Advertisement
Me at Peterhof
"Peterhof is a great palace-and-park complex of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a summer residence of the Russian Emperors...The happy idea to lay a formal park on the shore of the Gulf of Finland as a memorial to Russia's truimph on the sea belonged to Peter the Great himself." I had a very good weekend in, as they would call it, "Peter", short for Saint Petersburg. You know me, I of course have several stories to tell, but overall, it was an excellent weekend and over 250 pictures for anyone that wants to see them...lol I will just post a few here, but if you want to see all of them, let me know and I can send them to you.
The best story was the train ride. I thought I was all comfortable with it until Michael, Dasha and Denis are all questioning me about how it can not stop in Moscow, how will I know which train to get on, when will I know to get off the train, am I sure I am going to St. Petersburg, etc. They were not doing it to scare me in all honesty, as concern but it was making me have second doubts. Denis was catching his train south to go home so he tried to double check for me with the ticketing agent, but she had a long line and Denis train was to arrive anytime. I told him I would be fine and try to figure it
Me at Peterhof
\"Peterhof is a great palace-and-park complex of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a summer residence of the Russian Emperors...The happy idea to lay a formal park on the shore of the Gulf of Finland as a memorial to Russia\'s truimph on the sea belonged to Peter the Great himself.\" out on my own. My biggest concern was which direction it would go because Michael, although he has never taken this train before, was concerned it may go south to change lines if it truly bypassed Moscow and I knew it only stopped for a few minutes in Obninsk so I was afraid if I was wrong with it going north, I may not have enough time to jump across the tracks and catch it before it left the station.
The time came for it to arrive and it was going north as if towards Moscow so that made me feel better. I also knew I was in car #5 and the porter was real nice and greeted me with a smile. So I figured I was on the right train. She indicated I was in #3 which is what I thought I read on my ticket as well so I headed to cabin #3. I knew I was in first class when Oleg helped me buy the ticket which means you get fed and there are only two people per cabin so when I entered cabin #3, I was sort of surprised to find two ladies already in
there. I decided I could sleep on the top bunk, not a big deal but was sort of disappointed paying for first class and ending up with a full cabin. I started getting my stuff out to work on for the train ride when the porter came; thinking to take my ticket, which is when she motioned for me to step out. I am thinking, how am I going to communicate with her so I started to get my phone ready in case I had to call Denis for a translation. When she saw I did not grab my stuff, she motioned for me to get my stuff as well.
The whole time, these women just sat there and gave me the normal, "he is a foreigner" look I get all of the time. They were not rude, they did not say anything, they just looked at me. Well you guess it, I was suppose in BED #3, which is located in cabin #1, not cabin #3....lol And there, it was just one other person and my lower bunk which I requested. I found it funny as I keep wondering what those two women were thinking the whole time
The Great Cascade
Decorative sculptures..."Perhaps the most brilliant feature of Peterhof is the Lower Park with is three unique cacades, dozens of powerful water jets and miniature palaces - Monplaisir, Marly and the Hermitage." I open their door, just come in (without knocking) and sit down. Only me!
It took about 12 hours and made several stops, but I slept through most of the trip. We arrived at 5:40 AM and Oleg told me he would meet me at the station. I kept telling him I could meet him closer to his house so he could sleep in a little, but he insisted on meeting me, which did make me feel better, but after making it this far, I knew I could do the metro. We stopped and had breakfast and laid out our weekend. He and his friends were also concerned about me staying at his flat that his family still owns in Peter so they decided I should stay with one of them. I told Oleg, I have been here long enough, his place will not scare me or surprise me. When we arrived to get his wife, it was actually better than I thought it was going to be, but it was typical run down Soviet flat.
We then headed to Peterholf to see the famous fountains. After touring the fountains and having a light lunch, we took a
The Meller Family
This is Oleg, his wife, Zhenna, and they baby girl, Sonya, on the boat from Peterholf to The Winter Palace. boat ride to the Hermitage (Winter Palace). All I can say is WOW! If you ever get to Russia, you must go especially if you enjoy art!!! The best part, Oleg with the help of one of his friends/classmates, arranged a guided English tour for me that lasted about four hours. The group was very nice, but moved kind of slow, but it was very nice to have a free entrance and tour! We then went to dinner with the friends that arranged the tour and then met up with some of his guy friends that were going to take us around in the evening. We headed back to his flat for a nap since we were heading to see the draw bridges at 1 AM. I honestly do not know the significance of these but it is too is a famous thing to see and do in Peter. I think it may be that they only raise them once and so all of the ships are sitting there waiting which was neat to see, but nothing too exciting if you have seen a draw bridge before.
The one thing that was wild, it was 12:30 AM in the
Sonya and Vince
This would be Oleg's little one. Sonya is 8 months old. She and I got along very well, but I was glad to have some peace and quiet as well...lol
One story I must tell on Oleg. He was ordering sushi and he actually gave some to Sonya. I told him he was crazy feeding her raw fish, particularly raw fish from Russia! He knows and understands that comment since he lived in the US for 6 years before coming back to Russia to work for Elinar-Broiler. morning and we could still see the sun setting. It was dark/dust, but the sun was still slightly visible just below the horizon...that was at 12:30 AM and it would come back up around 4 AM. The weather was cool on Saturday (upper 50's/lower 60's and 40's at night), but Sunday was very nice, upper 60's during the day.
Now, for my stupidity! There were no seat/bunks available on the train for Sunday night to arrive early Monday morning so we decided to fly back. We get to the airport about 20 mintues before they allow us to check in so we decided to get something to eat because I was hungry. We picked a sit down restaurant and it took longer than we expected. We still had 30 minutes before the plane took off so we hurried down to get checked in to find out they CLOSE check-in 40 minutes before departure and they were not making any exceptions for us even though we had a baby. Oleg tried his best, but with no success. They they tell us they have no seats open until tomorrow at 10 AM. I was pissed! I went to a different airline
Boat Ride
This was the type of boat we took from Peterholf to the Winter Palace. (Aeroflot) to see what they could do and they had some seats on their 10:45 flight so I told Oleg, I was taking it to get home (since it was our fault for missing the flight). It costs us twice as much as the original flight and we stat at the airport for 4 hours more, which did not get us home until 2:00 AM, but we made it home. How stupid is that to miss the flight when you are sitting there! (Do NOT answer that!)
So that was my weekend in Saint Petersburg (Peter).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.621s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 17; qc: 57; dbt: 0.3316s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
jetta
non-member comment
Sounds like a fun weekend! 250 pictures? Wow!