. Last resort Sunday option, which I had the pleasure of not getting much attention in though people were primarily friendly.
Party Hard Bar - Went on a Saturday right before Barbara midnight. Cool place. Lots of university students in mixed packs, but can be closed off. Good DJs. Also went on a Sunday night and hung out with a group of university chicks I encountered at the bar area. Spent a little more than an hour trying to close this chick as we danced, made out, etc but couldn't close because her English was basically non-existent in addition to other factors. Then her three friends wanted to take turns making out with me as we danced a bit resulting in jealous local Russian dudes wanting in on action (turned down they were). They were also very enamored by the fact that I was from Texas mentioning "cowboys," "big hats," and "hee haw," haha.
The bday girl of the pack got sick & tired on a school night so they weren't willing to come back to my apartment for whiskey & Malbec even though one was interested. While the place came off as cliquish Saturday, I caught a lucky break meeting those gals because my plans the previous night went sour (long story later). Some even have interest in visiting family & traveling through US this summer so we're in touch.
I) This isolated venue here is Buddha Bar. There are apparently locations in both Moscow and Kiev as it's hopping big time Fridays/Saturdays. If you don't want to take a 200-300 Ruble cab ride there, take the Metro early in the night (8-10PM) via Green/Orange line to Aleksandra Nevskogo & then walk north 15 minutes to arrive. Wait...you are going early right?
As I'll explain momentarily, going early as a gringo Fridays/Saturdays is absolutely crucial if not mandatory. It's not so much the cab ride there that will be expensive, but the cabs waiting outside Buddha will charge as much as 1000 Rubles (fixed price) for a short ride back to the main areas of Nevsky Prospekt. Walk a short distance away as some will go down to 500 Rubles. If you have a girl on hand, I'm sure she can negotiate for you
![[Image: smile.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/smile.gif)
I visited twice.
Saturday 1:30AM - I didn't think face control would be too much of an issue here seeing how there was an advertisement for Buddha at Pulkovo Airport. One girl even told me it was too commercial, which made sense seeing the airport ad decreasing my interest in visiting the first place. Boy was I wrong on both counts.
This was the one venue where even the hottest girls were getting face controlled resulting in them either waiting a long time or just opting to leave. Essentially 15-20 decked out chicks were walking away when told to wait. Met some gals I decided to hang on with for about 10 minutes in line. When they opted to leave, one asshole bouncer fetched a hostess for me. I told her I didn't have a reservation, but she tried offering me a table. I initially said "yes hold on" while taking 10-15 seconds to convince the gals to come back with me for a table. After that brief period, the hostess suddenly disappeared so I waited another 15 minutes in the rain before saying fuck it.
Sunday Night - Earlier in the day, I played it safe making reservations via phone for dinner at 9PM. Receptionist spoke perfect English & put me down. Upon arriving, place was dead as I had dinner by myself. I paid an arm & a leg just for myself going all out as my last supper in Piter. Slow service though the waiter was well-intentioned.
End of meal, hostess said I should just make 10-10:30 PM dinner reservations in advance for a Friday/Saturday night in order to avoid the face control nonsense since DJs/Live Bands start at 11. The chicks don't really come here in full packs until say after midnight to 1AM. By the time dinner is over however, it will be midnight (or after) as you can intentionally go at a slower pace in order to approach the flock of bitches arriving in the bar area.
I believe it is a 10K Ruble Deposit Minimum (Around 300 USD) to reserve a table downstairs, but I think it's a better deal to have dinner/appetizers on the 2nd floor before heading below to game. Hard lesson learned since I only had a 5 night stay in Piter :/
Not getting to enter Buddha Saturday night was by far the toughest pill to swallow of this trip though I kept my spirits up visiting Stackenschneider & Barrel afterwards.
Spots I didn't mention -
Laque and
Rossi. I had issues finding these places even with Google Maps. I used have asked people on street though.
Overall Thoughts on St. Petersburg
I thought about making one more post about my daily testimonies, but will likely skip that. I enjoyed St. Petersburg because it's a very livable place that's reasonably priced packing a population of 5 million plus people providing for elite calibre women at high quantities that apparently doesn't fizz out completely in the summer unlike many Polish cities.
On another hand, it's hard to really test out all the nightlife options in 5 days outside of the summer because the city is only popping on Fridays & Saturdays forcing one to cover too much ground in a limited time span. The layout of the city seems very convenient and easy enough to conquer in 5 days, but it's a place that despite the simplistic appearance is much more intricate to dissect in just one week. Abstract feel one cannot elaborate on unless you have actually visited Piter.
The sightseeing, neighborhoods, resources, 24/7 cafes, friendly people and cafeterias would make St. Petersburg a great place to live in where I could be super productive on weekdays (either working, studying, exercising) while getting ridic on weekends in a locale that isn't as expensive as Moscow though I haven't visited the capital yet. Like one anonymous RVF member with a long-term Russian visa, one can also live in Talinn (cheaper) or Helsinki having easy access to Piter every other weekend gradually building leads & momentum
With regards to visiting, I will definitely stop back here with an extended 3 year visa while perusing other Russian cities in addition to Talinn, Estonia once the time is right. Should have more Russian knowledge by then as well.
Would like to thank Dr. Benway, Signoria, Akula, Gandt, Gadabout, Entropy4, Old Nemesis, Hooligan Harry, and Btman for great tips on city.
Special shout out to Cattle Rustler and Rishboy for teaching me the ropes of VK game & pipelining though I didn't get to utilize those methods to the fullest during my stay here.
Last tip is to use Google Translate for basic Russian if you haven't studied in the past. Also, dress to impress with nice blazers, sweaters, shoes, and perhaps even a suit will come in handy.
Any questions let me know. Happy 2014!
![[Image: confused.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/confused.gif)
![[Image: fuckthat2.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/new/fuckthat2.gif)
![[Image: 11674739115_fee4ebb79f_b.jpg]](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5545/11674739115_fee4ebb79f_b.jpg)
