St. Petersburg, North-West Russia, Russian Federation
October 10, 2013
It’s been a good day today for seeing St Petersburg…..a bad day for blisters though!
First off St Petersburg is just like any other major city, full of hustle and bustle with everyone going about their business. Looking around the people you wouldn’t even know you were in Russia at times until it comes to looking for a particular shop for something then you soon realise being able to read Russian would be pretty handy as I have to look in every window until I find the type of shop I’m looking for….unless you want a McDonalds or KFC that is, they are everywhere and Mc…something is a universal language. Russia isn’t exactly what I expected so far either. I feel just as safe here as in any other city in the world so far. But don’t forget it is early days!
I started off with a walk across the river to go and see the Peter and Paul fortress and in particular the Peter and Paul Cathedral within the fortress walls. The Cathedral is the oldest landmark in St Petersburg built between 1712-1733 and it holds the remains of all the great Russian Emperors and Empresses, from Peter the Great to Catherine the Great. It’s a stunning building inside, adorned with gold everywhere and a glorious painted ceiling, its kept in immaculate condition throughout. The fortress grounds are also home to an old prison which used to house the toughest criminals around.
There were quite a few other smaller exhibitions in the fortress grounds, one about Leonardo Da Vinci and his amazing inventions which looked really good and an exhibition of miniature art work, tiny insects put into poses with various miniature crafted objects such as playing a violin, or all dressed up in tiny insect suits! But not surprisingly all these side shows were not included in my entrance price and would have cost a fortune to get round them all individually so that may have to wait for another trip sometime. Coming out of the fortress I was greeted by the sight of what appeared to be a nuclear missile parked up next to the road! Yes, a nuclear missile…only in Russia I guess.
From the fortress I headed back over the river to the Hermitage Museum, and it certainly wasn’t hard to miss as the museum is huge. It’s absolutely vast once your inside and very easy to get lost. I must have seen billions of pounds worth of artworks today. At least two dozen works by Picasso, some decent Matisse works and Degas but despite all the major artists on display I found the sections on Japan, China, Mongolia, Tibet and India the most interesting. No famous names among the works and a lot of it was old artifacts, carvings, armour and figurines etc but I found a lot of it fascinating. Old carved masks, ancient weapons that are so intricate you can’t imagine why they were ever used in battle as so many man hours must have gone into creating them. I’m surprised wars weren’t over by the time some of these weapons were completed! You could literally spend the full day at this museum if you took your time round all of it however there was so much on offer and the old blisters were starting to rear their ugly blistery head again so I needed a break from it and headed off to check out the Church of the Savior on Blood. It has a fairly eerie name but what a beautiful church it is. It stands out for miles around and is so ornate and impressive. It’s a bit tourist central round there but it’s definitely worth checking out if your ever here.
A slow stroll back up Nevsky Prospect to the hostel and its time for tea already. Sat with a cuppa looking out the window its interesting to watch the local constabulary patrolling the busy roundabout, they seem to pull anyone over they can find, give them some kind of driving violation or fine, then once finished just randomly pull over the next car they can stop and do the same. Rinse and repeat….rinse and repeat, the Police must have the best paid job in town by the look of things. Other observations today are that the women definitely like to sport a serious bit of fringe action! Any bloke who isn’t at work seems to be hammered on Vodka and if you hold a door open for someone they look at you like you’re an alien.
Welcome to Russia.
