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On my first evening in St. Petersburg, I discovered the world’s most stylish beer for the politically conscious urban clochard: Bagbier!

Bagbier - the ultimate beer for the politically conscious urban clochard

When I saw this in one of the countless 24-hour supermarkets (one of several things that remind me of Berlin here), I could not believe my eyes. The sheer beauty of it! Not only is it a full 2.5 litres of German beer (!) in a plastic bottle. Behold the name! Bagbier! Pure poetry! Bier is German, and the bag in the name immediately calls to mind the bum lifestyle. And you can buy it in Russia only (unless some of my readers discover that again I traveled very far to find what had been lying on my doorstep all the time). But here’s the best thing about it: Look closely at the beautiful label! It features Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” in German, plus an extremely erudite synopsis of the book (I guess, I have to admit I haven’t read it) in Russian: money -> goods -> money! Apparently there’s a big sweepstakes going on where you can win huge amounts of money.

Needless to say I had to buy this jewel of consumer art and spend my evening with it. First I went to a park to lie in the sun, get tanned (the Russians LOVE tanning in public parks!), do some push-ups (more on that in the days to come), get some sleep and in between taste a bit of my new found friend – The Bagbier!

When the evening came, I went steppin’ out with my baby (amazon/youtube):

can't be wrong to feel so right

Now that’s what I call bum style. Strangely, I got the impression that nothing kills instant attraction faster than a bottle of Bagbier in your hand: The girls that had been flirting with me on the street all day now looked away in disgust! I had a great time walking the streets of St. Petersburg and enjoying the irritated faces of the people. Maybe there is a law against running around in the street with huge bottles of beer, or maybe it was just the righteous cititzens’ envy of the boardwalk bum lifestyle.

Anyway, I settled down on one of the fancy bridges in the golden city center and thoroughly enjoyed one of the longest and most beautiful sunsets in the world:

It seems to never end

Now it’s august and not the white nights anymore, but the days are still impressively long in the world’s northernmost city with more than a million inhabitants. So while I sat and drank and contemplated the beauty of it all, while couples kissed around me and thousands of photographers did their dirty work in the most golden city I know of, suddenly I could not help but sing the fool on the hill (youtube), which bemused the passing strollers even more. I felt like a very happy clochard and wandered about through the marvellous city some more, slightly drunk already from about half my Bagbier. Serendipity did not end, and I came across the perfect mystical backdrop for my Bagbier and this truly bizarre street crossing vista:

Where did that come from?

When the sun had finally set, I happily surrendered the rest of my Bagbier to a young Russian in whom I saw the same clochard spirit that had so uplifted me.

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How I found a revolutionary beer and spend an evening bumming about in style in St. Petersburg/Russia.