A Grand Week in St. Pete

As of this Wednesday, our group has successfully passed the overall halfway mark of our trip!  While it is weird to think that we are about a month away from going home, I’m sure it will only make us more anxious to see what Moscow has to offer.  That, and cramming the city of St. Petersburg in in only a week, will help refresh our interest in exploring and learning all about Russia.  As I sit in a St. Petersburg bread shop typing this, I want to talk about what St. Petersburg offered us this week, and what a unique, vibrant city it turned out to be.

 

On Saturday, July 23, we arrived in Peter’s city by way of express train.  We were introduced to Nievsky Prospect, the main, historic road that is the heart of the city, and settled down at our hostel.  I’ll use this day to talk about our hostel, since it ended up being a very frustrating place.  I knew before we got here that St. Petersburg was built on a swamp (around the Neva river at least) and I guess I should have known that with swamps and stagnant areas come mosquitoes and heat.  But I didn’t expect our hostel to be unequipped to deal with these annoyances.  Anyways, all of us were eaten alive over this trip.  Having killed 30 some mosquitoes in our room alone and wrapped up in a hot, itchy blanket at night, I got off with only a few bites, but some of us looked like we redeveloped the chicken pox or heavy acne and provided a grand feast for the bugs at night.  Living in fear, our hostel quickly became an unhappy place to stay and it was in our best interests to stay out in the city until we were absolutely ready to go to sleep.  I don’t mean to complain so long, but it was a pretty terrible experience.

On Sunday, we were given a boat tour of the main part of the city in order to get our bearings before we really started to explore.  Getting to ride along in these canals made me realize how similar Pete is to Venice in Italy.  While Venice is, of course, immense in all of its islands and canals, the few main rivers that flow through St. Petersburg help to give off the same vibe and I enjoyed seeing all the buildings from the water.  After the tour, we were let off the leash to go explore this new city.  After viewing St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Winter Palace, and Alexander’s Column, a few of us went off on my hunt for the Yusupov Palace where Rasputin died.  I declined to talk about Rasputin’s death in detail in the other blogs, but I wanted to give the background in this one for anyone who doesn’t know or remember the fun facts.  

Before the Russian Revolution kicked off in 1917, the Romanov family was still the Czars of Russia.  The heir to the Czar dynasty and son to the Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, Alexei, was a hemophiliac, meaning that if his blood clotted, he would be in serious danger of dying.  The Grand Duchess put her faith in a “mystic healer”, Gregori Rasputin, to heal her son and keep him healthy.  Because of this, Rasputin gained the trust and ear of the Empress who, of course, had the trust and ear of her husband, Czar Nicholi.  A group of royal princes, led by Felix Yusupov, decided that Rasputin’s advice was corrupting the Czar family and, in order to protect Russia, Rasputin had to die.  They lured him to the Yusupov Palace, located on the Moika River Canal, in December of 1916 and fed him cakes laced with enough poison to kill ten men.  When this failed to kill him (researchers think that the poison was accidentally rendered useless by the heat of the oven used to make the cakes), Yusupov shot Rasputin straight in the back of the head.  Deciding to go celebrate, the men left the body and were about to leave the palace when Felix decided to check Rasputin one more time.  Rasputin came awake and attacked the Prince and started to flee out into the courtyard of the palace until the other conspirators returned and shot him and clubbed his body.  They chained up his body, wrapped it in a rug, and threw it into the icy Moika river.  When his body was discovered, he had not died from being poisoned, shot multiple times, beaten, and wrapped in a rug…. He had escaped his bonds under water and had been unable to break out of the ice, so the cause of death was hypothermia and drowning.  He was definitely a stubborn one.

Anyways, we made our way to the Yusupov palace where the courtyard where Rasputin was caught again had been turned into an apartment complex and playground.  As I said previously, I definitely was going to play on this playground (see picture above), so that’s what we did.  When we took turns riding the see-saw, our friend Huang accidentally bounced Kelly was too high and she took a face plant on the see saw.  While her nose was thankfully not broken and her face was intact, she did suffer a heavy bruise to her eye and temporary swelling on her cheek.  We blamed Huang’s actions on the spirit of Rasputin possessing him.

 

On Monday, we went to St. Peter and Paul Fortress, which is the founding building of St. Petersburg and the jewel of the city.  The restorers there did a very good job keeping the complex up to its original state and there was a lot to see.  While I did not go into the Cathedral where the Czar family was buried after their murder in 1918 and discovery of their bodies in 1998, my friends said it was a very beautiful resting spot for a family that went through so much.  The prison, which housed many famous prisoners such as Peter the Great’s son and Leon Trostky, was very dark, small, and dismal and I can only imagine how terrible it must have been a few hundred years ago.  There was also this very awkward, ugly statue of Peter the Great (see above again) that was supposed to show that even amazing rulers are only human, or something like that. 

On Tuesday, we were given tickets to go to the Hermitage museum within the Winter Palace.  I’m not going to lie, trying to take in every piece of art I saw and appreciate it was one of the most tiring things I’ve ever done.  According to a tour guide, if you stood in front of every single piece of art the museum has to offer for only a few seconds, it would take you 8 years to see everything.  I believe it.  We couldn’t even find the stairs to the third floor because of how vast the building is.  The art pieces were absolutely incredible and the rooms that they were housed in were equally awesome.  We saw pieces from Egypt, France, Italy, Greece, China, England, and Russia, of course, and they all had their own unique pride from each country.  It was a fantastic experience, even though I was so tired from walking around this building.

We got our first free day on Wednesday, which I used to finally get a few souvenirs for people back home.  I also got to go running for the third time that I’ve been in Russia, and I ran to the Neva River and got to appreciate the landscape of the outer city from its banks.  Some of the girls in our group also got tickets to the Swan Lake at the Alexander Theater, which I think would have been cooler to say that I saw Swan Lake in Russia than actually seeing the ballet itself… We also saw the bridges across the Neva River rise at 1am and then made our way back down Nievsky late at night.  One little opinion of mine I want to put out there is that whenever you are in any type of city or town, be sure to experience them during the day and during the night.  The experience is much better than what you would have gotten from only spending part of a day there. 

Yesterday we took a bus to the Peterhof Palace, which was Peter the Great’s estate located on the Bay of Finland.  Known as the Versailles of Russia, its gardens and landscape was absolutely incredible.  We took a tour of the house, which we couldn’t take pictures in unfortunately, but it was very beautiful and each room was completely different and separately decorated from any other room in the house.  However, after the tour, we were only given 45 minutes to wander the vast area that surrounds the Palace so we were put in a mad rush to appreciate the numerous fountains, forests, water, and gardens that are scattered around.  I don’t think we even got to half of what we could have, if we had been given more time.  It was such a pretty area to visit.  Afterwards, we got dropped off back on Nievsky Prospect and had our group meal at кэт, which is a Georgian restaurant.  Even though I had never eaten 90% of what we were given at dinner, it was all amazing food and I enjoyed every single thing that was put in front of us.  There was lamb, Georgian lemonade, beans, salad, and this delicious cheese bread that I think may have been called Khachapuri.  I wish I knew all the names for all these amazing dishes.  One thing that Russia has taught me is that I did not know what good bread tasted like before I got here.  All the bread (хлеб in Russian) I’ve had here, whether they be pastries or just regular loaves, is so delicious and filling.  The Georgian bread we had was so superb that I think it was the reason Russia invaded Georgia in 2008.  Too good.  

Today is our last day in St. Petersburg and I am going to miss it.  I am glad, however, that we are studying in Moscow, where the metro goes absolutely everywhere and there isn’t much walking.  The St. Petersburg metro misses out on a few random parts of the city and seems to be more complicated to use.  I hope I have a legitimate reason to come back here one day so I can tour Pete again and explore more of Russia’s second largest city.  Thanks for reading all of this, have a great week everybody!

Halfway Done; Preparing for Saint Petersburg

Hey everyone!  With half of our class time done in Moscow, we are in need of a week-long break without classes.  Therefore, tomorrow morning we shall find ourselves on our way to Saint Petersburg for a full week of exploring and sight seeing.  Like I said before, our program director has many exciting things planned for us this week (scavenger hunts, cultural tours, and group activities for a start) and the two days that we get to ourselves will also be jam-packed full of adventures around St. Petersburg.  I wanted to give a quick summary of what we did this week and also what I myself know about St. Petersburg.  I'm also going to attempt to add pictures into this to help make Russia more appealing than my descriptions can. 

On Thursday, we took our group excursion to Park Pobedy, where the Museum of the Great Patriotic War is located.  All I can say about this museum is that it is simply beautiful.  In World War II, Russia lost more than 27 million people (soldiers and civilians) in order to survive the Nazi invasion and help the Allies win the war.  To honor their dead, they created this amazing memorial on the 50th anniversary of ending the war so that the spirit of what they died for lives on.  The US lost about 650,000, if I'm correct, which is 40x less than what Russia lost.  So in all fairness, Russia's mourning shines through 40x more than our WWII memorials in Washington.  I really can't describe it, it was absolutely stunning. 

Inside the museum, you go downstairs to the Hall of Remembrance and Sorrow.  Along the walls are record books which attempt to record the names of every single life lost from 1941-1945.  On the ceiling are 2.6 million chains adorned with little, shining crystals which is meant to represent the tears Russia wept for their dead.  At the end of the hall is a statue of Mother Russia cradling her dead son.  It is a truly beautiful place, with such a solemn, yet peaceful, aura around it that it creates the most perfect environment to remember such a terrible tragedy.  The emotions and feelings of what it is like to be here cannot be described adequately through photo or words.

Once you go upstairs and pass through the Hall of Commanders (where most of the museum's artifacts and war remnants are kept), you enter the Hall of Glory.  In this hall, the names of the 11,800 people who were the recipients of the Hero of the Soviet Union distinction are featured on the wall.  This was the highest award one could be given, and they were awarded it for their actions in war-time and their efforts to protect their country.  In the center of the hall stands the Soldier of Victory, and on the walls are the Russian cities who were attacked during the war and still survive today.  The room is a very imposing and tremendous memorial, and you can't help but be silent and respect the heroes of the Soviet era. The same also goes for the entire museum, which is one of the most fantastic mixes of art and emotion that you can ever hope to see.

What we saw today was a bit less dramatic than the War Museum, but it was still pretty neat anyways.  We went to the Moscow City Mall (built underneath the new, modern economic skyscrapers that the city is constructing on its west side) and saw giant Matriochka pieces, which I have no clue as to how they got them in the building.  We then got to explore around this neat, modernized mall with a cool color fountain as its centerpiece.  While I did not buy any of the expensive clothes or souvenirs this place had to offer, three hours of walking around looking at things made me the most tired I've been on this trip.  Good thing we have our train ride tomorrow.  

Now, finally, I get to talk about St. Petersburg real quick and then prepare to start my week there.  Founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703, the city was, and is considered today, to be Russia's most Westernized city.  Peter the Great himself actually took a lot of heat for designing the city as he temporarily moved Russia's capital to there and the older, powerful Russians didn't like that.  So after assassination attempts and treason charges, Peter still got his city, but even today Russians don't seem to like him for it anyways.  We were told that a statue of Peter the Great in Moscow (pictured here) that sits on the Moskva river is looked down upon by Muscovites and we were more than welcome to take it back to America with us if we wanted.  Anyways, St. Petersburg grew regardless and today is a cultural icon in the world.  Home to the Hermitage (which is the largest art museum in the world), it has over 220 museums for us to be overwhelmed by and throws about 100 city wide cultural festivals each year.  Hopefully we came on a good week.  I'm particularly excited to see the  magnificent Church of the Savior on Blood which was built on the spot where Alexander the II was assassinated in 1881.  Also, like I said last time, I'm excited to go to the Moika Palace where Rasputin was killed, even though the Wikipedia page says that a playground has been built on the square where he was tossed into the Moika river.  Whatever, I'll play on it regardless.  I cannot wait to see everything and take a ton of photos to share with everyone.  We're all looking forward to what will surely be one of the best weeks of our lives.  Hope everyone enjoyed this!  Have a great week!

Living and Learning

In the past week, I would say our study abroad group has hit the point where, on a daily basis, we can't manage to sit in class for four hours and then go off explore the beautiful areas Moscow has to offer.  While classes are still manageable, I would say that a slight culture shock has set in for most people.  Luckily for us, after we finish with the first half of our program this Friday, we get to go to St. Petersburg for a week long excursion.  After hearing from our director about all the fantastic places we get to visit next week, I'm excited and ready to get through this week.  The one place I want to go to that isn't already on our list is to the Moika Palace where I believe Gregori Rasputin was killed in 1916.  He has fascinated me for years, starting back in 1998 when I first saw the rather historically inaccurate cartoon movie, Anastasia.  It should be an amazing trip and I can't wait to write about it.

This week, we went to the Tretyakov Gallery, which is the foremost collection of Russian art in the world.  It was a incredible place and our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about every painting and artist we viewed.  I've never found art museums to be all that interesting, but Russian art in the 19th century was astounding and I was extremely thankful we had the opportunity to visit. 


At the end of each week, we turn in personal journals to our director so we can all keep track of our growth during this trip.  We are supposed to write a cultural success and  failure that happen each day (IE a success being that we successfully ordered food without getting stared at awkwardly and a failure being that the waitress asked you a question and you just stare blankly in response).  On Thursday, I actually wrote down two success instead of a failure since I felt Thursday was one of the best days I had had here yet.  It was our first "Speak-Only-In-Russian" day so from 12:01am to midnight we were only allowed to speak in Russian.  While I dreaded it all week, when the day started, I actually felt I didn't do a wholly terrible job at communicating all day.  Sure, it took a lot out of me and I was on edge at all times, but I honestly felt that I was grasping this difficult language.  My other success for the day was that I ran by myself to Red Square from our University (about a 5 mile round trip) and I really enjoyed getting to take in Red Square and all the people on a regular day.  Such an awesome place.

Also, like I mentioned before, Harry Potter premiered for the final time on Wednesday here and I was fortunate enough to see it in Russian and English.  There may have been many changes from the book to the movie, but I thought it was a great close to all the years the world spent enjoying Harry.  I will definitely be seeing it again in the States but I hope everyone enjoyed the movie immensely. 

In a final note, I've been keeping up with the local news here in Moscow and the national news going on back home in the US.  It was reported today that a militant attack being planned to strike in Moscow was foiled and that explains the heightened tension I witnessed on the Metro earlier this afternoon.  While events and stories like these are what intrigue me, I can only hope that nothing happens this summer while we are here.  The same goes for America, as well, as there are continuous reports about Al-Qaeda wanting to strike on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in a few months.  With any luck, the world won't have to experience anything like Mumbai experienced last week and we all can remain safe. 

I hope that our visit to the Armed Forces museum on Thursday is interesting and I will try to add in a few more excursions this week so Moscow can remain interesting for everyone!  Have a great week! 

Inside the Kremlin

Of all the past experiences that took place this week, our group excursion to Kremlin on Wednesday was by far the most interesting thing I've done here yet.  Being allowed to be led through the Kremlin is like being allowed to tour a Washington D.C. that is guarded by impregnable walls.  Surrounded by twenty Kremlin towers, the connecting walls were built between 1485 and 1495 and five of the tallest towers have the Russian ruby star at their peak.  The Kremlin itself was neglected until 1773 when Catherine the Great decided to make the official residence of Russian rulers.  Napoleon also took the Kremlin for his own when he unwisely invaded in 1812.  Since then, Moscow has done many repairs and renovations to the fortress and, although there is still some going on now, it is a fantastic mix of modern and historic architecture.

Once inside the Kremlin, you automatically see the modern-looking Grand Kremlin Palace to your right and the Arsenal to your left.  The Arsenal has 900 or so cannons surrounding its base which were taken from Napoleon's Grand Army during his retreat from the city.  Nearby stand two huge medieval wonders:  the Tsar Bell, the world's largest bell and the pride of Russia, and the Tsar Cannon, a 39 ton cannon that fires 1 ton cannon balls.  While the bell was never rung, as it cracked during its making, the cannon was fired at least once and I would hate to see who was on the receiving end of the blast.

Once past all the military equipment, there are many amazing churches in Cathedral Square.  Having been fortunate enough to have seen the Vatican last year, I would say that these churches all together are as remarkable, if not more so, than Rome's churches.  The architecture is beautiful and most were actually built by Italian architects, which explains why they could surpass the churches in Italy.  The golden domes on top of Cathedrals also brighten the Square and cast a peaceful light on the area.  The fresco inside the Church of the Deposition of the Robe was actually much more impressive to me than the Sistine Chapel within the Vatican.  The entire inside of the Church is covered in detailed drawings of Church stories.  One such story our tour guide pointed out was Judas's descension into Hell.  It was a very interesting place.

We also got to tour the Armory which now holds all of Moscow's prized possessions, such as royal robes, carriages, embassy gifts, and jewels.  It was overwhelming how many diamonds and gold were used to create Russian thrones or crowns.  After our tour of the Kremlin, our group split up and a few of us blindly made our way to Old Arbat, which is a famous pedestrian street that was made in the 15th century.  Many famous Russians, such as Alexander Pushkin, lived on this street at one point in time.  After we finally broke down and ate Wendy's... we made our way up to another one of Moscow's remarkable Seven Sister buildings and tried to find a metro.  Having no idea where to go, we made our way up a different street and wandered through an embassy row, where we saw the Canadian, Jamaican, Dutch, and Finnish embassies.  After finally utilizing our Russian and asking an old couple for directions, we were back on the Metro and on our way home.   

Another interesting excursion that a few of us decided to take was to the Novodevichy Cemetery.  Buried there are world famous Russians such as Chekhov, Gogol, Petrovsky, Ulanova, Krushchev, and Yeltsin.  It was extremely fascinating to see how large and magnificent their tombstones were.  Most army generals, it seems, wanted to be buried under a full statue of themselves with their military decorations present.  At Chekhov's grave, many people had left pens there which I thought was neat.  I actually haven't seen many famous American graves in my life (Ben Franklin and Arlington Cemetery are the only ones which comes to mind) and it was just neat that so many important Russians are buried here.

One more rather interesting experience I will share is that several of us decided to go to Patriarch Ponds in the Presnensky District of Moscow.  It is an upper class residential area that has a large pond near its center, and we went to go check it out.  By the pond is a statue of Ivan Krylov, and my friend Kelly and I decided to pose on the statue for a picture.  While I was on top of it, this drunk, rambling Russian man came up to us and started directing Kelly to get on top of the statue.  All we knew how to say between laughs was "Net, spiceba" (No thank you) and could not understand what all he was saying.  He then started to shove Kelly up there awkwardly so, once we were in his desired place, we took another photo.  The man then started to follow us around the pond so we hurried to a different section of the park.  It was definitely one of the more awkward/funny things that has happened to me in a while.

This upcoming week holds a big moment for me.  On Wednesday night at midnight here, the final Harry Potter movie will premiere, effectively ending my childhood.  In all seriousness, I have to see that movie (preferably in English, but I'll take what I can get).  After the movie, with thirteen years of Harry Potter finally aside, I can focus on my adult life which currently entails learning the Russian language.  I hope everyone back home enjoys the movie as much as I will, and I hope Harry stays in your hearts forever.  I wish I could say I am kidding, but I'm not.  I'll write again on here sometime next week!  Thanks for reading!

Both Sides of the Coin

In the past week, we've come to realize that Moscow can't make up its mind when it comes to being a Westernized city or an Eastern city like the rest of Russia.  The city has done a great job of making itself unique, since no city I've ever seen or read about has such a mix of well-kept (and not so well-kept) historical buildings in addition to the budding growth of skyscrapers and economic centers that are sprinkled throughout the land.  In the US we are used to concentrations of large buildings in our cities' center, but in Moscow, there are more and more towers that pop up randomly in the outskirts of the city.  This helps to show that Russia is trying to keep up with the rest of the world, but in its own way.

Our excursions since Wednesday have also shown us that Moscow has class.  On Wednesday, we had the pleasure to meet with Russian students who speak English and ask them questions about life in Moscow and Russia.  The Russian I talked to gave us her opinion on Putin and Medvedev, which I found interesting since their political relationship is represented in America as, well, Medvedev's Robin to Putin's Batman.  She said that when Putin became President in 2000, Russia was very excited for him.  Similar to Obama's election, they thought he could do no wrong and everything in Russia would be fixed soon.  By 2004, they had realized that he wasn't the god they saw him to be, but he had still done a lot of good for the country.  In my own interest, I looked up the gains the Russian economy made throughout Putin's time in office, and it made an average of 7% gains each year from 2000-2008 and Russia's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) went from 22nd in the world to 10th.  Regardless of America's relationship with Russia and how our media portrays him, he has helped Russia a lot and the people here are grateful for that.  The woman also said that Russians do think Putin will run for President again in 2012 and keep a firm hold on his power for years to come.  To get a domestic opinion of this world-famous political situation absolutely fascinated me.

On Thursday, we got to go to the famous Большой театр (Bolshoi Theater) to see the opera The Queen of Spades.  Like I said previously, I read the Wikipedia page to prepare myself for it and I went into the theater thinking I'd know enough to survive the all Russian play, but there were televisions in the theater set aside for English subtitles, so I didn't need to focus on picking out Russian words I knew.  The voices of the opera singers were amazing, and I was impressed by how loud and long they could pronounce their notes.  Afterward, we walked over to Red Square to see the Square at night and it was beautiful yet again.  Our director said she wants us to go to Red Square a thousand times while we're here, and I really don't think I could ever get bored of it.  One thing we realized about Moscow is that the only way we won't get glaring looks here is if we wear our fancy Bolshoi clothes everywhere we go.  While a shirt with English on it will get you attention here, a group of 22 dressed up students taking the metro won't get a second glance.


On Friday, four of us decided to go to Moscow's Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics (or space museum) which was a thirty minute Metro ride to get to.  The museum was fascinating and was very comparable to the Air and Space museum in DC.  It also lies underneath a huge steel monument to space aviation and it's just a cool place to visit.  It was also located next to a Disney-esqe/King's Island theme park which was free to get into, but cost about ten dollars for all the shoddy rides and food.  It was still fun to see tons of Russians out and enjoying their weekend.


On Saturday, we took a bus around Moscow and our tour guide told us about the history of buildings such as St. Basil's, the Kremlin, and all the other famous buildings around Red Square.  It was neat to finally get the stories behind all these landmarks and I hope I can relay them to anyone who asks.  After finishing our first week of walking around everywhere and studying, we finally got a night to ourselves to just hang out and relax, which I will continue to look forward to each week we are here. 


Yesterday night, we got to take a boat up the Moskva river twice while getting to eat in the (air-conditioned) dinner cabin.  Two things I've realized about Russian food is that I don't know how Russians are adequately hydrated, given the small servings of beverage we are given at each meal, and I really like Bortsch (Russian beet stew).  It was really nice to get to see Red Square and all of Moscow's famous buildings from the river at night, and also just to relax with our group.  Hopefully all of our group outings are as interesting and fun as these first few have been.

Today is the Fourth of July!!! which is not celebrated here so our recognition of it has extended to wearing red, white, and blue.  Later tonight we are going to try and find an American restaurant or bar to try and celebrate American style and not miss out on the best holiday of the year.  I'm going to go take a nap now, but I hope everyone has a great Fourth and I'll write one of these in the next week!  Enjoy!