After
a late Friday night drinking session with workmates, James and I packed for
Russia and headed to the airport, collecting Kirk on the way.
With
a lack of knowledge on Russia’s history, there were a few preconceived ideas of
what to expect; we thought we would see corruption everywhere, police carrying
loaded machine guns and find that generally nobody smiled. We were also not
certain about how people felt about the change from Soviet rule, given the
poverty talked about outside the main city centres.
We
arrived at St Petersburg airport to a frosty reception by the ladies behind the
customs desks (they just didn’t smile or show any emotions!) and found the
gentleman who would be driving us to our hotel by reading the held up sign
saying “Ms Dunlop, Mr Atkinson and Mr Kirk” (this should have read Mr Weir!).
We
checked into our hotel-Rossiya Hotel and meet up with out tour guide (the
lovely Julia) and most fellow travellers to be briefed. Following this meeting,
Kirk, James and I ordered pizza and drinks from the hotel bar to find that the
pizza had chopped dill on top-definitely not expected! We then caught the
underground to Nevski Prospekt (the city centre) to get our bearings. After
only two minutes of walking, we came across a man lying on his side, covered in
blood and bleeding from his mouth. He was being looked after so we kept
walking…in disbelief of what we had just seen! We weren’t too sure what to make
of that! We walked to the Hermitage Museum and took photographs of all the
beautiful surrounding buildings. It is fair to say that most Russian women we
saw were rather attractive with amazingly slender bodies, they all dressed up,
wore lots of makeup and wore high heels. Given that I was travelling with two
boys it was inevitable that the odd photograph was taken of these specimens! I,
on the other hand, was not so lucky, although we did see some amazing mullets!
We
used our Lonely Planet guide to find a traditional Russian restaurant for
dinner, which was quite difficult trying to read Cyrillic. Kirk, James and I all had different
versions of dumplings, which were nice albeit a little dry (and came with
‘greenery’ which we soon learnt actually meant ‘dill’). The boys tucked into
their first of many Russian beers here too.
With
the temperature being an uncharacteristic 32 degrees, we were told to expect
rain and even thunder storms. We left the restaurant to find ourselves in the
middle of one of these downpours and ran back to the underground. By the time we surfaced near our hotel,
the rain had stopped and we found ourselves amazed at the white night-I have
added a photo taken at 11.30pm which looks more like it was taken at 7.00pm!
All in all, there was darkness for only 2 hours each night (very strange for
your body clock to get used to!).
We headed to bed before starting the tour the next day.
Day 1-St
Petersburg
After
a very strange Russian buffet breakfast (which included cold salads, buns with
cabbage in the middle, curd pudding and stale breads (no toaster in sight and
no spreads) we met the tour group, which also included four late
arrivers-Shannon, Shaun, Emma and Joel –all from Australia (but living in
London). We got on really well with these guys, which made the tour more fun.
We
hoped on the tour bus and had a guided tour of the city. We saw St Isaac’s
Cathedral, Peter and Paul fortress (from the outside), the beautiful Saviour
the Spilt Blood Church, the Kazan Cathedral, the Winter Palace, and the Bronze
Horseman before completing a guided tour of the State Hermitage Museum.
The
State Hermitage Museum was originally the Winter Palace for
Empress Elizabeth (built between 1754-1762), the daughter of Peter the Great.
Elizabeth died before the palace’s completion and only Catherine The Great and her successors were able to enjoy this as their home.
It was founded as a museum in
1764 after Catherine The Great purchased a large collection of paintings.
Although it hosted amazing works of Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rembrandts, our
favourite piece was the gold peacock wind up clock, made in the 18th-century
by James Cox, a British Jeweller. It stood approximately 2 metres tall and
comprised of a owl that turned its head every hour, a peacock sitting in a tree
that raised it’s tail and squawked and a squirrel that cracked a nut. A firefly
spun on a toadstool to tell the time (in hours only). It was so beautiful and
amazing, and well worth watching on Youtube if you get the chance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q0FAYE0_1Y
Apparently the clock only operates on certain public holidays.
Following the tour, our tour guide left us with a free afternoon. Kirk,
James and I joined Emma, Shaun, Shannon and Joel to have lunch at another
traditional Russian restaurant before returning to the Church of the Spilt
Blood to view inside. Inside from floor to ceiling there were hundreds of
mosaics, they were so detailed, it looked so beautiful. After a look around the
local markets we all headed back to the hotel, to play cards and have some
drinks (including Vodka of course!). Our Australian friends swore by adding
Redskin lollies to a bottle of vodka, which (as they were raspberry flavoured)
made the vodka taste sweeter and coloured it red. We stayed up drinking long
enough to see the darkness!
Day 2-St Petersburg
After
a slow start, we started day two by visiting Peterhof, 45 minutes outside of St
Petersburg, to walk around the beautifully preserved Imperial estate. It was
founded in 1710 by Peter the Great on the shore of the Gulf of Finland (Baltic
Sea). It combines several ornate palaces, and a number of beautifully
landscaped parks with magnificent statues and fountains. It was great walking
around these gardens (a good hangover cure!) and we had fun playing in the
‘magic fountains’, which weren’t very magic at all (a man hide in a shed and
randomly turned the water on/off as people crossed over the fountain!). And of
course, James evaded getting wet and I ended up getting drenched! We also saw
our first red squirrel and dunked our feet in the Baltic sea, which was really
warm (considering we were very close to the Arctic Circle).
We drove back to St Petersburg
and had a very nice traditional lunch as a tour group, which included the tasty
hot soup called Borscht and a main of salmon and salad. Followed was coffee and pastry
(which was sausage roll shaped pastry filled with apricot jam).
We took the opportunity to discuss with Julia (tour guide) the rise and
fall of the soviet union. She had a very interesting view of this, explaining
using a ‘bear in the cage’ analogy.
During Soviet rule, Russians were kept in cages-they had free healthcare
and increased wealth across the nation, but a low economy. But with the fall of
the Soviet Union, some Russian’s would leave the cage and thrive, and others
would not. There remains a great divide across the nation about whether soviet
rule made Russian’s better off or not. I also tried to find out why Russia has
a Prime Minister and a President. Julia was not completely sure, but explained
the Prime Minister tends to policy and the President to world issues.
We
then headed to Peter and Paul’s fortress. The
fortress was built in 1703 and was the first structure in St. Petersburg built
to protect Peter the Great's northern city from the threat of Swedish attacks.
It now stands as an emblem of the city. Inside the
fortress stands the impressive Peter and Paul Cathedral, the burial place of
all the Russian Emperors and Empresses (Russian Tsars) from Peter the Great to
Alexander III and is the tallest building in St Petersburg (404 feet). It was
an interesting entrance, as our tour guide told us we were going to see
‘corruption in action’. The bus driver tried to bribe the security guard at the
gate to let us in, which did not work on this occasion, so we had to walk into
the fortress instead. Julia (the tour guide) was explaining to the group that
although she knew corruption was not a good thing, she said, and I quote
“corruption is just so convenient!’.
We had the rest of the day as
free time, where we lay in a park and relaxed, before heading to St Petersburg
train station and boarding our sleeper train, bound for Moscow.
Moscow,
Day 1
The
sleeper train was a fun experience. Each room had four bunk beds and a small
table in it (we stowed our bags under the bottom bunk). As Kirk, James and I
shared a room, we were warned we might have a Russian roommate, which we were
relieved to find was not the case for us!
We played cards with our Australian friends before bunking down for a
broken sleep (occasionally hearing some brakes screeching was not something we
were used to!). We all woke in time to jump off the train as it reached Moscow
(it was not the final stop so we were all on high alert to make sure we had
everyone together before it headed northeast!). We meet our new tour guide,
Nina who took us straight to the Red Square via a minivan around some huge, 8
lane roads that surrounded the city. The Red Square was impressive and unlike
any other square we had been in. We initially saw iconic St Basil’s Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–61. Built on the order of Ivan the Terrible, its design is unique to Russia and is
said to be built on a design of a bonfire rising to the sky. To me, it looked
like a church with colourful meringue’s on top.
Also
in the square is the entrance to the Kremlin, including the Lenin Mouleseum,
which holds Vladimir Lenin’s (the founder of the soviet union) embalmed body.
After
the tour of the Red Square, we all had breakfast before continuing our tour of
Moscow, including Novodevichi Monastry and the Cathedral of Our Saviour , which
was heavily decorated in gold on the inside (and where people stand rather than
sit in pews). Lastly we were taken to a great
viewpoint of the city of Moscow, which showed some of the facilities built for
the Moscow Olympic Games, before heading to our hotel.
We
visited a nearby supermarket and stocked up on drinking and snack supplies,
before settling in for a few drinks in our hotel room (including vodka infused
with redskin lollies!) with our Australian friends. Our hotel was huge and we
quickly learnt that at night, prostitutes gathered in the lobby’s bars to
entice hotel stayers…mainly by yelling out “sex, sex”. Not very subtle!
Day 2 Moscow
Today we started with a tour of the Kremlin, which had
many cathedrals inside as well as Presidential offices. We also visited Vladimir Lenin’s
embalmed body, which was an interesting experience. We walked single file into
this heavily guarded dark room, with Lenin’s body in the centre of the room, in
a glass coffin. We walked the parameter before exiting. Outside held the graves of many other
Russian leaders, including Joseph Stalin. It was one of the most unusual
experiences in all our travel, but well worth doing. The rest of the morning was spent completing Arbat’s walking
trip before parting ways with our tour guide for a free afternoon.
We
used our free time to explore the underground, as we heard that some of their
stations were beautifully decorated. It took us a long time to navigate around their underground
due to everything written in Cyrillic and at times, we had to ask for
directions. Although our efforts were well rewarded as some stations had
beautifully marble floors, stained glass features and chandeliers- a far cry
from the dirty old London underground. We then headed back for another night of
cards and drinking to farewell a fantastic trip to another unique and
unforgettable country. A country well worth visiting.
