From Russia with Love...

The train left Helsinki at 5:45 a.m. We left the city in the dark. Enveloped in white landscapes and gray skies we made our way toward the Russian border. The crossing was uneventful and the arrival was greeted by offers for taxis.

After a somewhat rough ride from the train station, along the Neva river, to the 'island' on which we would find our hotel, the Pribaltiskaya with a view over the Baltic sea in the direction of Finland, we were ready to 'experience' Russia.

17th century St. Petersburg is alive and well - some explanation may be needed to understand this comment. The architecture and ambiance of the czarist period (mainly spanning the period from Peter the Great through Catherine the Great) has been painstakingly restored and reconstructed in the young city (It will be 300 years old in 2003 - which explains the frantic activity and abundance of scaffolding on the buildings throughout the city.) Light, bright green, pink, yellow and blue structures (some might call them residences - others might call them castles...) with white and gold archictectural details and embellishments dot the center of the city, fanning out from the main boulavard Nevsky Prospeckt (which also happens to be the main shopping street in the city...) and the prommenades along the rivers and canals - the city architect (none other than Peter the Great himself) had a second 'Amsterdam' in mind when he planned the city originally 300 years ago. Many of the canals were not built and several have been filled in since then, but the city still has some of the feeling of a 'mini' Amsterdam with its many, small bridges, each distinct from the other by the motives used to decorate the railings, supports and columns.

The wind was strong, the temperature was low and we were cold - make that a 'very'. We also could not avoid the feeling that we were in the land of walking dead animals (translation: a good 80% of the people walking around the city were wearing some kind of fur, whether it was in the form of a coat, hat or boots. More St. Petersburg Russians seemed to own a fur than owned a mode of transportation.) There were many cafes and we put them to good use. The long silk underwear that had made its first appearance in Krygyzstan was brought out for an encore the next day.

The next day was Christmas day. No, you have not misread the date at the top of the journal entry. The Russian Orthodox church re-introduced (?) either 2 or 3 years ago the Christmas celebration of the Russian Orthodox calendar, which falls on the 6th of January, making the day we arrived Christmas and the next Christmas day. (Holidays to note when traveling in the winter season to Russia: Christmas Eve is celebrated on 25 December AND on 6 January, with Christmas Day falling on the following day. New Years Eve is celebrated on 31 December AND 'Old' New Years Eve [taken from the Russian Orthodox calendar (?)] is celebrated on 13 January, with the dayfollowing them being New Years Day.) Confused? It had its plusses and minuses. On the positive side, we were able to attend a Russian Orthodox service held at the Nicolaus-Marine cathedral on Christmas day (7 January), performed in the upper level of the structure that is usually closed to the public. The room was filled with a baritone recitation, beautiful, goosepimple-inducing choral voices and the hushed voices and repetitive movements of the vistors performing the ingrained but yet newly freed motions of devotion. Also, we not only became acquinted with the Russian Santa Claus (who looks very similar to the American one), but also with his niece, 'Snow Girl', who wears a a long blue robe reminisent of those you would expect a Russian princess from the 17th century to wear. The 2 Christmas figures are virtually (and commercially) inseperable.

On the downside of the extended Russian holiday season were the unexpected closures of museums, the number of people in the city and the massive (yes, massive) groups of school age children from all over Russia visiting the city and its sights. As it was explained to us, during this time of year the children are off from school. So far nothing unusual... It seems that the parents send their children to what could be called, for lack of a translated name or phrase, 'winter culture camp'. Think of it as summer camp, but in the winter and in the city, where the teacher or a parent offers a trip to the school children and the parents can sign their child up to go off for a week to the big city of St. Petersburg (or Moscow or Ekatarinaberg or Volgograd [formally Stalingrad]) and be lead around museum after museum by an authoritarian (most often) female figure reciting the details (something she can do even in her sleep) of an 18th century Russian (or European) painting while obstructing other visitors' views...and these museums are very, very large.

The city is filled with many sites and museums, many of which (Hermitage, Russian museum of Art, Issac Cathedral, Savior of the Spilt Blood Cathedral, Smolny Cathedral and Institute, Rostra Columns, Russian Political museum, Peter and Paul Fort, etc.) we viewed in during our 4 day stay. One of the lesser important, but somewhat fun and surprisingly informative visited sights was the Vodka museum. When we walked in to the museum, we had originally thought that we would be lucky if we could walk through the exhibition since normally a reservation is required. We ended up with a guided tour, aperitive - vodka tasting session (including caviar on blini [Russian style pancakes that resemble small crepes], salads, a soup and meat or fish) and a souvenir postcard. For those curious, there are four levels of vodka (which is ONLY produced in Russia - all the other brands are not the pure liquid...): lux (top of the line), premium, standard and first as I remember it (but my memory could be faulty after trying the three different kinds of vodka [40% proof] that were part of the tasting...) Russian Standard and Flagship are supposedly two of the best to be found.

Now for the tasting. First the transparency and color of the liquid is observed. It should be very clear. Then the vodka should be smelled. The smell should be that of pure alcohol, nothing else - rubbing alcohol comes to mind. Finally the vodka should be swilled around in the mouth for a good thirty seconds (isn't this what the dentist tells us to do when rinsing?) before swallowing. It should have a very smooth taste. Whow...smooth or not, it was strong stuff. We tried Flagship vodka made with rice, lemongrass and wheat. The concensus was that the lemongrass was the smoothist and least hard hitting on the way down.

Now that we were vodka experts, we were ready to move on to the next Russian 'icon', the Kremlin and Moscow.