St. Petersburg -- St. Isaac's Cathedral

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The dome of the St. Isaac’s cathedral dominates the St. Petersburg’s skyline because even in a city of majestic buildings, it stands out.

We had seen the dome every day. (In fact, you can’t help seeing it.) Its huge colonnade had made a lasting impression on my mind, so we decided to visit it even though I was tired.

Avi went to buy the entrance tickets while I sat on a low wall and admired the 80-ton, monolithic, (Ha! I have wanted to use this word for a long time) red granite columns that front the cathedral.

Avi came back with tickets and said, “The lady told me there are 300 steps to the colonnade.”

I wondered why she had to mention it. I could see that I would have to walk about 300 steps from the ticket-office to the colonnade at the front of the cathedral.

“I am tired but not that tired that I can’t manage the 300 steps to the colonnade.” I said bravely to Avi and started walking towards the entrance, though every step reminded me how tired I was.

Avi started to say something but did not say it and walked purposefully by my side.

I did not count the steps but it must have been about 300 steps when we came to the front of the cathedral and saw the massive, majestic columns soaring above to a pediment. Behind the colonnade were the huge, ornate double doors of the cathedral.

I was impressed but also felt a bit cheated because the colonnade could be viewed by anyone in the street. One should not have to buy a ticket for it.

“Why do we have to buy a ticket to see this?” I asked sharply to Avi.

He had a cheeky grin on his face as he replied, “I am afraid this is not the colonnade they meant.”

“Which other colonnade is there? I do not see any other.” I demanded hotly, suspecting that Avi was playing a trick on me.

He pointed to the dome above and sure enough, it was adorned with red granite columns all around it.

“That is the colonnade that the tickets are for.” He informed me glibly.

“And you bought the tickets to that colonnade? OK, how are we supposed to go there? I hope there is an elevator.” I said, praying fervently in my mind that ‘Oh, Lord. Let there be one.’

The prospect of climbing those 300 steps had suddenly made me prayerful.

“I told you. There are 300 steps to the colonnade.” Avi said trying to put a serious expression on his face though I could see he was secretly enjoying himself.

“Why did you buy the tickets at all, when you know perfectly well, I can’t manage the stairs.” I demanded angrily.

“But you asked me to buy the tickets to the colonnade. You are the one who does the research, right? As far as I am concerned, colonnade, lemonade, promenade, all are the same to me.” He pretended ignorance.

There was nothing else to do but climb those 300 circular steps to the colonnade above on my arthritic knees. Silently, I cursed the English language for its parsimonious use of the word ‘step’ for both a horizontal step and a vertical one.

In Indian languages (at least in Marathi and Hindi) there are two distinct words for horizontal steps and vertical steps, which would roughly translate into English as ‘steps’ and ‘strides’.

I suggest that the English should similarly use these two words to distinguish between the horizontal steps and vertical ones. That way, unwary people would not fall into a tourist trap and buy tickets to climb the stairs.

However, the views from the above were worth the climb.

When, ultimately, we climbed down to the base of the cathedral, there were still 8 steps to the road-level.
“Were those counted in those 300 steps?” I asked Avi sarcastically, because I held him responsible for making me climb those 300 steps.

“No, they did not charge anything for these 8 steps. We got them free, a kind of bonus.” Avi replied suppressing his mirth.

We had a further aggravation that day because, we did not know that 7# bus and 7# trolley take totally different routes, so we ended up way up north in the depot and had to retrace our steps.(&^% ‘steps’ again! Those ‘steps’ are dogging my steps.)

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Comments

[Heather]

I really enjoyed your post and photos of St. Petersburg! Made me want to go there! Sounds like you've been having incredible experiences on your trip! My blog is looking for travel tips (like how many steps are really at St. Isaac's Cathedral!) , photos, etc, to share. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email me [e-mail]. Continued fun on your travels! Heather :)

[charuavi]

Dear Heather, Thank you for your appreciation. I will certainly check out your webpage at blogspot. Charuavi