Holiday Day 1: Saint Petersburg

2-3.11.12: Today marked the beginning of my Europe/Scandinavia holiday. After a day of teaching, we finished packing and cleaning our apartment and then headed out at 21:30 to get to the train station by 1:10 the next morning. There, we met Moscow 1 and Carrie Patton, a woman from our International LDS branch who is teaching English in Moscow, though not with ILP. She was a volunteer with ILP about 10 years ago. We located our train and made ourselves comfortable on our thin open-compartment sleeper beds. Because my group is the perfect four, we were lucky enough to be in the same compartment. Everyone but Emily (the other Head Teacher) and I were obviously surprised with their predicament; sleeper trains definitely offer unique experiences. This train was somewhat better than the trains I took in China, so I was prepared to deal with it. I slept decently enough that night, though I awoke myself early enough to see the Russian countryside. It looks, as I’ve said before, similar to the Mid-Western States: rolling hills, farmland, pockets of trees, old buildings, etc. The most difficult part of this experience was not being able to clean up in the morning; we would have to wait until we reached our hostel in Saint Petersburg. We arrived in Saint Petersburg around 10:30 and proceeded to drag our suitcases through the freezing rain; however, even in this miserable condition, the beauty of Saint Petersburg was not lost on me: as soon as we exited the train station, we found ourselves surrounded by beautiful, architecturally imposing buildings, a monolith monument, and countless cozy restaurants. After waiting in the rain for Emily to locate a few of her girls who lagged behind and then clumsily navigating our way through the winding streets (how many girls does it take to locate a hostel in Saint Petersburg? Apparently thirteen), we finally found The Puppet Theatre Hostel. It had a plain ghetto door that opened up to a dirty stone staircase and a rickety metal lift with a sign that read: “Please no more than 3 persons, or the lift will get stuck and you will spend an unknown amount of time inside!” At least it was in English. Nevertheless, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and the hostel (on the fourth floor) was actually quite decent and clean; outdated, but acceptable, and the kind receptionist spoke functional English. My group shared a bedroom on the fourth floor with four beds, while Moscow 1 and Carrie had five-bed rooms on the fifth floor. We love Moscow 1, but sometimes it’s nice to slip away and have time to ourselves, so this worked out famously. We only had a few minutes to clean up before we were to meet Alicia French’s (a girl from Moscow 1) distantly related relatives (her uncle’s Russian wife’s cousins or something like that), who were to give us a tour around town. First, they took us to Teremok (our favourite Russian fast food chain) for lunch, as we hadn’t eaten anything since dinner the night before. As I was starving, I ordered pelmeni (Russian ravioli), a cherry blini, and a cheese and ham blini—delicious! I seriously wish Teremok would move to America. Our next stop was the Saviour on the Spilled Blood Cathedral, which was built over the spot where Alexander II was killed in battle. One of the many canals that wind through the city bordered the magnificent cathedral, making the scene even more awe-inspiring. You’ll have to Google it—it’s impossible to describe its magnificence in words. The cathedral is reminiscent of St. Basil’s cathedral in Moscow, with twisting domes, elaborate carvings, and bright colors; Spilled Blood has a green, gold, and brown color scheme. It and St. Basil’s are easily the most interesting and breathtaking buildings I’ve ever seen. It cost 250 rubles to enter the cathedral, a price that most of us were willing to pay; however, Moscow 1 has a tendency to be cheap and they felt a better use of their money would be to hold a street vendor’s monkey. I really don’t understand some of those girls. Most of the group complained about seeing so many cathedrals, but I could see a hundred more. I find cathedrals fascinating and a rich cultural experience, but maybe that’s just me. I simply don’t understand how someone could behold such an architectural masterpiece as this cathedral and conclude, “I don’t want to go inside.” I wasn’t disappointed, either. The inside was structured like most Russian Orthodox cathedrals with a main square-shaped hall supported by four massive columns, with a smaller half-circle section at the front for the priest’s room and the main icons, and a domed ceiling. Every inch of wall and ceiling was covered with colorful depictions of saints, scriptural references, and Christ. This cathedral was probably one of the most “welcoming” yet, as the colors were bright and it was well lit; some are dark and gloomy and almost spooky. I’m sure it’s kept up better than most as it’s a major tourist attraction. Unlike most cathedrals, photography was allowed inside and so I was able to commemorate the moment in pictures. As we were running out of time before the cathedrals and museums closed (at 17:00), we hurried from stop to stop: we took photos on picturesque bridges, saw monuments to Peter the Great (who founded Saint Petersburg), walked past St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Bronze Horseman (a monument that Catherine the Great built in commemoration of Peter the Great—it was the first sculpture of a horse and rider to only have three parts touching the base—the rear legs and the tail—in Russia and it took four months to move the huge rock base to its final resting place—it was truly a big deal for Saint Petersburg), and we explored the outside of the Hermitage and Palace Square. Of course, the Hermitage (Эрмитаж) is one of the largest art galleries in the world and is built within the walls of the Winter Palace, the former residence of the infamous Romanov family. Its size rivals the LDS Conference center in Salt Lake City, and I daresay it’s a great deal more impressive looking with its pastel green exterior and white and gold trim. Giant sculptures of angels, ghouls, and other creatures guard the entire roofline. It’s not much, but it’s home! As everything was closing and we were wet and cold, Shelley, Whitney, Ally, Carrie, and I found a coffee shop right down the street from the Spilled Blood cathedral and ordered hot chocolate. It tasted like and had the consistency of chocolate pudding. Afterward, we wandered back to our hostel whilst we absorbed the beauty that is Saint Petersburg at night. The golden street and shop lights in the rain provided us with a rather romantic scene, and even the cold couldn’t dampen it. The Spilled Blood cathedral was especially beautiful at night. Part of me wished/s that I had chosen to Head Teach in Saint Petersburg—honestly, it’s a hundred times more magnificent and visually stunning than Moscow. Oh well; I probably appreciated it more because I don’t see it every day. When we found our hostel once again, we dropped off Whitney and Carrie and the three of us went out for dinner. We discovered a quaint little Italian fast food restaurant down the street called Fasta Pasta: I ordered a three cheese pasta and a small ice cream. It was absolutely yummy! There was a TV that played music videos, one of which was a Bollywood song. We thought it was funny because we were Americans eating Italian food in Russia while watching Bollywood. It’s totally normal. Once our bellies were satisfied, we returned to the hostel, showered, and crashed in our beds.