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Wheeling
St. Petersburg, Russia
Russian Wheelchair Roulette
- a travel report from St. Petersburg
”Do you want to go
somewhere in the end of July?”, my friend
Anne asked me.
”Yes, I’d love to”, I answered. ”But then we have to go to a place where
it’s not too hot. And where exactly is that in the end of July?”.”What
about St. Petersburg?”, Anne suggested. Yes, why not…?
The first project was finding
a hotel that most likely was not completely hopeless for wheelchair users. I
searched the Internet for days and weeks, and the only thing that looked remotely
practical was a few 5-star hotels with thereby skyhigh
prices. I was at the edge of
giving up, when I came across
Optima travel agency and the fairly new 3-star
Hotel Dostoevsky.
After an e-mail to Optima, I got a quick response from a Ms. Broudno, who
booked a wheelchair accessible room for us in the Hotel Dostoevsky. She also took care of other issues as
vouchers, confirmation for our visa application and other things we might
wonder about. A great thank you to Ms. Broudno!
Travel guides from Lonely
Planet and Eyewitness were bought, and it wasn’t without doubts I read
that St. Petersburg is a hopeless city for the disabled. The destination was
only for the most persistant wheelchair users. Oh well, Anne and
I had been
to big cities before. We
decided to take it as a challenge. And I won’t lie
to you: St. Petersburg is definitely not a wheelchair friendly city.
The first thing that met us
on the airport was
an aerobridge to the plane. But as opposed to the more
streamlined ones we were used to, these looked very
"eastblock" and edgy. When
my weak hope of trying to communicate: “I want my own
wheelchair” to the Russian
airport guy faded,
I gave up that project and settled for the
uncomfortable aisle chair. A bumpy affair, but I did survive. Fortunately my
own chair was waiting for me at the special luggage desk,
when we arrived there.
The cab drive was all right
(Ms. Broudno had ordered a cab for us), and the hotel turned out to be an
excellent choice. Probably it’s one of the most accessible buildings in St.
Petersburg, and it’s situated in a shopping mall only 100m from the lower part of Nevsky
prospect, which is the long main street running through the entire city
centre. The hotel had level entrance, an elevator (80cm) and level
entrance to both room and bathroom. The hotel restaurant and bar, was
also accessible. The only drawback in the
hotel room was a
shower cabinet,
instead of a wheel-in shower, but at least I was given a plastic chair to
sit on. The
toilet did
not have grab bars, but the sink was possible to wheel under. There was a disabled toilet in the reception area, and this was one
of the 2 disabled friendly toilets we were able to track down in the entire
St. Petersburg.
The first night we went over
to Nevsky Prospekt, a street we would become quite familiar with during our
stay. The sidewalks in our street were full of small uncomfortable
"gutters", but this
improved after we got out on the main street. Nevsky Prospekt had large
sidewalks- They were mostly paved, a few places there were cobblestones. Most
pedestrian crossings in Nevsky has lowered curbs, so that it is easy to move
with a wheelchair. But St. Petersburg is a city of many rivers, and thus
also bridges. And in the middle of Nevsky Prospekt
you have to cross a bridge, whether you want to or not. And the
bridge has 3 steps on each side. It is no
alternative walking in the street instead, because the Russians drive as
maniacs. If I had been alone, without an assistant, my radius would have
been extremely small. But fortunately I was not. And with some help, things were all right. There are
steps another place on the Nevsky as well, but these are possible to avoid
by using one of the subway tunnels to get up on the same or the other side
of the street.
After walking the entire
Nevsky Prospekt, you come to Neva (the main river) and the square in front
of the Winter Palace. And this is for sure: St. Petersburg is a city filled
with amazing buildings. A few of them have been thoroughly restored and
redecorated with white pillars, and golden décor inn all kinds of
ways.
The rest of the buildings are full of smog and filth and looks as if they
might be falling apart at any moment. Extreme contrasts. Since most of the
buildings are built in the same era and in the same style, they are
similarly wheelchair accessible. Meaning – they are not. To get into most
buildings in St. Petersburg you either have to walk 10 steps down or 10-12
steps up! You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that it’s
pretty hopeless to get inside most places with a wheelchair. Our only consolation
was that our prejudice towards Russian style. Even
the most Western shops as Benetton and similar
provided what you might call typically “Russian” clothes. Shopping for
clothes was not that cheap either, so we didn’t do much shopping.
But there are plenty of
things to do besides shopping. We walked a lot as usual, and got to see many
of the great sights from
the outside. Many fantastic buildings, theatres,
palaces, statues and not to forget the very decorative bridges (that often
had steps to cross). The main conclusion was, that the more you remove
yourself from the Nevsky and the main tourist track, the harder it gets when
it comes to wheelchair access. Along the rivers, some of the sidewalks had
rough cobblestones, and there were no lowered curbs to get up and down. And
pedestrian crossings were for wussies. They just weren’t there. To
cross the street at most places, you had to throw yourself into it, with
your life on stakes. Almost like russian roulette. So the
holiday was a big challenge for my tires, something which resulted in a flat
tire on
our last day. Fortunately this happened when we were on our way back to the hotel.
On our first day we went on a
boat trip with one of the many sight-seeing boats you can take on the Neva
or the smaller rivers that runs through the city. We chose the city centre
tour, with a Russian guide, so we didn’t understand the guiding. But with a
guidebook and a camera, you can still
understand quite a lot after all. The boats
were low with a flat bottom, and even if I had to be lifted down into the
boat, it was ok to sit on the seats during the trip. My chair fit into a
small place right in front of the “Captain”.
We had reserved an
entire day for the Winter Palace or the
Hermitage as the museum is
originally called. I had high expectations to what we were about to see, but
I was not very optimistic when it came to accessibility. I was so wrong! If
you choose the Commandant's Entrance, they have a
level entrance. And from the entrance, they have
escalators
to the main level. You need some help from the staff to manage the
escalators, but in comparison to the rest of the city, they know a bit of
English here. When you get to the main level, it can be wise to study the
map, to plan what to see and where to go.
The museum is absolutely
enormous and you hardly have the time to see it all. Hundreds of hundreds of
rooms and most of them are filled to the brim with paintings, chandeliers,
art, treasures, gold and diamonds. We prioritized to see the rooms
themselves, and not to forget the amazing ceilings. If we were to check out
all the art collections as well, we could have stayed there for least a
week. I recommend the Lonely Planet’s guidebook for this, that has a short
but detailed overview of what the different rooms contains, and not to
forget, where the lift is situated. Because in the middle of the palace they
have built a big, completely modern lift that
transports you to all the floors. Brilliant! And right next to the lift on
the ground floor, they have a big wheelchair friendly toilet. I believe that 90% of
the Winter palace is perfectly accessible with a wheelchair, and a visit
there can definitely be recommended. How many old castles are wheelchair
accessible really? You will leave the castle filled with impressions and with
“eyes as big as tin plates”, just like the fairytales.
One of the days we spent
sight-seeing in churches and museums. We started in the Kazansky cathedral,
where we witnessed parts of a wedding. This is the church in the middle of Nevsky, with long arches on the sides.
The church exterior looks pretty
ruined from pollution, but inside it is very nice. After this we went
to see the St. Isaac cathedral, that has been turned into a museum
sponsored by foreign investors. And you can understand that, because the
church is huge and abundant when it comes to paintings and gold
décor. Amazing and almost slightly grotesque when thinking of all the
poverty in Russia. Outside the churches there were old ladies begging, and
some places you would see war veterans with their hats in their hands. No
medal and social welfare there it seemed. Last stop on the church round was
Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood. Either you regard the church as
an enormous ginger bread house, or a masterpiece in mosaics, it is
worth having on the list. Besides the Winter Palace, it’s most definitely
the most popular tourist attraction in St. Petersburg.
But after 3 non-accessible
churches in one day, you can become a bit exhausted. So we decided for an
early dinner at our favourite restaurant. For the third day in a row we headed
for the restaurant Il Patio, in the middle of Nevsky Prospekt. The place had
a level entrance, lots of space inside with a pizza oven, and cheap Italian
pasta, pizza and wine. When we had ordered via a mix of English and
sign-language, the waiter came and asked us if we wanted free Russian
champagne. Of course we didn’t turn down such an offer. And after a while,
the owner of the joint approached us at the table: “Are you
happy with my
restaurant?”. He had seen us there several days in a row now.
We tried to tell him that yes, we were
happy, but that the main cause was that the restaurant
was one of the few with wheelchair access (except from the small toilet).
But I don’t think he cared that much about that information.
After a short rest at the
hotel, we took a taxi to the famous Mariinsky theatre. For the first time in
my life I was going to the ballet, and in spite of the fact that the Russian
ladies had to rearrange the booth completely, our seats were brilliant. The
modern ballet was impressive, but it was just as fun to watch dissatisfied American
tourists, photoholic Japanese businessmen and the
amazing theatre building itself. It would probably have been easier to sit
on the floor (parterre), but then with more
expensive tickets and a poorer view.
On our last
day we went up the Nevsky prospect again, and crossed the big Trotsky bridge
over to Peter & Paul castle, an island with a fort and beach. After having
the remains of a
thunderstorm fall on our head, we fled out of the slightly impractical fort area
to a local petrol station and café, where we had
a beer and
some french fries.
After this we went strolling in the Gorkovskaya park, which is a green area
with an amusement park and a zoo. We found many more common Russian
buildings and people here. We had evidently left the tourist
zone. On our way back to the city centre, we were hit by an extreme rain-
and hailshower, and had to seek refuge under a tree. Summer in St.
Petersburg is about as unstable as the one in Oslo, with 22-24C,
thunderstorms, moist and daily showers.
After drying up, we ended up in the
restaurant where we had been on our first night. We met an English couple,
who had stayed in the city the same
period we had. Happy to find someone who
finally understood what we were
talking about, we spent the evening
exchanging tips and experiences, discussing everything from Russians, school
system, BBC to Norwegian labour politics. All the time until the café
closed and we were thrown out. It was time to head back home, and leave this
ugly beautiful city, with the
amazing and large contrasts...
July 2004,
Ingunn W.
