"The enemy is at the gates. It is a question of life or death. Either the working class of Leningrad will be enslaved and its finest flower destroyed, or we must gather all the strength we have, hit back twice as hard and dig Fascism a grave in front of Leningrad."
Monday, it was already time to head to St. Petersburg, so we took the subway to Moscow’s train station and hopped aboard the four-hour express train north. This train was amazingly efficient, departing on time to the minute and hitting every stop at the exact appointed time. It was very impressive to us Americans, where fast, easy, and reliable trains are an unattainable dream. We didn’t see much of the countryside, but what we did see looked very pretty, if not simple and rural. It definitely whet our appetite to visit places out of the major cities at some point.
Our hotel in St. Petersburg was a holdover from the Soviet era, so what it lacked in charm it made up for in convenient location, just off the main thoroughfare of Nevsky Prospect. We took an evening stroll and ate wonderful Indian food. St. Petersburg was definitely more tourist-friendly, with more international diversity and a distinctly European feel.
Tuesday was a long walking tour of the city. We started everything off on the right foot by unintentionally wearing the same outfit.
First stop - The Savior of the Spilled Blood. It was unfortunately under construction but nevertheless impressive!
We then headed through a garden and toward the Neva River over a few of St. Petersburg's 342 bridges.
We ended up at the Peter and Paul Fortress. It had an interesting vantage point but we're not particularly interested in Russian history from the 1700's so we walked through, hit the strange beach and kept a moving.
We looped around back towards the Hermitage (although we skipped the Hermitage altogether because we’re philistines who don’t understand art!).
Palace square is surrounded by the Hermitage on one side and....some other stuff. Art.
We then grabbed some extremely delicious craft beer from a nearby bar.
And finally some shawarma that we ordered by photographing the menu and pointing enthusiastically.
Freddie Mercury! Is there anywhere you're not famous?
On Wednesday we hit up a small but interesting museum dedicated to the horrible Siege of Leningrad. We didn't have a guide but we followed closely behind an English speaking guide for part of the tour which made it more interesting. It's sad that the museum was so small but following the war Stalin executed most of the saviors of the city and a lot of the documents from the time were classified (and remain so to this day).
"Looking back at the city, so beautiful in its tragic colors in the gentle fall, I feel how good life is, how short it is , how senselessly war annihilates all that is good, all that humanity has achieved."
After those sobering sights we continued wandering the city and walked through the Summer Garden. It was very pretty but would have been much better on a bright and sunny day.
Next on the docket was the infamous cat “museum” (a café with a room full of cats). You probably won't believe this, but there was a cat there named Alecia.
Two Alecias!
We finished off the night with a fantastic Italian meal at a place called Trattoria Limoncello. It's hard to say what our favorite meal was in Russia since it was almost all delicious, this was certainly in the top 3.
Thursday was our last full day in St. Petersburg and we needed to complete our mission by honoring the heroic defenders of Leningrad. To do this we took the bus south to the city’s Victory Square and checked out the statues above ground and the museum underneath it.
We decided to take a long walk back most of the way, passing by a monument to Lenin and another Park Pobedy. Socialism will win.
We finished up the day eating Georgian food, which again, was great like almost all the food we had in Russia. We also passed back by Savior of the Spilled Blood and enjoyed the crowds milling about.
Russia, you rule.
Friday it was time to go back to Moscow.
We caught the train and then had to deal with a huge headache hailing a cab at the Moscow train station that would take us way out to our airport hotel for a reasonable price. It all worked out for the best, though, because once there, we got to swim and hit up the jacuzzi and steam room, which rejuvenated us for the trip home the next day (of course we got drunk afterward at the hotel restaurant).
The next morning we hopped on the plane back to the US. En route to the airport, it rained for the first time since we'd landed in Moscow 9 days prior.
Russia was a wonderful place to be. Interesting history, heroic past, nice people, two beautiful cities, not to mention a breeze to get around. Next time, we hope to venture into the wilderness, possibly the eastern part of the country (we’ll also learn some damn Russian!). Until next time...
0 comments:
Post a Comment