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As any guidebook will tell you, don't drink the water in St. Petersburg. You're not even supposed to brush your teeth in it. It's quite annoying having to brush my teeth with bottled water. My toothbrush never seems clean. The reason is because the water here contains the giardi lamblia parasite, "harmless to residents, but debilitating to visitors." Scroll down the link to see the ... unpleasant side effects (point #7c). In order to kill the little bastard, I'm supposed to boil my water 5-10 minutes before drinking or using it to cook. This makes me a little nervous when people offer me tea here, but it seems to be ok so far.
Even without the bugger living in the water, I'd stay away from it based on it's other qualities. Namely, it's yellow and has a bad odor. Nothing like taking a smelly shower and seeing a pool of yellow water at your feet.
Accordingly, I drink a lot of bottled water. Luckily, the stores here stock 6 liter jugs of water. Very convenient, and they sell for about $1.25 each. Every once in a while I'll buy a new half-liter bottle and fill it up when I need to carry water on me. The only hitch here is that, for some unknown reason, some of the 6 liter jugs are filled with salt water. I really don't understand this at all. Why on earth would anyone want salty water? It's disgusting, like getting smashed under the ocean by a wave and taking a big gulp. Fortunately, by now I've figured out which are salty and which aren't. If anyone out there has an explanation for this, I'm all ears.
Oh, right, almost forgot. I do have running water, but I hesitate to say I have hot water. I wouldn't even characterize it as warm water. I would say that, more often than not, I have "not cold" water. I take this to be a result of a deficient hot water heater. I don't think the building is set to handle as many people as live here. Occasionally, usually late at night (2~3 am), there is hot water. If you miss this window, you're relegated to "not cold" water showers. Even at 8am, all the hot water has already been used. And I don't think the heaters get a break until the evening, when they can actually create large quantities of hot water.
This isn't to say I'm complaining. I'm happy to have running and "not cold" water. Two summers ago when I came to Eastern Europe, I don't think I ever took a hot shower. And there were a couple of times I stayed in villages, and even capital cities, where the water was turned off. One of the explanations was that during the summer they work on the central water heating systems. One of the great technical ideas that follow from a communist ideology - centrally distributed hot water. Nevermind the fact that you'll be lucky if it's luke warm by the time it reaches your apartment after traveling miles through cold pipes.
Posted by Owen at December 10, 2003 07:11 PM | TrackBackUm yeah... I could have told you that. And actually, I did. Anyway, this is why most Russians (those who are still alive, that is) drink only boiled water. The procedure here is simple: you put the kettle full of water on the stove, you light the stove, you wait until it's boiling (100 deg C). This procedure is not fool-proof, but it does get rid of parasites and foul odors. The heavy metals are probably still there, though. Anyway, the word for un-boiled water is "syraya voda", "raw water" -- i.e., unfit for consumption.
Heat-wise, prepare to lose whatever central heating you have, since water pipes will inevitably freeze and burst during winter. Just a heads-up.
Posted by: Bugmaster at December 10, 2003 09:50 PMLol ! That travel guide you linked to is great.
The collapse of the Soviet police state has left vacuums in civil authority that, combined with the anarchy of embryonic capitalism, makes the former Soviet Union a much less safe place to travel than it used to be.I nominate them for understatement of the year.
Anyway, they are right about the needles: most places in Russia do not understand the concept of disposable needles, and, knowing the Russian standards of taking care of things, you can bet that the regular needles are not always sterilized. Every time you take any kind of shot, you're literally risking your life, no joke. Perhaps things are better now, but I doubt it.
Posted by: Bugmaster at December 10, 2003 09:58 PMWho would've thought that St Petersburg, Russia and Ciudad Acuna, Chiuahua, Mexico had so many similarities! :-)
Posted by: Jason at December 11, 2003 08:10 PMYou know, I work with a lot of sterile filtration systems here at Amgen. If you want me to send you an industrial water filter, I can.
Then again, by the time you get at the purified water, there would be next to no minerals in it, and the osmotic pressure would lyse all of your cells after you drank it, effectively giving you a non-parasitic, non-toxic laxative that would hurt you more than anything else. You wouldn't be thirsty though.
Ew, gross. I'm too wussy to deal with that kind of thing, even cold showers. I like to keep myself and the possibility of diarrhea as far away as possible.
Posted by: Andrea at December 12, 2003 06:48 AMWait, Tony, would drinking distilled water really do that to you ? I drank distilled water before, nothing bad happened to me. Or do you mean, in mass quantities ?
Posted by: Bugmaster at December 12, 2003 11:21 AMIt's not just distilled. They run it through filters too. Having a glass might not hurt you. Drinking it day to day... That's different.
Posted by: Tony at December 13, 2003 02:17 AM