Ending the Week Tourist Style

Today marked the end of my first full week in Saint Petersburg. I think we’re the first group to come with UA and not lose (or get robbed of) anything for the whole first week. So three cheers for us! I don’t know about everyone else here, but I am flat out exhausted! I’ve done so much since Monday, it’s ridiculous. This morning we had to meet on Nevsky Prospekt next to the Kazan Cathedral (which they’re restoring right now, so most of it is covered in scaffoldings) because the school arranged for us to go on a tour of St. Pete’s by bus. So touristy of us. We saw a lot of things that I had already gone to see and gone inside of. We drove around, got off at some places for pictures and then went back to Nevsky Prospect, nothing too exciting. I got some good pictures and it helped us make a list of places we want to go back to and those we felt like we had seen enough of. We did see one cool thing later. On the west end of Nevsky prospect on the north side of the street there is a sign paint-stenciled onto the building warning the citizens of the city that when during an air raid in WWII, that side of the street is the most dangerous because the Nazi attacks would come from the south. The sign is still there (obviously) accompanied by a plaque stating that the notice is left there to commemorate all those who died during the siege of Leningrad. 

Saint Issac's Cathedral

The WWII bombing sign

Current Senate Building

Some poor soul got pulled over by the Russian police

Me across the Neva River from Peter and Paul Fortress

Afterwards, some of the girls and I headed back to Dom Knigi to look at books. I three more books: White Nights by Dostoevsky, a book of poems by Pushkin, and a collection of Anna Akmatova’s work. There were lots of colorful post cards by the door, so I might go back and grab a couple to send state-side. So everyone who wants one should email me your address for where you’ll be for the next few weeks and then be on the look out! After grabbing some food (during which a creepy Russian guy tried to get us to go out with him tonight) and munching on an extremely good piece of almond cake, I headed home to Primorskaya. I ride the metro like a pro now; I’ve even got my metro legs back!

And now I’m super tired, sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea. Anna isn’t here and I have no idea where she is. Since she left me breakfast and showed me where it is, I’m assuming she went to the country to a dacha for the weekend. Everyone seems to do that here in St. Petersburg. It’s not like the city is hot or anything; I guess they just want to get away for a while. I’m trying to decide whether or now I want to go back down to Nevsky to meet some people at a bar  (ironically) called Dacha to have a few beers or not. I spent a decent amount of rubles today between the food and books. This first week has been a bit of a money sucker, but I kind of expected that: a few bigger purchases had to be made upon arrival (i.e. food, phone, metro pass, etc.). Hmmm, decisions, decisions…

Love to all!

Xoxo

P.S. Just a note to anyone who thinks I’m ignoring them on Facebook or whatever, I only have internet for an hour or so every couple of days when I venture down to the coffee shop. So be patient with me please!!!!

My. Feet. Hurt. So. Much.

I got up earlier this morning and made it to class with time to spare. We learned a few Russian folk songs then had a lecture (in English) about the political and cultural identity of Saint Petersburg. After class, the girls and I ventured to find this bar we heard of that was a haven for foreign students and had wifi. Unfortunately the place was a total dive when we found it, so we ate lunch elsewhere. The food was good and we had this beer that tasted like cherries. Only the Belgians could make something that good! A bunch of the guys joined us, bringing one of their Russian friends (Sonya), and we all had a beer together. Sonya was telling us about different Russian cultural things and I learned that he’s actually from the Caucasus, Kabardino-Balkaria to be exact. After a while, we decided to go down the Nevsky Prospect again with Sonya leading the way. After we met up with Sonya’s friend, we continued walking around Saint Petersburg. There were lots of police and the Russian version of SWAT everywhere today, more so than usual, and we never found out why. Lots of helicopters too. Strange…

We went to the largest bookstore in Russia, a three story branch of Dom Knigi (House of Books) where I bought a Russian language copy of Crime and Punishment for about 10 USD. After wandering around some more, we decided to go into an all purpose store in Park Kultury to get notebooks and pens for some people who didn’t bring any. After that, we went to the Church of Spilled Blood. It was absolutely stunning! There’s simply nothing in the states like the beauty of the Russian churches. It was insanely expensive to go in without out St. Pete’s student IDs (they get us in for free; we are getting ours tomorrow), so we opted to continue along our merry way. From there, we ventured to the Field of Mars (yes, like the Roman one). For being smack in the middle of a very busy and loud city, the field was very quiet. A big open space of well maintained grass surrounded by beautiful buildings served as our resting place for a while. Russian cities are full of monuments to World War II and the Revolution. In the middle of the Field of Mars, there was a marble circle with Russian inscriptions on the columns and an eternal flame in the middle, all dedicated to the revolutionary sacrifice of the people. 

Church of Split Blood

Field of Mars

After that, we crossed the street in between two mint green buildings and took a bridge across the Neva River to the Petrograd side. I thought I had seen everything in Russia (not really), but apparently people jet-ski on the Neva! Peter and Paul Fortress was just on the other side, so we crossed onto the mini island the fortress sits on and walked around to the Neva side. Another day I’ll pay to go inside, but I’m waiting for my student ID so that I get discounted rates. Apparently today was an unusually hot day for Saint Petersburg, probably 75-80 degrees F. Since it was colder this morning, we were all dying in the heat dressed like we were. Sitting in the shade of Peter and Paul on the bank of the Neva watching the barges and boats go by was awesome. After cooling down, we walked around Peter and Paul more to the Military Artillery Museum which shares the island. The museum itself was closed so we looked at the larger pieces of artillery displayed outside. Sonya is studying to be an engineer and to design and work with artillery weapons, so he was explaining the different pieces to us (in English because there was no way in hell we’d get that in Russian). Next thing I knew, everyone was climbing a WWII/early-Cold War era Soviet tank. Overjoyed at the prospect of climbing a tank and not giving a shit about seeming like a tourist at the time, I found myself on top of a green tank, grinning like a crazy woman. It was really fun and, honestly, for the first time here, I really had a good time. And that tells me I’m adjusting. 

Peter and Paul Fortress

The Green Building

Since it’s the start of White Nights (Byeli Vecheri) here in St. Petersburg, we didn’t realize that it was 8pm and we had yet to eat dinner. The sun reallyyyyy throws you off, whether you’re a native or not. So we walked up to the Petrogradskaya metro station and went to Chashkai i Loshka (Teacup and Spoon, the English makes no sense). Blini were on our minds and our new Russian companions seemed delighted by our enthusiasm for their suggestion of the legendary Russian food. Our spread was various, but I had two meat and potato filled blini with sour cream, one filled with bananas and chocolate, and a small pot of black tea. The blini were out of this world, and I only spent 172 rubles (approx. 6 USD). I think we were talking about going out to a club tomorrow night, and we were plotting locations on the handy maps they gave us yesterday. After dinner, at about 9:30pm, I caught the metro home (blue line to Gostini Dvor, switch to Green to Primorskaya, just like DC!) and now I’m ready to pass out. I’m sweaty, tired, and my feet hurt like hell, but I had such an awesome day! We literally walked from the top of NE St. Petersburg down to the southern part of Nevsky and back up further to the NW top of St. Pete’s. Map that, I’ll be it’s about 4-5 miles of walking. Just seeing the city and all the stunning architecture was worth the pain my feet will be in for the rest of the week! I’m starting to feel more at ease in the city, the metro is a piece of cake now, and I’ve been given the Russian stamp of approval for my manner of dress, so everything is going great!

I love and miss you all, and I should have a phone tomorrow, so be on the lookout for my phone number! In the mean time, shoot me an email or Skype message so I can read them when I get a chance to log on to the web.

Xoxoxo

P.S. I got placed into the middle of three groups for class. Yay!