St Petersburg's vibrant, culturally rich history gives the city the kind of powerful, domineering landscape of beautiful buildings that one immediately imagines when thinking of the name. St Petersburg's more recent history, however, has given the modern-day city a battered, bruised visage which can, at times, make the city seem desperate and derelict. While still relatively untouched by western influence, the years since the end of Communism have seen a slow, almost unwilling, lean to the world of capitalism, and burgers and sushi now sit as comfortably in the stomachs of many St Petersburg residents as more traditional staples like hot soup and hard vodka. Martin Frimet