Discovering beautiful Saint Petersburg – hello from Nicolas!
Привет ребята! My name is Nicolas and I’ll be interning as a blogger with L&D this summer in Saint Petersburg and then Moscow.
I’m half-Ecuadorian and half-Colombian, but I have been living in the UK for the last couple of years. I moved to England to study a BA in Politics and International Studies, which I’ll be completing in 2019.
I’m an easy going person, I have three dogs (Schnauzer, Basset Hound and Saint Bernard) and I love traveling. I have lived in five different countries and I’ll do my best to continue to grow that list. I speak Spanish, English and French, and I’ll hopefully speak Russian by the end of the summer.
Nicolas eating a calzone while scuba diving. Photo courtesy of Martino Rech.
Coming to Russia was a no-brainer for me because I love Russian, I have good friends here, and I have always wanted to experience and better understand the puzzling mix of history, emotions and potential that this country is.
Politics and international relations are obviously very interesting for me, but I’m also fascinated by language, culture, tech (especially space related stuff!), scuba diving, the environment and sports. My articles will be mostly related to these topics, but you can expect something different every once in a while.
First impressions
Saint Petersburg is simply beautiful. Before arriving, I imagined the city as something along the lines of the Saint Petersburg in Gogol’s The Nose. I have not been disappointed. The city centre is visually stunning and the especial mysticism that Gogol captured so well is still alive. I can feel I’m in a place of legend.
The short time that I have spent here has shown me that the city is much more than just echoes from its past. Saint Petersburg is a fast and practical city when it wants to be. The city centre is filled with trendy restaurants and relatively young business ventures that make me feel as if the city is reaching out to achieve even more than what it already has.
It’s not hard at all to relax in Saint Petersburg either. There are many parks around, which make perfect picnic spots and walking next to the city’s canals at twilight is a calm, magical experience. If you just want a lazy day in, apartment buildings in residential areas usually have all the basic shops you may need within the mile. However, after seeing the city I doubt I’ll stay in at all this summer.
Writing this article without mentioning the FIFA World Cup would be a crime, but for now I’ll have to simply say that the World Cup’s magic has added much to Saint Petersburg’s already long list of virtues. I’ll tell you more about it in the next blogs.
I am extremely exited about this summer and I look forward to sharing all my experiences with you! I should be uploading an article in the next couple of days. If you don’t feel like waiting, go check out some of our other amazing blogs!
