russia: st petersburg

Even though we'd spent the last weekend in Murmansk, the ladies and I couldn't resist using a midweek holiday to make a quick visit up to St Petersburg.

Normally at this point in a blog post I give some quick stats about where I've gone, like how many people live there and a bit of the history. I'm pretty sure I've already done that with St Petersburg, since I've been there a few times previously.

Our train arrived on time in the early morning, of course it was already daylight. In mid June the sun comes up just after 0330, and to be honest, I don't think it gets completely dark. 

Since it was already light when we arrived, we didn't hang out in the train station for very long.

We walked to our accomodation and while we weren't able to check in so early, we were able to leave our bags there for the day. Next up was breakfast at a random cafe across the street.

After eating and killing about an hour, we walked to Yusupov Palace, one of a gazillion former royal residences in and around St Petersburg.

Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov was born into a noble family in St Petersburg, when it was the capital of Russia. Both his father and paternal grandfather were counts, but they came from another family. 

The Yusupov family name actually came from his mother, as his father took that name in order to officially continue the Yusupov family line.

The Yusupov family wealth came from generations back, and oh boy were they wealthy. They had more wealth than the Romanov family that ruled the country. Yusupov family palaces were in St Petersburg and Moscow, and 37 other estates near Kursk, Voronezh, and Poltava. (Poltava is in modern day Ukraine.) I don't know how many of these palaces and properties are now open to the public, or if they're privately owned, or if they even exist anymore.

Prince Yusupov gained the title when he married the only niece of the tsar, Princess Irina. The war didn't go well for the family, but because they were well connected, they were able to get out of Prussia, which is where they had been at the time. They went back to Russia through Denmark and Finland.

Since they had noble titles the Yusupovs had to leave Russia not long after the February Revolution in 1917 because the tsar had abdicated. Before leaving they went back to their 'main' home in St Petersburg to gather some possessions, including jewels and art. Wikipedia says this is how they funded some of their years of exile.

In later years they lived in France, where they passed away in Paris after a number of years.

The Yusupov palace we visited had an entry fee of 700 rubles, which was quite a lot. Argh. The palace was pretty big, and each room was quite different. As with so many other royal residences we've seen this year and last, there were some amazing stairs, some beautiful windows, as well as gorgeous ceilings and floors.

There was also a theatre with seating on a 'main floor' and a second level of balconies! We were all a bit dumbfounded by the Arabian styled bathroom. It had beautiful tiling on the walls, and a sauna like atmosphere. Wow. 

Not something I would ever like in my own home, but definitely one of those times when you see how the uber rich live and think what else they could've done with that money.

After leaving the palace we went on a long walk, which brought us to the Peter and Paul fortress on the other side of the water. We'd seen the fortress before, but we wanted to go in the church, as it is where many of the Romanov family are officially interred. Claire and I remembered the entry fee as being 450 rubles, but I guess the summer season has a higher entry fee, it was 550 rubles.

The church interior was nice, but not as fantastic as I would've expected for that fee. The iconostasis up front was gold, and bright, especially because the light was streaming in from the outside, making everything light and lovely. Due to the rather high entrance fee, I was expecting the family tombs to be in a separate area, or to be big and impressive, but they weren't.

After leaving the fortress, we walked to the nearest metro and rode the trains to get to our favourite place to eat in St Petersburg: Namaste, an Indian restaurant. 

Even though we didn't have room left in our bellies, we walked to our favourite gelato place for dessert, then took a tram back to our hotel.

This was around 1900, so pretty early in the day, especially since it was still very light outside. The reason for this early return was to take a nap, then go back out again. While we'd walked from the palace to the fortress, we'd bought tickets for boat rides in the canals and under the bridges, the boat ride started at 2300.

Walking from the hotel to the marina to catch the boat we got to see a beautiful sunset. The colours were intense, and never seemed to end. We've all seen beautiful sunsets, but this one was particularly memorable for me, partly because it seemed to go on and on and on.

The boat ride was fun. Windy and chilly, but fun. The main reason we'd bought tickets is because we wanted to go under the main bridges, which raise up at 1 in the morning during the season. The bridges being raised allows bigger ships to go through the waterway.

The first part of the boat tour went through some of the canals of the city, with a pretty much constant spiel of information, both architectural and historical. The spiel was in Russian, so it didn't mean anything to us. When we got to the bridges as they rose, we felt as if the entire city was on the water with us, but I was still pretty excited to see it happen.

The tour finally finished at 0215, and sunrise was already well on its way. Even at the darkest point of the night, it didn't feel all that dark. We took a taxi back to the hotel and crashed hard. All three of us had the same thought: we're old, staying up this late is rough.

The next morning we slept in a bit, I woke up earlier than the girls and killed time looking at my phone. This was 12 June, which is the official holiday of Russia Day.

Eventually we got moving, and headed to one of the iconic sights of the city: the Hermitage. It's one of the biggets art museums in the world. A couple years earlier I'd seen a photo of a specific hallway in the museum, and I wanted to see it for myself. 

Normally Wednesday wouldn't be quite so crowded in a museum, even in high season, but this was a holiday, so the place was packed. Angela did the best job of guiding us through the museum, even though she hadn't been there before. The hall was just as impressive as I'd hoped. The whole museum is impressive, and even though we only stayed around 2.5 hours, we were arted out when we left.

We love seeing Lenin statues, and as St Petersburg is such a main city (and was in fact once named for the man,) there are a number of statues of the man to see. This time we took the metro to Finlandsky train station, there is a statue of him in front of the station.

At that point, we were exhausted, and ready to stop walking around. We went back to Namaste for another fantastic meal, then back to the gelato cafe. From there it was an easy walk back to the train station. As always, the train departed on time, and arrived on time in Moscow the next morning.

As always, I loved this trip to St Petersburg, and I know I'll be back a few times next year.