St Petersburg at night

One of the iconic symbols of St Petersburg is its bridges. Peter the Great wanted a "Northern Venice," so the city was designed so that certain parts are best approached by boat via the Neva River or the canals that criss-cross the city.

There are seven drawbridges that open at close on a set schedule every night to let ships go through, some from 1:30 a.m to 5:00 a.m. If you happen to be on the wrong side of the bridge when it opens, well, as they say here in Russia, you're screwed. There is simply no way to get back until the bridge goes back down.

I had been meaning to walk down at night and take pictures of the bridges up. Walking around a foreign city at 2 a.m. seems a little crazy, especially in the rain, but a lot of people were down there, including guards on the bridges, presumably to keep drunken idiots from trying to swim home.

This is a really crappy picture because of the rain, but you get the idea:



This is a slightly better picture of the Alexander Column and vast Palace Square behind the Hermitage. At the bottom of the column on the left you can see a guy playing saxophone. At 2 a.m. in the rain.