Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
• Turn your back to the Admiralty, head out to the corner of the park, and cross over the
busy Admiralteyskaya street to reach Nevsky Prospekt. For now, stay on the right side of
the street.
Admiralty to the Moyka River
Halfway down this first block, watch on the right for the shop marked КОФЕ ХАУЗ. Visit-
ors are intimidated by the Cyrillic alphabet, but with a little practice (and the alphabet tips
familiar words. In this case, Кофе Хауз is Kofe Haus...coffeehouse. This Moscow-based
Starbucks clone is popular, but very expensive. Russia's deeply stratified society has an
enormous lower class, a tiny upper class, and virtually no middle class. Trendy shops like
this (where a latte costs more than at your hometown Starbucks) are filled with upwardly
mobile urbanites, but the poorer locals around you could never dream of affording a drink
here.
In the next block, halfway down on the right, is
Stolle
(Штолле), a good chain restaur-
ant to grab a snack or light lunch. They specialize in savory and sweet pies (see “Eating in
St. Petersburg,” later).
Look across the street at the building with
1939
above the door. On the pillar just to the
right of the door, notice the small length of barbed wire and blue plaque. This is a monu-
ment to the
SiegeofLeningrad
(one of St. Petersburg's former names). During World War
II, Nazi forces encircled the city and bombarded its mostly civilian population for 872 days
(from September 1941 through January 1944). Claiming more lives than any other siege
in world history (some estimates say over 600,000 people died), the siege devastated St.
Petersburg's buildings, if not the spirit of those who refused to surrender. The north side of
the street was in the direct line of fire from Nazi shells, lobbed in from the Germans' po-
sition southwest of the city. The blue sign reads, roughly, “Citizens: During artillery bom-
bardment, this side is more dangerous.”
