It has been a while since I posted on Biyahi, as I was busy moving suitcases around -again ahahah!!- out of Paris, some of them to Finland and others to CDG airport bound to my new destination, Russia! If at that time you’d ask me the meaning of the title, I would have looked at you with eyes wide open, wondering how to even read it! Well, I have learned since then, and can tell you it reads something like zzisss (wiz ze franche aquecente n’est ce pas!!) : “Zdratvoutdze”, formal hello in Russian.

It took me a few weeks to decrypt cyrillic alphabet, and it will probably take me a few more to start speaking the language, but I will get there:) (so far I have taken 5 lessons)

So it turns out that I have moved to one of the most beautiful cities on Earth, and this is where I am writing this from : St Petersburg…

 

Biyahi will still be focusing on hospitality short stories, and from now on with a new northeastern flavour… the huge country I now spend my days and nights in is a never ending source of inspiration, not only because it is the biggest country on this planet, but is also has a very rich history, culture, and… gastronomy to be discovered, and since I am one of those food lovers, I will share my findings with you.

Gastronomy? In Russia? What are you talking about?? well, wait and see… In the next few years, if not months, I predict the next gastronomy trends will come from this region, think about what is happening now in Scandinavia, who would have thought… but stereotypes die hard, and Russia is full of them! Just read CNN and you’ll see what I mean! When I told some friends I was going to Russia, they immediately enquired about my safety, and my mental health too!! I am doing very well, thank you 🙂

 

I was in Russia for the first time last February, for a two day visit to a recently created Hospitality Business School called SWISSAM. The reason for the Swiss part of the name is because SWISSAM is a partner of IMI Hospitality Management School in the quiet and lovely city of Lucerne, in Switzerland…

SWISSAM is right now the only private hospitality school in Russia, and CIS countries, the Commonwealth of Independent States, quite a big chunk of the world, in fact!

Anyway, more information can be found right here :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Independent_States

When I was walking on the streets of the city for the first time, I recalled a sensation I had when I first stepped on Cusco’s Plaza de Armas, sometime in 1999… Something  felt right, and I told myself, I could, and I should live here, so why not!

A few months later, here I am in this amazing country and city, and just looking at the sky is like admiring a painting that would never stop evolving, in thousands of different shades…

One of the “West’s” favorite clichés about Russia is that people are very cold, but I have not often met such hospitable people! Many may seem a bit shy at first, probably due to my limited knowledge of Russian, but whenever a conversation starts, it rarely turns out to be boring, and it will almost inevitably end with this sentence :

“and, what about the weather?”

That comes after me talking passionately about all the city’s beauty, its inhabitants, etc, etc…

And my answer goes like this : “Yes, well, the weather, you know… For the past 22 years I have lived in very warm tropical climates, and I much prefer putting on a coat to warm myself up, rather than living in air conditioned environments all year round…”

Then, my interlocutor inevitably smiles, and says : “we will talk again in April ! :)”

Winter is a long affair here, and the nights will be long, but I can’t wait for the snow, and to experience an early morning run on the ice, crossing beautiful Trotsky bridge with a splendid view of the Hermitage, and Peter and Paul fortress…

Here are some random pictures of my first months here, those first moments of a country’s discovery are always magical… and then, suddenly, one day, you tell yourself, “oh, I live here !”

Until next week, for more on legendary hospitality stories in the Land of the Czars 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

When the rain comes they might as well be dead ..,, Beatles