Five things to do on the escalator of the metro
The Saint Petersburg metro is one of the deepest metro systems in the world. To make things easier for passengers, every metro station has immense escalators. The majority of the escalator goers just stares blankly into space as they descend. But, this means every time you take the metro, you lose precious minutes. If you take the metro once a day, you might be losing six minutes eyeballing on the stairs daily. That is 36 hours and 24 minutes a year! This has to change. So here are five things you can do while standing on the escalator of the Saint Petersburg metro.
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Read a book
Nowadays, many books are published pocket-sized. It is easy to bring a book in your backpack or in your pocket. You will see many Russians reading as they go up or down. If you read one page every time you as- and descend on the escalator, you are theoretically able to finish Crime and Punishment in a year. When your point of departure or destination is Admiralteyskaya – with 86 meters the deepest metro station of the city – you might even finish War and Peace.
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Nap
Why not take a quick nap as you stand on the escalator? Just close your eyes for a few minutes and feel a lot more awake afterwards. In that way, you do not have to buy that cup of coffee on the way anymore, and you will save lots of money. With the money you saved, you can buy your own coffee machine.
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Not run
Не бегите по эскалатору! Do not run on the escalator! You will hear it many times as you stand on the stairs. It is a good advice, as you do not want to fall down a dozens of meters long stairway. With the money you save by not ending up in a hospital, you could buy yourself, for example, your own coffee machine.
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Watch people
The escalator is a nice place to watch people. There is a constant flow of new people to check out, and since you are moving in one, and they are moving in the other direction, you can stare for an inappropriate time, as you will probably never see that person again.
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Pick a theatre show to visit
In the staircase of the metro, you will see many announcements for theatrical performances. Why not pick one to visit? If you are lucky, on the ground floor you will find a theatre box office, so you can directly buy your tickets. If you are not that fond of theatre, in the staircase you will also find housing advertisements and pictures of apples, strawberries and various citrus fruits to take a look at.
