We took the train from Novgorod to SPb first thing the morning of the 14th. It was a four hour ride and we arrived in SPb at lunch time. The whole group headed out to eat some delicious Russian food, and then we went our separate ways.
Already I could tell that SPb is quite different from Moscow. First off, there were tourists everywhere. There were many moments in Moscow where I felt like the only tourist around, but that feeling would be impossible here. Also, the buildings were very different. In Moscow many of the buildings looked dilapidated, with paint peeling and stone crumbling away. A lot of them were very boring architecturally: drab concrete rectangles. Compared to this, and compared to most cities around the world I'm guessing, SPb looks like it's right out of a fairy tale. All of the buildings in the old part of the city were constructed in the same time period so there's a certain uniformity. They're grand and majestic. The hundreds of canals around also add to the beauty. (Even after four days I'm still in awe.)
Kim and I spent the afternoon walking around an old monastery and a few very old cemeteries. The gravestones were all works of art, each a little different. The main reason we headed here was to see the graves of a couple famous Russians: Dostoyevsky and Tchaikovsky, in particular. The photo below is of me and Kim at Dostoyevsky's grave. They were a little difficult to find as we are still not masters of Cyrillic and the engraving on the tombstones is in fancy scripts. We saw the graves of another couple famous composers; of course Kim knew who they were but I didn't. I took photos anyway. :-) In most museums you have to pay extra to take pictures, but not in a graveyard so I snapped away!
Next up was our last organized "local interaction" outing. This time we were off to the home of a Russian family in a "condo" building in the city. I'm calling it a "condo" building as the families own their flats, but share services. This is not like at home where you share a pool or gym or garbage chute with your fellow condo-ers; here they share the kitchen and bathroom. In about the 60s, housing was a huge problem in Soviet Russia. Khrushchev promised that each family would have a home. This was accomplished by taking larger apartments or flats and dividing them into four or five smaller spaces (like the size of a one bedroom apartment or smaller) and making the kitchen and bathroom shared. To hear it is one thing, but to see it is another.
Our hostess, Svetlana, was very welcoming and cheerful as she led us down the unlit hallway to her family's home. The flat was basically one large rectangular room with very high ceilings and a couple smaller spaces sectioned off for bedrooms. She had a long table set beautifully for the 13 of us - and we all fit around it! Svetlana must have slaved away making pancakes (blinis) for us as there were at least 50 prepared. Blinis are similar to crepes, just a little smaller. You can eat them with anything: sugar, jam, condensed milk, cheese, ham, etc. this time we had them with jam, sugar, condensed milk and sour cream. She had also prepared tea with fresh herbs, which she diluted with hot water from her samovar. (Side note: The samovar is a fixture in the typical Russian home. It's like a coffee urn used to hold hot water, tea, or coffee. And, interestingly, it's forbidden to leave the country with one. Huh.) While we pigged out we chatted about many things. Svetlana told us about her dacha, or summer house. It seems she, her husband, and their daughter spend almost all summer and the spring/fall weekends there. It was very interesting to get to see inside a "typical" Russian urban home. There are two photos of our meal below: Svetlana serving and me and Kim on the couch relaxing.
That evening I went out with the gang for some drinks - vodka of course. And we ended up at a small Russian club that I'm pretty sure we only got into because we were tourists. (Backwards again...I thought they would want to keep the tourists out?) It was light again before we got back to the hotel and I had just a couple hours before hitting the pavement again...
The next day was full of sights! We cruised down the main drag and visited the Kazan Cathedral, walked around a bookstore that used to be the headquarters of the Singer sewing machine company, and took in the overwhelming gourmet store. They sold everything from cakes to cheese to $700 tins of black caviar. I could spend a fortune and gain a ton in this store. We behaved and left empty-handed.
Then we were off to drool at the beauty of the exterior of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. This amazing church was modeled after St. Basil's in Moscow, but it looks quite different. It got its name because it was built on the spot where Czar Alexander II was assassinated. It was originally closed to the pubic as it was meant to be a private place of mourning. The Bolsheviks opened the church to the public; however, as it wasn't built to withstand the traffic, the interior quickly deteriorated. After all churches in Russia were closed in the 1930s (thanks Stalin), it was used to store potatoes and theater sets (weird). Restoration began in the 1980s...it took 24 years to build the church and 27 years to restore it. How lucky we are it has been restored because it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen - inside and out. (You'll have to wait for pictures until after I get back.) Kim and I left the inside until the next day as we didn't have our church-going attire (i.e. pants and scarves for our heads).
Instead we made our way to the Russian Museum (creative name, eh?). This museum was labelled as a "must see" by my guide book, and we were both glad we took the time to visit it. Again, the building itself was beautiful, and it houses a massive collection of Russian art, from medieval church icons to contemporary pieces. We are proud to report we visited all 85 rooms! And even better is we were ready for more...
Our last stop (or my last stop, as I went home for a nap and Kim carried on...) was a house in which Dostoyevsky lived. It was a small museum but really interesting. They had decorated the flat as it would have been when he lived there. There were many of his personal items on display, including his hat, cigarette box, a spoon, and a clock that was stopped the time and date of his death. The "literary" part of the museum was only in Russian so we didn't get much out of it.
That evening we met up with the group for our final dinner. Our guide had made a reservation at a Georgian restaurant and it was delicious. A lovely end to the tour. But my favourite part was yet to come...
A midnight boat ride (that actually started at 1 am)! We weaved our way through the canals of the city out into the Neva River. The city looked amazing lit up. Every night (spring to fall) between 1:30 and 2:30 the big bridges over the Neva are raised to let the ships pass to and from the Gulf of Finland. The bridges are all lit up and this makes for quite the sight. To top it off we had some bubbly, chocolate and classical music playing in the background. It's a good thing we stayed close to home the night before; otherwise we could have been stuck on one of the islands. The ships pass in one direction from about 2:30-3:30 and the other direction from 3:30-4:30. The bridges don't get lowered until about 5 am. I wish I'd had it in me to stay up one night to see what kinds of ships passed through, but I'm not much of a night owl these days. We were half-asleep by the time we got home from our cruise but it was definitely worth it.
The next day was jam packed, and most of it we did in the rain. Our first stop was the Bronze Horseman, a symbolic SPb monument of Peter the Great, the mastermind behind the city. The Bronze Horseman was made famous in a poem by Pushkin. While there is some controversy surrounding the importance of the statue, it is said to represent the spirit of SPb.
Next we headed to the park to frolic with the Buddy Bears who are currently visiting SPb. The United Buddy Bears are life-size decorated bears that represent peace, understanding, and tolerance. More than 140 countries participated by painting a bear. The bears have been on tour around the world since 2006. We managed to find the bear for each of the countries we are visiting (except Iceland?). Kim and I were slightly disappointed with the Canadian bear, but I suppose he represents our vast lands and waters.
Finally it was time to enter the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood. We were just as amazed by the interior as the exterior. It was a true explosion of colour, blues and reds and golds. I wish I could attend church in such a beautiful place (although I prefer the sitting tradition of the Protestants versus standing for services as the Russian Orthodox believers do).
Of course we had to tour the metro. The SPb stations are not as impressive as the Moscow ones, but they still put our boring and usually ugly North American stations to shame. Kim and I were very happy to be warm, out of the rain, and sitting down at this point.
We finished the day by getting lost. Ha. It took us forever to find our last sight of the day, Nikolski Cathedral. This Cathedral was different from most we have seen and we were glad to have finally found our way. After stopping to grab a couple geocaches we trudged back to the hotel, soaking wet and ready for bed.
Three more days in SPb (July 17-19) before heading back to the capital!
Photos below are: the gourmet shop, me and Kim with the Canadian buddy bear, me and Kim at Dostoyevsky's grave, me outside Spilled Blood, the gourmet shop again, me and Kim on our way to Spilled Blood, and two of our evening at Svetlana's.
TTFN
Heh, closed to the pubic...
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