St Petersburg: Breathtaking Beauty on an Ice-Cold City Break圣彼得堡：冬訪冰城賞絕勝美景

羅絲琳·迪伊 譯/楊樹鋒

It’s dark and cold—very cold—when we leave the warm embrace of our hotel， walk across the square past St Isaac’s Cathedral1， and make our way along the river until we can get close to the water’s edge.

Even in the darkness of a late winter’s night， the sight is breathtaking—great ice floes， massive sheets the size of flattened double-decker buses， are all drifting gradually towards each other in a slow but mesmerising2 ice dance.

All around us the city is silent， so what， then， is that strange noise？

We drop our heads closer to the river to listen; ah， there it is again; the sound of the ice itself as it grinds its way to a halt， gradually fusing into one massive slab， until the whole river is covered in a thick， white， winter blanket. On this late November night， just a few hours after we arrive into the city of St Petersburg， the River Neva freezes over， its flowing water now stemmed until spring comes around again.

“You’re going to Russia in the depths of winter？” That was the “are you mad？” implication of the question that our imminent departure prompted from friends when， some years ago now， my husband and I announced that we were off to St Petersburg， just a few weeks before Christmas. Aware that most people visit the city for the ‘White Nights’ in June when daylight hours give the place a 24-hour party appeal， we were contrarily3 determined to go in winter.

So we booked our flights （via Helsinki） and our hotel （the historic Astoria）， sorted our visas， and off we went.

And what a magical experience it was to visit that stunning city in winter. The most northerly of the world’s large cities， St Petersburg lies only 800km south of the Arctic Circle， so little wonder， then， that it was cold. But how cold？ Well， whenever we walked in silence for a few minutes and my husband then turned to speak to me， tiny icicles cascaded4 out of his moustache. Yes， that cold. But so very， very beautiful.

I’ve been thinking back in recent days to the wonderful time we had in St Petersburg. Walking the streets again in my head， remembering the old lady who sat begging on a bridge near our hotel， herself and her two dogs wrapped together in mountains of blankets， and recalling also how the city simply bowled us over with its beauty.

But why now， I have been wondering—why， right now， have all my St Petersburg memories invaded my head？

The time of year is obviously part of it， but also because I have such a yearning in these lockdown times for somewhere new， for somewhere to surprise me， bowl me over， and stick in my memory for ever. And when I think like that， it’s always St Petersburg that I see in my mind’s eye.

What I remember most clearly are the blue skies， the white-frosted pavements， the ice-covered canals， the sudden snow flurries5 when the clouds gathered—and a biting， almost crackling， cold like I had never experienced before. With our breath steaming ahead of us as we walked and talked， the ice-cold air rendered our faces virtually numb. It was utterly exhilarating.

Against this wintry backdrop， the beautiful coloured buildings that so distinguish St Petersburg stood out in stark relief， emphasising both their scale and their colour， and creating an almost fairy-tale effect.

There’s the green of the Winter Palace， stormed by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution of 1917， a massive building which houses the world-famous Hermitage Museum， standing resplendent6 and beautiful， on the shores of the white-carpeted Neva; there， in another part of the city， overlooking the Griboedov Canal， is the pale blue of the beautiful naval church of St Nicholas， while the mustard-yellow of the Mikhailovsky opera house jumps out at you on Arts Square， the blue of its more famous competitor， the Mariinsky （better known abroad as the Kirov） doing exactly the same on Theatre Square.

For real jaw-dropping ‘wowness’， however， it’s the stunning， multi-coloured onion domes of the extraordinary Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood7 that remain so vivid in my technicolour dream of St Petersburg in winter.

A stroll along Nevsky Prospekt， the 4.5km-long artery that runs through St Petersburg， is a must-do. The commercial hub of the city， with its shops， cinemas， churches， hotels， hawkers and high-life， it’s also along here that you’ll find such highlights as the huge colonnaded Kazan Cathedral， the Literary Café from where writer Alexander Pushkin left for his ill-fated duel in 1837， the beautiful Grand Hotel Europe （where afternoon tea is a real treat）， and the massive shopping emporium8 known as Gostiny Dvor.

So what memories still linger of this winter-wonderland city？

Unquestionably the ‘morzhi’， for how could you ever forget these so-called ‘walruses’， the men we stand and watch in disbelief on a Sunday morning as they break the ice on the river near the Peter and Paul Fortress before plunging into the holes， straight into freezing water of unimaginable temperature. And without a wet-suit in sight. The Peter and Paul Fortress， located on the northern banks of the river and the place where the original city sprang up in 1703， is an extraordinary complex.

Here you’ll find the rather grim Trubetskoy Bastion Prison， the place where Leon Trotsky and the writer Dostoevsky were incarcerated and also where the son of Peter the Great met his death.

The gleaming， 122m-high， needle-thin spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral can be seen from all over St Petersburg and the cathedral itself is beautiful—all chandeliers， wood carving， and pink columns—and bursting with history.

A final resting place for almost all of the tsars， it was also here， to a lovely side chapel， that the remains of the last of the Romanovs were brought and re-interred in 1998; Nicholas， Alexandra and their five children， finally laid to rest in the city of the tsars some 80 years after being executed at Yekaterinburg in the summer of 1918.

Just to stand there in the silence of the chapel and read the names and ages of those children is a deeply moving and unforgettable experience.

On our final night in the city， the opera beckons and off we go to the Mikhailovsky Theatre to see Borodin’s Prince Igor.

After the wonderful music， the spectacle of the performance， the sumptuous9 surroundings， and a glass or two of Russian sparkling wine， we float out into Arts Square to head back to our hotel.

The icy night air snaps at our faces as we walk along frozen pavements， noticing the beauty of the city’s trees as they stand sentinel10 like white， ghostly skeletons against the night sky.

Yes， it’s freezing cold. But wandering through this historic city in all its muffled11， winter silence， it’s also nothing short of magical.

離開酒店溫暖的懷抱，我們穿過圣以撒主教座堂廣場，沿著河流前行，直到接近水邊。此時，黑暗而寒冷——非常冷。

即使在冬季深夜的黑暗中，景象也令人嘆為觀止——大塊的浮冰，像壓扁的雙層巴士一樣巨大，都在緩慢而迷人的冰舞中逐漸朝彼此漂移。

我們周圍，城市是寂靜的，那么，那奇怪的噪音是什么呢？

我們低下頭，湊近河面聽：啊，又來了;是冰塊自身的聲音，它們隆隆向前碾過，慢慢停下，逐漸融合成一塊巨大的冰板，直到整條河覆蓋上厚厚的白色冬毯。11月的這個深夜，就在我們抵達圣彼得堡市區(qū)幾小時后，涅瓦河完全封凍了，流水凍結，直到春天再次來臨。

幾年前的現(xiàn)在，圣誕節(jié)前幾周，當我和丈夫宣布馬上要去圣彼得堡時，從朋友們那里得到的反應是“你們要在隆冬去俄羅斯？”，言下之意是“你們瘋了嗎？”。為體驗“白夜”，大多數(shù)人都在6月造訪這個城市，那時的24小時白晝會給此地平添舉行一整天派對的吸引力——明知這一點，我們卻反其道而行之，非要在冬天去。

所以，我們預訂了（通過赫爾辛基中轉的）航班和（歷史悠久的阿斯托利亞）酒店，辦好簽證，然后就出發(fā)了。

冬天造訪那個迷人的城市，真是何等神奇的經歷。圣彼得堡是世界上最北的大城市，位于北極圈以南僅800公里處，因此，天氣寒冷就不足為奇了。但是有多冷呢？這么說吧，每當我們默默地走了幾分鐘，我丈夫轉身跟我說話時，就有微小的冰渣從他的小胡子上撲簌而下。是的，就那么冷。但也非常、非常漂亮。

近幾天我一直在回想我們在圣彼得堡的美好時光。腦海里，我又走在街上;想起坐在我們酒店附近的一座橋上乞討的老太太，她和她的兩條狗依偎在一起，裹在層層毯子里，小山一般;還回憶起，我們如何就這樣被該城的美景所驚艷。

但為什么是現(xiàn)在，我始終在好奇——為什么，恰恰是現(xiàn)在，所有關于圣彼得堡的記憶都侵入了腦海？

部分原因顯然是，又到了一年中的這個時節(jié)，但也因為，在這個封城的時段，我渴望去新地方，給我驚喜、給我刺激并永遠駐留在記憶里的地方。當我這樣想的時候，腦海里浮現(xiàn)的總是圣彼得堡。

我記憶最清楚的是藍藍的天空、白霜的路面、冰封的運河、云層聚集時驟然而至的繽紛雪花——還有以往從未經歷過的切膚的寒冷，感覺人幾乎要凍裂了。我們邊走邊聊，呼出的熱氣在面前蒸騰，冰冷的空氣幾乎麻痹了我們的面龐。絕對令人振奮。

在隆冬的映襯下，圣彼得堡獨樹一幟的美麗的彩色建筑群脫穎而出，肆意張揚其宏闊的規(guī)模和炫目的華彩，創(chuàng)造出童話般的效果。

這里有冬宮的綠。1917年十月革命期間布爾什維克黨人曾沖入冬宮，這座龐大的建筑是世界著名的艾爾米塔什博物館的一部分，它就矗立在鋪了白毯般的涅瓦河的河畔，輝煌而美麗。那里，在城市的另一邊，俯瞰格里博耶多夫運河的，是圣尼古拉斯美麗的海軍教堂淡淡的藍;藝術廣場上，米哈伊洛夫斯基歌劇院的芥末黃，突然跳到眼前;劇院廣場上，它更著名的競爭對手馬林斯基（在海外更以基洛夫聞名）劇院的藍，同樣讓人眼前一亮。

然而，真正讓人不禁“哇哇”驚呼的是非凡的救世主喋血大教堂那些令人驚嘆、五顏六色的洋蔥圓頂，它們一直留在我關于冬日圣彼得堡的多彩記憶中，依然那么鮮活。

涅瓦大街全長4.5公里，貫穿圣彼得堡，沿著這條干道漫步是旅游的必選項目。這里是這座城市的商業(yè)中心，有商店、電影院、教堂、酒店、小販和上流生活。在這里，你還會發(fā)現(xiàn)諸多亮點：宏偉的柱廊式喀山大教堂、文學咖啡館（1837年，作家亞歷山大·普希金從此地奔赴令其喪命的決斗）、美麗的歐洲大酒店（那里的下午茶是真正的享受）和被稱為戈斯蒂尼·德沃爾的大型購物商場。

那么，這座冬季仙境城市還留有什么記憶呢？

毫無疑問，是“莫日”，你怎么能忘記這些被稱作“海象”的人：某個星期天早上，我們難以置信地看到，那些人鑿破彼得和保羅要塞附近河面的冰，然后跳進冰窟窿，直接落入溫度低得難以想象的冰水中，眼見他們沒有穿任何保溫潛水服。彼得和保羅要塞是一片非凡的建筑群，位于河北岸，是1703年城市肇始之地。

在這里，你會看到冷峻的特魯別茨科伊堡壘監(jiān)獄，列夫·托洛茨基和作家陀思妥耶夫斯基就被監(jiān)禁在此，彼得大帝的兒子也葬身于此。

彼得和保羅大教堂閃閃發(fā)光的針尖尖頂有122米高，從圣彼得堡各處都能看到。大教堂本身就很華美——各種吊燈、木雕和粉紅色的柱子——且有滿滿的歷史感。

這里還是幾乎所有沙皇最后的安息地。1998年，羅曼洛夫王朝末代沙皇家族的遺骸由人運送到這里一處可愛的小圣堂重新下葬。1918年夏，尼古拉、亞歷山德拉和他們的五個子女在葉卡捷琳堡被處決;80年后，他們終于在沙皇之城入土為安。

僅僅佇立在教堂的寂靜中，讀著那些孩子的名字和年齡，就是一次令人深有感觸且難以忘懷的經歷。

在圣彼得堡的最后一晚，我們感受到歌劇的召喚，于是趕往米哈伊洛夫斯基劇院觀看鮑羅丁的《伊戈爾王子》。

享受完美妙的音樂、精彩的表演、華麗的環(huán)境和一兩杯俄羅斯起泡酒之后，我們腳步虛浮，好似飄到了藝術廣場，踏上返回酒店的路途。

我們沿著冰凍的人行道邁步，夜晚的寒氣拍著我們的臉。一路上行道樹之美映入眼簾，仿佛白色的影子骷髏在夜空下站崗。

的確，天寒地凍。然而，在這個歷史名城中游蕩，籠罩在寒冬漫天的沉抑寂靜之下，亦不啻魔幻。