Zdravstvujtye (zdrah-stvooy-tee; hello)All,
We went for a walk further into the old city via St Issacs cathedral
to the Yusupov Palace where Rasputin was murdered. Then as we continued
along we found the Mariinsky theatre and collected our tickets for the
Madam Butterfly opera starting a 4pm then had lunch in a nearby snow
covered park watching dogs in freezer suits trot past. We wanted to get
back to the hostel but time was running out before the starting of the
opera so decided to catch the metro. Even catching the metro was an
adventure in its own right as we discovered that it is apparently one
of the deepest subway systems in the world .The average station depth
is between 100- 105 metres below the surface so it is not for the faint
of heart or for those that dislike long steep escalator rides.It took
us about 45 min to get back to the hostel and We caught the bus back
and arrived with plenty of time to spare.
The opera ran for 4hrs and was in Italian with Russian subtitles. The
performances were stunning and the set was excellent. It was a riveting
evening even though due to the language barrier we were forced to make
the story line up as it went along. Later we looked up the story and it
made a lot more sense to us! It was unclear which bus we needed to
catch to get back to the hostel after the performance but eventually
came to the conclusion that the bus we had arrived on was a bus that
was on a circuit. It unfortunately seemed to be the bus that someone
else wanted to board as well so everyone was crammed in and at times it
felt and looked as if we were simply a moving collective of fur coats
so we were a little cramped for space but it was at least a soft padded
ride.the bus was so cramped that no tickets we able too be collected or
brought so consequently we had a free ride and got off at the
Christmas markets and outdoor ice skating rink near the hostel This
also coincided with the ticket collector arriving. ;-)
We ate heartily in our new favourite Russian restaurant. Vanessa had a
roast fish casserole and I had Beef Stroganoff .A very russian dish
indeed as the name of this dish comes from Russian Count Grigory
Stroganove
Next day.
We went to the Russian museum which is another magnificent world class
art gallery.The main building of the museum is the Mikhailovsky Palace,
a splendid neoclassical residence of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich,
erected in 1819-25 to a design by Carlo Rossi on Square of Arts in St
Petersburg My first preference was
to go back to the Mariinsky Theatre and watch the Nutcracker ballet but
unfortunately we didn't have enough time and Vanessa´s back wasn´t up
for another session of prolonged sitting so this was our next choice.
It turned out to be significantly better than expected with some of
the greatest pieces of Russian art in the world and magnificent rooms
with opulent interiors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collections_of_the_Russian_Museum
The snow started falling quite heavily while we were at the palace and
at one stage it appeared that we were have a mini blizzard as
visibility dropped.The snow eased off and we set off back to the hostel
to gather our possessions and head for the train Station.
До свидания ("da-svee-da-nee-ye") Goodbye
David and Vanessa
