Now, normally, I begin with a recap of one of the past events of this sojourn in Moscow, but today we are getting something just a liiiiittle different. It goes along with the insanity that surrounds me for the nonce. It's 12:33 am at the moment, and this is more or less what's outside my window:
Ok, so maybe it's a bit darker now, but it's still quite light outside. You see, I'm not in Moscow at the moment. I'm in St. Petersburg, and while I may not be seeing one of the famed "White Nights", it still stays light freakishly late.
Welcome to St. Petersburg, a relatively young city by European standards at roughly 309 years old (for those of you who can't be bothered to do the math, that's 73 years older than the United States of America), the home of many Tsars starting with Peter the Great, and the cultural capital of Russia. Here you will find wonders such as St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Winter Palace, and many others. St. Petersburg is.... not like Moscow. How to put this.... Moscow reminds me of Bratislava. It's a bit grimy, the people can be a bit standoffish, and it's very Soviet in its monuments and architecture. This isn't to say that the older architecture isn't there, it's just that it's not as visible, and tends to be collected into certain areas. St. Petersburg, however, reminds me of Paris. It's clean, it has the old style architecture, and the people are slightly less stand offish. I'm not sure which I prefer. St. Petersburg is nice, of course, but I like Moscow. It suites me, somehow, although that may just be because it feels like my host city. Still, St. Petersburg is definitely a great city in its own right.
Let's see.... this morning started entirely too early- Carley and I woke up at 5:00 am- so that we could get to the train station by 6:45 to catch the fast train to St. Petersburg. Thus, we spent the next four hours cheerfully whizzing across the landscape. Trains are such fun. I love them dearly, and am happy to have the opportunity to ride one. Alas, they aren't as much fun as the old school trains in Slovakia; they're much more like trains in France. Oh well. Nothing's perfect, I suppose. I was the only one to stay awake the entire trip as well, which made things a bit dull at times.
After the train, we dropped our bags off at our hotel, and went and got lunch. It was quite good, and pretty cheap. I had a cream and bacon soup, tea, and some sort of blini involving chicken for 99 rubles. Not a bad deal, really. After lunch, we wandered down the main street, before eventually stopping in a fancy confectionery, simply because dang it looked pretty, not to mention yummy. We all wound up buying macaroons of differing varieties because they were fairly inexpensive, and looked intriguing. I had mango, and it was quite good. As we walked around, I had the great joy of discovering that the batteries to my camera died. Joy. Thus, I spent the rest of the day using my cell phone to take pictures. Those are going to be interesting to get onto the computer....
After walking around for an hour or so, we went back to the hotel to check in and freshen up a bit. The hotel is nice, for all that the corridor door hates me and is therefore very complicated to operate. After our little break, we met our tour guide (who thankfully speaks English), and went for a driving tour of the city. We saw St. Isaac's Cathedral, Alexander's Cathedral (I believe that's the name), a monument to Russia's navy, and a former prison who's name escapes me. Dovstoyevsky was imprisoned there for a time, as was Lenin's brother. We walked along the Nivah for a while, and I even got the chance to stick my hand in it. Thus, I have officially touched the Nivah River. (Again, any and all spellings are subject to extreme butchering. Don't trust them.) We also got to see a rather nifty battle ship called the Aurora. By "see", I really mean "passed by in the car and stopped for three minutes tops to take some pictures". Still, we saw it, I have pictures, and as Nadia said, no trip to St. Petersburg is complete without seeing the Aurora.
That's about it, really. After the tour, we got some dinner, and collapsed in mangled heaps in our rooms. 5:00 am wake up calls do not an active evening make.
Ok, so maybe it's a bit darker now, but it's still quite light outside. You see, I'm not in Moscow at the moment. I'm in St. Petersburg, and while I may not be seeing one of the famed "White Nights", it still stays light freakishly late.
Welcome to St. Petersburg, a relatively young city by European standards at roughly 309 years old (for those of you who can't be bothered to do the math, that's 73 years older than the United States of America), the home of many Tsars starting with Peter the Great, and the cultural capital of Russia. Here you will find wonders such as St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Winter Palace, and many others. St. Petersburg is.... not like Moscow. How to put this.... Moscow reminds me of Bratislava. It's a bit grimy, the people can be a bit standoffish, and it's very Soviet in its monuments and architecture. This isn't to say that the older architecture isn't there, it's just that it's not as visible, and tends to be collected into certain areas. St. Petersburg, however, reminds me of Paris. It's clean, it has the old style architecture, and the people are slightly less stand offish. I'm not sure which I prefer. St. Petersburg is nice, of course, but I like Moscow. It suites me, somehow, although that may just be because it feels like my host city. Still, St. Petersburg is definitely a great city in its own right.
Let's see.... this morning started entirely too early- Carley and I woke up at 5:00 am- so that we could get to the train station by 6:45 to catch the fast train to St. Petersburg. Thus, we spent the next four hours cheerfully whizzing across the landscape. Trains are such fun. I love them dearly, and am happy to have the opportunity to ride one. Alas, they aren't as much fun as the old school trains in Slovakia; they're much more like trains in France. Oh well. Nothing's perfect, I suppose. I was the only one to stay awake the entire trip as well, which made things a bit dull at times.
After the train, we dropped our bags off at our hotel, and went and got lunch. It was quite good, and pretty cheap. I had a cream and bacon soup, tea, and some sort of blini involving chicken for 99 rubles. Not a bad deal, really. After lunch, we wandered down the main street, before eventually stopping in a fancy confectionery, simply because dang it looked pretty, not to mention yummy. We all wound up buying macaroons of differing varieties because they were fairly inexpensive, and looked intriguing. I had mango, and it was quite good. As we walked around, I had the great joy of discovering that the batteries to my camera died. Joy. Thus, I spent the rest of the day using my cell phone to take pictures. Those are going to be interesting to get onto the computer....
After walking around for an hour or so, we went back to the hotel to check in and freshen up a bit. The hotel is nice, for all that the corridor door hates me and is therefore very complicated to operate. After our little break, we met our tour guide (who thankfully speaks English), and went for a driving tour of the city. We saw St. Isaac's Cathedral, Alexander's Cathedral (I believe that's the name), a monument to Russia's navy, and a former prison who's name escapes me. Dovstoyevsky was imprisoned there for a time, as was Lenin's brother. We walked along the Nivah for a while, and I even got the chance to stick my hand in it. Thus, I have officially touched the Nivah River. (Again, any and all spellings are subject to extreme butchering. Don't trust them.) We also got to see a rather nifty battle ship called the Aurora. By "see", I really mean "passed by in the car and stopped for three minutes tops to take some pictures". Still, we saw it, I have pictures, and as Nadia said, no trip to St. Petersburg is complete without seeing the Aurora.
That's about it, really. After the tour, we got some dinner, and collapsed in mangled heaps in our rooms. 5:00 am wake up calls do not an active evening make.
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