St. Petersburg
I'm on a boat, again!
Russian, Asian, Mexican, Estonian
Russian hospitality at its finest. Couchsurfing!
Forgot the name of this dish, but it was great! Also had Russian pancakes with meat and caviar, as well as other Russian foods.
Off the boat, we immediately see Soviet Russia (right) and modern Russia (left)
Even in the city center, control is very prevalent. Dudes with batons and Russian AK-47s, military vehicles, and a mean face.
Soviet-style building during Stalin years used as a library. It's actually one of the best libraries in the world, never mind Russia.
But, the city was beautiful. The architecture was astounding in the "Venice of The North." Look, there's a pink church! There were about 20 churches I passed by. Went into 3 or 4 of them and they all looked the same.
Something like this. Orthodox church where one priest grabbed my camera and *tried* to delete a picture I had taken of the "inner room." Pshhh, whatevs. Wedding service here was pretty awesome, though.
And that was inside this one, St. Basilica's Cathedral. Almost every museum I got in free (or for around 100 rubles/3 bucks) because they took my Emory card!
More churches.. This is probably the most famous of all in St. Petersburg - the Church of the Savior on Blood. Inside was okay - I mean, seriously, they were all pretty much the same with high roofs, cool architecture, and definitely way too much money spent.
Venice of The North. Absolutely stunning scenery throughout the city with many rivers and bridges, not to mention the multi-colored facades of buildings lining these rivers. This is the famous Hermitage/Winter Palace bridge right on the Neva.
Hermitage, Neva River, and bridges at night. It was absolutely astounding. This was absolutely gorgeous during the White Nights (it was around 2-3AM then). Also, that night had tons of drunk folks watching fireworks and many boats doing cool routines in the river. Really amazing view. You can see one of the bridges in the far view open.
My bedroom inside the Winter Palace/Hermitage. Too many rooms like this.. some are even more extravagant with gold everywhere. Makes you think - how much did they spend on these palaces?
Me as Michelangelo's "Crouching Boy." [Yes, I intentionally went grabbed my left leg instead of my right. And yes, people looked at us if we were crazy]
St. Issac's Cathedral was pretty neat. St. Catherine, St. Peter, Peter and Paul, ____'s Catherals were not shown - too many churches! Imagine if Stalin didn't destroy the 40 churches that once stood in St. Petersburg.
View from the top of the church
Peter the Great was a genius and a tyrant.
500 rubles to hold and take a picture with these little dudes.
Lol.
For Sars
Back to work.. 631 pictures and tons of stories later
Yay Russia! :) The architecture is def. one of my favorite things there
ReplyDeletebeautiful pictures!
ReplyDeleteNUTELLA!! Don't buy it; it will be the end of life as you know it. Were you wearing short sleeves? How cold was it?
ReplyDeleteAnya - Ever been to Peter?
ReplyDeleteSara - Yes, t-shirt and shorts for two days (sunny and around 22 celcius), pants and sweater for the other (rainy and around 17 celcius) And huh? End of life? You jealous they had 3 different jars of it?
Also, forgot to mention.. I went to watch Swan Lake at the Mariinsky theater (SO COOOL) and also some of the Tchaikovsky competition (AMAZING violinists and pianists) at the conservatory, which was right next to the place I was living. In fact, outside my bedroom window, you can hear musicians practicing and rehearsing - that was definitely astonishing
Dude, thanks for all the panoramic shots – incredible. I would LOVE to see fireworks on a sky like that, surrounding by brightly lit, ancient buildings. Church of the Savior on Blood – I want to go! They start to look the same after a while unless the details have salient relevance for you ;) It’s funny, I’ve seen several ‘priests’ shout at tourists for having their cameras out, trying to snap pics during service – most notably in Westminster Abbey. I agree though, probably too much money spent when there were other priorities. I love that you’re wearing lots of Emory shirts in these pics… I’m assuming you didn’t pay 500 rubles to take a pic with the monkeys. Is that you with all the electrodes on your face?
ReplyDeleteBro, of course I wouldn't give them 500 rubles lol. And yeah, that's me. Btw, we have to talk about religion hard core some time. I've been reading and watching a bunch of documentaries lately, and of course thinking philosophically
ReplyDelete