Catherine
Each city’s selling points might be different for everyone, but for me, like for many others, the Northern Capital wins easily for its general dreaminess. Here, you can live on an island, overlooking the sea (well, the Gulf of Finland). You can spend a summer night stranded on the wrong bank of the Neva because the bridges were drawn. You can walk the streets once walked by some of the country’s most creative minds, both artistic and scientific. You can accidentally stumble upon a gallery you’ve never been to before – or get lost in the Hermitage, if you so desire. You can definitely follow your dreams to St. Petersburg and the city won’t disappoint.
Anna
There’s a lot to say about the differences in speech between the two capitals. What the rest of the world calls shawarma – thinly sliced meat wrapped in flatbread – is called shaurma in Moscow and shawerma in St. Petersburg. A doughnut is a ponchik in Moscow and a pyshka in St. Petersburg, and a loaf of white bread will be baton and bulka, respectively. If you think those differences sound trivial, they’re anything but.
Case in point: the Moscow-based writer and actor Alexander Tsypkin was recently filming in St. Petersburg. A local babushka – an older lady – stopped to admire the process. After all, it’s not every day you see a beloved celebrity filming on your street.
“It’s going to be a commercial for grecha (buckwheat),” the actor told her. Her whole demeanor changed. She looked at him “like at undercooked cereal” and said: “It’s not grecha. It’s grechka.” And marched on…
The two cities are quite alike – and yet very different. Credit: Mark de Jong (@mrmarkdejong) / Nikita Tikhomirov (@niki_mir) via Unsplash
Marina
Odds are, this was the exact conversation my friends and I had during our recent outing in the city. That night, we got to talking about things a perfect city needs and went to battling over this old-as-the-hills dilemma.
Anyway, among the arguments we had for St. Petersburg were its sheer grandeur and history, the nearby Gulf of Finland, lower cost of living, and душевность (soulfulness); but what I also love about St. Pete is that it’s a true paradise for walkers. You can get lost in the charming streets of the city, explore its cultural and historical landmarks, or start your day downtown and end it at a beach – all without having to metro from one place to another (though the metro system here is much easier-to-navigate; sorry, Moscow!). And if your energy starts to flag, you can drop by a coffee shop, which can literally be found at every corner, or one of the oases of greenspace you can find in the city.
