Russia Day 4 (St. Petersburg, Russia): Mini Adventure, Shopping and A Different Market

We didn’t have any excursions planned for the day so it was a pretty lazy day.

We woke up at a reasonable hour and headed out to the immediate area around the port. There isn’t much out here outside of a gas station, a couple of markets and a few restaurants. After breakfast we decided to go to a market we’ve seen a few times while out on our tour buses. We had the hardest time getting around and didn’t make it to that market. We headed out to the main street, picked a direction and walked hoping we would run into that market. No such luck! We headed back to the ship for lunch.

Before lunch we stopped at the gift shop in the port. They had a bunch of your standard souvenirs, Fabergé eggs and a wall of babushka dolls. I’m not sure how the people that bought the eggs would get them home… They’re so fragile and everyone that shops there is a traveling tourist. The babushka dolls were separated into 2 sections, the traditional babushkas on one side and other themed babushkas on the other. They had Disney, Harry Potter, world leaders and American athletes on the dolls. I wonder if any actors or athletes knew they were babushka dolls. I think being a babushka doll would be weird.

After lunch my mom went to the front desk to get a map and to ask where that market was. We ended up going back and forth a few times because we couldn’t find the area where we were supposed to make a turn. We were able to find a market but it wasn’t the market we were looking for, this one was much closer. We bought a few items and ended going back a second time for more stuff.

After we sorted out our stuff we lounged around until the welcome reception and another excursion orientation. We arrived late so we missed out on the champagne… Bummer! Well, off to dinner we go.

We had set sail a little before we had dinner so we took pictures as we passed by interesting buildings and sailed under bridges after we were done eating.

Today was a pretty laid-back day.

Russia Day 3 (St. Petersburg, Russia): Bus Tour, Church on Spilled Blood and the 8th Wonder of The World at Catherine Palace

It seems to be a very common thing to have a winter house and a summer house here in St. Petersburgh.

After getting up and getting ready we headed out on our excursion to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. We traveled through the city center on the way there. The whole area is decorated with World Cup propaganda! It’s the coolest thing. St. Petersburg has a mixture of old and new buildings but you wouldn’t be able to differentiate between them unless you were around when the new buildings popped up. They try very hard to keep the town consistent. We also passed by the KGB building. The locals refer to the building as the “Big House.” Our guide pointed out a bunch of palaces, museums, and churches as we passed them. The majority of the residents are orthodox but they still attend church as a tradition and baptize their children just in case. There is an insane amount of palaces here! I could swear that the only people that lived here were royalty. A lot of them were repurposed into government buildings or museums. It seems like everyone had a palace at one point in time.

   

We made a stop at the Church on Spilled Blood but didn’t spend much time there. This church is built where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated. During the revolution the church was destroyed and closed until it was converted into a museum in 1970. The revenue generated from the museum was used to restore the church which still isn’t fully reconstructed yet.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral is one of Russia’s orthodox cathedrals and resides along the Neva River inside of the Peter and Paul Fortress. It also has the worlds largest bell tower. St. Petersburg’s skyline is relatively flat so the extremely tall spire can be seen from most places in the city. Our guide was very passionate about the iconostasis at this cathedral. She has been to many cathedrals and this one has been her favorite since her first visit as a child. The iconostasis here holds a unique history and represents a very strong culture. The Peter and Paul Cathedral is best known for being the final resting place of the Romanov’s.

After lunch we headed out to Catherine Palace. This place is absolutely incredible! The throne room, dining rooms and garden are very impressive but the most impressive room is The Amber Room, the 8^th wonder of the world. The current Amber Room is a reconstruction. The original room was looted shipped to Germany during WWII but it disappeared and currently, nobody knows where it is. It took 24 years, 6 tons of amber and the work of 40 skilled craftsman to recreate the priceless piece of art. The amount of detail expressed is insane! Each wall panel is an amber mosaic. No matter how well you know the room there’s always something new to discover. We were told that pictures weren’t allowed but I tried to sneak a shot on the way out. I got caught by a docent and I wasn’t able to get a good shot. What a waste of effort! Photos can be found on Google anyways…

We didn’t have anything else scheduled for the rest of the day so we ate when we got back and lounged around for a while.

What a day! Tomorrow is our last day in St. Petersburg before we move on to our next city.

Russia Day 2 (St. Petersburg, Russia): The Hermitage, Down Time and Swan Lake at the Alexandrinsky Theatre

We’re going to the Hermitage today, one of the world’s greatest art museums!

I woke up an eternity before my alarm clock went off this morning, which seems to happen a lot on day 2. My sister and I lounged around our cabin and begun to prep for the day at a very leisurely pace. Room service isn’t available on this trip so we had to get our own snacks. We timed things perfectly because snacks were just being put out at the lounge just as we finished getting ready. Snacks before breakfast! Eating is the best way to fill down time but it’s not good for my girlish figure.

We spent the longest time at the Hermitage.  This was the residence of Russian Emperors before it was turned into a museum and currently houses the largest collection of paintings in the world. The grand collection was started by Peter the Great and continued by his daughter in law Catherine the Great, who added more contemporary pieces and expanded the buildings. The museum currently consists of 6 buildings, the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and the Hermitage Theatre. It would take an eternity to go through all of the exhibits.  Even though we spent a lot of time at the Hermitage it still wasn’t enough to see all of the exhibits. During our tour we were constantly pushing through exhibits. It was a struggle keeping up with all of the information that was given to us.  The most notable works on display were a couple of paintings by Leonardo DaVinci and Raphael Loggias.

 After we got back from the Hermitage we went back to the ship for food and a nap before going to see Swan Lake. I didn’t take a nap because I wanted to get some things written out for my blog. If I don’t get my ideas down they’ll never make it into the blog.

Swan Lake is a ballet written by Tchaikovsky about a Swan Princess, Odette, that combines elements from Russian and German folk tales. We watched the ballet at The Alexandrinsky Theatre. This theater is gorgeous! The entry way consists of grand staircase with a maze of other staircases that lead into other sections of the theater. I had a hard time staying awake during the first act but got a second wind during the second and third acts. I can’t read a word of Russian so I had a difficult time finding the bathrooms. Needless to say, I know what the Russian word for “Toilet” looks like now.

After the ballet we headed back to the ship for a snack and then it was up to our rooms for the night. I am exhausted! We’ll still be in St. Petersburg tomorrow so I’ll write more about the city in the next blog.

Russia Day 1 (St. Petersburg, Russia): Surprisingly Short Flights, The World Cup and Settling In

I’m in Russia guys!

Today wasn’t a very interesting travel day so this is going to be a pretty short blog entry. We started out at the Sacramento International Airport and took a super quick flight out to San Francisco before heading out to Frankfurt, Germany. This was the shortest flight I’ve ever been on… It was over before I knew it! After we made it to Frankfurt we headed out on our last leg of our trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. 

One of the biggest sporting events in the world, The World Cup, is going on right now and we're in the middle of it! We caught bits and pieces of the action as we made our way between terminals. 

When we arrived at our dock we boarded our ship, ate and unpacked. Eating always seems to be the first thing we do when we arrive. The ship we’re on is smaller than the ones we normally travel on so we won’t have access to as many amenities as we did on our other trips. This trip is also a little longer than trips we normally take so we had to pack a little heavier. It was a challenge to get everything into one suitcase. We were allotted two suitcases but traveling with more than one piece of luggage makes it significantly harder to get around.

After we settled in we went to a briefing about the excursions were taking and the other available excursions. The format of this trip is very similar to the format of the China trip I took. On most of the days we have a morning excursion and an evening excursion booked which will keep us very busy.