Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
One good bet for
matryoshka
and other trinkets is the outdoor souvenir market across
the street on the north side of the Church on Spilled Blood. There are no marked prices,
so you can and should haggle. There are also stalls in the pedestrian underpass in front of
Gostiny Dvor, the city's historic shopping arcade. For marked prices, try inside Gostiny
Dvor—the section on the ground floor right along Nevsky has some decent souvenir stalls
(daily 10:00-22:00; beyond this, Gostiny Dvor's shopping is mostly local-oriented).
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Ballet
—The two best theaters in St. Petersburg for ballet are the Mariinsky (formerly
Kirov) Theater and the Mikhailovsky Theater. Both have storied histories, classic opera-
house interiors (the Mariinsky's is a bit more opulent), and well-designed websites that
allow you to buy tickets online in advance, in English. The ballet season at both theaters
runs from mid-September to mid-July (so there are no shows in the summer—exactly
when most visitors are in town). The
Mikhailovsky Theater
is more convenient, at
Ploshchad Isskustv 1, by the Russian Museum, a block off Nevsky (box office open daily
10:00-21:00, tel. 595-4305,
www.mikhailovsky.ru
)
. The
Mariinsky Theater
is at Teatral-
naya Ploshchad, on the edge of downtown and at least a half-hour's walk southwest from
Nevsky Prospekt (box office open 11:00-19:00, tel. 326-4141,
www.mariinsky.ru
). Buses
take you right there; you can also take the Metro to Sadovaya and walk about 20 minutes.
There are other ballet companies in town as well as performances in summer staged espe-
cially for tourists. Same-day tickets are often available (though not for the most popular
ballets). If you don't want to brave the box office, your hotel may be able to help you with
tickets.
