I have been living for two years there. Physically it is cold, and true - in a way also psychologically. But I learned to love this city -its enormous classicism ensemble, comparatively low ornate houses located along wide streets and channels. Huge, unbelievably rich museums - if you are fed up by art - visit the Zoological museum or the incredibly rich and ornate geological museum at Gornij Institut. Still many people there posess the specific intelligence, enlightement of this city - but for the bypasser from the very different West this may be invisible. And these enlightened people unfortunately do not dominate the streets of this city...