I've been to St
Petersburg quite a few times, but it never gets old. I want to go
back in mid September for a couple reasons, the biggest one that I
wanted to retake some of the photos I'd lost when I lost my camera
after my last trip to St Petersburg.
Because of that
desire, the first day of this trip was almost exactly the same as the
last first day of the trip. (Does that make any sense?) My train
arrived on time, as expected, then I hung out in the train station
for a couple hours.
Instead of taking
my backpack to my accomodation, I made my way straight to the wooden
church just outside city limits.
Go figure, I arrived about 30
minutes before the gate to the property opened, argh. I spent the
first few minutes walking around the outside of the wooden walls,
then made my way into a forest area.
As it was a bit
cooler in St Petersburg than in Moscow, some of the leaves had
already begun to change colour. I'm a sucker for fall trees, I love
that rainbow. Most of what I saw was still green, but there were
hints at yellow, yay! As I walked along a couple paths I saw people
kinda peeking out from tents, it seemed as if they were living in the
woods. I don't know, but their campsites did not look like anything
official.
The church was the
same as before, I only needed about 10 minutes inside the property to
take the photos I wanted. From there I took the bus back to the city,
then the metro, then another bus to get back to Shlisselburg.
I visited the fort
again, there were far fewer visitors in September than in June, but
there were still plenty of people around. I wanted to go up the
stairs to the area along the top of the old walls, but much of it was
being renovated, so I skipped that this time.
The beach was just
as beautiful last time, though the water was at a higher level,
meaning the beach area was actually smaller than last time.
A
peaceful area though, I can see why most visitors spend a fair amount
of time out there.
As soon as I got
back to Shlisselburg I went straight to Lenin, who actually looked
better in September than in June. (The leaves were changing colours,
yay.) I also went back to the supermarket, hoping to find the
chocolate brand I'd found during my last two visits. Unfortunately,
they didn't have it anymore. I was gutted.
I didn't have to
wait long for the next bus to St Petersburg, and the ride was the
same it has been each time I've ridden this bus previously.
Since
this was the third time I'd come back into the city this way I knew
exactly where I was when I got off the bus, and I knew exactly where
I wanted to go.
This is where this
trip was totally different from the last trip, I didn't repeat
anything else. I rode a couple metro trains, then walked the rest of
the way to my next sight in the city: the Rumyantsev mansion.
This mansion (now a
house museum,) was originally built in the 1740s for Grand Duke
Mikhail Golitsyn. Ownership changed in 1802, when Nikolay Rumyantsev
became the owner.
The Rumyantsev
family opened a privately owned museum in 1831 to show off the
collection of nearly 30,000 books, nearly half of which were in
foreign languages. As far as I can tell, the last private owner was
Grand Duke Lev Kochubey, who gave it to the Museum of the History and
Developement of Leningrad in 1938.
I was thrilled to
find out there was NOT a special entry fee for foreigners, woo hoo.
The house is beautiful, and huge.
There are three levels, with a
whole bunch of really grand rooms. The ballroom was bright and gold.
There were a few rooms with paintings on the walls, and a couple
rooms with historical exhibits.
I'm pretty sure I
didn't get through the entire house, so I wouldn't mind going back
for another visit.
At that point my
body was starting to remind me that I'd been on the go pretty much
the whole day. I went to Namaste for dinner, then went to my capsule
hostel to check in and crash.
The next day it
took me a while to get going, but this time I have an excuse: the
weather. I ended up having to walk in the rain each time I was
outside, which was not my idea of fun.
As St Petersburg
was the capital city for a long time, and had a royal family for
quite a long time, there are now a zillion museums with history and
art as their focus. I already had several of these museums on my list
of places to go, and the weather made it easy to decide my itinerary
for the day: museum museum museum.
When I got to my
first museum of the day (the State Russian Museum,) I found the
normal heap of options at the ticket desk.
While queueing up I had
plenty of time to read the signs, and was actually pretty happy to
have all the different options. I ended up choosing a ticket that
allowed me into several of the museums over three days. Of course I
didn't have three days to see the museums, but if I went to three on
one day, the ticket was worth it.
So that's what I
did. I went through the State Russian Museum, St Michael's Palace,
and the Marble Palace. I saw lots of grand stairwells, and really
missed the girls. Stairwells were always good team photo spots for
us, and they were always willing to take paparazzi photos of me on
the stairs. Sigh, I miss them.
I saw more artwork
than I can ever begin to try to remember. I saw gorgeous ceilings,
many of which gave me a crick in my neck. I saw a LOT of gold leaf,
apparently that colour was really important to the various royal
family members. I loved the intricate wooden floors in so many of the
rooms.
I managed to
irritate two particular docents; one because I barely touched the
pedestal of a sculpture, and the other because I wanted to take a
photo of old school door handles. I understand why the docent didn't
want me touching (not even a little) the sculpture pedestal, but I
did not understand why taking a photo of the door handles was a bad
thing.
As that docent wasn't able to give me a reason why, I'm
guessing she just wanted to pick on me. Argh.
There were plenty
of brightly shining chandeliers as well, particularly in the rooms
where the royals would've had public gatherings. Most rooms had
different colours on the walls, sometimes it was paint and sometimes
it was wallpaper.
After walking out
of the third museum it was only late afternoon, but I was completely
done. I was cold, and totally arted out. Thank goodness the waiters
at Namaste know me, it is easy for me to stay there a few hours each
time I have dinner.
From there it was a
a quick walk back to my hostel to pick up my bag, then another walk
to the train station. I love that I've been to this city enough times
that I know how long it takes to walk to the train station from
various points in the city.
I will be back :)
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