St. Petersburg

After we pulled up to the train station in St. Petersburg, our guide met us on the platform.  Edward had only been for Moscow.  In St. Petersburg, we had Elena.  For those that know me well, you know I have to have a shower every morning.  I can't fully function through out the day without one.  To the point that I was dreading day one in St. Petersburg because the plan was to pick us up at the train station, take us to breakfast, then start the day.  We wouldn't be able to check in and shower until late that afternoon.  I sucked it up though...one day wouldn't kill me.  Our first stop was at a restaurant along one of the canals that had breakfast waiting for us.  The place didn't know we were Americans, only that we were coming from Germany.  So on each table, they had little German flags set out.

Breakfast was pretty good, standard European fare with meats, cheeses, bread and yogurt.  From there we stopped at a church to take pictures, as well as a few canals and bridges.

One neat place we stopped at was steps that lead down into the Neva River that flows through St. Petersburg.  On either side of the step were mini-sphynxes "guarding" the entrance to the river that were originally guarding a Pharaoh's tomb in Egypt.  From there we headed to Peter and Paul Fortress. It sits on an island in the Neva River, and contains a giant church inside.  It was originally built as a prison, and remained that way for over 200 years until shortly after the Revolution, when it was converted into a museum.  The church that stands inside it today contains the bodies of all the Russian Emperors and Czars, including Czar Nicholas II and his entire family, who were killed in 1917 when the Bolsheviks overthrew the monarchy.  Even the fabled Anastasia is buried there.

One neat thing about our visit there was while the guide was talking, we suddenly heard a loud roar over head as several fighter jets in formation flew by.  That weekend there was an air show, so they were practicing.  The really neat part was they were all painted in the colors of Russia's flag...Red, White and Blue.  And the day we were there happened to be July 4th.  Never in all my life did I think I'd be watching fighter jets painted Red, White & Blue performing stunts and flying over head on July 4th in Russia.

Elena then took us to a church nicknamed Spilled Blood Cathedral.  Along the way, we stopped for pictures at the Aurora, a battleship made famous because in 1917 the crew mutinied and fired off a single blank shot from the guns.  That shot signaled to the rebels that it was time to attack the Winter Palace and begin the Bolshevik Revolution.

Spilled Blood Cathedral is called that because Alexander II was assassinated there.  We didn't have time to go in, but we stopped along the way and took pictures from a distance, then went the actual church to take pictures up close.  After taking some pictures, we strolled around a small market that was there.  One funny thing we saw was a vendor selling Matryoshka Dolls that were painted like US Sports players.  They had Football, Basketball, Baseball, etc...  What made us laugh was when we were looking over them, we saw one for the San Diego Chargers and the Arkansas Razorbacks sitting right next to each other.  For those that don't know, I'm a big Chargers fan and Shanna's a big Razorbacks fan.

When we finished up there, it was finally time to head to the hotel and check in.  Like earlier in the week, everyone took a shower, had dinner, and went straight to bed.

The next day Elena and the bus picked us up, and we headed to Peterhof.  It was the Summer Palace of the Czars.  It was built by Peter the Great, and given a German sounding name because Peter spoke many languages, and liked to give things foreign sounding names.  Along the way, we passed several apartment buildings that had a cardboard lining around them to make it look like it was made of wood.  I think the main reason was for some privacy.  But one balcony had a giant hole cut out so their dog could sit there and watch traffic and people passing by.  Unfortunately the only good shot I got was from the bus with a tree in the way, but if you look close, you can see the hole and the dog.

When we finally arrived, it didn't seem like much.  But after we walked through yet another flea market, we finally got to the palace and it was breath taking.  The palace itself looked a lot like other palaces we've seen.  What really set it apart, though, were the amazing display of fountains.

We started with a tour of the palace itself.  It was interesting, but like with most palaces in Europe, no pictures were allowed.  When the tour ended, Elena showed us some of the fountains, including "trick" fountains.  One of the most amazing things about the fountains were they were built before pump technology had been invented.  It was built downhill from a water supply, so every fountain functions based on gravity.  It was incredible to think of that as you watched the high speeds that water flew out.

One trick fountain looked like a giant mushroom.  The "trick" was a person would step underneath to escape the sun, and the ground was one giant pressure plate.  Once you stepped on it, the water would flow all around the mushroom's edge, essentially trapping you inside.  The only way out was to step through the water.  They had modified it so that the water was constantly flowing and visitors could see it.  It was a hot day out, so I took advantage and dipped my head in the cold water.

Another trick fountain was one you didn't see.  There was a long path through the trees, and the fountain was on a timer.  Once an hour, it would go off and completely soak anyone walking down the path.  Times were clearly posted, as well as an alternate path to follow if you didn't want to get wet, so the only people getting soaked were the ones that wanted to.  I thought it was just a little sprinkle until I saw people leaving that area.  They were completely drenched...there wasn't a dry spot on their body.

Another trick fountain again centered around a bench.  There were stones placed in front of the bench, and it was originally set up with some of the stones being pressure sensitive.  You step on it, and jets of water flew out of the bench at you.  Now, though, the stones don't cause the water to shoot out, it's controlled by a guy sitting near the bench.  It was popular with little kids who would take turns trying to figure out which "stone" caused the water to spray, then laughing when they got squirted.

Eventually we made our way to the end of the path where we ended up at an overlook with a view of the Gulf of Finland.  It eventually dumps into the Baltic Sea, but we couldn't see the Sea from there.

After that we had some free time to walk around.  We passed one area where you could rent costumes and dress up for pictures.  They even had costumes for kids to wear.

Finally we headed to the bus, and drove back to the hotel.  After having beautiful 75 degree sunny weather the entire week, we finally got a little rain on the drive back.  But it lasted about 20 minutes, then was gone, and was beautiful the entire rest of the week.

That evening we decided to check out the outdoor terrace bar on the third floor of the hotel.  It didn't have much of a view, but it was still nice to sit outside with a breeze blowing, relaxing after a day of running around.   Shanna, myself, and two friends from the tour group we'd made that week decided that we'd all try some of the local caviar.  I didn't know this prior to our visit, but apparently Russia is famous for it's caviar.  I'd never tried it before because eating fish eggs doesn't sound appealing, but when in Russia...

I went down to the store at the bottom of the hotel and bought a little can of it.  It was NOT cheap, so I was glad we were splitting it with other people.  When our waiter came around, we asked him for crackers to eat with it, and if I didn't know better, I'd think that request personally offended him.  Apparently it's their custom to eat it with pancakes.  Not the fluffy pancakes we eat in the US, but the thin kind more commonly known as Crepes.  So we ordered some Crepes, a round of Russian Vodka, and tried it.  I have to admit...I really liked the Caviar.  I didn't think I would, but it was good, and went well with the Crepes.

After that we called it a night.  The next day was our last full day in Russia, and we were on our way to visit the Hermitage Museum.  It's one of the oldest and largest museums in the world, founded by Catherine the Great.  It contains 3 million pieces in it's collection.  There were some really neat things in there, including paintings from Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rafael.  The only person missing was Donatello!  It also had the only Michelangelo statue in Russia called The Crouching Boy.  I had posted on Facebook that we were in St. Petersburg, and Esra, our guide from when we visited Istanbul, told us we had to visit the oldest carpet in the world that the museum has...because it's Turkish.  So when we arrived at the museum we made sure to grab a map, and found it.  They had closed off the most direct route to the carpet, so we had to climb up the stairs to the second level, walk from one end to the other (the place is huge) and find another stair case to take us back down to the first floor.  When we found the stair case, it too was closed.  We finally found another stair case, and made our way down.  As we navigated through the rooms to the carpet, we finally got within one room of it...and the way was closed off.  Apparently for that day only they were holding a concert, and the room that contained the carpet was closed to the public.  Go figure.

One neat thing Elena told us as we walked through the rooms was that during World War II, most of the art was evacuated by train to other places to keep them safe when the Germans invaded.  The museum itself, though, was not maintained.  With the harsh winters and humid conditions, there was extensive damage to the wood flooring and walls.  They have since restored it, but left one panel unrestored so you could see the difference.

When we entered the Rembrandt section, we got to see the famous Prodigal Son painting, but the more interesting one to me was the painting called Danaë.  In 1985 a man visited the museum and asked to see the most valuable piece they had.  He was taken to this painting, where he proceeded to toss acid on it and slice it with a knife.  A security guard was able to stop him, but the acid that spilled on him cost the guard his hands.  After 12 years, they were able to fully restore the painting.  You can still see some streaks where the acid ran down it, but for the most part, you'd never know anything happened.

When we finished at the museum, we visited St. Isaacs Cathedral, the largest one in the city.  It was huge, and like most European cathedrals, ornately decorated.  The architect whose design was chosen for the church first broke ground when he was 30 years old.  He said at the time that this would be his life's work, and he was right.  It was finally finished when he was 70 years old, and he died shortly after it's completion.  One of the interesting things about the church was the giant dome in the center of it.  When the church was first built, the center of the dome had a large dove in the middle.  When you walked to the center of the church and looked up, you could see it.  During the Soviet Era, when religion was frowned upon, they removed the dove and replaced it with a giant pendulum.  After the Soviet Union collapsed, the pendulum was removed and the dove was put back.

When we left the Cathedral, the touring was done for the day.  The group mentioned to Elena that we were interested in a boat tour, so she said she would arrange it for the next day.

It was finally Sunday, our last day in Russia.  Elena wasn't picking us up until 1pm, so we had the whole morning to ourselves.  We slept in, got some breakfast, and met Penny and Adam in the lobby.  There was a metro stop next to the hotel, and we wanted to find this grocery store Elena had told us about.  It was built in 1902, but over the years, fell into disrepair.  It was recently renovated, and now looks great...and exactly like it did when it was built in 1902.  Thanks to Edward showing us around in Moscow, it was easy to figure out the metro.  And just like in Moscow, the metro lines are located FAR under ground.  It was a good 3-4 minute escalator ride down and back up.

We got off at the right stop, and after figuring out the map, we were able to find the place.  It was called  Kupetz Eliseevs, and it did not disappoint.  When you walked in the doors, it was like stepping back 100 years.  There was a self playing piano playing "old time" music, everything was beautifully decorated, and the food they offered looked amazing.  Fresh meats, cheeses, macaroons, live oysters, and of course, caviar.  The caviar was insanely expensive.  A 500G (17 oz) container cost almost $1,500.  They had a cafe inside too, so we sat down and ordered coffee (juice for me) and some sweets.  When they brought me my apple juice, it was unlike any apple juice I'd ever seen.  Instead of a clear amber color like I was expecting, it was green and cloudy.  I took a sip, and it tasted like an actual apple.  It was delicious!  They must have taken an apple and juiced it.  It was so good.  When we were done, and ready to pay our bill, they brought the check out in an engraved box.  We put our money in, closed the box up, and gave it back to the waitress...it was kind of neat.

I also finally found a souvenir I wanted here.  I didn't want to buy something just to buy something, so I was waiting until something caught my eye.  If nothing did, that was fine.  But they had a neat decanter with their logo engraved on it, and some martini glasses to go with it, so I picked that up.  It was either that, or the bottle of Cognac they had that came out to approximately $14,000.

When we left, it was about time to start heading back to the hotel.  We got there, checked out, and when Elena came, we loaded our luggage into the bus.  From there we went to one of the canals to begin our boat tour.  The bus couldn't pull right up to the canal, so we had to walk a bit.  On the way, we passed a huge event where people were racing on what looked like snow skis with wheels.  They were FLYING by us!  Eventually we made it to the canal.  As the boat got under way, Elena told us about some of the buildings we were looking at.  To be honest, though, everyone was just enjoying sitting back in the sun while cruising the Neva River.

When the boat ride wrapped up, we hopped on the bus and headed to the airport.  While it wasn't anywhere near as bad as our ordeal in Moscow, St. Petersburg airport has to be the worst airport I've ever been in.  And I didn't think anything could compare to the chaos in the Cairo airport.  There weren't any good signs telling you where to go, and it was a free for all.  On top of it all, the airport had no air conditioning.  With that many people packed into a small area, it was HOT.  We eventually found the right counter, but we had gotten there too early...we had to stand in the heat, waiting in line for the counter to open, for an hour and a half.  When it finally did, things went smoothly.  We checked our luggage, went through the passport control, and made our way to our gate.  Remember how I said there are a lot of American fast food chains in Russia?  Right next to our gate was a TGI Fridays.  We were all hungry, and chowed down on burgers and wings...a little taste of America before flying back to Germany.  The flight home was much smoother than the flight there, and before we knew it, we were in Frankfurt.  I've never appreciated being in a German airport like I did that day.  We hopped the train back to Stuttgart, and thankfully met up with Katia's husband, Scott, who was nice enough to give us a ride home.

Overall, this trip was incredible.  It had it's problems, but what trip doesn't?  We saw things that I never thought I'd ever see, and it's definitely a trip we'll never forget.  The visa process is a hassle, and it's not cheap, but if you ever have a chance to visit Russia, do it.  You won't regret it.

I'm not sure when the next blog post will be.  We both have 5 days off in September, so we're going somewhere, I'm just not sure where yet.  Stay tuned!

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.