City of the Tsars

The Hermitage with Alexander Column (Photo by MCY)
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St. Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Emperor Peter the Great as the capital of Russia, his "window on the West" and a rival to Venice. St. Petersburg has beautiful architecture and beautiful canals and bridges.The people of the city have an obvious sense of pride in their city. To me, this was my first taste of 'Europe' and I was immediately enchanted!

Viva La Metro!

St Petes street
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Sept 26 - Arrived in St. Petersburg International Airport from Seoul. Travelled by bus and metro to St Petersburg Traveller Hostel. Much fun had trying to extract directions from a group of chic blonde Russian women with cigarettes at the airport who obviously thought I was some kind of illegal immigrant who did not know what a hairbrush looked like! (Not my fault..I had just been on a plane for 9 hours). My first metro ride ever - loved it. St Petersburg the deepest metro in the world, the escalators just keep going, or 'The Great Soviet Collective' as per MCY. Speaking Russian not too badly!

Petergof - Main fountain cascade (seen from palace balcony)
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The Hermitage

Sept 27 -The Hermitage is one of Russia's foremost art museums. The main building of the Hermitage Museum is the Winter Palace, which was once the main residence of the Russian Tsars.The Baroque Winter Palace was built between 1754 and 1762 and its first resident was Catherine the Great! The actual architecture and splendour of the building was more interesting to me than the art - it would take days to see all the art pieces! The Hermitage took up most of the day so we spent the rest of the day taking in St Petes. There are so many beautiful buildings and sculptures, it was like walking on history but they are not as well maintained as they could be. Also fell over a lot because of staring at things as opposed to looking where I was going!

Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood
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Petergof (Petrodvorets)

Interior of Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood (Photo by MCY)
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Sept 28 - Also built by Peter the Great (1714-1725) as a retreat - consists of the Grand Palace and extensive grounds with the beautiful fountains (Grand Cascade). Took the Hydrofoil from behind St Petersburg (40mins) towards the Gulf of Finland. The Grand Palace is full of tourists but it meant that you can listen to somone else's guide for free! Ripped off at the cafe - charged MCY 250 Roubles for a piece of bread with three slices of cucumber and salami! Bought two paintings and a pencil drawing. Took the bus to Baltiskaya metro station then back to St Petes. Accosted Russian fellow (with beer in hand at 1pm!) and his wife to ask for directions - very friendly and showed us what bus to take! Again, Russian phrasebook comes in handy as does MCY's Deutsche. Saw the Rostral columns and some more of St Pete's in the evening.

St Isaac's Cathedral and the Bronze Horseman (Peter the Great)
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St Petes Specials

Sept 29 - A full day. First things first - we moved out of the St Petersburg Hostel and into Hotel Russ - thinking we were stepping up in the world! Little did we know..we had stepped back in time to when Stalin perhaps ruled the world and everything was brown and smelled like smoke!

One of the old plans of Peter and Paul fortress (I found this strangely very interesting!)
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Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood (1883-1907) - This beautiful Russian-style church, modelled on Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881 - a bomb was thrown at hs royal carriage! The entire interior is done in mosaics..little painted tiles joined together to make the whole picture. Exquisite and unique in its fine detail! You get charged extra for taking photos - can vary from 50-150 roubles.

One of the four Horse Tamer sculptures on Anichkov Most.
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St Isaac's Cathedral (1818-1858) - This beautiful cathedral is quite intimidating in its size and beauty! The golden dome can be seen glistening from all over the city. You can climb up the 300 or so steps to the observation walkway (Collonade) at the base of the cathedral’s dome and enjoy the breathtaking views over the city - possibly the higest point of St Petes (that is easily accessible).

We then crossed the Neva river to Vasilyevsky Island housing the former Stock Exchange, Rostral Columns, Kunstkamera, and Menshikov Palace. We spent our time in the Kunstkamera - founded to Peter the Great’s Decree, the Museum opened to the public in 1714. Its purpose was to collect and examine natural and human curiosities and rarities. Fascinated by the 'cyclops' babies and 'hypertrichosis'! Weird two headed lambs and cats! Also noted that there is a Fallopius!!

Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad
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As the day got on...debate reared its ugly head as to whether we had enough time to see the Lenin statue outside Finlandsky station (Leninaya Ploschad) - where Lenin came back from exile and gave his famous speech (which I have not heard!). As it went - we did NOT have enough time and were 15mins late for the tour group meeting!

The tour group had 12 of us altogether, interesting eclectic bunch of people. Tour was with IntrepidTravel (http://www.intrepidtravel.com) and the tour was 17 days (named 'Russia and Beyond'). Maria (or Masha as we called her) -  was the trip leader - Russian, very knowedgeable, with pink glasses and the best giggle ever! :) Then, there was - Gordon and Mark (father & son from England), Amanda & Lucy (from England), Tom-Tom (from Ireland), Col & Flo (retired couple from Australia) and Andrew & Jo (couple from Australia). Had dinner together at Russian restaurant - again, ordered what I thought would be a substantial salad and was presented with mash of fishie thing, potato, cabbage and mayonnaise - tasted good but filled quarter of gastric space only! More smoking in restaurants - I had never been exposed to so much cigarette smoke, it is everywhere!

Peter and Paul Fortress and more..

Sept 30 - Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg in 1703 and the very first building to be constructed was the Peter and Paul Fortress. This is an extensive complex and houses former military buildings, the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the statue of Peter the Great and the Mint (Monetny Dvor) - bought a coin here from the 1800s. We heard the 12-noon cannon shot! - a tradition established by Peter the Great himself - very loud! The cathedral is where all the Tsars are buried from Peter the Great onwards (before him - they are in the Kremlin). The remains of Maria Fyodorovna, the Danish princess who became empress of Russia in 1866, were reburied in St. Petersburg on September 28. The return of Maria Fyodorovna's body came 140 years to the day after she first set foot in Russia to marry the future Tsar Aleksandr III, and 87 years after she fled the Bolshevik Revolution.

To complete my obsession with bridges - saw Anichkov Most (on Nevsky Prospekt)  - with 'The Horse Tamer' - actually four of them! Amazing! They have an interesting history - Nicholas I gave two of them to Prussian King Fredrick William IV in 1842, and another two were sent to Italy as a sign of gratitude for the hospitality shown to the Tsar during his trip there in 1846. But they're all back now!

Last Day in St Petes..

October 1 - The day that the Lonely Planet was wrong

Monument to the Defenders of Leningrad - This impressive monument was built to commemorate the heroic efforts of the residents of Leningrad and the soldiers on the Leningrad Front to the repel the Nazis in the 900-day Siege of Leningrad during World War II. It was quite humbling to be in this serene spot that had such historical significance.

Headed back to St Petersburg and went to the post office. MCY posted record no of postcards - 14! I posted .... 4 .. sad! :) Spent half an hour looking for the post office where the Lonely Planet said it would be...unfortunately..it was not there..it was somewhere else. Found after much direction asking - to MCY's disgust (with help of poor Russian vocabulary BUT good Russian accent and phrasebook and nice helpful Russians).

We took the overnight train to Moscow! Nice train with free brekkie (incl chocolate..I did not complain!), got top bunk. Sad to leave St Petes...but looking forward to Moskva!