St. Petersburg, Russia
The train from Helsinki to Russia was great, although it worried us that everyone around us was decked out in fur coats and hats...and here we were with running shoes, and no proper winter coat. Hmm...no snow when we arrived in St. Petersburg though, and for November it was quite mild being above zero. Lucky ducks we are! I'm sure we will have no such luck in Siberia though! For a few days, I'm secretly not upset about global warming.
Russia is like no other country...I can't compare it. It has a climate similar to Canada, a business similar to London, and architecture with Italian and French undertones. Its chaotic though, with all the military and police around, one would think there would be more organized order - some sort of flow.
Expensive cafes and stores line the main street Nevskij Prospekt. Everywhere you look is another gorgeous building, statue, or church. At night time, the buildings are so well lit that the city glows.
It is difficult to get by here with just English, hardly anyone speaks it, and the Russian Alphabet is very different from our own. Even letters that are the same mean something entirely different. B is really pronounced R, etc etc. авлыжд лыдфолдо you get the picture? We feel like we are illiterate. Looking at pictures of food on restaurant menus (if there are pictures!), counting the stops on the Metro, a short escalator up is to another line, a long one is the exit. Difficult is an understatement, but we manage.
The Hermitage Museum was unreal. 2.6 million pieces of Art, impossible to get though it all. The building and the rooms are just as jaw dropping as the art on the walls. Rooms full of Picasso, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse. You could spend weeks here!
We climb St. Isaac's Cathedral for a view of the city. In 1931 the Soviet regime converted it into an anti-religious museum (only in the former USSR could a church be converted into an atheist museum!).
The colourful candy-like onion domes of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ are spectacular. Maybe the 1st image that comes to mind when thinking of Russian architecture...more to see of this in Moscow!
We met some interesting travelers at our hostel. Virginia, an American travel writer working in Iceland, Jean-Marc, a Montrealer into month 2 of a 13 month world trip, and Alexander, a cancer-research lab technician from Amsterdam on a weeks holiday. We all enjoyed some sushi and then some drinks at an underground bar, as well as some English-speaking company!
Together, we did a walking tour around the city guided by a Russian girl who was born in St. Petersburg. It was so interesting and eye-opening to hear more about the history and culture. There really is no middle class in Russia, most people consider themselves middle class if they can scrape by and pay rent and buy food, all while living 10 people in a run down flat. In Canada, their middle class would be seen as poor. There are the very very well of Russians (who are few) and the rest who scrape by (which are the majority). The corruption in the police, healthcare, and education system are out of control. It is no wonder happy people are hard to find on the street...not a smiling face in sight. You really can't blame them though!
Russia is like no other country...I can't compare it. It has a climate similar to Canada, a business similar to London, and architecture with Italian and French undertones. Its chaotic though, with all the military and police around, one would think there would be more organized order - some sort of flow.
Expensive cafes and stores line the main street Nevskij Prospekt. Everywhere you look is another gorgeous building, statue, or church. At night time, the buildings are so well lit that the city glows.
It is difficult to get by here with just English, hardly anyone speaks it, and the Russian Alphabet is very different from our own. Even letters that are the same mean something entirely different. B is really pronounced R, etc etc. авлыжд лыдфолдо you get the picture? We feel like we are illiterate. Looking at pictures of food on restaurant menus (if there are pictures!), counting the stops on the Metro, a short escalator up is to another line, a long one is the exit. Difficult is an understatement, but we manage.
The Hermitage Museum was unreal. 2.6 million pieces of Art, impossible to get though it all. The building and the rooms are just as jaw dropping as the art on the walls. Rooms full of Picasso, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse. You could spend weeks here!
We climb St. Isaac's Cathedral for a view of the city. In 1931 the Soviet regime converted it into an anti-religious museum (only in the former USSR could a church be converted into an atheist museum!).
The colourful candy-like onion domes of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ are spectacular. Maybe the 1st image that comes to mind when thinking of Russian architecture...more to see of this in Moscow!
We met some interesting travelers at our hostel. Virginia, an American travel writer working in Iceland, Jean-Marc, a Montrealer into month 2 of a 13 month world trip, and Alexander, a cancer-research lab technician from Amsterdam on a weeks holiday. We all enjoyed some sushi and then some drinks at an underground bar, as well as some English-speaking company!
Together, we did a walking tour around the city guided by a Russian girl who was born in St. Petersburg. It was so interesting and eye-opening to hear more about the history and culture. There really is no middle class in Russia, most people consider themselves middle class if they can scrape by and pay rent and buy food, all while living 10 people in a run down flat. In Canada, their middle class would be seen as poor. There are the very very well of Russians (who are few) and the rest who scrape by (which are the majority). The corruption in the police, healthcare, and education system are out of control. It is no wonder happy people are hard to find on the street...not a smiling face in sight. You really can't blame them though!
posted by Mary at 8:02 a.m.
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