April 22, 2006

DOSTOEVSKY DORMITORY



Juris and I are staying at the Hotel Dostoevsky on Vladimir Prospekt just off Nevinsky Prospekt.

If you look at the pictures, the hotel seems to occupy just the final right hand 5th of the building, but in fact this is only the entrance. There are over 200 rooms on the 5th, 6th and 7th floors of this building, all looking onto an inner courtyard. In fact the floor of the courtyard is actually the roof of the 4th floor below.

The hotel opens onto the Atrium of a shopping centre containing 50 shops, several cafes and a large underground 24hour supermarket. The bar on the top floor has a glass roof giving superb views of the Vladimir church opposite.


Our hotel faces the Vladimir Metro station - so very handy.

It also faces the delightful Vladimir Church. We went to an amazing Easter (Orthodox) service at this church. In common with many churches in SPB there are no seats, there was also no music and yet a largely female managed exquisite and joyous singing to fill the vaults of this Russian-style church
Our service culminated in a candlelit procession out into the street and around the chuch - stopping traffic on this busy thoroughfare.


We booked our hotel through http://www.instantstpetersburg.com/index.xml and they also provided a full Visa service via their sister company http://www.asla.co.uk/index.shtml


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