St. Isaac's

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Ekatarina goes away at the weekend to her Dacha, or summer-house, where her husband, Volodya, is currently working / chilling out. This does give me the run of the flat for the weekend which is very welcome indeed. Russian babushkii insist upon a made bed and an absolutely pristine room - everything in its place. So this weekend I wandered around the flat in my boxers, left everything all over the place, didn’t make my bed and farted in the kitchen. Aaah. I’m easily pleased.

I met up with Nathan and Tom (both students from my course in Manc) at Baltiskaya station with the view of visiting Peterhof if the weather was up to it. Which it wasn’t. So, we decided to check out St. Isaac’s cathedral instead. This building is another must-see if you ever find yourself in P-Burg. The outside, with its huge pillars, is stunning enough, but I rate the interior as better than that of the Church on Spilled Blood, but then I suppose that’s because I prefer fresco to mosaic, which has a kind of cartooney look about it. Apparently this gaff weighs 300,000 tonnes and is still officially a museum due to Soviet atheism and not a cathedral (it would nearly be the world’s biggest if it was). Nathan and I missioned it to the top, St. Paul’s style, to see the view, which it has to be said, is pretty spectacular. The weather wasn’t great, but then we knew that before we got up there!

Afterwards we kind of walked aimlessly and found ourselves on Vasilievskiy Island and found a sort of pub thing called ‘Grenwich’ for lunch, which despite its name was definitely Russian - although quite posh! We decided to get some tickets to the Ice Hockey. The local team, SKA, are apparently good and play regularly in a new stadium. We went to Sportivnaya, only to be told that the hockey was at Prospekt Bolshevikov - almost exactly the other end of town. Figuring we had nothing better to do we travelled all the way down the yellow metro line to the stadium and got tickets for 150 roubles, about 3 quid each. We missioned it again across town to Moscovskaya where Nathan lives with the idea of finding somewhere to buy an MP3 player (for all this commuting I’m doing) and a bar. As we arrived the heavens really opened and we had to leg it down the prospekt.

Buying an MP3 player here is much more complicated than is necessary. First of all I chose one on spec from a cabinet. The sales guy, a funny looking short young guy called Aleksandr, had to keep running back to his desk to get different keys. When Nathan asked to look at some speakers it caused the same result! I then had to pay for it at the checkouts. The girl took my card, wrote down all the details and photocopied my documents before putting the transaction through (I shall be watching my statements)! I then got a ticket which had to be stamped by a man with a stamp whose sole job was to stamp with said stamp. Then I got my MP3 player from Aleksandr who had been called over. Then I could go to the exit where the security guard checked my bag and receipt (having watched this entire process anyway). Then I was allowed to leave with an £18 MP3 player. You’d think it was made of gold!

Gave up on the bar and made my way home on the metro (again). When I was home I got my first listen to Russian radio on my new MP3 player. 106.3fm - “Dance myooozik Stayeeshun” is already my fave.

Song of the day: “Shto ty dyelaesh?” (“What are you doing?”), by unknown cheesy dance outfit.

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Photos

Looking East from St. Isaac's.
Nathan's pic

St. Isaac's in the sun
Greg got this pic a few days later in the sunshine.

St. Isaac's in the sun
Greg got this pic a few days later in the sunshine.

St. Issac's ceiling.
Pretty stunning stuff.

St. Issac's altery bit.
Pretty stunning stuff. Nathan's pic.