All you ever needed to know about Rasputin:

The Secret of Russian Style

The shoes.

Three Great Books about Petersburg

Crime and Punishment by Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

• A total given. Not only did Dostoevsky live in this city (there is a small, somewhat-engaging museum located in his last apartment, where he wrote The Brothers Karamazov), but Crime and Punishment takes place in St. Petersburg, throughout the Haymarket District. Most of this area is now known as the Mayakovskaya district (pictured below, and named for another Russian literary giant, Vladimir Mayakovsky, who lived an even more interesting life than Dostoevsky--dozens of love affairs, writing insane poetry to his mistress Lilia, belonging to the Futurist group of poets/rebels, and finally shooting himself at age 37. He now has a metro station named after him, and during Stalinist times his name was revered, and his poetry was taught in all schools.). Mayakovskaya is home to the best market in the city, Kuznechny, as well as plenty of interesting buildings, restaurants, and theatres. Not a lot has changed in the area, and I often imagine the area as being identical to when Dostoevsky walked its streets.

Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

• Although Nabokov left Petersburg during the revolution in 1917 and would spend the rest of his life in Paris, England, America and Switzerland, his memoirs are filled with loving thoughts of his hometown: his family's aristocratic past (Nabokov's father was on the Tsar Nicholas II's cabinet, and employed dozens of servants), and walks with his first love, Tatiana, along Nevsky Prospekt. Russians still count him as their own, although he is not revered to the same extent as someone like Pushkin or even Pasternak, who spent his entire life in this city. But still, there is a small and well-kept museum that houses some of his amazing butterfly collection and some of the index cards from which he crafted his novels.
  

The Master of Petersburg by J.M. Coetzee

• This novel, written by British Nobel Prize-winner J.M. Coetzee, reimagines the story of Dostoevsky's return to St. Petersburg from Germany after the death of his stepson. His stepson was said to have committed suicide, and it was completely devastating to the author. In the novel, Dostoevsky is remorseful and guilty, although he still manages to get up to some naughty activities, described in sordid detail by Coetzee. Although his wife and stenaugrapher, Anna, was known to have been a very good influence on him, Dostoevsky's gambling was legendary, and he got himself into quite a lot of trouble that way. This novel is an excellent portrait into the imagination of one of Russia's most celebrated.
  

Peterhof

Peterhof is the Russian equivalent of France’s Versailles, and in true Russian style it is opulent, sprawling, and over-the-top. It was commissioned by Peter the Great in the 18th century, as so many things in Piter were. He first attempted to build on Strelna’s bogs and marshy grounds, but finally moved his plans farther East, to where they stand now. Located about an hour from St. Petersburg, Peterhof was where Peter the Great, and later his granddaughter Elizabeth, spent their summers. As a point of interest, they spent the rest of the year at the Winter Palace on Nevsky Prospekt, where the Hermitage is now housed.

The grounds are massive, with plenty of beautiful fountains and views of the gulf. It was badly shelled by the Germans during WWII (ironic, given its German name), but was one of the first areas to be rebuilt, and now stands as the most popular day-trip from St. Petersburg. In addition to the fountains and gardens, there are many lovely museums, all of whose queues are huge at the height of summer; we instead chose to wander the grounds and imagine that we lived as the tsars once did. Not a bad life at all.

Scarlet Sails: Алые Паруса

Saturday marked the end of the university year in Saint-Petersburg, and in honour of that end was Scarlet Sails, a celebration based on the story by Alexander Grin. As the story goes, a young girl named Assol lives with her father in a small fishing village, where they make their living selling the toy boats he carves. Life is difficult, but Assol meets a magician who tells her that soon a prince will come and take her away on a ship with scarlet sails. As luck would have it, one day a nobleman's son spots young Assol sleeping in the woods and falls in love. Hearing of the magician's prophecy, he aspires to make her dreams come true.
Scarlet Sails (Алые Паруса) began after the end of WWII, and is now an essential part of the White Nights Festival, rewarding all the tremendous work that Russian students put in throughout the year. At one in the morning, after it's gotten truly dark, the bridge goes up, fireworks light the sky, and a ship with crimson sails comes floating down the Neva.

Russian Food: A Primer

• Kvass (Квас): A fermented rye drink that’s mildly alcoholic, and far less sweet than regular soda; it’s very refreshing. It may have alcohol in it, but it’s given to children like juice.
• Borsch (Борш): This is the famous beef-broth-based beet stew often topped with smetana (sour cream). Note that in Russia, you’re not just limited to 2% dairy fat sour cream—20% fat is very common and, obviously, way more awesome than any low-fat variety.
• Tvorog (Творог): Similar to cottage cheese, but far tastier, in my opinion. Tvorog are actually more like cheese curds, being quite dry in consistency. You can find pastries filled with tvorog, and like other dairy here, the fat content runs from 1-15%, with many varieties in between.
• Kasha (Каша): Hot breakfast cereal, usually made of millet or buckwheat, sold everywhere by the kilo for the equivalent of $0.50.
• Kefir (Кефир): A tangy, lassi-like yogurt beverage that I pour over my kasha, or drink straight. It reminds me of the YOP yogurts of my youth, although the flavour is “plain” instead of “Razzle Raspberry”, or whatever.
• Blini (Блины): I have eaten millions of these recently, as they are sold everywhere and are delicious. Several Russian fast-food chains seem to have been created on the strength of the blini’s appeal! I think of them as small crepes, usually filled with cheese, mushrooms, meat, or caviar. You can also buy sweet ones served with honey or jam.

• Myod (мед): This is another slightly alcoholic drink, a sort of honey-mead. Myod is also the word for honey, another food that Russians love, and do really, really well. In the markets, it is sold from giant containers, freshly scraped off the comb. Vendors will shout out “Devushka! Devushka!” as you pass, plying you with enormous samples.
• Pelmeni (Пелмены): The Russian pierogi/ravioli. I once purchased some at the supermarket, but got home and realized that I wasn't going to be eating them. If I had been paying attention, I would have seen the huge letters on the package which read: «С много много мясом!», meaning, «With lots and lots of meat!».
• Chai (Чай): Black tea, usually served with sugar, but not milk. Petersburg is a city that is very fond of tea, and finding a good cup of coffee can be a challenge. Sadly, every latte I have ordered here has been served with a straw.
• Vodka (Водка): This list wouldn't be complete without at least mentioning vodka. It’s cheap, it’s ubiquitous, it’s part of the language: the root of водка is вода—water! I won't be treating it like water, as many locals do, but I certainly plan on bringing back a couple bottles of Флагман: official vodka purveyors to the Kremlin.

Russia (and Sarah) Loves

• Ice cream
• In Russia, it’s more likely that you’ll see a vending machine selling ice cream than one selling soda or candy...in my dorm, for example. It's available on every street corner, and there's even a Баскин-Роббинс on Nevskiy Prospekt; they carry a delightful black tea flavour. Personally, I'm excited to try the crème brûlée variety.

• The 80s
• The scrunchie is still a hot hair accessory, mullets abound, and I've heard my roommate wake up to death metal more than once. More proof: the opening band for the Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum was Duran Duran. Swoon.
  

• Literature
• Many bookstores are open 24-hours a day, and Dom Knigi (below), is a landmark. And also, how amazing is it that there are metro stops named after Dostoevsky, Pushkin, and Gorky? Russians honour their writers as Canadians honour hockey players and war heroes. Even children know their literary history, and museums are devoted to Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Blok, and Brodsky. It’s inspiring.

• Excess
• If you have the money, fabulous seats at the Mariinsky, champagne and caviar breakfasts (why not?), and private river cruises on the Neva await. There's a lot of awesome stuff to spend your rubles on. On the downside, male life expectancy here is fifty-eight, HIV is rampant, and recycling is unknown. This is not a culture that values life. But, it’s a culture that ironically will not die—Russia has undergone heaps of drama, and it continues to reinvent itself. I like to remember that this is the city that produced Rasputin, a man who was poisoned, shot, bound, and thrown in an icy river before he died. Think about it.

My Neighborhood: Primorskaya

The founding of Saint-Petersburg was the work of Peter the Great, who modeled its canals on those of Venice. Primorskaya, by contrast, was likely the work of Gorbachev. Located in the West of Vasilievskaya Island, the Primorskaya area is a leftover from the Soviet era, just like the lady above, who stands on top of a building on Nevsky Prospekt. Primorskaya is flanked by the gulf of Finland in the West, and massive concrete apartment blocks in the East. In fact, all over the city kommunalka, communal apartments, are still extremely common; my cramped kitchen below might give you an idea. This is not luxury living by any means: cockroaches in the kitchen and smoking in the stairwells are the norm, and our laminate flooring is peeling and dirty. But the gulf is nearby, and if you strain you can see it from the room I share with two others. Baltika beer tents line the sand, and when I run early in the morning, I sometimes hear bottles breaking and Russian slurring as remnants from a night of revelry. Since it's legal to walk around with open alcohol, it's pretty common to see men crack open beer cans at 10:30 on a Monday morning.

The studencheski gorod, literally "student city", is made up of three giant apartment buildings, all housing at least five hundred young people of both Russian and foreign origin. No one panders to your ignorance here, so as foreigners you're treated in exactly the same way as any Russian student would be. By that, I mean that they expect you to know everything by the time you've arrived. Had I not had a lovely American roommate, I would not have known the answers to such questions as: where do I register for classes? Where do I pay for classes? Where is this school I'm supposed to be going to and how do I get there? The answer to the last question is not insignificant, as the University is over six kilometres away. It's not a particularly scenic route, or maybe I'd walk it. Besides, the bus takes you right there, and it's cheap and efficient.

Waiting for the bus also gives me a chance to admire the Russian women and their amazing shoes at 8:30 in the morning, even with the rain we've been having. It may seem impractical, but I've never seen any of them complain that their feet hurt, or slip, or look anything less than completely put-together. It's actually pretty awesome, and I look forward to their future warm-weather sartorial choices.