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Published: September 2nd 2007
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For the first week of our trip my group is staying in St. Petersburg. On Thursday here we toured the city in a bus and got to see all the big sights with out going in any. It was interesting to see all of the city in a matter of hours and pretty much going in one big circle that none of us really know how that worked. We found out many facts that day, such as that the city was founded in 1703 when Peter the Great got the land after a war with Sweden. Peter wanted to make St. Petersburg (named after the Apostle Peter not himself) a western city like those of Europe and also wanted the land as a sea port for Russia to Western Europe. It is built on 42 islands with 90 rivers and canals throughout the city. After our bus tour we were dropped off in the Nivski Prospect (the main road of St. Petersburg) for lunch were we ate at the Pizza Hut. Although it is an American restaurant it was quite different than the ones in the US. After lunch we took our first ride on the metro. It was fun and
scary all at the same time. We had to make sure we all got on it at the same time and get off at the right exit while every sign and recordings on the metro was in Russian. We also had to adapt to Russian behavior on the metro. They do not talk while riding on the trains, and while riding the escalators down from the turnstiles to the trains you have to stand on the right if you are not going to walk down them because otherwise you look like a tourist.
On Friday the group headed to the Hermitage. The Hermitage is this huge museum that rivals in size only to the Louvre and the National Gallery in England. They say it would take 9 years to view all the exhibits. The museum building once was the winter palace of the tsars! I could have been satisfied just to look at the amazing architecture, but I had the bonus of looking at works by Rembrandt, Picasso, and many different sculptures and artifacts from ancient Egypt, the far-east, and Europe! After that we went out to eat at an extremely Russian restaurant pronounced as Subvay…yes this is the same
Subway that we have in the U.S. It was not the mean that we were all hoping for but there were not any complaints. After lunch we went to the Church of the Spilt Blood. This church was put up in the place where Tsar Alexander II died after terrorists attacked him. After spending time at the church we had free time where many people stayed downtown and explored; however, I went back to our hotel with the intention of taking nap but that never happened. I ended up bonding with my fellow students more and then going out to dinner at the café (which turned out to be more of a bar) around the corner from the hotel. The café served good food but the night was full of awkward moments. First we did not know if we were supposed to seat ourselves, then we were getting weird looks from the Russians, the waitress was clueless to English and did not look very happy for us to be there, and lastly four people in our group accidentally ordered four of everything that was ordered at their table. It was hilarious!
Today we went to the St. Peter’s and Paul’s
Fortress. This was where St. Petersburg was founded on Hares Island. The fortress includes the St. Petersburg kremlin, which is one building that every Russian city has despite that most people only know of the one in Moscow. However St. Petersburg’s kremlin is much different than the other cities. First of all it isn’t referred to as a kremlin but St. Peter’s and Paul’s Fortress and included a church that looks more like Western European Cathedrals and not like the typical Russian buildings. It also was a prison for many years during the rule of the tsars and during the soviet control. After that we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant that was very good and had the afternoon to do what we want. I ended up going to a mall on Nivski Prospect that was extremely expensive and then to a little café for coffee and deserts.
I have four more days in the city but I some-what wish we were staying here. We all have become accustomed to it. We are still trying to figure all the places out but we have figured the metro out and gotten buy when it comes to ordering our own
food. Hopefully we will only improve on our skills that we have learned so far!
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Rich
non-member comment
food yum.
so randi all i got out of this one is a quick brief history lesson and that you guys are eating all the food in russia. lol. hope all is well and hope your enjoying everything.