Saturday, November 27, 2010

2010 11 27 - St Petersburg: Russia's Puff Daddy

Name Wise St Petersburg is likely the Puff Daddy of the World. The City changes its name every time there is a shift in Power or Philosophy with the Russian governing structure.

Names for St Petersburg
1) St Petersburg (from it's founding in 1703 through 1914)
2) Petrograd (1914-1924 - More Russian Sounding)
3) Leningrad (1924-1991 - Death of Lenin)
4) St Petersburg (1991-present - Perestroika)
Additional Nicknames
Petersburg
Peter

Names for Puff Daddy
1) Puff Daddy
2) P. Diddy
3) Diddy
4) Sean John
5) Sean John Combs
and many other combinations and variations of (but not limited to) "Sean" "John" "Daddy" "Puff(y)" "P." "Combs" and "Diddy"

Regardless I am sure that both Sean Combs and Petersburg will experience several more name changes throughout their existence.

While Moscow is considered the governing capital Russia, St Petersburg is considered the Cultural Capital and is also sometimes referred to as the Capital of the North. In fact Peter the Great moved the Capital of Russia to St Petersburg when he founded the city.

The City is the northernmost city of over a million people in the world. It consists of several islands that lie on the banks of the Neva river. Due to its low altitude there are many canals throughout the city. St Petersburg is also sometimes referred to as the Venice of the North.

St Petersburg Canal



Vacation
Most of the info above comes from Wikipedia. The one thing I can tell you about St Petersburg based on our experience is that they must have an awful poor snow shoveling ordinance. It snowed the entire six days we were there - the snow was never really heavy and in fact only may have been steady a few times, but it Snowed every day and most of the day. This amounted to six maybe eight inches by the time we left. When we arrived, the river and the canals were flowing. When we left, the canals were completely frozen over and the river had major ice forming.

Billie Jo and Snow Covered (and Frozen Canal)


St Petersburg is becoming a very Modern European city in some ways - lots of new upscale trendy shopping but the city has retained much of the traditional architecture that contributes to its beauty.


Snow Covered Courtyard of the Hermitage


Branding
ugh Michigan

New York Yankees 9
Los Angeles Dodgers 2
Solchi 2014 2
Boston Celtics 2
U of Michigan 2
Elliot Sadler 1
Atlanta Braves 1
Chicago Bulls 1
NHL 1
NBA 1
Oregon U 1


While in a store I came across an odd (and Expensive) T-shirt with the stencil Featuring the Denver Broncos AND the Chicago Bears. I am not sure this is a game that ever happened. They are not rivals, and off the top of my head I cannot remember the two teams playing each other in a Super Bowl. It was on a Label called Real Vintage or something like that - couldn't find them on various -net searches. And the shirt carried the new Broncos logo so it certainly could not be considered Vintage. I am sure that shirt will still be on the rack the next time I return to St Petersburg.

2 comments:

Jo said...

You forgot the "d" in regardless under the Puff Daddy list.

You forgot "of" in the next paragraph, 1st sentence. Should be "governing capital of Russia.

I thought St. Pete was the "Venice of the North"? I just checked Wikipedia and it also says Venice of the North.

Under the Vacation paragraph you forgot a "d" on the end of "base".

Mike said...

Who is this 'Jo' person?
your Russian Grammar Teacher?

- D A D