St. Petersburg - the cultural and philosophical capital of the world

December 1, 2017 in Lisbon (Portugal). Passed the ceremony of presenting the most prestigious tourist prize of the planet - World Travel Awards. For the third time in a row, St. Petersburg was recognized as the best cultural center in the world.

“St. Petersburg has bypassed such world art centers as Paris, London, New York, Rome, Venice, Beijing, as well as Sydney, Quito and Rio de Janeiro,” - reported on the website of the award. The ceremony itself took place on December 1 in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, which brought together leading representatives of the tourism industry from around the world. Countries, cities, companies and air carriers fought for the title of "most-most", but one of the first places, in the end, went to Russia.

www.oreanda.ru...



St. Petersburg has already won the prestigious prize in this category from the World Travel Awards in 2017 and 2016, which once again underlines the city’s status and its continued leadership and status as the cultural capital of the world.

a reply to: RussianTroll

More like the top troll farming spot in the known universe!!

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

St. Petersburg - the birthplace of Putin)))

a reply to: RussianTroll


You shall get a bit of stick in part because of the avatar name you have chosen and the reputation of some real troll's BUT HEY EVERYONE TROLL's - (DONT USUALLY NAME THEMSELVES TROLL so I doubt our fellow member is one AND) - are EVERYWHERE and from EVERY NATION.

St Petersburg is indeed one of the great city's of the world, a cultural and literary centre which has spawned some brilliant artisans and the world famous Hermitage museum retains one of the greatest art collection's in history started by the empress Catherine the Great of Russia.
en.wikipedia.org...

Also known as the Venice of the north due to it's canal's though that name has also been applied to several other city's and also the Paris of the north.
www.saint-petersburg.com...

During WW2 one of the greatest art treasures of the world the Famous Amber Room was looted from a palace near to St Petersburg.
en.wikipedia.org...

And the city's contribution to world culture is NOT to be under estimated it is, was and remains' a great city.

That image of your president make's me chuckle as well.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: RussianTroll


You shall get a bit of stick in part because of the avatar name you have chosen and the reputation of some real troll's

For Russians, fighting is a natural state))) We usually fight to the first blood, and then we stretch our hand to the lying opponent. So ready a get a bit of stick, without malice)))

a reply to: RussianTroll

Love three things about Russia. You saved the world from the Germans, you developed space for planet Earth, love your watches. Vostok, Raketa (St. Petersburg?) Poljot, Luch (sort of Russian), Vostok Europe (temporarily a breakaway region )

a reply to: RussianTroll

A couple of mates of mine have been to St. Petersburg and they both told me it was a lovely city, very friendly people and lots to do and see.

I've been all over Europe and got to say there's some great places and the people always tend to be very nice, one or two notable exceptions but I guess that's another story.

Hopefully one day I'll get there and judge for myself.

originally posted by: ufoorbhunter
a reply to: RussianTroll

Love three things about Russia. You saved the world from the Germans, you developed space for planet Earth, love your watches. Vostok, Raketa (St. Petersburg?) Poljot, Luch (sort of Russian), Vostok Europe (temporarily a breakaway region

)

You forgot the balalaika, the bear, the home nuclear reactor and the Novichok )))

a reply to: RussianTroll
Ha, which is more deadly Pacine or Vodka, Pacine obviously, the Irish used to have and still do among there travelling community street fighters whom would fight until the Knock Out or stay down Knock Down for a few pennies on almost every street corner over in Eira.

We Brit's were not too different to that at one time and Glasgow was a town of very hard men as were Liverpool, Tyneside and the east end of London, hard working men whom worked to the day they dropped often in there late 40's until thing's got better.

We are not gone, just sleeping.
Now I for one hate football hooligan's no matter what nation they are from, the attack by Russian hooligan's upon peaceful English family's was a pure act of Cowardice but I have to say had they met there counterparts from England, Scotland and Wales it would have been a completely different story and those Russian hooligan's would have been the one's in bandages and yes we know many of them are military in disguise - on there day off.

What angered us in Britain is that we never saw ourselves as your enemy's, in fact my own grandfather was merchant navy and those guy's risked there lives taking supply's to Russia even though we did not have enough for our own nation, without those supply's provided by the BRITISH your nation WOULD have fallen to the NAZI's even if you don't think so, those supply's helped your nation while you moved your industry east to the Ural's and gave you the time and supply's you needed while you rebuilt and regrouped after the German's real objective of WW2 became clear.

Also our soldiers though actually only a small army at the time of the start of WW2 called the British Expeditionary Force or BEF were actually beyond any shadow of a doubt the very best soldiers of the war, the French lines collapsed because they were mostly part time soldiers and conscript's, our soldiers on the other hand were Career soldiers though we did bring in some conscription called WAR SERVICE (one of only a handful of time's we have used conscription) since our army' was too small without it from 1939 onward still we did not have to resort to machine gun toting commissars shooting men running away from the lines.

All of our soldiers were trained as marksmen, all of them were also trained to use the bren and all the crew's of a tank could do all of the job's unlike the US model of specialists which sometime's left them handicapped if they lost a member of there team.

Now we all know that HAD Stalin listened too and not murdered half his military officers in his paranoid purges that Russia would have defeated the German's at the very start of Operation Barbarossa, we also know that he thought of the German's before they turned on him as allies and even allowed NAZI observers to be placed among his execution squad's as they massacred supposed enemy's of the people (millions of them most of whom were actually Lenninists rather than Stalinists so disagreed with is personal brand of communism which of course was NOT communism but a form of totalitarianism under a tyrant) by machine gunning them into mass graves they had forced them to dig themselves and we all know that this technique was later tried by the NAZI's themselves but they decided it was too costly since it needed lot's of bullet's and lot's of space for all of the mass graves they were planning to build and instead they invented there own version of concentration camp's with death gas chambers and crematorium's into which as well as the Jew's, Gypsies and religious minority's they also put many of there Russian POW's.

My personal take on it is this kid, WE all live threescore years and ten give or take at the lord's will, We all have to meet our maker AND WE ALL HAVE THE SAME ANCESTOR - British, Irish, Russian's, Chinese, Jew's, Gypsies, American's even were the NAZI's are concerned though of course that last bit is hard to stomach.

There is one race on this planet, ask yourself this if a house divided can not stand then WHO by and for what reason is the human race being kept constantly divided against itself.

And it take's a coward to hit an unarmed peacefully drinking and eating family man with his wife and kid's over the head with an iron bar leaving the poor guy brain damaged in an unprovoked attack but like I say had they met there own counterpart's from ANYWHERE in Europe they would have had a completely different outcome they proved that by choosing soft targets and people whom could not defend themselves a bit like Islamic extremists with civilian's as there targets eh!.

I remember an interview with an old Eurasian soldier whom had served in the Soviet rank's whom spoke of his first hand to hand killing of a German conscript, by this time in the war most of the German fully trained soldiers were dead and he reminisced about how stabbing this aging man whom was probably not a soldier anyway but had been forced into a uniform by the NAZI's as like kneading bread dough.

I am not a fan of the NAZI's, German's are another matter though any of them that like NAZI's I also hate there are plenty among them that despise that entire generation so they are really today just like you and me.

You want hard men, go back a couple of century's to when life was REALLY hard, to the British Navy which was renowned for kidnapping men and forcing them into service using what were called press gang's whom would go out among the tavern's of port city's and even into the countryside and into people's home to take there new shipmates.

Bone's recovered from the Mary Rose depict just how hard life was and just how despicable, a man in his early 20's whose bone's were found showed that he was so badly injured from having to move the cannon's around the ship the tendons' in both leg's had been ripped apart and calcified - yet he had to continue working - his bone's showed multiple healed fractures and he like most sailors of that period walked bow legged because his leg's, back and shoulders were worked so hard there was no cartillage left upon the joint's - he was only in his early 20's remember, meanwhile though backward and tribal most of the russian population had it much nicer back then.

a reply to: LABTECH767

"What angered us in Britain is that we never saw ourselves as your enemy's, in fact my own grandfather was merchant navy and those guy's risked there lives taking supply's to Russia even though we did not have enough for our own nation, without those supply's provided by the BRITISH your nation WOULD have fallen to the NAZI's even if you don't think so, those supply's helped your nation while you moved your industry east to the Ural's and gave you the time and supply's you needed while you rebuilt and regrouped after the German's real objective of WW2 became clear. "

Great respect to your grandfather. For us, veterans are heroes and every May 9, we go to a demonstration with their portraits. This is the "Immortal regiment"

"the attack by Russian hooligan's upon peaceful English family's was a pure act of Cowardice"

Sorry, I have not heard anything about it. Tell me, please


About Stalin, a lot of propaganda about him, a lot. He has merits - he saved the country and the people. But he did it cruelly. Then there were cruel times, it is impossible to judge historical events without taking into account time, traditions and metaliness. As an Orthodox Christian, I do not like Stalin very much. But his services to the country are obvious.

a reply to: RussianTroll

I am sorry about bringing up the hooligan's to be fair all side's were to blame and they reflect badly on all nation's and there was a time we had some of the worst hooligan's in Europe but have worked hard to get them under control even issuing travel ban's so they can not go to other country's and cause trouble.

What happened was at the Euro 2016 there was a lot of violence but in one incident which our press brought to our attention over here in the UK a large group of out of control Russian fan's whom had probably also been drinking very heavily attacked some people whom were in a french street bar drinking and eating, these were not English hooligan's however (There were some whom were at the 2016 though) but peaceful England fan's whom were about there business with there family's but because they were obviously England fan's they were targeted by the Russian hooligan's.

One of these people was a 51 year old England fan whom had been drinking with his family and he was beaten by a group of Russian fan's one wielding an Iron bar whom beat him around the head, he suffered multiple fractures and brain injury's and was put into an induced coma to limit the damage.

The French issued an international arrest warrant and a suspect whom was a 31 year old Russian male was arrested later in Germany and charged with attempted murder, I don't know how that case progressed.

Now over here in the UK WE did have a bit of a (large) problem with hooligan's but no were near as bad as they were made out to be and far from the worse in western Europe, the worst here though were actually from London and fan's of one of it's several team's, the British football association started to penalize our team's if there fan's were out of control and so after being banned from football matches etc we had a short spate of these hooligan's trying it on with cricket club's - rugby (the players would make short work of them there) and even tennis matches indeed anything were they could have an excuse to go abroad and find opposite like minded fight club fan's, unlike most other nation's we regarded them with terrible shame.
(if you don't mind reading a small section of Wikipedia here is an open source account of our country's problem and how we got it under control)
en.wikipedia.org...

This is some footage but is not the incident I am talking about, there was a lot of violence at the 2016 and the Russian hooligan element were not the only one's, the French Marseilles fan's were just as bad and there were likely hooligan's from all the competing nation's.
Remember this was the 2016 games in France.
At this time we had also successfully banned most of the worse England hooligan's from attending the match's in France and in many cases even from leaving our shores.



It is worth remembering that it is only ever a small minority of mindless yob's from ALL football/soccer nation's that are behind this kind of violence but had it been simply hooligan's fighting hooligan's it would never have mattered as much as it did in the 2016, it was instead an attack upon simple and innocent fan's - (I shall not claim that there were NO England yobbo's because there very well were some and they were just as guilty but not in this incident) - that were NOT hooligan's and had only gone to watch the match with there family's.

Pacine or more correctly Poitin pronounced by most people as Pocheen or poteen is Irish potato whisky and is renowned for being ridiculously strong and until fairly recently illegal (in it's native country) but made by many people for generations even today in Eira, it is basically an unrelated ancestor of Vodka because it was most likely invented first but is essentially the same thing, ever thought of the irony of an american vegetable being used to make a Russian national beverage (personally I lament the probably lost types of Russian Whisky's and wines that it came to replace since potato's much like in so many other nations became a staple diet due to there high yield and came to largely replace the older crop's to a great degree forcing such beverage makers to seek way's to use the new ingredient's - I prefer whisky though myself as it has real flavor (Scottish single malt though I do like a good blend as well) and though export variety's in the UK at least are limited to 40 proof they do brew it up to well over 70 percent proof for some special reserves).
content.time.com...
So you could just call it Irish Vodka it is pretty much the same thing after all.

To be fair I prefer rugby anyway it is the MAN's sport and see football which half the rest of the world term's soccer as a group of over paid pansy's running around a field kicking a ball like over paid ballerina's, crying every time they get a grass burn but Rugby is more about raw strength, the players are by necessity big men and the game can get rough even with modern rule's and safety regulation's, also the fan's are far better behaved by and large as are the players since the sport itself is fairly aggressive.

If you are not familiar with Rugby, football/Soccer went one way and Rugby went the other the protection this guy is talking about is fairly new to the sport but for decades it was played completely unprotected and broken neck's and back's were common lethal injury's in the sport.


Traditionally in England, Scotland and Wales BEFORE the rise of hooliganism the winning soccer team's fan's would buy the losing team's fan's a round at the pub but sadly those day's are long gone though it lingered a lot longer among rugby fan's.

In Scotland violence between Rangers and Celtic football fan's is more about religion than the sport, Rangers fan's are mostly protestant's and Methodists while Celtic's fan's are mostly Catholic's.

a reply to: RussianTroll

When you call it Stalingrad, all the color drains away.

Ahh its just a dinky little gulf coast city with a lot of retired people.
St. Petersburg Florida that is...

a reply to: LABTECH767

Ha, which is more deadly Pacine or Vodka, Pacine obviously, the Irish used to have and still do among there travelling community street fighters whom would fight until the Knock Out or stay down Knock Down for a few pennies on almost every street corner over in Eira.

First off, its Poitin. A potent drink similar to moonshine in America.
Secondly Irish street fighters fight for thousands of Euro's, go away with your pennies. On every street corner? Really? Your head is buried up somewhere smelly..
And thirdly, i keep seeing you use the term Eira. Its Eire. Dont keep using it, it doesn't make you seem smart. Whats wrong with using Ireland?

We in Ireland know that Northern Ireland is for the moment, a seperate country. But just say Ireland. The whole island is Ireland whether its north or south.

Are you claiming to be a 'hard man' as you put it?

We Brit's were not too different to that at one time and Glasgow was a town of very hard men as were Liverpool, Tyneside and the east end of London, hard working men whom worked to the day they dropped often in there late 40's until thing's got better.
We are not gone, just sleeping.

Please...

Ive been to Russia twice, Saint Petersburg.

A month in the summer and then a month in the winter. The people there are the warmest i have met anywhere in the World. A babushka made me dinner every night and even though i couldnt speak Russian and she couldnt speak English, we used to laugh and giggle and each other's hand signs trying to communicate. My ex-girlfriend was Russian it was her babushka we were staying with.

Saint Petersburg is the most beautiful city i have ever been to, the Hermitage museum is phenomenal. The church of the saviour on spilled blood is like no other church i have ever seen. The palaces are beautiful. Google it.
I would and i do, recommend to anyone that listens, to go there. If you want to go somewhere different for a holiday go to Saint Petersburg you will not be disappointed. I was lucky in that my ex spoke Russian so it was easy to move around. You can hire a guide who will do all the talking for you.

I have nothing but the fondest, warmest and happiest memories of my times there