Not a date, old friend of mine. It's quite Westernized -- I don't think the Soviets ever were able to made much of an impact there -- it was always the most Western city in Russia. As far as expenses, basically, a BAD hotel -- at a level that doesn't exist in the US, and is all that exists in some of the odder parts of the world I've been in -- costs $40/night, but a very nice one costs $100. Same, I think w. food -- all the restaurants I went to were between $60~100 for the two of us, but it was a good dinner, with drinks, etc -- service is abysmal though. Everything is wonderfully designed, seems to be a huge supply of architects. I'm sure there are very poor people, but Russian society is tremendously segmented, and I didn't have any contact with them... I also saw plenty of Rolls, Range Rovers, Hummers, and even a Maybach cruising around -- didn't have any contact w. the oligarchs either.
The ballet is quite nice as well -- I have to admit that I didn't understand the really artistic bit -- we saw two, the first, I found quite dull, but was informed that it was very good, the second, which was a comedy, I thought was pretty amusing, and was told it wasn't too well done -- oh well, us Aggies aren't meant to be too cultured.
As for the flight, fly business class, and British Airways is a pretty pleasant airline -- I think it's about 7 hours from JFK to heathrow, and then about 3.5 hours after to Saint P -- It's pretty easy to arrange to have an extended layover in London -- I have an easier time w. the jet lag is I break the flight up, and London's quite pleasant, as is Dublin -- pretty easy little hop flight.
