russia: saint petersburg

When I have a long weekend due to a national holiday, I rarely spend the weekend in the city in which I live. National Unity Day (a relatively new national holiday, it has only been around since 2005,) is celebrated every 4 November. This year the date fell on a Saturday, so the holiday was officially celebrated on the following Monday. Since I'm always aware of holidays and opportunities for travel, I'd booked train tickets more than a month in advance.

I'd been to St. Petersburg once before, but I have very few memories. That trip was in 2003, when I was living in Germany. 

That trip involved a tour group, where the guide spoke in German. Though I lived in Germany, I didn't understand or speak German, and the trip was in a country where I didn't speak or read the language. In other words, I had no idea what I was seeing or hearing for most of the trip. This time I had a slightly better understanding of the Russian language, I could read signs, and speak in very broken Russian with staff of hotels and restaurants.

My first challenge was in figuring out where my train departed in Moscow. My train ticket said the departure station was Oktyabrskaya, but I couldn't find a proper train station with that name. 

There is a metro station with that name, but not a train station. There is a Leningradsky train station, which is what came up when I tried google maps. Thankfully I was able to ask a colleague for help. It turns out that Oktyabrskaya is the name of the railway line, while Leningrad used to be the name of the main destination trains went to from this station. Confusing yes, but once you know the names, you don't think about it again.

I showed up Friday evening for my train in Moscow, and deboarded the next morning at 0630 in St Petersburg. (At another station with two names, for much the same reasons.) The train was a double decker train, a first for me. For each bed there was a little box with a small bottle of water, and a gingerbread snack. It was nice, the toilets were clean and had toilet paper!

It was still pitch black, and very very quiet. Since St Petersburg is 715 kilometers north of Moscow, that means the days are shorter in the fall and early winter. Since it was early Saturday morning, there weren't many people awake or outside at that hour.

Right in front of the train station is a platz with a memorial in the middle. On top of a hotel across the platz are letters that spell out Leningrad, city of heroes. Since this felt like my first trip to the city (even though it wasn't,) pretty much everything caught my attention.

I walked to my accomodation, and was able to check in straightaway, yahoo!! Since it was only 0830 or so, (I dawdled and took photos during the walk,) I was able to take a nap, which felt amazing. I woke up a couple hours later, it still wasn't very light outside, eeek. Living this far north would be a terrible idea for me.

Eventually I left the hostel and started walking. Some people would call St Petersburg the Venice of the north, as the city is built on a whole lot of canals. Walking through the city means constantly crossing canals. It wasn't pretty weather, but the canals were still photogenic. That being said, I tried to avoid having rubbish in my photos.

I came to a large traffic circle with a statue in the middle. A guy on a horse, which is practically a standard statue for a big city. On the other side of the statue was a big church. A very big church.

St Isaacs, it is one of the best known churches of the city. The photographer part of me hated the way tour buses were parked, as they blocked the angle I wanted for a photo.

Since St Isaacs is so big, there are massive doors on all four sides. Entry is on one side, and exit is on the other, but you can take a good photo of one set of doors on a third side of the church.

On the other side of the church was a small park, at the edge of which was another statue of a guy on a horse. On the other side of that was a big canal. At least I think it was another canal. There were a number of little docks along the sides, presumably the water is packed with boats in warmer weather.

I walked along the water for a little bit, until I came to the next bridge. From the bridge I could see the backside of the admiralty building, painted yellow. I could also see the Hermitage, one of the most famous museums in the world.

I circled around the Hermitage, which sits on one side of a big platz. Since this was a holiday weekend, the platz wasn't empty, argh. I like big empty platzes for photography reasons. There is a column in the middle, it's always there. At the time a stage was being set up, presumably for an upcoming concert.

I crossed the bridge, and wandered a bit around the area right on the other side; then I wandered back across the bridge.

My next destination was another super famous church: the Church on Spilled Blood, also called the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. (If you use the second name, I'm not sure many people will have any idea which church you mean.) This is the church with the multi coloured onion domes, one that is often confused with a church in Moscow that also has multi coloured onion domes. I know the difference now, after seeing both of them a few times. 

I bought an entry ticket from one of the machines, but didn't hear it drop into the shelf under the screen. I went to the ticket window to ask what happened, and the lady told me. Thankfully when I got back to the machine my ticket was still in there.

I went into the church and my jaw dropped. I'm pretty sure that's a normal reaction for anyone visiting this church. Every square centimeter is covered in brightly painted frescoes. EVERY SQUARE CENTIMETER. Look up, look around, look up, look around, repeat for a while. I took heaps and heaps and heaps of pictures (encouraged, just don't use a flash,) and loved it.

At the back side of the 'sanctuary' was a tomb, that of Alexander II. He is the one for whom the church is named, as it was built on the spot where he was fatally wounded in 1881.

The church officially closes at 1800, but that's just the time for visitors to leave. I discovered by accident that a few minutes later, a service starts. I stayed for the first few minutes, then left.

I walked to yet another church, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan. I didn't realize it was a church straightaway, at least not an Orthodox church. The appearance made me think of St Paul's, in Rome, in the way the columns spread out off each side.

The interior of the cathedral wasn't all that interesting. There was a queue of people waiting to kiss the main icon, but that was it. No bright frescoes, and the lighting wasn't very good. Argh.

From there I went to a grocery store, then back to my hostel for the night.

The next morning I didn't do any better in terms of getting going in the morning. The darkness did not work well for me.

I walked to St Nicholas Naval Cathedral. Not surprisingly, this particular church is blue on the outside. (Water = blue, at least in my head.) 

The bell tower stands separately from the church, it's also blue. The interior of the church is mostly blocked off from visitors, I was allowed in just one small area. Oh well.

From there I walked a long way. My next sight was similar to one seen in a number of cities around the world. An arch of triumph, or arc de triomphe. Obviously, I took a photo with me in it, and the arch in the background. The big difference between this arch and others in the world is that this one was green. Interesting colour choice.

More walking eventually brought me to something called the column of glory. It is a memorial to the victory of the Russo Turkish war in the 19^th century. The column is surrounded by guns and cannons, which I thought made for an interesting juxtaposition with Trinity Cathedral, a few meters away.

Of course I stepped inside the church. It was wide open and airy, and I watched as a baptism took place. The family doing the baptism had hired a professional photographer, it was amusing to watch him scurry around, and try to capture every moment and every angle. 

The iconostasis up front was gold, but not as big as I expected. 

From there I walked again, eventually ending up at the Grand Choral Synagogue. As with other Jewish sights around the world, there was extra security for any visitors, I had to go through a metal detector, and a guard peeked into my purse.

The 'sanctuary' of the synagogue was gorgeous. I was able to watch for a while, standing at the back. I love the feeling inside buildings of faith. I found a staircase which allowed me up to a second level, with balconies around the sanctuary. Absolutely beautiful. I sat for a few minutes, soaking in the atmosphere. 

The synagogue wasn't too far from the Mariinsky theater, which is supposed to be really famous. Since I live in Moscow, I'm used to the Bolshoy Theater, which is far bigger, so I wasn't too impressed. It was green, like the arch, definitely not a colour I would've chosen for a grand theater.

I kept going, enjoying the sunset while it happened. St Petersburg is a city where walking is easy, and you can go all day with no particular destination in mind. Eventually I crossed another big bridge, after dark. I loved the way the buildings on the canal were all lit up, night lights are pretty.

This part of my walking took me through a park with a WW2 memorial. The eternal flame was mesmerizing, several people were standing around, just looking.

I walked all the way to a Korean restaurant for dinner, and had to wait a bit to be seated. The food ended up being okay, but not spectacular.

The next morning I woke up to yet another gray day. This was my last day, I had a list of places I hoped to get to during the day. Did having this list get me moving any faster in the morning? Not really.

My first sight was Alexander Nevsky monastery. Surrounded by a wall, there is also a cemetery if you want to pay that entrance fee. I wasn't in that kind of mood, I stuck with visiting the main church. The courtyard in the middle would probably be really photogenic in better weather, though the little graveyard in the middle of the courtyard was a little spooky because of the gray sky.

I wanted a photo of the whole front of the church, but that view doesn't exist because of trees. The church is painted yellow outside, but much of the inside isn't painted. 

I wish I'd been able to take a photo of the inside of the cupola, as it was painted, blue with gold stars.

From there it was a loooong walk, all the way to St Isaacs cathedral. (By the time I'd seen it my first day, it was already past closing time.) It took me a while to find the ticket office, on one side of the church, as entry is on a different side. The ticket looks the same as the ticket for the Church on Spilled Blood, I got them confused at the turnstyle, whoops. Obviously, I need to take tickets out of my purse each evening, to make sure that doesn't happen again. 

The interior of St Isaacs is also jaw dropping. Another set of rounds of look up, look around, look up, look around. Heaps more photos. At the front of the church, as part of the iconostasis there are green marble columns, I loved them. A bright green colour, not what I would've expected.

That was the perfect sight to finish this trip to the city, I already knew I had to come back, probably several more times. I found a grocery store, then went back to the hostel to pick up my bag and warm up. Eventually I walked back to the train station, and boarded my train.

I will definitley be back to St Petersburg.