Tuesday, 25 May 2010
‘Remember, Saint Petersburg* is Russian but it is not Russia.’ - Tsar Nicholas II -
Our train pulled into Moskovsky train station of Saint Petersburg at 0645 and we emerged from the train to a cold morning. After navigating our way out of the station, we emerged at Nevsky Prospekt or Nevsky Avenue (named after the 13th century national hero credited for defeating the Swedish and German invading armies), the main thoroughfare in Saint Petersburg (or Piter as it is informally known). We walked to Mayakovskava metro station and took the metro to Gostiny Dvor, the nearest metro station to our apartment at the Admiralteyskaya nab. (Admiralty Embankment). The Admiralteystkaya station is actually the nearest to our apartment; alas it is an unfinished station, otherwise we could’ve take the metro all the way here.
Victor, the manager, was already waiting for us and helped us to check-in. My heart sank when I saw the apartment building, but I told myself that, hey, even the building of the Moscow apartment didn’t look attractive from outside. But this time, the apartment really was bad. After freshening up, Fifi and I set out to find a supermarket to buy our provisions. Our apartment was not located in a residential area; it was surrounded by offices and hence the first grocery store was some blocks away and the supermarket slightly further up. We finally set off for the State Hermitage Museum at almost noon (!). The prime attraction for Piter, the Hermitage is a massive palace-cum-museum showing the highlights of over 3 million of pieces from all over the world. We had earlier bought the two-day combined ticket online to save ourselves from queueing. We spent hours at the Hermitage. It was close to closing time when we finally walked out.
A little note on the State Hermitage Museum: the world’s largest art collection here rivals both the Louvre and the Prado in architectural, historical and artistic significance. After commissioning its construction in 1769 and filling it with works of art, Catherine the Great wrote of the treasures: ‘The only ones to admire all this are the mice and me.’ To the public’s general fortune, thankfully, this is no longer true; the collection was made public in 1852.
We then walked across the Palace Square to Nevsky Prospect and turned left when we reached Griboedov Canal and walked along the canal to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood (aka the Church on Spilt Blood and the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. The name refers to the blood of Tsar Alexander II who was assassinated on this site in 1881). To me, it looked like a sister of the St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. After some Kodak moments, we checked out the souvenirs fair (market, more like) near the church and then walked around the city before heading back to the apartment.
* The historic centre of Saint Petersburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Where Moscow is big on Lenin (statues here and there), Piter is unsurprisingly big on Peter the Great, the city’s founder.
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Why Does It Always Rain On Me?
Sorry, I can’t resist this picture
‘Remember, Saint Petersburg* is Russian but it is not Russia.’ - Tsar Nicholas II -
Our train pulled into Moskovsky train station of Saint Petersburg at 0645 and we emerged from the train to a cold morning. After navigating our way out of the station, we emerged at Nevsky Prospekt or Nevsky Avenue (named after the 13th century national hero credited for defeating the Swedish and German invading armies), the main thoroughfare in Saint Petersburg (or Piter as it is informally known). We walked to Mayakovskava metro station and took the metro to Gostiny Dvor, the nearest metro station to our apartment at the Admiralteyskaya nab. (Admiralty Embankment). The Admiralteystkaya station is actually the nearest to our apartment; alas it is an unfinished station, otherwise we could’ve take the metro all the way here.
Victor, the manager, was already waiting for us and helped us to check-in. My heart sank when I saw the apartment building, but I told myself that, hey, even the building of the Moscow apartment didn’t look attractive from outside. But this time, the apartment really was bad. After freshening up, Fifi and I set out to find a supermarket to buy our provisions. Our apartment was not located in a residential area; it was surrounded by offices and hence the first grocery store was some blocks away and the supermarket slightly further up. We finally set off for the State Hermitage Museum at almost noon (!). The prime attraction for Piter, the Hermitage is a massive palace-cum-museum showing the highlights of over 3 million of pieces from all over the world. We had earlier bought the two-day combined ticket online to save ourselves from queueing. We spent hours at the Hermitage. It was close to closing time when we finally walked out.
A little note on the State Hermitage Museum: the world’s largest art collection here rivals both the Louvre and the Prado in architectural, historical and artistic significance. After commissioning its construction in 1769 and filling it with works of art, Catherine the Great wrote of the treasures: ‘The only ones to admire all this are the mice and me.’ To the public’s general fortune, thankfully, this is no longer true; the collection was made public in 1852.
We then walked across the Palace Square to Nevsky Prospect and turned left when we reached Griboedov Canal and walked along the canal to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood (aka the Church on Spilt Blood and the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. The name refers to the blood of Tsar Alexander II who was assassinated on this site in 1881). To me, it looked like a sister of the St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. After some Kodak moments, we checked out the souvenirs fair (market, more like) near the church and then walked around the city before heading back to the apartment.
* The historic centre of Saint Petersburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Where Moscow is big on Lenin (statues here and there), Piter is unsurprisingly big on Peter the Great, the city’s founder.
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Why Does It Always Rain On Me?
Sorry, I can’t resist this picture
I had read somewhere that Piter only enjoys about 30 days of dry weather in a year and today was one of those 335 days. We walked in the moderate morning rain to the dock in front of the Winter Palace to catch one of the two hydrofoils to Peterhof, a summer residence designed and built by Peter the Great (who else). The series of gardens and palaces are also referred to as the Russian Versailles. The palace ensemble along with the city centre of Peterhof is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It continued raining and didn’t let up at all as the day progressed. So we walked around the Lower Gardens (we arrived at a pier and approached the palace from the lower park) to the Grand Cascade and Grand Palace and watched the fountains at the Grand Cascade start at 10 am in the rain. Then we climbed up the stairs to the Grand Palace and joined the throng of other visitors and queued for more than half an hour to purchase the ticket. It was one of the wettest, most uncomfortable thirty minutes of my life. Although I had my brolly, I was still wet from the rain dripping down from other people’s brollies. Bahhh.
We finally entered and after purchasing our tickets, went down a corridor. After the cloak room, we donned on some shoe coverings (to protect the floor, you see. The whole complex was closed the day before as it usually is on the last Tuesday of the month so all the more reason to keep the newly cleaned floors sparkling. Brilliant idea, eh, except it made me feel as if I was skidding on ice throughout). We were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace (alas!) but all the rooms were oh so awesomely and breathtakingly beautiful. But don’t take my word for it, go see it for yourself.
After that awesome eye feast, we left and headed for the Upper Gardens. It had continued to rain steadily throughout but with extra wind factor. So we hurried about and went down again to the Lower Gardens (after pleading with the ticket inspectors who initially didn’t want to let us re-enter the palace grounds. See, there’s an admission fee for the Lower Gardens and we had already passed through the Lower Gardens on our way to the palace albeit briefly). We wandered around taking pictures of the various fountains before fighting our way back to the pier. I say fighting because by now the wind had taken the form of a gale, so strong that it rendered our brollies unworkable. And we fought against the wind and the pissing rain and the spray of the Gulf of Finland seawater to reach our 2 pm hydrofoil. Not an easy task, I can assure you. Trust me. As if that ordeal wasn’t enough, we had to endure a rough ride back, no thanks to the choppy water. It was a wonder I didn’t get seasick (for the record, I even got ‘seasick’ after the Sydney river cruise).
We reached Piter half an hour later and walked back to the apartment with shaky legs. We decided to rest the bad boat-ride off. We went out again at 5 pm (the rain had finally stopped – for then) and, having decided that a visit to either the Menshikov Palace or the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory or State Hermitage Preservation and Storage Centre (part of our two-day Hermitage ticket) was not feasible, headed for Zayachy Island (aka Hare Island) where the Peter and Paul Fortress is. Peter and Paul Fortress (Petropavlovskaya Krepost) is the original citadel of the city. The fortress was established by Peter the Great on the small Hare Island by the north bank of Neva River. The Peter and Paul Cathedral which is located in the fortress is where all of Russia’s Tsars from Peter the Great himself to Catherine the Great to Nicholas II are buried, the last being finally laid to rest with his family and servants in July 1998. The Tsars prior to Peter were buried in the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.
After walking around the island, we walked to the nearby Mosque (Sobornaja metschetj), the largest mosque in northern Europe and the world’s northern-most mosque. We even went inside and took a picture or two (despite being told not to). There’s a halal butcher near the mosque where we enquired if there was a halal restaurant in the city.
We left the mosque and walked to the Cabin of Peter the Great, Peter’s first residence during his supervision of the construction of St. Petersburg and the city’s first built wooden house.
After popping over to a nearby store (but were told we couldn’t purchase anything as the cashier had closed for the day), we walked to Gorkovskaya metro station and boarded the metro to Sennaya Ploschad (Sennaya Square) and went to find Sofra, a halal Turkish restaurant recommended by the butcher earlier. The menu was in Russian and a Chris O’Donnell doppelgänger casanova (a fellow patron himself) helped us with our orders.
We only left after 10 pm and walked in the twilight* back to our apartment. Our last night in Saint Petersburg *sigh*. I love Saint Petersburg. It’s just so elegant and beautiful. The birthplace of Russian ballet, the city was built by Peter the Great (hence the name although of course it changed names a few times to Petrograd to Leningrad before reverting back to Saint Petersburg) to create a ‘Window to the West’ and drag Russia from its backward roots in ‘Asiatic’ Moscow and Byzantium toward the more advanced countries of the West.
* Because it is so far north, St Petersburg enjoys ‘white nights’ for three weeks in June when the sky never completely darkens.
To be continued
It continued raining and didn’t let up at all as the day progressed. So we walked around the Lower Gardens (we arrived at a pier and approached the palace from the lower park) to the Grand Cascade and Grand Palace and watched the fountains at the Grand Cascade start at 10 am in the rain. Then we climbed up the stairs to the Grand Palace and joined the throng of other visitors and queued for more than half an hour to purchase the ticket. It was one of the wettest, most uncomfortable thirty minutes of my life. Although I had my brolly, I was still wet from the rain dripping down from other people’s brollies. Bahhh.
We finally entered and after purchasing our tickets, went down a corridor. After the cloak room, we donned on some shoe coverings (to protect the floor, you see. The whole complex was closed the day before as it usually is on the last Tuesday of the month so all the more reason to keep the newly cleaned floors sparkling. Brilliant idea, eh, except it made me feel as if I was skidding on ice throughout). We were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace (alas!) but all the rooms were oh so awesomely and breathtakingly beautiful. But don’t take my word for it, go see it for yourself.
After that awesome eye feast, we left and headed for the Upper Gardens. It had continued to rain steadily throughout but with extra wind factor. So we hurried about and went down again to the Lower Gardens (after pleading with the ticket inspectors who initially didn’t want to let us re-enter the palace grounds. See, there’s an admission fee for the Lower Gardens and we had already passed through the Lower Gardens on our way to the palace albeit briefly). We wandered around taking pictures of the various fountains before fighting our way back to the pier. I say fighting because by now the wind had taken the form of a gale, so strong that it rendered our brollies unworkable. And we fought against the wind and the pissing rain and the spray of the Gulf of Finland seawater to reach our 2 pm hydrofoil. Not an easy task, I can assure you. Trust me. As if that ordeal wasn’t enough, we had to endure a rough ride back, no thanks to the choppy water. It was a wonder I didn’t get seasick (for the record, I even got ‘seasick’ after the Sydney river cruise).
We reached Piter half an hour later and walked back to the apartment with shaky legs. We decided to rest the bad boat-ride off. We went out again at 5 pm (the rain had finally stopped – for then) and, having decided that a visit to either the Menshikov Palace or the Museum of the Imperial Porcelain Factory or State Hermitage Preservation and Storage Centre (part of our two-day Hermitage ticket) was not feasible, headed for Zayachy Island (aka Hare Island) where the Peter and Paul Fortress is. Peter and Paul Fortress (Petropavlovskaya Krepost) is the original citadel of the city. The fortress was established by Peter the Great on the small Hare Island by the north bank of Neva River. The Peter and Paul Cathedral which is located in the fortress is where all of Russia’s Tsars from Peter the Great himself to Catherine the Great to Nicholas II are buried, the last being finally laid to rest with his family and servants in July 1998. The Tsars prior to Peter were buried in the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.
After walking around the island, we walked to the nearby Mosque (Sobornaja metschetj), the largest mosque in northern Europe and the world’s northern-most mosque. We even went inside and took a picture or two (despite being told not to). There’s a halal butcher near the mosque where we enquired if there was a halal restaurant in the city.
We left the mosque and walked to the Cabin of Peter the Great, Peter’s first residence during his supervision of the construction of St. Petersburg and the city’s first built wooden house.
After popping over to a nearby store (but were told we couldn’t purchase anything as the cashier had closed for the day), we walked to Gorkovskaya metro station and boarded the metro to Sennaya Ploschad (Sennaya Square) and went to find Sofra, a halal Turkish restaurant recommended by the butcher earlier. The menu was in Russian and a Chris O’Donnell doppelgänger casanova (a fellow patron himself) helped us with our orders.
We only left after 10 pm and walked in the twilight* back to our apartment. Our last night in Saint Petersburg *sigh*. I love Saint Petersburg. It’s just so elegant and beautiful. The birthplace of Russian ballet, the city was built by Peter the Great (hence the name although of course it changed names a few times to Petrograd to Leningrad before reverting back to Saint Petersburg) to create a ‘Window to the West’ and drag Russia from its backward roots in ‘Asiatic’ Moscow and Byzantium toward the more advanced countries of the West.
* Because it is so far north, St Petersburg enjoys ‘white nights’ for three weeks in June when the sky never completely darkens.
To be continued
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