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‘Cold, calculating’: Australia’s black widows Michelle Burgess and Melissa Shaw

They’re known as Australia’s black widows — women so cunning at dragging men into their web, they even persuade them to murder.

Viewers horrified as newsreader stumbles

Molan’s emotional plea to Aussie men

Lawyer’s $150k win over Insta-famous dog

Michelle Burgess and Melissa Shaw are two Australian women who are described by police as “black widows”.

Women who, just like the black widow spider, manage to draw men into their web before exploiting that relationship to the detriment of the man.

As one police officer put it, they’re women who “have sex with anybody and then kill ’em afterwards”.

Gold Coast woman Melissa Shaw, a wife and mum to two girls, was one of them.

Meeting at a church youth group, sheltered Beau was immediately smitten with Melissa.

The pair married only a few months after meeting and two kids followed not long after.

But Melissa, who had been a sex worker when the two met, began to pull away from Beau and demand more and more of him.

“She totally messed with every part of me,” Beau told Sunday Night.

“I was a broken shell. I started off with this idea that I would help her fix her little broken wing, and I ended up far more broken than I ever thought possible.”

Eventually, Beau ended things, leaving Melissa and taking their two girls. But Melissa didn’t take long to move on, starting a relationship with wealthy Gold Coast businessman Sam Dhody and also continuing her affair with bodybuilder Adam Gooley through 2013.

After months of deception and coaxing from Melissa, Adam snuck into their home and bashed him with a crowbar.

Police body-worn camera vision from the night Sam was bashed showed Melissa’s peculiar behaviour.

“You’re the girlfriend? Can I just have a chat to you?” a police officer asked.

“I just... I just need to get a drink,” Melissa tells the officer.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re fine. Go grab a drink, and then come back and have a chat to me. That’s fine,” he responds.

Miraculously, Sam recovered from his injuries but three months later, the Gold Coast businessman wasn’t so lucky.

As Sam slept in the bed he and Melissa shared, Adam struck again.

Using his father’s gun, Adam shot the businessman 10 times at point-blank range in bed.

In a hysterical call to triple-0, Melissa begged paramedics to rush to their home.

“My partner is dead. I think he’s been shot,” she said through tears.

But police weren’t as easily fooled, bugging her phone and trailing the Gold Coast sex worker.

Adam, faced with a mountain of evidence from police and only offering a weak alibi, the Gold Coast bodybuilder eventually confessed to the murder.

Melissa was arrested a short time later.

Both of them are serving life in prison — and Adam still remains loyal to his girlfriend.

Beau however, isn’t standing by his ex-wife.

“She was a witch,” Beau told the current affairs program.

Another woman described by police as a black widow was Adelaide woman Michelle Burgess.

In 2001, Burgess was arrested and charged with the murder of mum-of-three Carolyn Matthews.

Michelle yearned for a better life and was unhappy with her husband Darren.

When she met Carolyn’s husband Kevin Matthews, Darren’s boss, the pair were smitten.

Michelle told Kevin they could be happy — but the only way they could be is if their spouses were out of the picture.

She organised for the both of them to draw up murder contracts.

The pieces of paper had pictures of their respective targets and then details of where they worked, their movements during the day, their phone numbers.

Derek Pedley, a crime novelist and journalist at The Advertiser, told Sunday Night the details of the murder were “chilling”.

“Michelle made some notes, and she said, essentially, that she wanted both of the murders done that week, and that she wanted one of them done by Friday,” Mr Pedley told the program.

“That was her demand, yeah, which is just chilling.”

Michelle had recruited David Key and he was under her spell, so much so he agreed to kill Carolyn.

“Michelle just handed me the knife and goes, ‘Alright, now kill her,’” David told police.

“I say, ‘Wait a second. You f**king do it.’ She said, ‘No, you do it. If you wanna be with me, you prove to me how much you love me — kill her.’”

Carolyn’s three boys came home to find their mum in the kitchen, covered in stab wounds.

The teenage boys attempted CPR but she didn’t survive.

“There was no way that anything could have helped. I believe that she was definitely gone by then, anyway,” Carolyn’s son told the program.

“I’ve still got sounds and stuff from the night that makes me feel sick. It’s not a nice thing to picture.”

Michelle Burgess and Kevin Matthews received the longest sentences in South Australian legal history — 30 years each.

David Key, the hitman, was jailed for 20 years.

A presenter who is a veteran in the news industry was delivering the 10pm news when viewers noticed something “distressing”.

Erin Molan has levelled a terse message at Australian men in an appeal where she voiced how they had been letting the country down.

A barrister has scored a victory after A Current Affair told “atrocious lies” about her in a broadcast that implied she had stolen a famous dog.

• Read Today's Paper

Conniving husband Kevin Matthews who played the fool in killing of Carolyn Matthews

The second instalment from Derek Pedley's book about the contract killing of mother-of-three Carolyn Matthews.

---------------

KEVIN Matthews had become the Adelaide media's most-wanted man. And it was Channel 7 reporter Jessica Sullivan (now Seven newsreader Jessica Adamson) who had been laying the groundwork for the big scoop.

Michelle Burgess was scheduled to appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday, August 6, 2001.

There was a massive media turnout. Matthews had been advised by detectives not to turn up at court, but he knew he had to risk it and arrived with Jason Colenso who, unknown to him, was also sleeping with Michelle.

The odd couple stood stone-faced and smoking outside court, trying to look stoic as the cameras rolled and snapped, for almost three hours.

Burgess's case was called at 12.30pm and she was brought into court by five sheriff's officers.

Adamson says: "I'd been in contact with Jason Colenso for two weeks leading up to the court appearance.

"He was adamant in the several phone calls I had with him that Michelle had nothing to do with it, that Kevin had nothing to with it and he was very keen for Channel 7 to do a story pointing that out."

In court, Adamson found herself sitting in the front row, between Matthews and Colenso, for what she describes as "the most bizarre court appearance of my career".

The moment Michelle Burgess was led into the dock, handcuffed, both men began behaving like love-struck teenagers.

"Despite the fact that Michelle was under arrest, in handcuffs and charged with murder, she still held this extraordinary power over these two men. They were both competing for her attention.

"Everyone saw it - the media, the family and the detectives working on the case. Still to this day, I wonder what it was about her that drew men in so deeply.

"Both of them were making hand gestures, mouthing words to her, trying to get her attention and she, in turn, was responding to them both. She mouthed the words `get me out of here' and she was pretty distressed.

"Kevin, on one side of me, had a hat in his lap, like one of those Greg Chappell hats and I could see that it had something written on it, but he was trying to hold it up to her without letting anyone else see what was written on it. It wasn't until we got outside court that I realised what he'd written on the hat."

Burgess's lawyer, Stephen Ey, asked Magistrate Sue O'Connor to order a report on her suitability for home detention.

But the prosecution had all bases covered. They cited "ongoing investigations as to further offences; lack of alibis; and the threat at this stage there could be hampering of the investigations if bail was granted".

Ms O'Connor told him: "In my view, your client doesn't qualify for bail at this stage."

Ey replied: "What concerns me is this young woman has two young children and she has been separated from her two young children."

But it was to no avail. Michelle Burgess would be spending her 28th birthday, the following day, behind bars. She became distressed when she realised bail would be refused. When Burgess cried, so did her parents. And across the room, "Kev" and "Jase" both comforted "Mish" with their Marcel Marceau acts.

Kevin Matthews slipped on his sunglasses as he walked out of the court building, firmly planting the hat on his head. It was written on the inside in texta, but the media pack could clearly see the word "Forever" through the back of the hat.

When reporters quizzed him about it, he denied it had anything to do with the court appearance. He claimed that it was the first hat he'd picked up off the rack as he left the house.

The media crews buzzed around him like flies. This guy was gold. He stalked briskly down the street. One reporter asked: "Mr Matthews, can I just ask why you were in court today?"

"Nup," he replied.

"There's been speculation, Mr Matthews, that you may be implicated. Do you want to reassure people that you're not?"

Matthews remained silent, hiding behind his sunglasses and sucking furiously on a cigarette. Adamson was relieved by his silence because he had already agreed to an exclusive interview.

She recalls: "Kevin Matthews was pretty stressed that day. He wasn't expecting the huge media turnout - God knows why. I think it took him by surprise and he really didn't know how to react."

That night, every TV news broadcast ran the footage of Matthews' court exit, jamming the "Forever" hat on his head and maintaining a sullen silence as the media pack engulfed him, with a bemused Colenso trailing behind.

Adamson and her cameraman, Rob Brown, met Matthews at his home shortly after the court appearance. Colenso was also there. When Matthews opened the door, the first thing Adamson noticed was the Scotch on his breath.

She recalls: "He was extremely agitated, he was shaking, he was sweating, he was smoking and he was in quite a state about the media turnout at court.

"So we were standing in the doorway that leads to the kitchen, where Carolyn had been murdered and Rob, the car alarm in his vehicle went off and he had to go out and turn it off, leaving me in the house with these two men, which wasn't that much fun.

"Thankfully he didn't take long. He came back and we decided to do the interview outside."

Before they went into the backyard, Matthews told Adamson: "I told you I didn't want to be on camera, but it's obvious I've been on camera that much today, I think I don't give a rats. The only thing is you've got to understand I'm getting f--ing haunted. Starting to get to the angry stage."

"That's cool," said Adamson agreeably, as Matthews poured himself a Scotch. He offered her one, but after agreeing it was a "good idea", she demurred. They moved to the backyard, where Brown set up his camera. Matthews sat down, but continued to smoke, waving for them to wait.

"I'm not going to go on camera with a cigarette in my mouth, so just bear with me. I'm also paranoid of the fact I want to get this done before the kids get home.

"And I don't want to come out of this looking f--ing stupid, either. So I need to know sort of what you're going to ask."

"Yeah, well, you know  ... " Adamson began, but Kevin interrupted.

"We've got a cat running around here that she gave Carolyn, for freak sake, you know, and her and Carolyn had a good relationship."

"Oh, really?" Adamson said, quickly reassuring him: "I'm not going to shaft you."

"Frustrating thing is that some of the stuff in the paper about me phoning  ... it's all totally wrong, you know. What happened that night, I've never seen anything so scary in my friggin' life, I tell you. It was brutal."

Brown peered around from the camera. "You might want to take off the sunnies because all I can see is Jess," he told Kevin. But Kevin had no intention of exposing his guilty eyes to the public: "They're optical prescription."

Brown: "Oh, OK. Yeah, that's fine."

Adamson recalls: "And it was like the flick of a switch. As soon as we started the interview, Kevin put on this calm, loving husband facade and talked about how horrified he was by Carolyn's death, how terrifying it was for him and the children to come home and find her."

She opened her questioning: "Kevin, why did you go to court today?"

Matthews: "The police contacted me and said there was a family friend involved. I'm just totally not convinced that the person they're naming is involved. I mean, if you knew the relationship between her and Carolyn and I, I mean, I just can't believe it. So I figured they were going to get  ... I thought today was about giving evidence so they could, you know, convince them, but it wasn't about that at all."

Adamson: "It must have been pretty awful for you and the boys to come home to that, that night. Does it still haunt you?"

Matthews: "Yeah it haunts me, it haunts me terribly. The boys seem to be holding up reasonably good. The issue with the boys is they try not to deal with it, they try and avoid it, they don't want to talk about it.

"They don't want to read the papers about it. They don't want to do counselling. They've gone to counselling and they don't want to continue with that. Personally, I don't want to go to counselling. I think I might have to eventually.

"It's just a nightmare. I'm trying to be as strong a supporter for the kids as possible. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'm doing a good job of it. But I will say the support we've had from family and friends and 700 mourners at the funeral has been nothing short of miraculous."

Adamson: "What was she like? She was your wife and the mother of your children."

Matthews: "I suppose the majority of her focus was around the children and the family. Her involvement in the lifesaving club. You've got to read the hundreds of thousands of cards in there. I mean, the support and help she gave Michelle when Michelle was going through a divorce because her husband was being a d--head about it. And then Michelle came down and supported us. Carolyn, she'd just help anybody."

Adamson: "How much do you miss her?"

Matthews: "Heaps. Absolutely heaps. You just don't know what you've got until you miss it."

(Adamson recalls: "The thing that struck me the most about the interview was that when I asked him about what Carolyn was like as a person and whether he missed her, he tried to look like he cared, but he didn't have any tears.

"He was trying to pretend to cry, but no tears came out. It really hit home that this was a man who knew a lot more than he was letting on ... that he was calculating.")

Adamson: "What happened that night?"

Matthews: "We basically walked inside. The oldest son, Kenny, found Carolyn on the kitchen floor."

Adamson gently broached the interview's most important question: "Having gone through what you've gone through, you're obviously deeply upset. How do you cope with, obviously, the finger-pointing going on in your direction? Everybody says: `Oh, it's someone you know.' How do you cope with that?"

Matthews: "We've heard rumours from other schools saying the kids done it and covering them up doesn't help. Then we heard reports of Carolyn having an affair, we've heard reports of me having an affair, we've had reports of us getting into pornography.

"It's just so much bulls-t, you can't even go shopping without people looking. You can't even check your letterbox without people driving past and looking. It's just a nightmare."

Adamson: "What would you say to those people?"

Matthews: "Well it's f--ing obvious we didn't do it, but I know how people gossip and stuff like that, but I don't need to hear it and the kids don't need to hear it."

Adamson: "What do you say to those people pointing the finger at you?"

Matthews: "Get a life. Get a life, go to page 36 and read the funny pages. We don't need this s-t at the moment. I didn't kill Carolyn and my boys didn't kill Carolyn and I believe that nobody I know killed Carolyn."

All the other TV stations had captured Matthews' damning post-court performance earlier that day, but only Adamson and Brown captured the mind-boggling encore - Matthews' red, Scotch-bloated face, hidden behind sunglasses, trying vainly to shed crocodile tears for his murdered wife, then proclaiming the innocence of the woman accused of killing her.

The city of Adelaide was agog. What was this man thinking? And, more to the point, what was he hiding?

Adamson wrapped up the interview; she had everything she needed. But Brown kept the camera running.

(Adamson explains: "Major Crime knew we were going down there to do the interview and they actually asked us to keep the camera rolling just in case we could pick up anything more.

"As soon as the camera was turned off, he went back to his agitated state of pacing the backyard and begging me not to make him look like an idiot on television. He seemed completely obsessed with wanting to talk about what a great person Michelle Burgess was, and what a great friend she had been to Carolyn.")

Matthews: "I wasn't unhappy with anything I said there."

"No, you've come across very well," Adamson reassured him.

"I mean, Jesus Christ, I tell you what, I don't know, you'd have to be pretty sick and twisted to have killed somebody and walk back into the same house."

Adamson didn't miss a beat: "Oh, with your kids as well."

(A decade later, Adamson says: "As soon as he said that, it was chilling, because we knew exactly what he had done. It was just a matter of time before he was charged.")

Matthews: "Exactly. Carolyn's mum, it's just a shocker. Carolyn's brother died when he was 20, Carolyn's dad died the day before last Christmas and now she's had a daughter that's murdered.

"It's just getting too much. That night was the f--ing scariest thing I've seen in my life. I mean, as I had to physically hold Carolyn's hair back in maximum head tilt because it was flowing forward in the blood ... I couldn't put a hand on the forehead. It was just ... nobody told us how many times she was stabbed."

Adamson decided to wrap it up: "All right guys, thank you. Thanks Kevin, I really appreciate it." Within hours, Sgt Mick Standing and other officers were at Channel 7's studios with a warrant. They viewed the tape at the studio before taking a copy. Adamson said: "It was fascinating being there when they watched it because they're experts in being able to watch people's body language and behaviour.

"They, too, were struck by the fact that while he tried to look like he was crying, when he was talking to me about Carolyn, there were no tears."

Sgt Standing formed an immediate opinion of what he had seen: "I was in Major Crime for 22 years before I retired. I've been a detective since 1974. Kevin's the only person in my experience that has stepped up and told the media that the police had arrested the wrong person who had committed a crime against him and his family.

"Now, you gotta scratch your head and wonder about a guy that would go public and say that the police have arrested the wrong person for the murder of his wife. This suggests that (A) he knows who did do it and (B) perhaps there was something between him and the arrested person.

"It was absolutely bizarre. I think the general feeling in the public was that this bloke's got something to answer for."

-----------------

* Dead by Friday   (RRP $24.95) is available at all Book Boys outlets, in the metropolitan area; Angus & Robertson, in the Myer Centre; and Dymocks, in Rundle Mall.

* Derek Pedley will sign copies at the Book Boys outlet, Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, today from 1pm-3pm.

 * As a special offer, The Advertiser   and Sunday Mail   readers can buy a copy from The News Shop at The Advertiser,   31 Waymouth St, city, for $19.95 plus $4.95 postage and handling. Phone 8206 3317.

GOING PLACES

• Home & Decor
• Pacific NW Magazine

See a modern beach house that is the essence of summer camp

This contemporary cabin, across from a Marrowstone Island oyster farm, goes both ways; nautical one side, deep woods the other. It was guided to colorful completion by interior designer Michelle Burgess.

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SUMMER CAMP.

That’s what Kristin Hall wanted: a place on the water that felt like summer camp. With lots of wood and outdoor pathways to little rooms that felt like cabins. And a place for the canoe. But all of that in one house, under one canopy, attached by a single deck and suspended over the beach of Marrowstone Island.

“I don’t have a spatial mind,” Kristin says, seated in the living room of the contemporary and largely plywood cabin she and her husband, David, share with their son, Joe.

“It was more of a feeling.”

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As a kid, Kristin toasted her s’mores around the campfires of Minnesota, land of lakes and forests. But this place, across from an oyster farm, goes both ways; nautical one side, deep woods the other.

“I love it when there are people reading on the deck, somebody takes a bike ride, and somebody else takes the canoe to the store for an ice-cream bar,” says David.

Building here on Mystery Bay was a 10-year process of fits and starts. So that the shoreline home sits lightly on the land, 73 glue-lam beams, each a different length and angle, are anchored to concrete blocks. The structure rises and floats from this base.

Architectural firm Anderson Anderson drew up the structure, and then, about six years later when the couple was ready to build, interior designer Michelle Burgess took the drawings and ran with them. She amended plans, designed built-ins, had a hand in plumbing and electrical, designed the low-maintenance and modern interiors, chose finishes and lighting fixtures, and helped Kristin with furnishings.

“We spent so much of our lives with color swatches on the wall,” says Kristin, “and Michelle came into our lives and nailed it.”

That alone is no small feat, because Kristin loves and craves color. (“I should have worked for Pantone,” she says.) From plywood walls and ceilings, furnishings are like little firecrackers: royal purple Flor carpet squares; tomato-red sofa and kitchen chairs (the latter made from wrecked auto steel); emerald-green occasional chairs and ottomans (reupholstered Ikea). George Nelson’s Gumball Coat Rack and Ball Clock, both in “rainbow,” hang on the wall. Says David, “This is monochrome compared to our Everett house.” (His decorating style, wisely, is “Whatever makes my wife happy.”)

Much of the interior, in this home designed for minimum fuss and maintenance, is “simple Scandinavian-inspired furnishings.” Much of it came out of Ikea boxes — including the oven, beds, dressers, a desk, table lamps, shelving, kitchen table, wall cabinets and bedding.

The Halls are city folk. He is the deputy city attorney in Everett. She is assistant general counsel for the Snohomish County Utility District. And this place of theirs “is like a little magic kingdom for us to come on the weekends to get refreshed for the week in the city,” he says.

Says she, “I’m not driven to get out in nature, but here you’re forced to.”

And by that she means any trip from the living room/kitchen box (with its “cocktail deck” overhead) to the bedrooms next door: guest loft over master. Baltic plywood continues as the defining element, used even for the couple’s headboard and built-ins. The bathroom also includes an exterior door, for access off the beach. Head outside and down, and there is a separate room with a big built-in bench seat and television (hot pink, chartreuse chaises, tomato-red pillows).

The footprint of the place is 3,200 square feet, much of it taken up with decks; waterside it is 25 feet deep.

“At night when we turn on the overhead lights on the deck, it looks like something out of ‘The Great Gatsby,’ ” says David.

MICHELLE BURGESS

Michelle Burgess Design believes in the power of architecture and interior design to enhance our lives and the places where we work and play.  “My project success depends on the trust earned by creating unique designs that reflect my client’s lifestyles. This approach where clients are at the center of the design practice expands my ability to be creative and collaborative while transforming their work and home environments into aesthetic and enduring environments.”

Passionate about Art, Architecture, and Anthropology, she pursued degrees in Classical Music, Fine Arts and a Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology. After more than a decade as Director and Curator of Seattle’s premier Fine Art Galleries and collaborating with the region’s most talented Architects and Artists she founded Michelle Burgess Design.

Michelle Burgess Design offers a full spectrum of professional design services. We look forward to hearing more about your design project.

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Get in [ edit ]

By plane [ edit ]

• 51.716667 46.166667 1 Saratov Gagarin Airport ( GSV  IATA ), Saburovka village . New airport northeast of Saratov. It replaced Saratov Tsentralny Airport in August 2019.

By train [ edit ]

Otherwise the best way to get there is by Saratov Rail from Moscow's Pavletsky Station, which takes approximately 15-16 hr. The trains operate overnight, departing in the afternoon/evening, arriving in the morning.

Saratov is also accessible via rail from Samara to the north (train 10 hours, 400 km) and Volgograd and Astrakhan to the south. The St. Petersburg-Astrakhan' line passes through Saratov. It takes about 26 hours to travel from St. Petersburg to Saratov on train.

By bus [ edit ]

There are also buses between Saratov and many other cities, including Moscow. However, the comfort and value of the rail system over the vast distances involved makes the bus service a comparatively unattractive option.

Get around [ edit ]

Taxis [ edit ]

If you don't want to go through the trouble of finding the correct route number, taxis are a widely available option. Yandex Taxi or its many competitors are a reliable way to get around, as you can order a taxi via an app for a predefined price (also in English).

Walking [ edit ]

Saratov is not exactly a small city, but its main pedestrian area along Prospekt Stolypina and onwards to the Volga is definitely walkable. There are plenty of well-marked pedestrian crossings and drivers do stop (because they get very serious fines if they don't).

Buy [ edit ]

The usual Russian souvenirs such as matryoshkas are available in Saratov, although if travelling through Moscow it is probably best to wait to get them there as they will be cheaper.

The markets in Saratov are useful spots to pick up winter clothes if necessary, including coats, boots, leather gloves and of course hats. Haggling is indulged.

Prospekt Kirova is the most upmarket shopping area in the city, with fancy boutiques selling expensive shoes, bags and jewellery. There are branches for Mango, Nike, Reebok, Adidas, United Colors of Benetton, and L'Occitane among others. Also on Prospekt Kirova is an excellent tobacconist, selling all kinds of pipes and tobacco including hookah pipes, as well as a speciality tea shop.

Barrikada, on Ulitsa Gorkogo, is an excellent alternative music store that sells legitimate (i.e. non-pirate) albums and music DVDs at prices much cheaper than in Western Europe, and stocks a diversity of artists unparalleled by even Moscow's gargantuan Gorbushka market.

Electronics can be purchased from one of the city's branches of El Dorado (one particularly large one is on the embankment near the river station).

Dom Knigi, the book shop on the corner of Ulitsa Volskaya and Prospekt Kirova, has an English language section and is also a good spot to pick up postcards, maps and souvenirs such as books of old postcard views of Saratov. Noviy Knizhniy, on the fourth floor of the Aurora Shopping Center (Chapaeva and Sovetskaya), also features an English language section. Grab a coffee at the nearby cafe, bring your laptop, and enjoy the free wireless on the fourth floor.

Despite its name, Detsky Mir ('Children's World') at the top of Prospekt Kirova near McDonalds, stocks all kinds of everything (clothes, accessories, stationery, hipflasks, penknives...) in cabinets, behind counters, and at individually manned stalls. TsUM (Tsentralniy Universalniy Magazin, 'Central Universal Store') across the way is a similar sort of operation.

Credit cards are widely accepted in Saratov, even in small businesses like coffee spots and market stands. However, note that foreign VISA/MasterCard credit cards are not accepted as of 2022. If you have a Russian bank account, Russia's QR code-based quick payment system SBP is accepted nearly everywhere. Otherwise it is a good idea to bring cash in RUB (or EUR/USD and exchange in a bank). During the Christmas period banks have a very limited schedule of hours. Western Union transfers are very difficult if they are made to a foreigner since rules require not just a passport but that the passport be notarized by a Russian notary. There is a translation service on Bolshaia Kazakshia near the junction with Astrakhan street on the right when facing back towards the town centre.

While there are money exchanges at both the Saratov airport and train station, the hours of operation are limited. Usually there are men in the train station who will exchange US dollars but at bad rates and with the risk of getting counterfeited rubles. Euros are probably easier to work with in Saratov. ATMs give good rates but the payouts are limited. Never take travellers cheques. Only Sberbank and only the main branch will deal with them and it takes 6-8 hr to go through the process.

Eat [ edit ]

Cafe Fortuna, above an internet cafe on Prospekt Kirova, is reliable for good Russian food like blini, borshch and solyanka, as well as omelettes and chips and the like.

Papa's Irish Bar, also on the Prospekt, serves a decent menu including a fry and Irish stew, as well as other slightly Russified Western pub food.

There is a Tinkoff Restaurant and Bar in Saratov. Tinkoff hosts live groups, as it does in its other locations in Russia. Decor inside is clean and swanky, with dimmed lights and lounge-style tables. The food is overpriced and uninspiring. Expect to go through security by stocky bouncers if you arrive to see a concert.

There are a number of passable sushi restaurants around, while street food like shwarma and hot pirogi are readily available.

There is also an ice-cream parlour called Pingvin on the Prospekt and a Baskin Robbins by the multi-coloured church off the end of the Prospekt.

Near the circus there is perhaps Russia's only branch of Papa John's Pizza. Like many American fast-food imports, Russian Papa John's appears to be a decent, sit-down restaurant. The restaurant provides free wireless to its guests.

Saratov is also home to a locally-owned chain of overpriced coffee shops called Vostok-Zapad ('East-West'), where no two cappuccinos are ever the same (or, indeed, ever much like a cappuccino). They are, however, a pleasant place to hang out and the coffee is decent enough, if not exactly what you may have in mind but the quality is consistently better than the used dishwater served in most US and UK branded coffee chains. Another café is Café et Chocolat which, as the name suggests, is a French-style establishment, serving crepes and pastries. They have several branches.

Drink [ edit ]

Bars along the main pedestrian street, Prospekt Kirova, include Pivnoy Zavod (Beer Factory, a microbrewery); Papa's Irish Pub; Pivnoy Bul'var (with American pool tables as well as Russian billiards); and Grand Michel (with bowling).

There are also numerous wine bars around the city where wine can be sampled by the cup.

Saratov's main nightclubs include Jumanji and Ars. Both operate rigorous security checks (metal detectors and body searches are par for the course) and face control policies (nonwhite ethnic minorities may be refused point blank).

In summer, barges along the naberezhnaya (embankment) become floating bars and clubs.

Cope [ edit ]

Considering that Saratov is a city where it snows for the better part of the year, you'd think the city's authorities would have learned to deal with the snow and ice – and you'd be wrong. Compacted snow covers practically all roads and sidewalks throughout the winter; it is cleared away really only on the main pedestrian street (Prospekt Stolypina) and in front of government buildings. Be super careful when walking near roofs and balconies – icicles can fall down without notice and have even killed people. Also pay attention to snow sliding down from the roof. If you see (printed or handwritten) signs with many exclamation points and/or fingers pointing upwards on the side of a building, don't walk under it!

If you drive yourself, note that most major streets are one-way streets. Road markings are often not visible (especially in winter, when roads are completely covered in snow). The road quality varies a lot, but do expect potholes (and people swerving to avoid them) and not-so-level level crossings across tram and railroad tracks.

There are stray dogs and they might have rabies. If you spot a dog without owner, it's best to make a large detour around it. This is especially true if there are multiple dogs.

Go next [ edit ]

Just opposite Saratov, on the other side of the Volga, is the smaller town of Engels , accessible via a quick bus journey across the bridge. Catch the bus on Ulitsa Moskovskaya or take a taxi (walking across the bridge is not recommended).

Other towns in the Saratov Oblast , accessible via marshrutka, include Marks, Balakovo, Atkarsk, and Volsk.

There are shared minibuses that drive across the Russian- Kazakh border to Uralsk , usually leaving very early in the morning.

You can take a train to the neighboring regions, such as Volgograd , Tambov , Penza , Samara , and Voronezh .

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