The par­tic­i­pants qual­i­fy­ing for the first cat­e­go­ry in ENERGETIX’s Time for Suc­cess com­pe­ti­tion set off for a four-day train­ing trip to St. Peters­burg in Octo­ber. The city with its his­toric old town has been des­ig­nat­ed a UNESCO World Her­itage Site.

Frank­furt on 23 Octo­ber 2018 was the start­ing point for the trip to St. Peters­burg – the sec­ond largest city in Rus­sia – which is also known as the city of the ‘White Nights’. That’s because the sun nev­er sets entire­ly dur­ing the peri­od between the end of May and the mid­dle of July so that it stays bright or dusky even at night. A nice evening meal accom­pa­nied by great expec­ta­tions for the next few days brought the par­tic­i­pants’ first evening to a pleas­ant con­clu­sion.

Kalei­do­scope of St. Peters­burg

ENERGETIX’s busi­ness part­ners start­ed the next day with a guid­ed tour of the city, which actu­al­ly began with a trip to a vod­ka muse­um. That’s where – besides view­ing the museum’s exhibits – the par­tic­i­pants were also giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy a vod­ka tast­ing. The tour then con­tin­ued with a trip to one of the old­est cafés in the city where the trav­ellers were able to try pysh­ki – which are a type of Russ­ian dough­nut that are usu­al­ly enjoyed with a cup of cof­fee or tea.

The after­noon saw the qual­i­fiers vis­it­ing the famous Mari­in­sky Theatre’s bal­let school where they were first able to watch the chil­dren warm­ing up and then enjoy a 45-minute pre­sen­ta­tion. The the­atre is one of the most famous venues for opera and bal­let in the world and is also home to the old­est bal­let acad­e­my in Rus­sia.

The evening meal at the Repa restau­rant oppo­site the the­atre was fol­lowed by a per­for­mance of the bal­let of ‘The Foun­tain of Bakhchis­arai’ at the Mari­in­sky The­atre.

The next day kicked off with a tour of dis­cov­ery that was entire­ly ded­i­cat­ed to Art Nou­veau. Among oth­er sights, this trip took in the so-called ‘Singer House’, which was for­mer­ly the per­ma­nent rep­re­sen­ta­tion of The Singer Com­pa­ny, the sewing machine man­u­fac­tur­er from the USA. But every­one had to earn their own lunch: typ­i­cal Russ­ian food was pre­pared in a cook­ing stu­dio with lots of fun and in a great atmos­phere.

The par­tic­i­pants were tak­en to the most impres­sive build­ings in St. Peters­burg on the last day of the trip: the Cather­ine Palace with the Amber Room and the Her­mitage, one of the largest and most impor­tant art muse­ums in the world.

This won­der­ful and impres­sive trip was con­clud­ed at the Luce restau­rant in the evening, where the indi­vid­ual trav­ellers were rec­og­nized for their great achieve­ments and for qual­i­fy­ing for the first cat­e­go­ry in ENERGETIX’s Time for Suc­cess com­pe­ti­tion.

Besides the many cul­tur­al and culi­nary high­lights, the strength­en­ing of team spir­it and the exchange of ideas also played impor­tant roles on this trip thus enabling the par­tic­i­pants to return to their busi­ness­es full of ener­gy and high­ly moti­vat­ed!

We’ve put the most beau­ti­ful impres­sions from St. Peters­burg togeth­er for you in an exclu­sive on-line pho­to album!