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Published: October 31st 2007
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A few things we have learned about Russia (well the big cities anyway) since we have been here:
1. Rather than dodging poop on the pavement you need to look out for the big spit globs - they are everywhere.
2. Alcohol is often cheaper than water - particularly beer, but vodka is also the cheapest we have seen anywhere.
3. People like to drink a lot and seem to be allowed to do it anywhere - even in the street. In fact, you can buy alcohol (along with pretty much everything else) from the little street vendor stalls which are everywhere! And at KFC!
4. Although there don't seem to be any bread lines anymore, there is still a huge disparity between rich and poor. On the one hand you walk down streets selling Prada and Gucci, with hummers and porsches parked at the curb, and then you will see beggars carrying plastic bags, looking in rubbish bins and picking up coins.
5. If you have a student card, bring it! Sightseeing is way cheaper for students - sometimes even free!
By the way, Russians use the cyrillic alphabet. It would help to brush up on it before you get
here - we didn't get a chance. I keep thinking that if I can just figure out the "code" I will be able to decipher the words! Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work like that.
Although it was quite nerve racking passing through the border after all the things we have heard about dodgy officials, we arrived in Russia without any hassles. After a bit of confusion about where we were going to arrive we were collected and driven to our homestay. Unfortunately, the 1.5 hours we waited meant that we were totally freezing by the time we were picked up, but luckily we had some amusement in the form of a traffic accident.
Don't get us wrong - no one was injured. But it was pretty funny. The cars collided in the middle of a major t-junction and then proceeded to leave their cars there blocking traffic for about 45 minutes. We thought they were waiting for police, but the police drove past numerous times and nothing was done. So what followed was an entertaining period of car horns going off and cars getting very creative about how to avoid the obstacle. We watched a truck get totally
Statue of Peter the Great
The founder of St Petersburg stuck, and watched other cars going out of carparks, up pavements and down pedestrian crossings to get around it. Very innovative drivers the Russians.
On our first day in St Petersburg we walked to the Palace Square which is surrounded by the Winter Palace (now housing the city's biggest musuem - the Hermitage, recognised as a world leading museum). Nearby we went to Isaac's Cathedral and climbed to the top of the Collonade for a good view of the city, before heading to the River to see one of the many statues honouring Peter the Great. In this one, he is on horseback stomping on a snake. Apparently it was commissioned by Catherine the Great (not his wife).
We spent the rest of our day walking (and getting lost) in the Winter Palace - the Hermitage. The exhibits were amazing, particularly those rooms which have been left as they were in the days of the Tsars. The granduer and ostentatiousness within which the imperials lived was overwhelming - no wonder there was a revolution.
The next day we headed over to St Peter and Paul's Fortress. Pretty ugly place really, but then again - a fortress is
The Hermitage
This is only one of the hallways, showing the immensity of this museum supposed to be for defensive purposes. The most attractive part of it was the Cathedral in the middle. It is here that many of the Tsars were entombed, and it is also where the bodies of the last royal family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and five children) are now buried, having been moved there by Yelstin from the place in the Russian countryside where they were murdered. We walked along part of the wall surrounding the fortress and were there in time to see the cannon go off as it does every day at 12noon. It is so loud (echoing down the river) it would definitely give you a good scare if you weren't anticipating it. Not too exciting though really - just an orange flash and a boom and that's it.
Next on the list was the Church on Spilled Blood, so named because it was built on the site where Tsar Alexander was mortally wounded. It is an absolutely amazing cathedral - done in the style of the famous St Basil's in Moscow. Not only is the exterior absolutely gorgeous, so is the interior. It is covered head to toe in mosaics created by some of
Russia's best artists. Unfortunately, during Soviet times the Church was not looked after. In fact, it was used as a potato warehouse and then as a storage area for stages sets for a local theatre company. Luckily, it has been almost fully restored. Further on a completely different cathedral is Kazan Cathedral, modelled on St Peter's Cathedral in Rome. This was a very religious experience as many Russians come to pay their respects and pray to the famous icon of the Virgin contained in the church.
Day Three in St Petersburg we headed out to "the suburbs". That is, the places surrounding the main city where the nobles had their palaces. The noble's palace and its surrounding gardens was pretty much the size of a suburb as we would know it - they are huge. We visited one of the most famous - Catherine's Palace. It was built in the mid 1700s first by Empress Elizabeth and then later added to and finished off if you like, by Empress Catherine.
It is quite simply unbelievable. Not the prettiest palace we have ever seen but the sheer size of it is amazing. We paid the astronimical fee to go
Check out the size of this!
A solid malachite vase in the Hermitage inside (over $20 for an adult) and were required to tag along with a Russian tour. We managed to give them the slip though - what was the point in hanging around - and just wandered through on our own for about an hour. Every room seemed to be covered in gilt, the ceilings were about two storeys high, there were portraits of the old inhabitants of the palace everywhere (guess they enjoyed looking at themselves) and it was just incredibly gaudy all around! Then of course, there was the most famous room, the Amber Room (a gift to Catherine from the then Prussian King). A room totally covered in panels made out of lumps of amber.
The room, like most of the palace, has been restored since WWII when it was seriously damaged. However, the amber room was actually stolen by the Nazi's when fleeing St Petersburg at the end of WWII. For a long time the missing art piece (which is how the room is thought of) was believed to be in hiding somewhere, but now it is believed that it was destroyed in Kaliningrad at the end of the war. Who knows, I don't think I
The Pavillion Hall
A creation of Catherine the Great would be telling if I had the $140million art piece!
The gardens however were gorgeous. Catherine's Palace is actually located in what is known as the Tsar's Village. It is a massive area, and the gardens have many hidden secrets in them. There are bath houses around a lake, a mini ferry over to the lake, statues, and lots of benches to sit on to just stop and enjoy. It really was beautiful, particularly as it was autumn when we visited and the leaves had turned and were dropping all over the place.
All in all, St Petersburg was fabulous and interesting too because it is only 300 years old but so full of history. We could easily have spent a week there visiting some of the other palaces (they are absolutely everywhere in the city itself sandwiched inbetween other buildings, and of course the big spectacles out in the suburbs), enjoying the museums and just generally taking in the scenery and the atmosphere. But it was time to go to Moscow, the capital.
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