Brits are of course now labouring under a diet of cold turkey. Christmas generates its own extraordinary traditions across Europe, which differ greatly from country to country. There is no such thing as a standard-issue European Christmas. The English certainly like their turkey on the Christmas table, but elsewhere across the continent firm Christmas favourites include baked carp, goose, spicy hams, and roast lamb.

Christmas may have come and gone in western Europe, but we shouldn’t forget that as we move east across the continent, things change. The Orthodox Churches still organise their affairs according to the old Julian calendar, and Christmas is not celebrated in most of eastern Europe until early January. By the time Russians sit down to have their Christmas meal (on the evening of 6 January), most western and central European households have already taken down their Christmas decorations.

The festive season brings its own cast of secular characters. So in Russia and other eastern European countries, Ded Moroz, also known as Father Frost, rewards children with gifts. Ded Moroz lives in northern Russia (click here to read more), an unkempt spot on the Sukhona river that is attempting to cash in on Ded Moroz in much the same way that Rovaniemi in northern Finland has proclaimed its credentials as the unbelievably tacky and ultra-commercial hometown of Santa Claus. While Santa relies on a bunch of elves for assistance, Ded Moroz lucks out in having secured the services of the beautiful Snegurochka to help distribute gifts.

Globalisation may have inflected many aspects of our lives, but Christmas still throws up its own culturally-encoded customs and characters.

This is the last in a series of eight postings by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, a Berlin-based duo who edit hidden europe magazine. They will return with more contributions to EuroCheapo in Spring 2008.

Photo by knutholterrygh

By far the best and most relaxing way to get an overview of St. Petersburg is to take a boat trip along the city’s canals and rivers.

Rivers and canals in St. Petersburg play the part of roads. Many of the city’s most beautiful palaces, gardens, and cathedrals lie alongside the waterways. You can find boats leaving from the Fontanka and Moika rivers and the Griboedov canal as they cross Nevskii Prospekt, the city’s main boulevard. A boat tour lasts one hour and will cost you about RUB200 (€5.75; $7.75).

For more adventurous Cheapos, boat trips further afield are also possible. One exciting itinerary heads up the River Neva, crosses Lake Ladoga, and sails into the Valaam archipelago (see above.) With its 50 small islands, the archipelago boasts the beautiful forested island of Valaam and its old orthodox monastery. The excursion lasts two nights and leaves from the Passenger River Terminal (nearest metro Proletarskaya). Fares range from RUB2290 (€66; $89) to RUB3900 (€112; $151) depending on dates and ship standard.

Photo by Emmanuel Smague

Adventurous Cheapos who love rail travel will find the fledgling projects of Russian State Railways very exciting.

Most ambitious is the newly-announced plan to build a tunnel underneath the Bering Strait to connect Russia with Alaska. If constructed, the rail tunnel will be the longest in the world, at 100 km.

The second glamorous plan of RDZ is to extend the four-day journey from Berlin to Novosibirsk train journey on to Irkutsk, the town nearest Lake Baikal. This projected journey will eventually take five days to complete.

As rail travel in Russia is still good-value, Cheapos may soon find themselves able to cross most of Europe and onwards to one of the jewels of Asia for the price of a low-cost air journey.

Photo by poke_you

Here’s an understatement: the association of Russia with vodka is strong. Moscow’s Vodka Museum was transplanted from St. Petersburg, opening in Russia’s capital in 2006.
50,000 bottles of all shapes (including guns, swords and submarines) and ages (the oldest is over 200 years old) are kept here. All you could want to know about vodka’s history, distillation techniques, and traditions is here—including Stalin’s edict that frontline soldiers in the Second World War be obliged to drink 100 grams of vodka a day.

There are some interesting collectors editions on display too, especially the edition commemorating the sailors who went down with the K-19 submarine. Best of all is the chance to taste then of the best vodka varieties in the Traktir, a recreation of a nineteenth century bar.

The museum is located in the Izmaylovo Kremlin Park (nearest metro: Partizanskaya). A guided tour takes 45 minutes and costs RUB200 (€5.70; $7.80). The museum is open every day from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m., and can be reached by telephone at +7 (495) 166-69-58.

Vodka-swilling Cheapos, take note! Vodka on sale at the museum is more expensive than the vodka on offer at the Izmaylovo Market outside the museum.

Photo by Arsart

If you need a bite to eat in St. Petersburg, buy yourself a pie. Russian pies, or pirogi, are made of pizza-like pastry, rolled into large, fat cigars and filled with a generous tasty filling. Traditional fillings are mushroom and herb, minced meat, egg and rice, and curd cheese.

You can buy your pie from street vendors, traditionally older women wearing head scarves, who sell, quite often, next to metro stations. (Especially popular is Gorkovskaya, the stop for St. Petersburg’s zoo.)

If you prefer your pie sitting down, head for one of the Stolle cafes, a specialist chain of pie buffets with outlets all over the city. Their selection even includes wild berry pie. The most central Stolle is on Konushenny Pereulok, round the corner from the beautiful Church on Spilt Blood (commemorating the site where the reforming Tsar, Alexander II, was assassinated).

Here you will see Russian housewives buying the pies in bulk. Rumor has it they will later pass the pies off to their guests as their own cooking!

Photo by calley_nelson

Dostoevsky called St. Petersburg the “most abstract and fantastic city on earth.” The city’s power to amaze is at its best in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, built in 1714 on the granite banks of the River Neva to house Tsar Peter the Great’s bizarre collection of abnormal anatomy.

Siamese twins in formaldehyde, the skeleton of “Bourgeois the Giant,” and the Tsar’s collections of teeth—which he himself had pulled—are not for the faint hearted. Yet Peter’s intention for his kunstkamera was to prove to the superstitious of his time that abnormality was the result of natural causes and not the devil’s work.

The Museum has a total of one million artefacts from all over the world and is currently running a new exposition of African exhibits. For details, check out the Kunstkamera site. Admission is RUB200 (€5.75; $7.70), with students going half price.

Photo by Andreas Helke

Meet the youth hostel claimed by many of its former guests as the best in the world: the International Hostel of St Petersburg. Hostels are themselves a new concept in Russia. To date, the country has boasted extremely cheap hotels—which function more or less as dormitories—and expensive five-star hotels.

Even without the limited local selection, the hostel itself is fantastic. Its city center location is within spitting district of Nevskii Prospect, the city’s beautiful arterial boulevard. It has a variety of clean, comfortable rooms and friendly, helpful staff. It also offers day trips to an authentic dacha in the woods outside the city, and provides opportunities to take a banya (Russian steam bath) and learn how to make borsht.

In January and February the hostel offers winter specials, with double rooms including breakfast going for just $44 a night. Stay five nights and you get an extra night free. Summer prices are only slightly higher, at $50 per night per room. The hostel will also issue you with a visa support letter entitling you to a Russian visa, enabling you to brave the bureaucratic maelstrom of your local Russian embassy or consulate with your head held high.

Also noteworthy: the hostel’s Web site is certainly well linked, with plenty of good information for navigating the “Venice of the North.”

Photograph by Mr Luke Harby

Russia’s national airline Aeroflot recently announced that it will soon make e-tickets available via its Web site. Because of a Russian law that requires cash receipts for ticket transactions, airports won’t be able to distribute boarding passes for e-tickets on-site until this summer at the earliest.

Our recent research blitz turned up an abundance of cheap sleeps in St. Petersburg, and we’re feeling excited about Russia. With this in mind, we thought we’d see if we could rustle up a few affordable summer flights.

If you’re traveling to St. Petersburg from a major western European city, you’ll do better to book a flight through a budget carrier like Germanwings (one-way from Berlin €111 including taxes) or Windjet (one-way from Bologna €70 before taxes). Similar flights on Aeroflot aren’t quite so budget-friendly.

However, Aeroflot flies substantially more routes than the few budget airlines that connect to St. Petersburg. And if you’re traveling from Eastern Europe, flying Aeroflot can make sense.

For a weekend in August, Aeroflot flies from Belgrade for €98 one-way before taxes. A one-way ticket for the same weekend from Riga runs €103, and you’ll pay €126 to get from Vilnius to St. Petersburg.

Check out Aeroflot for a full list of routes.