St. Petersburg, Russia

(WARNING: This post will be extremely long as I got 12 hours of commentary on this day to get recorded on this post!)

***********

I totally cannot believe that we are in Russia. It is so surreal to be someplace I never dreamed of and yet now that we are here it looks like most other places yet so totally different. We got lucky to get on one of the first tours off the boat so customs wasn't too hard getting through. Our customs officer had a total MOD squad haircut which was jet black and she (without sounding too weird) look very Russian!

The weather was cloudy and cold but no rain (yet!). Right out of the port there was loads of sand spread out all over for miles. It was reclaimed from the sea to extend the mainland so that a new port could be built. These are condos that used to be sea view and people paid loads of money to buy, but now all they see is sand and construction. But construction was not something uncommon to see everywhere in St. Petersburg as we soon found. Eventhough these were condos most of city seemed to be lined up with these very ominous looking apartment buildings stacked one after another. To me it felt like that we were seeing strong symbols of the former communism that once controlled this country. We learned that during communism that apartments were provided to people by the government. It wasn't until several years ago that privatization took hold in the country and people were given the apartments they were living in and a cottage in the country for the cost of filing the paperwork. Some were valued at over 2 million Rubels.

Russian signs posted just like in any other city advertising everyday things....but totally written in Russian!!! So cool!!! And I so can't understand any of them!!!

It was unbelievable that the city of St. Petersburg was completely built from scratch only 317 years ago by Peter the Great. Funny thing is that the city wasn't even named after it's founder, but after St. Peter since the church wouldn't recognize Peter the Great. It the northern most city to be the home of over 1 million people. During WWI the people changed the name of the city to Petrograd since St. Petersburg sounded too German to the Russians who were clearly against the Germans. In 1918 the capital was moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow and in 1924, after Lenin died, the Bulshevicks changed the name of the city to Leningrad as a sign of its turning to a socialist city. It wasn't until the 1990's that the people of the city voted to rename the city back to St. Petersburg. Our guide explained to us that her grandmother was born in St. Petersburg and live in three different cities without ever moving.

Traffic is horrible in St. Petersburg as it was built on lots of island with lots of canals. The only way to get around the city is to cross over one of it's 1000 bridges. Since there are so many bridges they are named after the colors and designs on the railings as they are all different and since there were so many illiterate people in the city it was easier for people to learn them that way. The city is part of the UNESCO world heritage, so that means that no buildings can be built over 5 stories high so that you can see all the spires of the important buildings. The big gold dome in the distance is St. Isaac's Cathedral to which we would be visiting later.

Our first stop was on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island to take in some views of the Neva River. Behind us is the Peter and Paul Fortress which was built by Peter the Great at the height of the Northern war to protect the city from Swedish attack but it never got used for it's initial purpose. Later on it was restored and turned into a prison to hold high ranking and political prisoners.

The Rostral Column is monument to war victories. It's meant to look like the bows of ships that had been defeated and hung up to show off. There are two of them that site on either side of the Old Stock Exchange building on the island.

We did find that a lot of buildings in St. Petersburg were built with an original purpose but end up being something totally different. The Old Stock Exchange building was now a museum, a huge ship that was given to the city by the Dutch that is now used for a fitness centre, palaces are now museums, the city hall is the center for space exploration and lots of churches and cathedrals that got used as vegetable storage during the war.

Across the river is the former Winter Palace which is home to the Hermitage museum - probably the biggest attraction in all of St. Petersburg. It is home to over 3 million pieces of art and it would take someone over 9 years to see every piece with only 1 minute to look at each one.

Buildings in St. Petersburg are all painted in bright colors to add some "light" to the city as the weather is always horribly gloomy there. On average they only get 37 days of sunshine every year!!! How depressing in the first place, but then add on all the oppression and devastation that had been endured over the years but no sunshine for 11 out of the 12 months of the year.

When Tsar Nicholas II was reposed of his power and replaced by a provisional government there was a strong conservative presence. On October 25th, Lenin and his forces used this war cruiser to shoot a blank cannon shot at the Winter Palace to send a message that the Bolshivicks were not giving up on trying to take over the provisional government. He had several tactics to capture government buildings, but this one act apparently sent the biggest message and led to over 70 years of Communist rule in Russia.

Our second stop was the Church of Spilt Blood. It was built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. The horribly expensive building (4.6 million) is only used 5-6 times a year for special services. But in it's history it was used for many unusual things - during WWII they used it as a morgue and after the war they used it as storage for vegetables. The church was once scheduled to be blown up but they ran out of dynamite that day so it could be done...how bazaar. It finally opened back up as a Museum of Mosaic in 1997 after 27 years of restoration. We didn't get to go inside since we were touring St. Isaac's Cathedral. We also didn't buddy up with a good enough photographer friend when we stopped, as he chopped off the top of the cathedral and didn't wait for the goofy guy standing right behind us to move. The picture I took of him and his wife was brilliant though. I totally trusted him though since he had a nicer camera than me. And yes I checked the picture, but we didn't get to take a second shot as we were herded back on the bus.

St. Isaac's Cathedral was a Russian Orthodox chuch but built a Roman style building (looks kind of line St. Paul's Cathedral in Rome). It was designed by a French man who lived in Russia for almost 44 years. He designed loads of other buildings in Russia and it made him very famous and well liked here, but since he never left the Catholic church his body was sent back to France when he died. Because he lived most of his life in Russia, he was a nobody back in France...very sad.

Amazingly ornate inside this cathedral. You can see the Roman influence as it looks a lot like St. Paul's Cathedral in Rome from the outside and all the panels of pictures and paintings all over the walls and ceilings.

Despite painting the gold roof green to camoflauge it during the war, the building was badly damaged and it left the oil paintings to be destroyed and rotted away from the harsh winters that ripped through it. Later on they restored the pictures but turned them into mosaics. The whole inside of the church was filled with these "paintings" that were actually all mosaics.

Here's one of the pictures close up.

It was also interesting to find out that most Russians were raised Atheist as Catholicism was outlawed and no one could stand the Russian Orthodox church. So on top of being a horribly depressing place to live no one knows God there...how do they cope?

On our way to lunch we drove by the Palace of Weddings. Because the state does not recognize weddings performed by clergy they must be married by civil means. A former palace (there seems to be loads of them) was converted into a place were people go to get married and then they hop into a limo and drive around the city for hours before going to a big reception in the evening.

For lunch we went to a local pub/music bar/hotel. I don' t what the name of it was but she did explain to us that P in the Russian language are pronounced like and R, so I'm guessing that the Pectopah means Restaurant.

It was a nice place and it accommodated our big group well. We got a glass of wine with a nice veggie/cabbage soup and bread for a starter, a chicken stroganoff with rice and crepes for dessert. Harrison didn't get a meal or a chair to be exact since he was under the age of two when we booked him so we didn't have to pay for him to go on the tour, but he didn't get a meal, but since Addison doesn't like to eat anything he got some of hers.

Earlier on the tour our guide explain how crazy ridiculous the Russians were about stroganoff as some places would charge almost $1200US for a plate. That cow had to have been fed gold or something...

A fun character Harry found at the restaurant. Even Russians drink Guinness.

Just thought you might enjoy seeing a Russian bar...loaded up with vodka...and all sort of normal drinks from around the world.

Of course while we had a break I brought the kids to the toilet and it was kind of hard to find since I couldn't understand any of the signs. I think this one actually means exit.

The last part of our day was spent at St. Catherine's Palace. It was named after Catherine I by her daughter Catherine the Great. Catherine I was actually named Marta (her Christian name) and she was an ugly woman who slept her way to the top from officers all the way up to the tsar. The eventually got baptized in the Russian Orthodox church and was renamed Catherine.

This was a summer home to the royals. It was very much decked out with gold leafing over wooden statues. I loved the bright blue and orange statues all around. The bright colors of all the buildings do make you feel a little better while it's pouring down rain.

The palace was also heavily destroyed during WW II like most places in St. Petersburg, but it took them twice as long to restore it as it had taken to originally build it.

This is where we were starting to get nervous with the kids to be inside a place we couldn't put them in a stroller or back pack carrier and had to stay with a tour group but they did very well. We had to wear special booties over our shoes to help protect the floors in the palace.

These porceline tiered chimneys were used to heat the large rooms, but they looked more like shrines as each tile had a different scene painted on it. The floors were intricate wood patterns as Russian winters were quite cold and marble was not a suitable choice for flooring there.

The only room that weren't allowed to take pictures in was the Amber room. Amber comes from the fossilized tree resign and some of the finest Baltic ambers come from Russia. This palace actually had an entire room decorated with panels of amber. During the war, they dismantled the entire room to keep hidden from the Nazi's, but after the war ended the amber could not be found and to this day it has still not been foun...hmmmm, how very peculiar. They have restored most of the room with new amber now.

When we left the palace we saw this car which reminded me of an old Russian police car. Silly me had a crazy idea to be watching out for hidden KGB agents in the bushes...hee hee.

On the way back to the boat we stopped off at another souvenir shop, but the kids had fallen fast asleep. Kevin went inside to look for any other must have items but didn't find any. Earlier in the day we found our matryoshka doll for Addison (actually I'm going to enjoy it as my own for a while then let her have it when she's 40) which was a 10 doll nested separate hand painted and wood burned dolls that depicted the story of the Nutcracker. We also picked out a jewelled Faberge Russian egg. These eggs were created by a gentleman by the name of Faberge and he designed them for the royals gifts they gave one another at Easter. Most of the originals are on display in various museums around the world, but we have our own little copy to enjoy at home.

We made it back to the boat in good time and we were all exhausted. The kids did really, really well and many people complimented us on how good they were. I think they were all pretty nervous that morning to see two little ones joining the group. We were very glad that we did cancel the next day for the kids' sake, but it was a bit hard to stomach knowing that we were going to be sitting on the boat all the next day in St. Petersburg, Russia of all places!!!!