St Petersburg Treasures | Season 20 | Episode 8

To have a view from a motorcycle point of view is something common. But to have a view from a sidecar is something not so common, especially if the motorcycle is Harley Davidson. Beautiful. And of course the most interesting part, the one that everyone wants to see is Hermitage. I just got my Russian payment card named Mir. Wow. Just wow. How many and different bridges. Each one is a masterpiece. Oksy Togorsk. Okay. So they work on this road and eventually on some stage is going to be another asphalt road. Good morning. As I promised last night, I'm going to show you this interesting place. This is a motorcycle club of the guys of Ost MC. This club, I don't know, established probably around seven, eight years ago in St. Petersburg, Russia. So let me first tell you something. Now the moment in St. Petersburg is high season moment. They've got this almost like 24 hours daylight. So it's completely different than everything you have seen in your life. Because of that, it's high season and all hotels here in the area cost like almost 100 euros per night. So if I have to spend here and I will spend here like almost three days, that doesn't mean that I have to spend 300 euros only for accommodation. So these guys offer me their place for free. And I'm so thankful because first of all, they helped me to save a lot of money. I can use this money to travel at least at least 10 days for this amount in Russia, considering the prices of the petrol and accommodation everywhere. So St. Petersburg is different story. This is very touristic place. But anyway, great opportunity. And I'm so thankful that they did it. But not only because of saving money, it's also because of the possibility to meet them and to touch their secret place. So I really want to show you around because this is something unique. And I hope that in many places around the world, people will make something similar. So let's first start with the door. You see what decoration they've got. Their logo, their name OST is made from a motorcycle chain. Then it has this huge handle here, huge metal door. And once you enter in, they've got this place to leave all the helmets. And of course, different type of decorations like this, even like old German helmet with holes. You see some kind of windscreen of this decoration. And of course here, biker inside. So if you're not biker, you are not allowed to go inside. And let me show you now what is here. I'm sorry, the light is not so good, but you will have at least an idea what it's about. So first here, you can hang your clothes as I did and boots and everything. And they've got like two big sofas here around. One of them is my bed at the moment. I spend the night over there. And then if we look on that side, everything will remind you about motorcycle traveling. You can see a lot of pictures with these guys. Been to many, many different places. Big petrol can here, flux and everything. They've got shower, they've got toilet, they've got a small kitchen here with fridge. Of course, a lot of beers inside. You can have beer, you can have tea, coffee, everything you like. And of course, a big table for meetings. I really love this because they all can sit together, discuss the future plans or whatever they want to do or write or anything. And I really like this tea. Or the bill. Fantastic. And a lot of pictures here. Harley Davidson during the Second World War. Black and white pictures, many flags. This is their flag again. Russian flag and another one. Motorcycle here as a decoration. I said another one because there is one already. This old Yawa, 1961. Mileage 10,000, oh 104,000 kilometers. One owner, always works. When I was a kid, I was riding a few of these. These are just, they were like a dream bikes back in the days. And over there, I think was Nepal, but I'm not sure about it. Anyway, they also play guitars and they've got drums here. And in common, it is just fantastic, fantastic place. A small workshop even here in this area. Yeah, it was just a nice touch. As I said, guys, for me, this was one really rare opportunity to meet these guys, to talk with them, to see their life, to touch their secret place and to enjoy every moment. So yesterday when I arrived, one of the club members, Pavel, met me. And we came here to the club and get dressed because it was raining really hard. And we jumped into his car and went around St. Petersburg to make a little tour. And because it was raining too hard, we went to meet another one of his friends who has a small yacht. And during that time, of course, the rain stopped. So we get out with the yacht and spent a wonderful, like I'll say, one hour and something on the sea, going under all of these bridges, seeing St. Petersburg from a different perspective. It was fantastic experience, honestly. After that, we come back and I went to meet the whole group in another place, in one actually big church. One of the members is one of the pastors of the church. So we talk even more about different things. They gave me one really interesting... It's like St. Nikolaos, who is like a patron of all travelers. And no, guys, what I have to say, I've always been impressed very much from people on the road. But these guys are just awesome. And I really hope that at least one of these guys will come to Bulgaria one day so I can return the favor. And yeah, I always invite everyone who I met on the road to come to my country. Not many people are able to do it, especially now here in Russia with all of the problems that they've got. But who knows, maybe in the future, maybe I'll be able to return the favor. All right, I've got all the products that I need for the next three days. For breakfast and maybe some dinners. During the lunchtime, I'm going to eat out. I also cut my hair for only 4 euros. All the products I bought for 8 euros. And the most important job that I did today is to apply for a Russian debit card. The bank name is Bear. And the plastic will be ready tomorrow. And I will be able to add some money in and travel with, I'll say, much better than to carry cash all the time. So this part is very interesting. This is the town of Kronstadt and the bay of Kronstadt. All of this fortification, all of these ships and everything, they are now used mostly from the marines for practice on it and stuff like that. Very, very windy here. I'm really sorry about it. You'll probably hear nothing. But it's a very interesting part from the old town of Kronstadt. And we're gonna go and walk on the town center to see the cathedral and everything. But yes, this is here part of the, as I said, fortification and the defense line that was built so many years ago and still used. Some nice bridge. And from here, we're gonna reach the cathedral. Beautiful old cathedral in the middle of the old part of Kronstadt. Nikolaevsky Sobor, Nikolai whatever, it's the name Nikolai Church. Pavel just told me that because of the strong wind in this town, the top of the couple actually staying on something like big bearings, like big balls and moving all the time. Beautiful. Orthodox tradition say that you have to burn a light for a good health of you and all family members. And now one for my trip. Give one for my family. I'll burn one more for all motorcycle travelers everywhere around the world. All this is very beautiful. See the marble column. Interesting enough, in Russia, they don't ban video filming or pictures in the cathedrals. Completely different everywhere around Europe. Came to the most interesting part of St. Petersburg. And this gray house over there is the house of Pushkin. And of course, the most interesting part, the one that everyone wants to see is Hermitage. It's a big museum. We can spend hours inside. I'm not going to do it, but this square is just wonderful. You can see what it is. I don't need to talk much. Here you can see a Russian glory in its full power. They built such wonderful buildings everywhere around. I believe in everything, I'm not jealous of anything. Fate has come to the villains. This is our power. To have a view from a motorcycle point of view is something common. But to have a view from a sidecar is something not so common, especially if the motorcycle is Harley Davidson. And the town is St. Petersburg, Russia. Look at this. Man, what an experience! What an experience! Very special thanks to Daniel to show me around because this is such a rare opportunity. See now? Beautiful illumination everywhere, all buildings. This is a famous hotel Astoria in the cathedral. Thank you very much. From this angle, no one really observes St. Petersburg. This is exclusive. That's right. And this was the hotel where Hitler wanted to stay, right? Yes, yes. Yes. This was the hotel that Hitler planned to stay after the war. Luckily, he couldn't be a passenger on Harley Davidson. I never thought that I would ever be. Beautiful city, beautiful. The monument of Peter the First. Peter the First. Petro Primo, Petro Primo. See how beautiful the bridge is. The restaurant where the assassination attempt was recently. Journalists were killed here. Yes, yes, I know. In Adlen-Tatarskiy. Yes, yes. Was it here? Yes. Here was the restaurant where one of the military journalists was killed last month. Two months ago. All right, another very important thing is done. I just got my Russian payment card named Mir. Looks like this. And the bank that I did it was this Sberbank. So you can do it in any bank around the country in Sberbank. What you have to do is just to go there. You need telephone number, your passport, address registration in Russia, and they will make a card for you. It takes one day to have it. If you want to have your name on it, like I have. If you don't want the name, it could be done immediately. And after that, you can change money, euro or dollars, whatever you have, and immediately put it in your bank account by one of the cash machines that they have in the bank. So the procedure is not that difficult. You just need to know that in advance. So now, because tomorrow morning I'm going, I'm gonna do like a simple tour around the town with the bike to show you everything. You can see that all buildings are like a piece of art. Across the street is Small Night Cathedral. Very beautiful building. See? Piece of art, as I said. It's also a school, high university for girls only. Beautiful. Yeah, the beginning of last century. This is the museum of the famous general, generalissimo, actually, Suvorov. There is a very famous military school still in Russia on his name. This is his museum. It's, as I said, so many, so many beautiful buildings that you cannot even count them how many there are. I don't really know how many times it was rained in the last three days. I don't know. Every 15 minutes, rain stops, rain stops. So finally, it stops just for my final, final minutes in this wonderful town. So many buildings, so many, and all of them are beautiful. Oh man, look at these facades. Monument of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, and on the background is a Russian museum. And this is the most expensive hotel in St. Petersburg. Grand Hotel something, but I forgot the name. When the famous people are coming, presidents, movie stars, they always stayed here. Basically, I can continue like this, like two hours, filming everything. But this is just a city that you cannot see like that. There's so much to see, and unfortunately, start raining again. So just to have an idea what it's about. And this bridge is very famous. It has four different monuments, four people in. And they said it's four people with 16 bulls, because there are four people and four horses. Male. Wonderful. How many and different bridges. Each one is a masterpiece. By the way, it is 9.20 in the evening. I don't think that I ever seen city beautiful than this. More beautiful than this, never ever. It is very big, I don't know. You can easily spend like two, three hours riding around. And everywhere you see this fantastic buildings, like piece of art everywhere. Facades, churches, theaters, palaces. Just miracle. So this is what I'm talking about. Whatever direction you decided to go, you'll see at least five very beautiful buildings, more than 100 years old, with these outstanding facades. To see it during the night, it's very interesting. But to see it now during sunset, it's impressive. And of course, the Hermitage, the green building over there. Wow, just wow. This was the perfect moment with the sunset and everything. I'm really sorry that I have to look for the traffic and cars. There's so many more interesting things to look at. The only problem is the weather here. It rains all the time. But it is what it is. Look at this obelisk. Better is to stop talking, just to show you around. And I don't know, are you able to see the rainbow over there? And all these light facades. Petropavlovsk fortress. It is 20 to 7, but it is time to move east. Today's point, it's a small town named Udomla, around 500 kilometers away from here. And as usual, I'll start very early. I will try to get there. Of course, if I cannot, I'll spend the night somewhere. It's not a must. It's not something that I have to do on 100%. I hope I'll be able, but we will see. It is 15 degrees at the moment. And today I expect something like 20-21, which is very good for traveling. You can see all the traffic going into the city. I am going out of the city. So far, 30 minutes and I'm still nowhere. This now is the main road to Murmansk. It's got like 1,200 kilometers to go there, which is the northeast part of Russia. And on the left-hand side, it's Ladoga Lake or Ladozhkoe Ozero. This was the lake that was used during the Second World War, during the blockade of Leningrad to supply the city. And it was named also, this road that they used, was named also Daroga Zhizni or the road to life. After I spent almost two hours on the straight road to Murmansk, now I am on another straight road, but at least it goes through small villages. I just changed my gloves, ATIKAR gloves, waterproof gloves in my trains, but I also add my wind buffer, wind stopper on my neck because it looks like it's going to be a long and cold day. I also have my heated grips on. It's very interesting to know that when you insulate your hands and your neck, the things became much different. Now when I stopped, I did not put any layer on my chest or something under my pants, so I got the same clothes, but only the hands and neck make a huge difference. This is Tikhvin. Good houses. That's it. Just a small town on the road. And now this is the center. All right. As I said, this is the middle of today's ride. Of course, work in progress. As I said, brand new roads or they work on it. This road now is much better. I hope it will last like this for the rest of the day. Let me see how many kilometers I still got. 327 to the final point. Bogsy Togorsk. Okay. I couldn't believe that I got this type of road. Honestly. Very good asphalt. Well, it looks like this is going to be the road for the next 50-60 kilometers, but that's fine. No worries. This is what I'm gonna have after Yakutsk anyway. So 20 kilometers so far, nothing changed. Just this gravel road, forest, potholes here and there. Actually, it's not that bad. And luckily it is dry. I guess when it's raining here will be really muddy story. Even though it's not exactly like a soil. It's more like a sand, compressed sand or very very thin gravel. Gruntovka is the Russian word for it. But very interesting. Big country, big contrast between big cities and small villages. Another village. So they work on this road and eventually on some stage is going to be another asphalt road. I saw two Russian guys on the motorcycles and I thought that they were riding too fast. It looks like one of them lost control.