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Museum Travel / Art Travel / Salvador Dali / Florida Travel / → All Tags

New Salvador Dali Museum to Open in Florida on 1-11-11

Art lovers are pumped for 1/11/11 and not because of superstition. The day marks the opening of the new Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. To make the day extra lucky, the museum will open at 11:11 a.m.

The museum offers the largest collection of Dalí's work outside of Spain, with 2,140 pieces of the artist's work on display. The waterfront building pays homage to the surrealist master with a glass sculpture whose more than 900 unique panels snake around the concrete facade.

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St Petersburg Field Trip / Russia Travel / Museums / Jaunted Field Trips / → All Tags

The Big One: You Can’t Leave Without Visiting the Hermitage

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

Any reasonably worldly-minded person has probably heard the warning that you can’t see the Louvre or the Hermitage Museum in one day. And well—you can’t. Don’t try. There are several special exhibitions going at any one time, although they’re not always well-advertised, and it’s best to just pick one or two sections of interest so you have time to enjoy the art and the interiors themselves—it’s a combination of grand baroque and spooky decay that just about sums up the indefinable nature of modern Russia.

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St Petersburg Field Trip / Russia Travel / Food Travel / St Petersburg Travel / Jaunted Field Trips / → All Tags

Dining In St. Petersburg: The Best Spots For Caviar, Vodka And Borscht

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

"Pectopah" is the one word you need to know if you’re hungry in St. Petersburg. It’s pronounced “restoran,” like “restaurant” with a twist, and is displayed prominently on almost every eating establishment in St. Petersburg.

The cuisine available varies from Moroccan to European to Japanese (sushi is the latest craze with the younger set), but for traditional Russian fare, there are a few experiences a cut above the rest. Three restaurants in particular stand out:

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St Petersburg Field Trip / Russia Travel / St Petersburg Travel / Jaunted Field Trips / → All Tags

Our Beat-The-Jet-Lag Walking Tour Of St. Petersburg

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

So what do you do first in a country where you don't speak the language and you're still slightly suffering from jet lag? We took a cab into the St. Petersburg city center, down Nevsky Prospect, and this is the best place to start leisurely exploring. As the main street in St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect is marked by the Admiralty building with its tall gold spire on the north end (although there are several of these around, it’s the only one you’ll see at the end of the street) and the Nevsky Monastery to the south.

Worth stopping for a look outside are the Kazan Cathedral, the Dom Knigi bookstore (an Art Deco confection that formerly housed the Singer sewing maching company), the Russian National Library, monuments to Catherine the Great and more field marshals than you can shake a stick at, and the Anichkov Bridge, with its four famed equestrian statues. It’s also the central street for shopping, restaurants, etc., with the Gostiny Dvor, the city’s largest department store, on one side of the street, across from the Grand Palace luxury complex.

Even though Russia is no known for its love of luxury, St. Petersburg isn’t a shopping city—high prices and limited selection means that most wealthy Russians do their shopping on vacations in the rest of Europe or America.

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St Petersburg Field Trip / Russia Travel / St. Petersburg Travel / Jaunted Field Trips / → All Tags

Negotiating A Flight From The US To St. Petersburg, And We Mean Russia

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

You’ll have to pick your poison flying from the United States to St. Petersburg—direct flights are available mainly to Moscow, although finding a connection there is simple. On the other hand, you’ll get to pass through a hub that isn’t Atlanta. Finnair connects through Helsinki, KLM through Amsterdam, Alitalia through Rome, etc.

We chose to fly Lufthansa’s business class through Frankfurt, and were grateful to have the option of a lounge in which to pass out at 5:30 in the morning, after a not-long-enough rest on the flat seats.

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Celeb Travel / Music Travel / Madonna / Museums / → All Tags

Museum Directors Are Not Happy About Madonna Concert

According to the New York Post, Madonna is planning a concert in St. Petersburg, Russia this summer in the main square next to the Hermitage Museum. The historic art and culture museum is part of the royal Winter Palace which served as the home for Russian Tsars Nicholas I and Nicholas II.

When Madonna arrives in August, the museum will be showcasing its "Treasures of the Great Moguls" exhibition. And the museum officials are none too pleased.

[B]randing the event a "natural disaster," the museum's director Dr. Mikhail Piotrovski said, "We want guarantees that there will be no blasphemy."

Uh-oh, now that you said that, Madonna's gonna cook up something blasphemous for St. Petersburg. Unless you consider her dating a 22-year-old Brazilian model to be blasphemous enough and to be honest, we kind of do.

Related Stories:
· Russian Authorities: Madonna Concert a Natural Disaster [NY Post]
· Heritage Museum [Official Site]

[Photo: Anirudh Koul]

Celebrity Couples / Celeb Travel / Rihanna / Chris Brown / Grammys / Award Show Travel / → All Tags

Rihanna And Chris Brown Legally Joined (In Lawsuit)

They'll be bound together by the court documents: Chris Brown and Rihanna were served with a $1 million lawsuit in Florida seeking damages for theft and battery.

Photographer Luis Santana was trying to get a picture of the glam yet much-tattooed couple in St. Petersburg outside their limo when bodyguards chased him off. Not satisfied with that, they allegedly followed him, beat him up and stole his $3,000 camera. And now Santana wants the singers to pay up or else.

Neither Chris nor Rihanna have commented on the lawsuit but her publicist urged that newsmakers "give attention to the positive things in the world," even invoking the recession as a reason the lawsuit wasn't news. How about the fact that neither star was nominated for a Grammy, passed over for Leona Lewis and the Jonas Brothers?

Related Stories:
· Summer Date Travel: Chris Brown and Rihanna Are Amused [Jaunted]
· Lil' Wayne, Coldplay Receive Grammy Noms [People.com]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of the couple at the MTV Video Music Awards: Celeb Wohoo]

Missed Connections / Russia Travel / → All Tags

Missed Connections: Looking for Lyubov in St. Petersburg, Russia

Visit the "Venice of the North" while it's washed in summer breezes (instead of frozen solid from canal to canal). Try these pick up spots and you won't have to be lonely for next year's "White Nights."

Baltiiysky Khleb -- Its name means "Baltic Bread," but you can pick up a lot of sweet things at this metropolitan bakery. 80 A Bolshoy Prospect

City Bar -- This American pub probably isn't a great place to practice your Russian, but you could meet a Russian looking to brush up on his English (and taste somemac'n'cheese). 10 Millionnaya Ul.

The Stroganoff Yard Tele-Cafe -- See a cutie across the room reading Gogol? Pick up the phone at your table (each one has a private line) and call her. Nevsky Prospect 17

Related Stories:
· St. Petersburg Hotels [HotelChatter]
· St. Petersburg Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: Anne Rissanen]

Armchair Travel / Recommended Travel Books / → All Tags

Learning to Read Books: Ingrid Bengis Plumbs The Depths of the Russian Soul

Let's face it, there are times when you just can't travel -- or don't want to. Vicarious web travel can be a great supplement to boots-on-the-ground journeys, and we should know, right? However, our wise elders keep talking about these things called "books", so we decided to check out these paper dinosaurs a bit, and guess what, they aren't all a waste of time. Some of them are quite good.

We decided that if our members, editors, or both deem a travel book worthy we will give it our own little seal of Oprahooval and tell you about it here.

Our recommended travel books series won't buy you a suspect mile high mojito, but it may point you in the direction of worthy travel book, or two.

Have a travel book you want our editors to check out? Send it our way.

THIS WEEK'S TRAVEL BOOK

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Public Transportation / Public Transportation Love-Hate / → All Tags

Public Transportation Love-Hate: Notes From Underground St. Petersburg

Jaunted is in the midst of a public transportation festival. Join us in celebrating the ultimate travel tool: a cheap way to get around. Share your stories in the comments or by emailing us at tips [at] jaunted [dot] com.

At least four different kinds of public transportation cross St. Petersburg, Russia, on a daily basis. But if you really want to experience the Russian soul, you have to take the metro -- luckily, it's also the easiest to use in the city.

It is said that Peter the Great's Baltic legacy stands on the bones of the workers who tried to construct a city on this swampy piece of marshland. (Something had to hold the Hermitage up!) City planners responded by tunneling deep underneath the city to build the metro, and compensating for the corresponding darkness and dankness by giving many metro stops an individualized flair, from glass pillars to marble columns and iron grillwork.

Taking the long escalators into or out of the metro is a great way to see rank-and-file Russians -- and they're expecting you to look. While in other cities people seek anonymity by dropping their eyes or pretending to concentrate on their books or CD players, there is no Russian pastime like staring at the people on the other side of the escalator, especially during rush hour. It's a great way to see what you should be wearing in order to blend in with the crowds. And once you've emerged into the sunlight, treat yourself to a delicious huichin pastry (a Georgian treat which resembles a potato-stuffed croissant) and an armload of pirated CDs at one of the impromptu open-air markets that have sprung up outside the stations.

Feel shy about taking photographs in this former Communist town? Just be discreet; the town is much more used to tourists and their shutter-happy ways than it once was. And watch out for the bands of little kids who will materialize from nowhere when you pull the camera out and "offer" to take your picture. Suffice to say, they don't really care about getting you a good shot.

[Photo: Manamanah]

Santa Claus / Christmas / → All Tags

A Gaggle of Santas in Saint Pete

If the sight of some 5000 Santas running a marathon together hasn't confused the children of the world enough, St. Petersburg, Russia, has something in store. Hot on the heels of the official G8 forum, attended by Bush, Blair et al in July this year, St. Petersburg will soon host the Santa G8.

Nope, we're not kidding. Santas from eight different nations (all slightly different versions of Santa, mind you) will meet in the city on New Year's Eve. Not until then, of course, because "they are too busy in their respective countries to come on Christmas Day." Russia's Father Frost will come face-to-face with the German Weihnachtsmann and Britain's Santa Claus, with Finnish Yelloupokki probably reluctantly stepping up since he already is sure he's the real thing.

[Photo: slowburn]

Related Stories:
· Santa's G8 Date [Daily Record]
· One Santa, Two Santas... [Jaunted]
· Will the Real Santa Please Stand Up? [Jaunted]