RUSSIA

Oh St. Petersburg, how you have exhuasted me so! You were like a beautiful person who I could not stop staring at and yet when you spoke, so many times you were harsh. But through time, we warmed up to each other and we depart as friends. A couple hours ago, I sat in a cafe that I often frequented, with pastel pink walls and lows ceilings...with sweet tempered Russian women who spoke little english, but could understand our thankfulness...and I began to reflect on my time here spent in Russia. There were instances of immense frustration, almost always followed by the eureka exclamations of a deeper cultural understanding. Five days was just the right amount of time to see all the major landmarks but also explore the lesser known areas of the city. Without a doubt, my most rewarding experiences were those spent with the locals. And ironically, my worst moments were those spent with locals.
On Tuesday morning, we woke early as in Norway, but instead of seeing quaint sea villages in Scandanavia, we saw an excess of industrial areas....a lot of trash, a lot of just unpleasantness. It was not the best first impression of Russia. But when we docked in St. Petersburg, the view was what we had waited for. But getting of the ship was very different than in Norway. Some unlucky SASers waited in line for two and a half hours to get through customs...luckily I only waited for about a half an hour. And then I was free to explore Vasilyevsky Island, where we are docked. It is the largest island in the Neva delta and is home to St. Petersburg University, where I belive Putin himself went (double check me on that one...I may be totally wrong). There are also a number of museums scattered throughout the island, but most of the main tourist spots are on the other side of St. Petersburg. At night, most people stayed on the island because the bridges close to pedestrians and open so bridges can go through. So, if you're stuck on the other side, you're stuck there till 5am! And the metro stops at midnight, so that's not an option. Luckily, there were plenty of bars and places on Vasilyevsky Island....it could be a city all on its own.

My recommendations for Vasilyevsky Island: St. Andrews Cathedral: This was one of the first places I went to in Russia. It has a beautiful, pink exterior and is one of the smaller churches in the city and was built in 1780. Not many tourists enter...there was a Russian woman clearly yelling at a tourist who had come in to take a photo (whereas in the major churches, cameras are flinging every which way). One of the interesting things about the churches is that they were used for other things during the Soviet times. Some of the most brillant churches were turned into swimming pools, skating rinks...truly, the most bizarre of things. It's a miracle so many of the churches and cathedrals were saved. As someone who was raised in the Greek Orthodox Church, seeing the churches was filled with spiritual and emotional experiences. I don't consider myself very religious, and in fact, I connect more with Eastern religion than Christianity. But...the beauty is just breathtaking and it felt so very familiar to me. I made it a point to kiss many of the icons in the places I visited.
Twelve Colleges: These were also some of the very first few glimpses of St. Petersburg that I had. Over about 1200 feet, there's an unbroken line of identical red buildings. When they were constructed in 1742, they were first used for governmental purposes. But now, they are a part of St. Petersburg University. How I would love to be a student to use these buildings! Definitely make it a point to see these, they're lovely.
Sredny and Bolshoy Prospekt: These seem to be the two major roads filled with kafes, bars, and lots of stores. But the main attractions are across the Neva and this is where one should spend most of their time (the order in which I saw them):

Tueday, July 1: After I explored Vasilyevsky Island, I had to return to the ship for a semester at sea trip for my anthropology of religion course. The itinerary was changed a little bit because of how long customs took....we ended up leaving a half hour later but we still got to see much. Our first stop was a synagogue and I don't recall the name but it won't be hard to find...there's only one synagogue in the whole city but it's said to be one of the most beautiful in all of Europe. I was struck by the vibrant brownish red and tan horizontal stripes on the exterior. But inside was even better: the main section was a lemon yellow with white frames and some sky blue in other areas. There was a lot of Arabic influences with the architecture inside, which was interesting to see. My favorite part was inside of the wedding chappel, a very small room off to the side. We had the sweetest tour guide who spoke great english, and at the end she showed us a rather large bulletin filled with pictured of none other than Mr. Bush who supposedly visited the synagogue when he was last in St. Petersburg? It seemed kind of random...we didn't really know why he went. The next stop was St. Nicholas Cathedral. After St. Andrews, this was my second church to see in Russia and it was just as lovely. It was also built in the eighteenth century but unlike the other churches, it had marked off areas for those worshipping. I was tempted to cross the line and kiss some more icons and I should have, but instead stayed behind with the other tourists. Oh well. For those who are not familiar with Orthodox Christianity, the services are extremely long and for the most part, we stand the entire time. In Russia, none of the churches even have pews. The main element of the Orthodox church are the icons and the iconostasis at the front of the interior. This is always the loveliest section of the building. In a nutshell, the iconostasis is basically a wall filled with icons, with a door in the middle that leads to the altar, where only the priests and altar boys can enter. On the right of the door, there is always an icon of Jesus Christ and on the left, always ghe Virgin Mary. Typcically, to the right of Jesus there is an icon of the patron saint of the church. In the Orthodox Church, there is a definite mysticism that is alive which is lacking in most other Christian denominations. It is what I love about the Orthodoxy....religion is more spiritual and tied to the soul. I'm clearly biased, but in my opinion there is so much more emotion and feeling involved here. St. Nicholas's Cathedral was very nice, but you may only need to see the outside, which has a beautiful blue exterior and five golden domes and is a prime example of Russian baroque architecture. We then went on to St. Issac's Cathedral: St. Isaac's is without a doubt, the most beautiful church I have ever been in. First of all, its huge! In St. Petersburg, it is the second tallest landmark, after the Cathedral of Peter and Paul. One can see the cathedral from almost any area...it became a meeting point for my friends and I because it's so easy to find. It's been turned into a museum, and tourists can even go up to the colonnade where there are views of the city ( I didn't do this, but some of my friends did and said it wasn't particularly worth it..a lot of views of construction). But what words can aptly describe the beauty of the interior? The green and yellow colors of the iconostasis are so vibrant! And the ceiling is stunning. I took videos of the ceiling itself. So spectacular. Just take a look at my pictures....they will express the wonder so much better than my words can!
After we toured St. Isaac's, I decided to stay there longer and let the rest of the SAS group go ahead without me...I had planned to meet some friends. I love to people watch, so for about a half an hour I sat outside on the steps (as many Russians do) and just observe the passerbys. When I finally met them, we walked back to the ship, first stopping to take a couple pictures of The Bronze Horsemen: This is the famous monument to Peter I, named after Pushkin's famous poem. Supposedly it took the artist Falconet over fifteen years to create this. But honestly, it's just a statue of Peter the Great, on a horse, with a serpent underneath. So, not such an amazing sight. But definitely important to the city, and very close to the Admiralty and Hermitage, so one will most likely pass it.

Wednesday, July 2 Wednesday we woke up pretty early and decided to head out to the Hermitage . From our ship, its about a 40 minute walk. Right in front of the Hermitage is the Dvortsovaya ploshchad: Also known as the Palace Square, this huge space in front of the Winter Palace is somewhat overwhelming with its size. The line to the Hermitage usually starts in the square, and in the center there's the Alexander Column, which is the tallest in the world. Opposite of the Winter Palace is the Arch of the General Staff, which is pretty cool. Tuesday night, when we were making our way back to Vasilyevsky Island, we walked through the Palace Square and saw hundreds of policeman lined up with their cars in front of the Winter Palace. It was very odd and you could tell that the passerby tourists had no idea what was going on...my friend and I saw some SASers who had some fun with me, saying that some guy j walked and then ran off with a painting. I believed them. Ha, oh well. But truly, the square looked so much more impressive with those hundreds of policemen, but also a tad foreboding.
The Hermitage: If you go one place in St. Petersburg, make it the Hermitage. With more than 1,000 rooms and 60,000 works on view (from a collection of 3 million) the Hermitage is said to be not the best art collection in the world but not the second best either (according to wikipedia, it holds the Guinness World Record as having the world's largest colleciton of paintings). Several buildings make up the Hermitage: the Winter Palace (1767), which was the home of the tsars and is possibly the most extravagant place I have ever seen, the Hermitage Theater (1787), and the Small (1767), Big (1787), and the New(1852) Hermitage. You can't miss these buildings...not only are they huge but the green exterior is remarkably noticeable from anywhere on the Neva. One cannot help but be mesmorized. Wednesday morning, I made my way to the Hermitage and waited in line for at least an hour. If you ever intend to go, expect to wait. When it finally opened and we entered the building, it was pretty chaotic to get a ticket. People had said Russians may just cut others in line, and we definitely saw a lot of that. But it was all worth it when we passed through the security. The art was fantastic! So much! There was Leonardo and Raphael, Gaughin, and Picasso, Monet, Cezanne, and many others. What really surprised me was the amount of Greek and Roman art they had, more than any I had seen from museums in the states. But without a doubt, my favorite part was the palace rooms....so insanely beautiful. The ceilings were my favorite part...I don't know how much space on my memory card was taken from pictures of the ceilings alone. Such intricate designs in every place...On one hand, I was so grateful to be in the presence of such an incredible environment...but on the other hand, it was kind of disgusting that some would spend that much money on aesthetics and palaces when it could have been distributed in other ways. Oh well, I should have taken that up with Catherine the Great back in the day. There was no way to see everything in the museum...my advice would be to find out where the artists you enjoy are, and hit those sections. Most of the rooms are bombarded with people and tour groups...which made the viewing process a little hectic. But then I would find myself alone in other rooms...how peaceful those moments were! Standing in front of Matisse all by myself...just the colors and I...wonderful.
Nevsky Prospekt: After spending hours in the Hermitage, we made our way to the hub of St. Petersburg, practically the fifth avenue of the city, which is Nevsky Prospekt. Nikolai Gogol, the Russian author I previously quoted, once wrote "There is nothing more beautiful than Nevsky Prospekt!" I don't know if I would agree with him, but it's definitely a place to go. So many shops and resturants, it seemed to me to be the busiest place in the city, each time I walked on the street.
Cathedral of our Lady of Kazaan: This is one of the places where if you're not interested in the inside of the Orthodox Churches, the outside will peak your interest. One will be walking along Nevsky Prospekt and then all of a sudden see this incredible semi circular colonnade, similar to that of St. Peter's in Rome. The columns are huge! Inside was nowhere near as impressive as St. Isaac's but still rather large and a unique iconostasis.

Church of the Resurrection (or Split Blood): From the Cathedral of our Lady Kazaan, we crossed Nevsky Prospekt and walked along the canal towards the magnificent Church of the Resurrection. This is the Russia I wanted to see and had always envisioned: the neo Russian style. Whenever I see pictures of this church or similar ones, it always reminds me of fairy tales or some other world..I can't even imagine what I would think if I saw this as a child..it would either terrify me or I would just think it was the most magical place ever. It just doesn't look real! Unfortunately, the inside was closed on wednesday so I didn't get to go inside :(. But just seeing it was a great experience. There was a woman singing opera right outside which made the atmosphere all the more special. Here's an interesting fact: it's known as the Church of Split Blood because it was built in the same spot that Tsar Alexander II was killed by a bomb in 1881. Right next to the Church are the Mikhalovsky Gardens, which served as a nice oasis and provided some much needed shade.
Souvenirov rynok: Also right next to the Church of Split Blood is a great market area, where I bought my chapka and matriochka dolls! All the people working spoke some english which was great and enabled me to have some fun conversations. They had all the touristy necessities...probably some 30-50 stalls. Fun place!

Thursday, July 3 We didn't do too much this day...the first thing my friend Helena and I did was go to an internet cafe to upload some photos and check email. After returning to the ship, we decided to head out to the Russian Museum, where I wanted to go the most. To get here, we walked along a canal which took us right near Church of Split Blood. Walking through the M. gardens, we came to the Russian Museum, which is in the Mikhailovsky Palace. Being a palace, there were some absolutely beautiful rooms but I enjoyed the artwork the most (perhaps the opposite of Hermitage), which was very avant garde. The artwork was organized very well..there was a definite coherence from painting to painting, room to room. The majority of paintings I had never seen prints of or even heard of the artists, so I learned a lot! By the time we got out, we were pretty hungry but stopped first at Gostiny Dvor, which is a shopping arcade on Nevsky Prospekt. It was a really interesting place...it was as if there was one long room like an alleyway and there was no formal separation of the stores...they just went one after the other. But among the stores, there were categories. So, all the furs were in one location, all the shoes stores in another, etc. We didn't really find anything worth buying. By this time, we were starving. I had read about a cafe called Idiot (after Dostoevsky's novel ) in one of my tour guides and had been meaning to go. It was close to St. Issac's Cathedral so we made the trek over but it was totally work the walk...the decor was really cool! It was in like a basement and really cozy...I could have spent hours there. For lunch, I had a blini with fruits (I only really had blinis) which was excellent. When we got back to the ship, we hung out for a few hours and then went out later to find some bars. We went to this chill spot with a middle eastern decor...I decided to get a hookah while almost everyone else took absinthe shots (illegal in the states). I took a little sip and it was the strongest alcohol I've ever tasted...everyone who did the shots had tears running down their faces...after you're done with the whole process. We got back to the ship around three and I fell asleep immediately.

Friday, July 4 My alarm clock came all to suddenly but once rational thought kicked in I remembered today was the day we were going to Peterhof! Peterhof was my favorite place in all of Russia. It was about an hour drive (a very interesting one, which I'll describe later) and was incredibly packed with tour buses when we arrived. Unfortunately, we found out we wouldn't have much time seeing the palace and grounds, which was a bummer. If I could go again, I would stay at Peterhof for hours, just walking around the gardens. Peterhof was the summer residence of Peter I and is known as the Russian response to Versailles. Very famous for its fountains in particular. The first thing we did was quickly tour the palace, which honestly, was like any other. I'm glad I saw it, but it's not necessary. I wish I could have had more time to be outside! It's simply glorious...the grounds are extremely elegant. Just stunning....no picture can do justice to this place. I didn't get to explore everything, so I'm not quite sure how large it really is. But it's pretty extensive. The really interesting part is that Peterhof was completely destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. During the 50s, they reconstructed the whole thing again based off of maps, documents, etc. It's really sickening to think of people who would want to destroy such beauty.
When we got back to the ship, I relaxed a little and then went out to meet my friend Momoko in the evening. We went to Idiot once again and then returned only to go out again for some nightlife. After a couple hours of running around Vasilyevsky Island and trying to find a good place, we all settled on this little bar right on the Neva, that even had a small dance floor and karaoke, which we took full advantage of. It was really cool to see the bridges open into the air, we had been waiting to see that but had never been close to the river when it happened (or we had stayed in and were already asleep). After fully exhuasting ourselves, we returned to the ship and went to bed. Today (saturday) has largely been spent doing some last minute errands and shopping. It's almost 8pm and everyone is on the ship. For dinner we celebrated the fourth of july with a bbq...we had a bunch of American flags on the side of the ship..I can only imagine what the Russians were thinking (needless to say, there was a lot of noise too).