St. Petersburg is an absolutely unique city: founded in 1703 as a capital of Imperial Russia, it was built by European and Russian architects in European and not Russian traditional architectural style. At the same time, it has always been a Russian city, where Russian culture is presented in diverse ways: numerous arts and historical museums, Orthodox churches and cathedrals, theaters, music and concert venues, Russian art galleries, and tens of higher education institutions.
A “Northern Venice”, St. Petersburg was founded in the delta of the powerful though short Neva River, which runs its waters from Ladoga Lake to the Gulf of Finland, parting in its lower reaches into many smaller rivers, forming dozens of islands, nowadays connected with hundreds of bridges. St. Petersburg is famous for its white nights, when it never gets dark for a couple of summer months, and for another several spring and summer months the sun goes down for only a few hours well after eleven p.m. The beauty of the city, bridges across the Neva going up every night to let the ships go from the Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland and vice versa, for sure compensate several weeks of short days in late November and December.
Students in St. Petersburg make a noticeable portion of the youth, and the city is full of young faces, joyful events under the open sky and in famous St. Petersburg cultural venues, stunning festivals, and traditional Russian holidays with public jamborees. Unlike small university towns of Europe and the U.S., here you can see and try all beer and skittles: winter sports and games, summer boating and travel, all-city events and the great Russian ballet… This list of possibilities never ends, and being a student you can enjoy each and every of them.
St. Petersburg was founded as a multi-national and multi-confessional city. Residents of St. Petersburg are friendly and tolerant, and no changeable weather or winter winds will never chase away the attractiveness and magic charm of this city. Just give it a try!
People from all over the world come to visit St. Petersburg and nobody has ever been disappointed and the only complaints you can here are that you can’t see everything within a short tourist visit. Being a student, you can not only visit but live in St. Petersburg for a few years and become a true resident of the city. Don’t miss the opportunity!