At some point
during the fall I found a list of ice festivals around Russia, one of
these festivals was supposed to take place in St. Petersburg. Since I
knew I'd be happy to go back to that city, I told Claire about it and
she was keen to join up.
We had a hard time
finding information about the festival, as it wasn't mentioned in my
guidebook. Not only was it not in the guidebook, there was no current
information online. We ended up choosing the dates for the trip based
on the listed dates of previous years, and hoped the festival would be taking place.
The train I booked
arrived at 0615 Saturday morning, at a train station closer to the
edge of the city. It was quite a bit further out than the station at
which I'd arrived for my first trip. Since we'd arrived pretty early,
and we both like walking, we didn't mind a long walk to our
accomodation.
We were rather
surprised by the weather when we arrived. It was the end of January,
but there was no snow on the ground, just the occasional patch of
slush or mud. So far I was totally disappointed by my first Russian
winter, it hadn't been nearly as cold or nearly as snowy as I'd been
led to expect.
As we walked we
took the occasional night photo. My favourite was while we crossed a
bridge, I was able to capture some of the ice on the surface of the
river.
Eventually we
arrived at our hotel, and were able to check in straightaway. This
ended up being a good thing and a bad thing. We warmed up and
relaxed, but spent far too long doing so. Oh well. It was during this
time that I figured out what I'd forgotten to bring along for this
trip: a plug with which to charge my electronics. Argh. I always forget one thing, sometimes that thing is more important than other times.
When we started
walking, we walked along one of the city's many canals, arriving at
our first sight of the weekend: the Hermitage. It was originally a
royal palace, and still looks it. This particular building sits on
one side of a huge platz, an important gathering place for people of
the city. We noticed that buses are not allowed in the platz, which I
think is awesome.
The Hermitage is
the second largest museum in the world, with a LOT of display space.
It was established in the mid 18th century, so it is
already more than two centuries old. The (main) ticket covers the
whole museum, which is spread out quite a bit.
We arrived early
enough in the day that there was no queue, yahoo! We bought tickets
from the convenient vending machines in the front courtyard, then
went in and put our coats into coat check. Everything I'd heard and
read told me that the number of items on display in this museum is
huge, and it isn't worth it to try to see everything in one visit. We
decided to set our limit at three hours, whateva we'd seen during
that time would be enough for this visit.
I'd tried to do
some research ahead of time, but there was just too much to see. The
one place I would've loved to have a team photo was the way most
people enter this building, so I knew it would never be empty.
The
Jordan staircase has mirrors and red carpet and gold and columns, and
is generally stunning.
Each time we got to
a place where we could go in different directions we made a random
decision. Some of the rooms through which we walked were truly
stunning. Others were simply okay. Every room had smaller works of
art and larger works. Some were sculptures, some were paintings, and
sometimes it was the room itself was the main thing on display. There were chandeliers
and lamps in each room, everything was well lit.
I also noticed the
floors. Mostly made of wood, each room had different patterms, some
of them very intricate. I have no idea how they keep the floors in
such good shape, considering the number of people who walk through
this museum.
After three hours
we were well and truly arted out, but knew we wanted to come back for
another visit in the future. After getting our coats, we exited the
museum, onto the platz in front. Across the way was a government
building, with a series of arches running through the middle. It's a
really photogenic walkway.
We walked through
there, and followed the streets until we arrived at our second sight
of the weekend: St Isaacs Cathedral. I mentioned this church during
my first trip; since I loved it so much I had no problem visiting
again. Claire liked it too.
Unlike the Church
on Spilled Blood, St Isaacs Cathedral functions only as a museum. As
far as I know, no religious services take place in the church. The
current building is the fourth church to stand on this ground, and
has been around since construction began in 1818.
After the church we
took a break in a cafe, we were hungry. This served as dinner, even
though it was basically a bunch of snacks. After eating too much, and
debating what we wanted to do for the rest of the evening, (the
weather hadn't been great, and if it was raining we didn't want to be
outside for that much longer, but if the rain had stopped, we were
keen to keep going,) we walked again.
By this point the
rain had stopped, so we decided to do/see the main reason we'd
scheduled this trip: the ice festival. After a lot of googling, I'd
figured out that the Peter and Paul fortress was hosting the
festival, so we walked in that direction.
We crossed a bridge or two,
and the water in the canals was still enough that I was able to take
a couple nice reflection photos.
We entered the
fortress, hoping to spot the ice straightaway. That didn't happen.
When we finally found the location, we were more than a little
surprised, as it was inside a tent that was almost hidden in one
corner of the fortress. It was NOT a big tent, not nearly big enough
to be called a festival.
The sign said it
was called Ice Fantasy, and we knew just from the size of the tent
that it would not be a fantasy of any kind.
We paid the
ridiculous entry fee, and went inside the tent. There were probably
around 20 ice sculptures on display, some better than others. There
were characters from movies, as well as a castle, and a few animals.
We took pictures of everything, because of course.
Near the end there
was an ice throne, with a queue of people waiting to take photos
while sitting on the throne. We joined the queue, pretending we were
royalty.
Since it wasn't
super cold outside, there were a number of air conditioners running
inside the tent, trying to keep the sculptures from melting.
After leaving the
ice 'festival' we stopped at a grocery store to pick up breakfast and
snack foods for the next day. When we got back to our hotel we were
able to put the food just outside the window, on a ledge, as a
natural refridgerator.
Late the next
morning we packed up and checked out. We opted to walk around 'our'
neighborhood a little, going whicheva way caught our eye. One of the
closest buildings had a small fountain on the side, and had some
newly laid flowers for a memorial of some kind.
Across a canal we
found the entrance to the Summer Gardens.
Since it wasn't summer, and
we couldn't see anything on display, we weren't keen to explore.
Still, we saw a sign that said there was no entrance fee, so we
stepped inside the gates just because we could. I wonder how long the
'no entry fee' season lasts.
Our next sight was
the Church on Spilled Blood. I loved it just as much this time as I
did during my last visit. The scaffolding on part of the roof was
still there, I made a mental note to find out how long the renovation
was scheduled to last. (Side note, scaffolding will be there a while,
until 2025, argh.)
After that church,
we walked to another church, the Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral. I loved
the outside just as much as previously, and was as unimpressed as
before with the interior of the church.
We walked past a
Roman Catholic church and stepped in just because it wasn't an
Orthodox Church. In comparison, this church was rather plain, but
still felt like a holy place. We saw a sign that said masses take
place in Russian, English, and Polish. Impressive.
Our next sight was
the Faberge Museum. I'm guessing all three of my readers have heard
the name Faberge, and automatically think of very fancy decorated
eggs.
This is what the jewelry house is probably most famous for
creating, though the museum showed us they actually made a whole lot
of very intricate jewelry and useless kitsch.
There was a time
when owning a Faberge egg was a real sign of social importance, as
these eggs were first created for the Russian Tsars. The jewelry
house has been around since 1842, having been founded by Gustav
Faberge.
Not surprisingly,
there was a bit more security in this museum. Each item was under a
case, sometimes by itself, sometimes with other items. There was a
security looking person in each room, keeping an eye on all museum
goers.
We loved the
museum. We got to see eggs, cigarette cases, tableware, and more.
After the museum we
found a cafe in which we ordered tea. We were not happy to find a
service charge on the bill, good for an extra 10%. I asked for the
menu, and found it listed, on the back side of the menu, in fine
print.
When I mentioned this later in my review of the cafe, they responded
and said it was noted. In my head I said yes, it is, but on the back
side of the menu, where there is no other information, and in very
small print. I hate feeling cheated that way, I was glad we hadn't
ordered more food.
After the cafe we
decided to explore the metro system a bit. I'd looked at photos ahead
of time and made note of some of the stations that I thought would be
interesting to see. Many of the stations in St Petersburg were just
as gorgeous as some of those in Moscow. Russians take their metro
systems (and decor,) seriously.
Dinner was at an
Indian restaurant called Namaste. It was so good that we planned to
come back during our next St Petersburg visit, even though we didn't
yet know when that would be. SO GOOD.
As we were leaving,
it started to snow. It was wet snow, almost like rain/sleet. Not fun
to walk through, we were glad it had started only at the end of our
trip. We walked back to our hotel to pick up our bags, then to the
train station (not the far away station,) to catch our train.
The next morning we
arrived back in Moscow, already dreaming of our next trip up north.
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