But I don't believe there is overwhelming poverty in St Petersburg. There are a lot of well dressed people in the streets. It is true that there are many beautiful women, but it seems all the more because they are dressed and made-up to kill all the time. Fashionable clothes, short skirts, and lots of make-up seem to be the get up for work as well as for a night out. I'm sure any American could come here with a few hundred dollars in his pocket and bring home a very beautiful, probably English speaking, Russian wife in just a couple of days.
Commercial activity runs the gamut.
There are markets around the metro stations comprised of small kiosks with hundreds of items hanging in the window. Then there are the very expensive shops in the front part of Govdiniy Dvor, complete with security guards and metal detectors, selling imported designer clothes and shoes. And there is everything in between. Extending my visa turned out to be easy. For the most part, rubles were fine, and I could easily get rubles from the ATM's.