October 6th

Day 2&3- After re-falling in love with the city of St. Petersburg, I moved into tourist hyperdrive. In a an action packed two days I saw the following:

Tauride Palace and Park- The Tauride Palace has great historical significance for Russia during her revolutionary period. It was the site of the first Duma during Tsar Nicholas II’s reign and between the February and October Revolutions in 1917, it was the sight of the ineffectual and doomed Provisional Government. So, naturally, my excitement to see this edifice was rather high. Thought I: well, perhaps the best way to see the Tauride Palace would be through the Tauride Park. Silly me, this is Russia. I ended up walking for about 30 minutes just to get a glimpse of this fairly unassuming “palace” (I suppose I’ve been spoiled by the Hermitage and Peterhoff- real palaces…). It is currently the headquarters of the CIS, the modern day answer to the Warsaw Pact. I had to dig to find the irony in this, but I dug and I found it.

Smolney Institute and Cathedral- I didn’t know that the Cathedral existed, but it turned out to be far more accessible and entertaining then the more historically relevant Institute. The Smolney Insitute was, in Tsarist times, a private girl’s school and six months post Tsarist times it became the Communist bastion in the city. All sorts of fun and interesting Communist things happened here, such as the signing of death warrants, the killing of Dukes and intellectuals, and the assassinations of Communists themselves. Indeed, in that building, the Mayor of Leningrad was killed, beginning Stalin’s great purges. It now resembles a building that is closed to tourists…

Alexander Nevsky Monastery- Not a whole lot of historical significance going on here as far as I could tell. Well, beyond a beautiful church and a few cemeteries full of dead bodies of some importance. So the church was incredible inside and, it being October, rainy, and cold, I was the only foreigner anywhere near the place. Of course, like all Orthodox churches, the no photo rule is strictly enforced (that’s my carrot to mom and dad to come to Russia- gotta see the churches) so sorry, no pictures. As I sat inside the church, soaking in the beauty and the peace (and trying to dry out) I thought I was about as far away from Russia as I could possibly be. At that precise moment, a drunk, dirty old man came and sat down next to me and after realizing that I was in no mood to chat, began harassing the nuns going by. Yep. I was still in Russia. On the plus side, I was able to see the graves of Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Shiskin. All in one fell swoop.

Petropavloskii Krepost (Peter and Paul Fortress)- This fortress was one of the first things erected after the founding of the city in 1703. Great fun to be had by all: from the State Museum of Torture to Executioner’s Dock where, well, people were executed. From there, make your way down to the prison where all sorts of famous folks were incarcerated, from Dostoevsky to Lenin’s older brother. Cap it all off with the borderline gaudy Peter and Paul Cathedral where you can see the tombs of all the Tsars from Peter the Great to the murdered Nicholas II who was returned here recently from the field in Siberia where he and his family were so lovingly thrown after they were done in by the Communists.

Well, that’s it for a couple of exciting days in St. Pete. Hope you enjoyed this bit of the virtual tour sans pictures.

St. Petersburg Moment of the Day

So, I was on my way to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery when I stopped to do one of my frequent map checks (sorry dad, no compass). I ascertained my location and continued to move out. About 30 meters down the road I was stopped by a Russian who was clearly thrown off by my Russian coat, pointy shoes, and lack of any ubiquitous “tourist tags” (map, camera, I Heart St. Pete shirt, colorful clothing, smile, etc.). This Russian asked me where Baltinskaya Ulitsa was (that’s a road). Having just checked my map, I was able to not only point him towards this road, but also which way went toward the river and which way went toward downtown. I managed to do this in grammatically correct Russian, but I’m just not good enough to hide that I am indeed a foreigner. It absolutely KILLED this guy that he’d just asked for, and then received instructions from a non-Russian. This man literally looked like I’d just run over his puppy, and then backed over it just to be sure. Not content to let this slight go unavenged, this man said, with all the malice he could muster (it was a significant amount of malice), “Oh. And here I thought you were a Russian.” You’re welcome, sir. You’re welcome.