Russia

Well, I've finally decided to write something! It's been a few weeks (perhaps my luggage situation had turned me off of writing) since I last posted.

After arriving in St. Petersburg, sans luggage, we arrived at Megan and (her) Aunt Kelly's apartment. The apartment is in a reconstructed building that was geared towards westerners. It is in a section of town that houses many foreign consulates, including the American, so there are a lot of consulate workers in the building. Megan's two neighbors are a Canadian couple and a guy named John who works at the American consulate. John came over one day and gave us a half of a cheesecake that he was given. John is very, eh, American.

After settling in, we went to Megan's favorite cafe/restaurant Polyglot. It's this cool chic spot that caters to the American (and other) consulates that is across the street. The (first) night we went there was this three-piece jazz band that included an accordion. An accordion is not exactly what I envisioned being in a jazz band, but it worked.

We spent the next few days walking around the city. We (and by we I mean I with Megan's total assistance) explored Nevsky Prospekt and the areas surrounding the Neva River. Nevsky Prospekt is the main street of St Petersburg. It's sort of like the Miracle Mile or Fifth Avenue of Chicago and New York respectively.

One thing that I noticed myself doing a lot was "reading" signs. I use quotes because I have a limited grasp on the Cyrillic alphabet, so I stare at a sign and sound out the words. Mind you, I didn't understand the words I was saying, but by the end of the two weeks I was getting sort of good at phonetically reading Russian. Okay, okay. Just mediocre at it.

As we walked down the street, we ducked into a few churches most notably the Kazan Cathedral and the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. The church is a little like St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow (more on this later) but smaller.

Near the Church of the Spilled Blood is this market area which is full of little souvenir shops. All the shopkeeps speak English and really want you to buy something!

We also saw the Tomb of the Unknown, Palace Square, the world famous Hermitage. The Hermitage is housed in the Winter Palace which was home to the tsars from 1762 to 1917 when Nicholas II was ousted by the Bolshevik Revolution.

We spent the greater part of the week doing these touristy things. Walking is the main form of transportation in St. Petersburg. Combined with a Metro system that puts American mass transit to shame, and a few bus rides getting around was relatively easy. Even though I did not have my boots (in my luggage) I was able to manage the snow, slush, and ice with my normal clumsy swagger.

Also we crossed the river to see the Peter and Paul Fortress. The Fortress was built during the wars with Sweden in the 1700s.

The food in Russia was quite good, though I did not sample a great variety, we did eat at Yolki-Palki (sp?) a "fast-food" restaurant chain which features a variety of Russian foods. We also went to McDonald's! We ate at a lot of cafes which are plentiful around town. As far as eating it seemed that we didn't do a lot of it.

We'd have breakfast in the morning, and by morning I mean 11:00, and then we would have snack and a light dinner. I was definitely eating much less while over there but I also think that is because Megan and I tend to be very focused on the task at hand that hunger sort of slips your mind. I think we spent an entire day in the Hermitage without eating.

Once I think this started to affect me and I got real grumpy most probably due to the low blood sugar.

We ate at one of two Indian restaurants on New Years Eve. It was good though it lacked some of the spices one might expect. For the midnight hour we walked over to Palace Square. There were many people gathered at the Square. They were drinking, smiling (this is quite unusual) and all-in-all having a good time. It was a little scary because Russian's seem to love fireworks. And they're not afraid to light them up in the middle of large crowds! Fireworks were going off everywhere around us. I wouldn't be surprised if there were injuries, but we managed to last the night without losing any limbs.

New Years Day we took the overnight train to Moscow. We arrived in Moscow predawn and stepped off of the Metro and onto Red Square. It was so beautiful my heart skipped a beat. At the end of Red Square stands St Basil's Cathedral. To one side is the Kremlin and the other is GUM (pronounced Goom). Now Moscow's State Department Store (a mall really,) GUM was originally built for that purpose. However, during Soviet rule, GUM was transformed into office space for Stalin's Five-Year Plan.

We went to the Kremlin, but for some reason it was kid's day and there were hundreds, if not thousands, of little brats, errr, kids running around. It made things a little confusing and frustrating for us, as it made getting tickets and checking our bags difficult. Plus they were funneling the children on certain tracks that it inconvenience us average sightseers.

After touring the Kremlin we went to the hotel to check in. We were staying slightly out of the city center, but it was Metro accessible so it wasn't bad. Our hotel was Gamma Delta (Cyrillic is loosely based on the Greek alphabet.) There was also an Alpha, Beta, and Vega building. 'B' (pronounced V) is the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet which doesn't appear in Greek. So, I guessed they made up a name that sounded Greek!

The next day we went into town looking for a couple of museums. However, the guidebook we were using had some inaccuracy and we didn't find one and the other was closed. So we walked around for awhile and made our way back to the hotel.

The next day we were a little more successful. I waited to see Lenin's body (yup he's dead.) and went into St. Basil's. We then walked over to the Tretyakov Gallery which has a very large sculpture garden. The garden is home to some interesting old Soviet statues and monuments. Nearby one can see a hideous monument to Peter the Great. We also went into the gallery which features Russian 20th century art including "The Black Box" and "Phenomenon" which was my favorite piece.

We made our way across town to see a huge monument to Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space,) KGB headquarters, and the Bolshoi Theatre.

We walked down Arbat which is a long outdoor pedestrian mall with many souvenir and art shops.

We arrived back in St. Petersburg the next morning after another punctual overnight train.

With just three days left in the trip, I decided that day would be a good day to go souveniring. I also felt that I could venture out alone! I went back to the market by the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. I bought my fair share of Russian souvenirs. I also went to McDonald's and ordered all by myself! Although somehow I ended up with two of everything I ordered.

On my second to last day we went to a suburban town of Pushkin. There we went to the palace of Catherine the Great. I also got to meet Miron, Aunt Kelly's driver/assistant.

My flight back from St. Petersburg was uneventful. The only notable event was the arrest of a drunk passenger at the airport bar in New York.