Better Late Than Never

My excuse for not posting in far too long: my computer is running low on memory, so I've been having to save photos from my computer onto "the cloud" so I can get new pictures from my camera. I think it's valid.

Anyway, a while back (two weeks ago, now) I was in St. Petersburg, which was awesome. We took a night train that left Moscow around Midnight and arrive in Petes at about 8, and then had four days (three nights) in Petersburg. A tiny amount of history: in 1701 Peter looked out at a swamp and said, "I want a city to be here." Three years later, there was a city. Within ten years, it was the capital of Russia. He wanted it to be like the cities he'd seen in Europe, and so Petersburg has wide avenues, European architecture, etc. Walking the streets, I was really struck by the fact that the city only existed because one man said he wanted it to be there. It was gorgeous. The worst thing about it was that almost all the signs were written in both Russian and English (seriously, I'm not working so hard to learn this language for them to just put signs in both languages!)

I spent 4 to 5 hours in the Hermitage, which is a building that really deserves at least 30 hours to be really appreciated (seriously, I'm not exaggerating). It is this MASSIVE art museum. They had paintings by Leanardo da Vinci, by Raphael, (but no Michelangelo or Donatello; below is a Raphael's Madonna and Child):

a bunch of van Dykes

but then the stuff that I really liked was their collection of Impressionisms. Van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse (who was my favorite).

Oh, and, you know, they had some Picasso, too.

It's worth a visit, if you're ever in the area.

During our stay we were in a hotel that was just about a 5 minute walk from Nevsky Prospect, which is the main street in Petersburg (Nikolai Gogol wrote a short story just describing this famous street (note: Petersburg has changed since Gogol was writing about it)). In Moscow, I've been staying in a more residential part of the city, and it takes a good 30 minute metro ride to get downtown (with a 20 minute walk to the metro station in my neighborhood on top), so it was really nice to be right downtown. Being on Nevsky Prospect gives you a good dose of the history that this young city has had. For instance, there is still a sign spray painted on a wall on one side of the street from the Siege of Leningrad (back when St. Petersburg was called Leningrad; this is not to be confused with the short stint when it was called Petrograd). The sign warns that that side of the street was within reach of German artillery, and suggested you use the other side of the street. The siege lasted 900 days. Devastation.

Then, I saw Peter and Paul Fortress, which was pretty cool, but nothing spectacular. It was cool, because it's where Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and the last of the Romanov family (and all the Tsars in between) are buried. And yet, with that being said, it's just another church, and some tombs. Neat. Important. But let's just say that I haven't used the limited space I have on my hard drive to download those photos just yet.

Then we had a free day, and so I went with a group out to Tsarskoye Selo. It's a palace. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Ballroom.

The white walls with gold ornamentation is literally how 95% of the rooms were decorated. It actually became monotonous. I think the blue ceramic thing is a furnace.

This is the Amber Room. I wasn't supposed to take a picture in here (and I wasn't looking when I took the picture, which is why it's slanted funny and not the best picture in the world), but the entire room is covered in small amber stones. BEAUTIFUL. The stones range from a sunny yellow to a crimson red. Here's a link to wikipedia's photo of the room, which gives a better representation: amber room
The outside. This is only about half of the palace (it goes on in the opposite direction, too).

The dog house.

(okay, I don't actually know what this building is for.)

Oh, and the trip out to Tsarskoye Selo was fun. We rode Marshrutka, which are 15 passenger vans that have set routes, like buses. Our group ended up having to split up onto two marshrutkas, because the first was already half full, and the second group never made it. They ended up staying on for too long and missing the palace. They got to walk the Russian countryside. They made it back to Moscow safe and sound, though. Don't worry.

I think that's all. I think that's enough. Sorry this was so long, but the length is also why I've been putting off typing this for so long.