russia: kronstadt and st petersburg

I'll always be happy to go to St. Petersburg. I'm pretty sure I've started another post with those same (or similar,) words, but they are true.

Since Claire and I had been to the city several times previously, we decided to do a day trip on Saturday, then stay in St. Petersburg on Sunday.

Kronstadt is a small city on the island of Kotlin, 30 kilometers west of St. Petersburg, right in the middle of the gulf of Finland. The island was originally Swedish, the Russians didn't gain possession until the beginning of the 18^th century.

The island was immediately used by the Russians as a fortification against the Swedes and anyone else who wanted to take over the area. It didn't take long to build the original fort, along with several mini forts.

These mini islands were made at the same time as the original fort. Stones were dropped through holes cut in the ice. Mini forts were then built on top of these mini islands. The construction of all these islands and forts left very little open water through which foreign boats could travel, in other words the water was completely under Russian control.

Unless I'm mistaken (which is always possible,) these islands no longer exist.

Kronstadt has been involved in a lot of fighting since the fortresses were built. It was seized by the Russians during the Great Northern War. Shipping markets were affected by the Crimean War. It was also part of WW1, the Russian Civil War, and WW2. There is still a military presence on the island, though I don't think there has been any need for it recently.

The population of the city has changed quite a bit in the last century or two, mostly depending on whether war was happening. 

Wikipedia tells me it is a little under 45,000 right now.

After arriving before dark on our train from Moscow, we hopped on the metro to the edge of St Petersburg, then took a bus the rest of the way to Kronstadt. When we got off the bus it was still dark, (sunrise in mid December in St Petersburg isn't until nearly 10am,) which was no fun at all.

We ended up walking almost all the way around the walls of the former fortress in an effort to get to the platz in the middle. During this walk we watched a bit of some kind of military ceremony. 

Everyone looked really young, so maybe it was a group of cadets?

We finally got to the platz, and found the reason people come to this island: to see the Naval Cathedral of St Nicholas. It's huge.

Walking into the cathedral was really impressive. It gets a lot of visitors, so there are plenty of head scarves available for women to borrow. There are also signs (in Russian, Chinese, and English,) reminding people to be quiet and be respectful.

From the outside you see several domes, but when you're inside it feels like one big ceiling with a bunch of rotundas, if that makes sense. The inside feels huge and airy, and the whole thing is decorated. There are a number of giant chandeliers, cleaning them must be tough.

We wandered around for a bit, deciding to leave just as a large group of Chinese tourists came in.

On another side of the platz is a war memorial, with an eternal flame. This particular memorial is built in a way that kinda protects the flame, as this area is nearly always windy. As we were there in early winter, this didn't feel so good. 

At that point we realized there was some sort of parade coming in front of the church. They were sailors, in uniform, some marching with flags, and some with instruments. Totally unexpected, and we had no idea what it was for, but it was really neat to watch.

After the parade we found a nearby cafe to eat breakfast, and warm up.

Before leaving Kronstadt we found the statue of Lenin and took a team photo.

The bus back toward St Petersburg was actually a marshrutka, which dropped us off at the end of one of the city metro lines. 

While on this marshrutka I realized I could see the big building that looks like the Shard, but I have no idea where one goes to get those Instagram worthy views of the building. As the marshrutka passed more closely to the building I could only see construction and dirt, which were not pretty, to say the least.

Instead of going to our accomodation we rode the metro closer to one of the university campuses in the city. Later research told me President Putin studied here! 

We didn't find a way into campus, but we could peek in through the fence around the area, it's quite pretty. We didn't walk the entire way around, so there is probably an open gate we didn't see.

While walking near the university I could see that the canal was frozen, so I wanted to take photos of me standing on the ice. Angela did the same, but Claire wasn't keen to do so. Since there is so much shipping through these waters, the frozen surface isn't smooth at all.

We crossed the water/ice on one of the many bridges of the city, watching some locals dancing in one area along the way. 

We kept going, ending up at the accomodation I'd booked for the night. It was easy enough to check in, though our room ended up being rather cold.

The next day, after checking out, I received a message from booking.com saying that the hotel hadn't checked us in, the site wanted to know if we'd shown up. I replied and said that yes, we had been there. I have a sneaking suspicion that the hotel was trying to get around declaring having us as guests by reporting us as no-shows. Anywho.

This was Angela's first trip to St Petersburg, but Claire and I gave her no choice in where we were going to eat dinner. We went to Namaste, one of my all time favourite Indian restaurants. Afterward we walked to a gelatto place for dessert, even though none of us actually had room in our bellies.

The next morning we packed up and checked out, after waking up pretty late. Since the sun comes up so late it's really easy to stay asleep later than usual. (And both Claire and Angela tend to sleep in much later than I do without an alarm.)

After packing up and checking out, we started walking. We walked along the canals, pointing our well known buildings to Angela. One of these was the Hermitage, which is probably one of the biggest and most famous museums in the world.

Claire finally said she was keen to take an ice photo, but that did not end well. The ice wasn't solid enough where she decided to step, she went into the water. We were able to get her out, but that accident definitely changed our plans for the rest of the day.

We walked immediately to a cafe, and found a way for Claire to put her jeans on a radiator to hopefully dry them out a bit. It took a while, but they were mostly dried out by the time we left. Angela or I had an extra pair of socks, so Claire's feet didn't have to stay so cold.

Eventually we went back outside, walking in the general direction of the Peter and Paul fortress. We actually walked around to the other side, and kept going. Not too far from the fortress is a large mosque. Someone told me it used to be one of the biggest in Europe.

It is in the same style as those I'd seen in Uzbekistan, which means the style of decoration was really eye catching. Blue mosaic tiling, absolutely beautiful.

After the mosque we walked back to the fortress. Claire and I already knew that the interior of the fortress wasn't all that interesting, but we thought Angela should see it. There is a church in the middle of the whole thing, many of the Romanov family members are entombed inside. We wanted to see the church, but when we got to the door we discovered it had an entrance fee, and we just weren't in the mood to pay.

It was basically dark by the time we left the fortress, so our last sight of the day was inside. It was an easy walk to the museum apartment of Sergei Kirov. Kirov was the leader of the communists in Leningrad, and a great friend of Stalin. He began his political career as a revolutionary, then rose through the ranks of the party relatively quickly. 

The apartment in which he lived is now a museum, all three of us were keen to see how one of the leaders lived. 

The apartment is huge. Leaders of the party most definitely didn't like like the masses. If I understand correctly, Kirov lived with just his wife in the flat, though there were multiple bedrooms and plenty of other spaces. Kirov liked to hunt, so some of his trophies were displayed. We also got to see an office, a library, and more. Impressive, and disgusting at the same time.

Kirov was shot and killed by a gunman in his office in the Smolny Institute in 1934. One of the items on display is a picture of the bullet hole in the back of his head. Hmmm. 

Though the official account doesn't say so, there is a strong suspicion that Stalin himself ordered the killing, which was then used as an excuse to start the great purge (of political leaders,) that followed.

After leavimg the museum we went back to Namaste for another Indian dinner. We also ordered food to go, so each of us would have yummy food for the next couple days in Moscow.

Our train back to Moscow was a double decker, which was awesome to show Angela. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the Russian train system is fantastic. Why don't other countries copy it?