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The
first Peter’s
Walking Tour was given on May 31, 1996. It was a White Nights
tour, and the people who took it were four Canadian travellers
– Peter treated his first customers to a bottle of champagne
at dawn, at the end of the tour. The champagne was happily
consumed on the steps of the metro – the station was
still closed. The names of the Canadians were Ritchie, Joe,
Linda and Tessa – would be nice to hear from you guys.
In the peak of the tourist season of 1996 Peter was running
up to ten full-length walking tours a week all by himself.
The tours were run out of the International Youth Hostel,
the first one in Russia.
In autumn 1997,
planning to leave St. Petersburg for a year of volunteer work
in Africa, Peter offered his friend Michael to pick up the
job, in order not to lose customers and the reputation. Thus,
the Tours transformed from a seasonal freelance fun job to
a stable, long-running business.
Nick appeared
on stage in 1999. He’d been a freelance guide before
– we just eliminated the competition by offering him
a job with Peter’s Walking Tours, and we can’t
say he was too unhappy. A fluent speaker of the Texan variety
of English language and charismatic frontman of a funk-n-soul
band, Nick nicely diluted the otherwise conservative society
of Her Majesty’s fine habits appreciators that was PWT.
The greatest hit
that Peter’s Walking Tours ever produced were the famed
Rooftop Tours. You may find detailed accounts in the press
articles dated before 2000, see our Media
Archive. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end
– read our ‘Obituary
Letter’, published in May 2001. We do not organise
the Rooftop Tours any longer.
Alina and Olga
both came in during 2002. We are very happy to finally have
ladies in the club. Olga is our expert museum guide, fully
licensed to give tours of the Hermitage and other major museums.
Alina is still not sure whether to pursue the career of a
tour guide or to push it on toward her degree in arts. If
she opts for the latter, we secretly hope to have a Master
of Arts guide in our team in five years:-)
Angela is our most
recent arrival. An energetic St Petersburg native,
Angela returned in early 2003 after having lived in Oz for
four impressive years. Now Angela is not only bilingual but
also bicultural – she’s gradually recovering her
Russian and getting rid of the strange habit of walking upside
down.
Dmitri joined us
in spring 2004, and Vera followed half a
year later. We are eight now, and still feel like growing!
To learn more about our guides,
go The Guides page.
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