Hello all! How's everyone doing? As promised, here are some pictures from my trip to Russia! I really had a good time and would recommend it to anyone. Even in winter, St. Petersburg was beautiful, and culturally, it is a fascinating place!
I had been in Tallinn, Estonia for work (I'm in Estonia again this week), and I figured that since I was already all the way up there, I may as well try to explore! (Don't know where Estonia is? Neither did I - basically, it's between St. Petersburg and Stockholm.. way the hell up there.) My friends Ashley and Bo had recently gone to St. Petersburg, and between their glowing reviews and the ultra-depressed ruble, I figured that now was the perfect opportunity to visit!
The welcome sign at the airport!
I got in pretty late since I was flying over after work on Friday. (St. Petersburg is two hours ahead of Geneva time.) Since I was alone and it was late, I arranged for the hotel to come and pick me up at the airport, and I was so happy for the peaceful ride to this lovely hotel! Sometimes a girl just needs some luxury - especially when work is stressful!! Since it was already late, and I was exhausted, I was more than happy to tuck myself into my massive bed for a good night's sleep!
Saturday morning I woke and figured I would take advantage of the fancy hotel breakfast in the Catherine room. Breakfast wasn't included in my room rate, but I figured I would splurge a bit and indulge! The hotel was so beautiful that I couldn't help myself.
I took the hotel shuttle over to the Palace Square in the city center to meet up for a free walking tour! We started in Palace Square directly in front of the famed Hermitage Museum, which is inside the Winter Palace. As the name suggests, the Winter Palace is where the tsars used to come to spend winter, but now it has been converted into an enormous museum. From the outside, it is already a stunning work of art.
Our guide gave us some quick introductions (side note - the tour group consisted of three other Americans!) and talked about some of background on the Hermitage.
We headed over towards the side of the building, where we saw these guys.
One of them was a bit damaged during the war, but he has since been restored. You can only tell because he is the only one who doesn't have cracks in his ankles from the long-standing pressure.
Russians are said to still be fairly superstitious. We each took turns picking out one of the statues, touching the left big toe, and making a wish.
Next, we headed over towards the embankment of the river, which was pretty much frozen over. When it's warm, this is a major passage way, and the raising and lowering of the numerous drawbridges is actually supposed to be quite a sight! From our side of the river, we could see the Peter and Paul fortress, which was the original city center of St. Petersburg.
As always, there were these two lions. I find it fascinating how this symbol transcends so many cultures.
St. Petersburg is actually a bunch of small islands connected through canals and bridges. A really lovely place! We wandered along throughout the city center, taking a look at various statues and buildings of importance.
Frozen canal
This statue is meant to be "the" statue within St. Petersburg. Russians believe that this statue protects the city and must always be preserved. During the war,even when many statues were taken underground or hidden, they didn't want to move this one because they believe that this statue keeps St. Petersburg safe. Instead, they stacked piles of trash around and on top of the statue so that enemy planes flying above would think it was just a pile of trash and not bomb it.
Beautiful!
This is the Singer building - like Singer sewing machines!
After nearly three hours of walking around, our tour came to an end, and I took my tour guides recommendation for a local lunch place. None of the signs were in English, so I basically just pointed at things that looked tasty. I ended up with some soup, some sort of salad, and a small pastry for about five bucks.
In the afternoon, I headed back to Palace Square to go check out the Hermitage Museum. It is an enormous museum, and it is absolutely stunning on the inside. The collection itself is huge and beautiful, but I found myself equally drawn to the architecture and design of the buildings (the museum is spans several buildings that are connected together) themselves. Of course, I didn't get to see everything - I actually met an art history student who told me she has been coming to the Hermitage twice a week for the past year and a half and hasn't seen it all - but I downloaded the museum's app and one of the audio tours in order to hit some of the highlights.
There were kids playing frisbee outside the palace!
I love fancy ceilings, and the Hermitage had tons!
Throne room
Room dedicated to Russian war generals
Welcoming hall
Even the floors were works of art
This was some sort of elaborate peacock clock.. not sure how it worked exactly...
I love these.
Jupiter
After leaving the museum, I zipped over to go see the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. It's named as such because it was built on top of a site where a tsar was once killed as he was traveling to the Winter Palace. The church was almost destroyed several times, but we are lucky that it still stands - it's a beautiful place. I really love the traditional Russian look. The inside is stunning - tons of incredibly beautiful and intricate mosaic work. The colors are brilliant as well. It's not an enormous church, so it doesn't take long to walk through, but there is a lot to look at!
This sign was posted at the entrance to the church, and it made me laugh!
Ceiling!
This marks the place where the tsar was wounded.
I had plans to go to the ballet in the evening, and since I was already in the city center, I stopped for a quick snack and cup of coffee before the show. Since winter is the high season for ballet and opera, there were a few options that I could choose from. I went with a repertoire performance of classical ballet at the Hermitage Theater. The theater, which is attached to the Winter Palace, was traditionally used by the tsar and his family and friends, so it's very small. I think it probably seats 100 people? There is no assigned seating, so you have to be sure to get there early so that you can get a good seat - though to be fair, I think all the seats are pretty good in such a small venue.
I took ballet for many years when I was young, and it remains one of my most favorite life experiences. It was such a treat to be able to see the ballet in Russia, and in such a beautiful setting!
The only words in the program that I knew were in French haha.
On the way out of the theater, I couldn't resist one more photo of this church!
I had reservations at Tsar to do some caviar tasting for dinner! I don't think I've properly had caviar before this, so I figured that being in Russia was the perfect time to try it! Even with a depressed ruble, this meal was still a bit pricey. While I'm glad I did it, I'm not sure that I see what all the fuss is about over caviar.
I also had a massage at the hotel spa (squeezing every benefit possible out of the strong dollar) and enjoyed a late lunch at a super cute food hall before heading back to the airport. The weekend flew by really quickly, and though I did get to see quite a lot, there is so much that I didn't get to see! I wish I could've stayed longer, but I'm still so glad that I went.
