Memoirs of an Australian Skating in St. Petersburg, Russia!
(2003)

I don't remember how I first met Oleg. Although I live in Australia, I travel extensively taking my skates with me all over the world. I'm one of those adventurous guys looking for street skaters in the cities that I visit. I have found the Internet is a wealthy source for such information. Somewhere along the way I no doubt mentioned that I'd like to skate in St. Petersburg and someone passed on Oleg's contact details. You see Oleg is an avid Russian skater and the organizer of several street events including the St. Petersburg Friday Night Skate. Oleg painted a picture of skating in Russia that was irresistible and handled all the red tape necessary to visit and tour St. Petersburg on skates. In answer to a question from an incredulous friend that I told of my impending trip I remember explaining that it was a way of combining something that I love doing, with somewhere that I always wanted to visit. While I anticipated a potential disappointment from setting my expectations too high, on the contrary I found that skating in St. Petersburg was not only all that I expected... but much more. As a result, my first visit in 2002 only whetted my appetite for more and thus I returned a second time for my dream skate in St. Petersburg.

Why, you may ask, do I rave about skating in St. Petersburg? For a start, there is the incredible beauty of the city. Now I've traveled the world extensively and seen most, if not all, of the cities revered for their incredible architecture. I would certainly regard St. Petersburg as being among the top five along with Paris, Rome, Venice and Prague. The city is also flat and crisscrossed by smooth asphalt roads and sidewalks that provide an excellent terrain skaters love. There's no better way to see a city like St. Petersburg than on skates.

What's more, there's no better time to visit St. Petersburg than the "White Nights" period. The period stretches between early June and late July when it virtually never gets dark.

Last, but certainly not least, there is the hospitality of the Russian skaters. On my first visit to Russia, there was hardly a day that passed when local skaters did not go out of their way to show me around their beautiful cities.

As you may appreciate, it was with great anticipation that I returned to St. Petersburg a second time in 2003. I can't say that I felt great when I stepped off the final leg of the flight. I had flown from Melbourne, Australia and the trip had taken me an elapsed 28 hours including 24 hours of actual flight time. Luckily Oleg was there to meet me along with Kirill, another local skater who had once again graciously offered to drive me from the airport to my hotel. It was almost 3:00 PM by the time I cleared customs and 5:00 PM by the time I had attended to all check-in formalities and was comfortable in my room of a modest, local hotel. I had been awake for 36 hours if you ignore the restless sleep that you tend to get on long international flights but I was eager to lean that Mishka would be picking me up to skate Victory Park at 6:00 PM.

Victory Park is somewhat of a skating Mecca in St. Petersburg. It is an immense acreage of greenery with lots of paved trails. At its heart there is a stadium and race track, both of which are available to skaters when not in regular use. There are also flat areas where you can be mentored and practice all those tricks that you always wanted to perform.

Oleg joined us around 10:00 PM and we decided to skate the river embankment which included passing some of the most magnificent bridges and buildings in the city. As magnificent as this was, I was by now, very tired and I was more than happy to skate back to my hotel when twilight fell around midnight.

Luckily the next day's activities did not start until around 3:30 PM. While this might seem late, you need to remember that it is summer, it can get quite hot around mid-day and a 3:30 PM start time still gives you approximately 8 hours of sunshine. Oleg and Mishka picked me up saying only that I should also bring some bathers because we were going to the beach. The beach as it turns out was Sestoretsk, a local resort area with narrow shaded roads and many old and interesting Russian dachas. After we toured the area and I declined to join Oleg in skating the clover leaf where two freeways crossed, we ended up at the Belye Nochi (White Nights) Sanatorium.

This Sanatorium dates back to the Communist era when it was reserved for select party officials. These days all you need to get in is money… and lots of it. Now, as you might expect, this exclusive Sanatorium is normally closed to the public and certainly closed to skaters. But as luck would have it, a big black Mercedes was exiting the automatic gates just as we arrived and I followed Oleg and Mishka straight through the gates just before they closed. The skating here was great. The wide, smooth, landscaped bicycle paths were a delight to experience, however, I must admit to being a little concerned. If it was that difficult to get in I reasoned it would be equally, if not more difficult to exit!

Luckily my worries proved unfounded. After brazenly filling up on refreshments at the on-grounds snack bar, we found a place where it was easy to jump the fence to the public beach. After a short and very cold swim in the waters of the Finish Gulf we returned to St. Petersburg to watch the bridges open. St. Petersburg is a series of islands connected by draw bridges that all rise between the hours of 1:00 AM to 2:00 AM in order to allow water traffic to navigate. They lower again somewhere between 4:00 AM to 5:00 AM. The main bridge's rising, like those around the famous Hermitage Museum, are particularly spectacular and a great favorite for tourists.

The next day I set off at about 2:30 PM meeting Oleg and another skater Olga (nicknamed "Skydroper" for her passion for skydiving and other extreme activities) for a short train trip to Pushkin.

Pushkin is also a big tourist draw card, being a city with tree lined boulevards and the location of the Czar's Summer Palace.

The roads are new and well paved, especially one that was recently repaved for President Puttin's visit. We soon discovered that we were not the only skaters on the road, coming across some local women skating in the very briefest of outfits. I had to smile when they feigned surprise at the traffic chaos they were causing for local drivers who would brake suddenly just to gawk.

After dinner in a Russian restaurant and a swim in a local water hole I had to leave Pushkin to return to St. Petersburg to meet my friend Vicky, another skater that I had met the previous year who wanted to skate the city with me. Vicky had been married only two days earlier but was still kind enough to make time to skate the city with me.

The next day Olga had arranged to take me windsurfing but alas there was very little wind although I did have a go. We ended up spending most of the time sitting around or in the water, returning to St. Petersburg by 11:00 PM to participate in Oleg's night skate; a short 45 kilometer jaunt to Peterhoff, the sight of yet another of the Czar's Palaces that is particularly famous for its' fountains.

While I have to admit that I'm not generally in favor of long suburban skates, there were some interesting spots along the way. Perhaps the most interesting was the illuminated Palace of President Putin. I think it was a great surprise to the Palace security to have 100 plus skaters and 60 plus cyclists show up at the gates around 2:40 AM in the morning.

I was a little wary when one of the skaters lit an iridescent green flare but luckily the security guards ignored it and we were on our way again by about 3:00 AM.

We arrived at Peterhoff at 3:30 AM and inundated a local convenience store with our patronage. I think the proprietor sold more of his goods that night than he had in the past month. Then it was a short skate to the station to wait for the first train to the city, unfortunately not due in until 5:40 AM. By now I was tired and cold but I managed to find a bench in a warm waiting area of the station where I napped till it was time to board the train. Then it was back to the city for a short two hours of sleep before rising to attend to e-mails from home that could not be avoided.

Later that day Oleg took me for one last skate tour of the city before I returned to the hotel to shower and pack for my trip on the overnight train to Moscow. This is some train! An overnight sleeper complete with uniformed stewards that greet you when you arrive to board. When it leaves St. Petersburg it's a tradition to play "Anthem to a Great City". This was truly a fitting end to yet another memorable 5 days of staying in St. Petersburg. I was very sad to leave but nevertheless I looked forward to once again skating in Moscow. This time I parted St. Petersburg by saying "Do skoroy vstryechee" ("See you soon"), rather than "Do svidaniya" ("Goodbye")!

John Cargnello

Skating Moscow; an Aussie's Perspective! >>