Midnight in Saint Petersburg and look at the sky!
It's amazing!
This is the best time to visit Saint Petersburg, Russia
Hello, Russia! Here I am
Geographically speaking,
Russia is the biggest country in the world
And on this trip I'm going to visit Saint Petersburg
and Moscow, the two main cities here
This is Saint Petersburg, Russia's artistic and cultural center
For most of the 20th century, Saint Petersburg was
called Leningrad, it was a homage to Vladimir Lenin
a revolutionary and the first leader of the Soviet Union. It became Saint Petersburg again in 1991
And I remember that!
Saint Petersburg is famous for Palace Square, the Hermitage Museum,
the various historic buildings, the canals
and I'll show you all that in the next videos
Right now it's about 6:00 PM and we'll get ready for the evening
Tonight we're staying up until very late to find out why so many people fall in love with this city
Keep watching, you won't believe it. We're so excited! But let's settle in first
Architecture here is amazing, very European, very historical, take our hotel for example
Wow! Look at this view! That's the Russian Museum and over there, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
Grand Hotel Europe represents all the cultural and historical beauty of Saint Petersburg
The building itself is from the 1820's and the hotel is from 1875
It was a combination of the surrounding buildings here
So century after century it just maintains the glamour
But the hotel also had some difficult moments during World War 2
Saint Petersburg was sieged and one third of the city was destroyed by bombs
Here they were even kinda lucky, just part of the hotel was destroyed
And as there was no tourism during the war, the hotel became a hospital
This room here was the operating room
During Soviet times, Grand Hotel Europe was the meeting point for artists, musicians
the elite in general here in Russia. Sometimes they used to come here even for their meals
So, we're going to try one of these meals and we chose the new restaurant Azia
Is this here what I think it is? Is this gold?
Already my favorite
[Waiter] "Soap... you'll taste it"
Asian fusion dinner. We tried Japanese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Indian... Everything is so delicious!
This is the chef Larisa, she was the one who
prepared everything, all the delicious dishes
we've just tried
Thank you so much, Larisa! That was amazing! Truly amazing!
[Larisa] Thank you for your attention! Thank you for your visit!
Larisa] I'm very happy to meet you!
I know something in Russian
"Spasibo"
It's my first time here in Saint Petersburg and I think I chose the best time of the year to come here
I'm here during June. It's because at this time there is something called White Nights
What it means exactly? Well, Saint Petersburg is located very north on Earth, you know, in latitude
it's equivalent to Alaska. So, at this time of the year the sun never disappears 100% in the horizon
Hence, it doesn't get 100% dark. Everybody stays out so let's go celebrate
We're doing a boat tour to see the famous White Nights, but it's not only for the White Nights
There's a reason they happen really, really late. They never leave before midnight
It's because around one in the morning it's when the bridges get open so that big vessels can cross
and it's a big deal here, it's a big attraction
White Nights, that's the reason
The color of the sky is at this time of the night! It's amazing!
No kidding, there are like 50 boats here circulating in between the three main bridges along the Neva river
Everybody waiting for the big moment
The highlight of this phenomenon happens in the end of June, right now we're in the beginning of the month
So it's going to become even brighter. Imagine this in a couple of weeks!
After this you cannot cross anymore from one side to the other
because at this time the subway is not working anymore
and there are no boats, so, you'll have to stay where you are
If you talk to Russians they'll tell you actually that several relationships here start like that
Let's say you are in party on one of the sides and then you don't have how to go back home
And "can I stay at your place?" And the rest is history
Bye! "Proshchay"
It was very cool, thousands of people on the boats
and on both sides of the river
But go ready for the cold, you know?
You guys saw how I started the tour,
Look at how I'm finishing!
Tomorrow we are going to visit
some of the top attractions in town
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