The Peter and Paul Fortress
Saturday, March 12th
As the title suggests, we went to The Peter and Paul Fortress. To get there we got on the Metro which is much smaller than the Moscow Metro and isn't nearly as beautiful, it did however seem to be deeper, or perhaps the escalators simply weren't as steep, because going down on them felt like it took 5 minutes. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but it definitely is when it's an escalator. To get to the fortress we had to walk through a little park which must be beautiful in the summer, or simply when the grass is visible. The park was loaded with interesting statues and monuments of women and children in different poses, sometimes holding things like lutes or harps.
When we first arrived at the ticket booth, Rachel spotted a poster that said Modern Dresses of the 18-19th centuries. Marina asked everyone if they wanted to see it, but no surprise, the boys all said no. So Tara, Rachel, and I head out to a small display of dresses, corsets, and the large hoop things that make a woman's butt look huge. The entirety of this fashion went out of style because of WWII.
Our first stop after picking up tickets to all the museums, was inside the church within the fortress. It was large, very beautiful, and covered in gold. Inside were the graves of all the tsars that came after Peter the Great, including him. I was excited when I found Peter, it wasn't difficult, because there was a sculpture of his head above his coffin. And to my surprise, Saint Peter too was on the iconostasis above him as well. When we exited the church, we were taken into a different hallway that had a ton of souvenirs, and of course I caved and bought a few things. It is quite possible to find certain things in St. Petersburg that you wouldn't in Moscow.
The next place we visited I honestly wasn't too thrilled about. It was a museum of torture devices. The most horrible ways to kill a person were in there, and with audio to tell you exactly how it was done and how long a person suffered. I couldn't wait to get out of there, but I accepted it as part of the history if nothing else. We walked down the street to find yet another museum! This one wasn't your typical museum, however, it was a prison. They had the names of well-known people outside of the rooms with a picture saying why they were in there and for how long. Most of the people were those who supported Lenin and wanted to take down the ruling tsar.
This is a picture of a prisoner's room. It's bigger than my dorm room! How does this make any sense? These rooms were not shared, but in some of the nicer ones they had wall paper. The prisoners would communicate to one another by knocking on the wall, in a manner resembling morse code, each letter of the alphabet would get so many knocks.
After that museum we were starting to get museum-ed out, and were getting kind of hungry. Marina convinced us to just walk through the next one since the tickets were already paid for. It turned out to be very interesting. It started out as some of the natural history of Russia with tools and pots made by our early ancestors. Then it quickly advanced from there in which we saw clothing from Peter the Great's time, transportation, architecture through the image of a very large doll house setup in a room. They had carriages, telephones, bathrooms, and kitchens all set out as if it were present day.
When we made it back outside Marina asked us if we wanted to see the legendary battle ship. If we didn't go then, we'd probably never get to see it. So, we mustered what energy we had left and set out on another really long walk. When we got there this is what we saw:
As to what makes it legendary, I really have no idea. But it is a neat looking ship! It was possible to go on board and get a tour, but we for some reason or another we did not.
After we had seen the ship, we took the long walk back to the hostel. Dinner consisted of Теремок which is a store that sells blini (Russian pancakes). I had one stuffed with mushrooms and cheese, and another one that was ham and cheese. It was very tasty.
Later that night I learned how to play Дурак (Fool) it's a favorite Russian past time. It's a card game that consists of 36 cards, you take out numbers 2 through 5 of each suite. The idea of the game is to run out of cards first. There are no winners, only losers. 6 cards are dealt out to each player, then the deck is put down and one card is revealed. The suite that is on that card (hearts, diamonds, spades, clovers) is the trump suite. Any trump card can beat any card. The person that goes first is the one who has the lowest card in the suite. It then consists of attacking and defending that works in a clockwise direction. The person who goes first is the attacker to the person of the left of them. They can put down whatever card they want. If there are more than 2 players, other players can join in as well, by putting down a card of the same number as the attacker. The defender then needs to trump all of those cards. If they can't, they need to take them, and their hand grows. At the end of a round of attacking and defending, the attacker is the first to draw cards, because they always need 6 in their hand. Once the pile runs out of cards, there is no more drawing. If the defender takes the cards because they can not beat what the attacker put out for them, they do not get a turn as the attacker. However, if they do beat the attacker's cards, they become the attacker to the person to the left of them. It's pretty easy, and a lot of fun to play, and is definitely worth knowing if you plan to come to Russia and spend time with some Russians.
As the title suggests, we went to The Peter and Paul Fortress. To get there we got on the Metro which is much smaller than the Moscow Metro and isn't nearly as beautiful, it did however seem to be deeper, or perhaps the escalators simply weren't as steep, because going down on them felt like it took 5 minutes. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but it definitely is when it's an escalator. To get to the fortress we had to walk through a little park which must be beautiful in the summer, or simply when the grass is visible. The park was loaded with interesting statues and monuments of women and children in different poses, sometimes holding things like lutes or harps.
When we first arrived at the ticket booth, Rachel spotted a poster that said Modern Dresses of the 18-19th centuries. Marina asked everyone if they wanted to see it, but no surprise, the boys all said no. So Tara, Rachel, and I head out to a small display of dresses, corsets, and the large hoop things that make a woman's butt look huge. The entirety of this fashion went out of style because of WWII.
Our first stop after picking up tickets to all the museums, was inside the church within the fortress. It was large, very beautiful, and covered in gold. Inside were the graves of all the tsars that came after Peter the Great, including him. I was excited when I found Peter, it wasn't difficult, because there was a sculpture of his head above his coffin. And to my surprise, Saint Peter too was on the iconostasis above him as well. When we exited the church, we were taken into a different hallway that had a ton of souvenirs, and of course I caved and bought a few things. It is quite possible to find certain things in St. Petersburg that you wouldn't in Moscow. The next place we visited I honestly wasn't too thrilled about. It was a museum of torture devices. The most horrible ways to kill a person were in there, and with audio to tell you exactly how it was done and how long a person suffered. I couldn't wait to get out of there, but I accepted it as part of the history if nothing else. We walked down the street to find yet another museum! This one wasn't your typical museum, however, it was a prison. They had the names of well-known people outside of the rooms with a picture saying why they were in there and for how long. Most of the people were those who supported Lenin and wanted to take down the ruling tsar.
After that museum we were starting to get museum-ed out, and were getting kind of hungry. Marina convinced us to just walk through the next one since the tickets were already paid for. It turned out to be very interesting. It started out as some of the natural history of Russia with tools and pots made by our early ancestors. Then it quickly advanced from there in which we saw clothing from Peter the Great's time, transportation, architecture through the image of a very large doll house setup in a room. They had carriages, telephones, bathrooms, and kitchens all set out as if it were present day.
When we made it back outside Marina asked us if we wanted to see the legendary battle ship. If we didn't go then, we'd probably never get to see it. So, we mustered what energy we had left and set out on another really long walk. When we got there this is what we saw:
After we had seen the ship, we took the long walk back to the hostel. Dinner consisted of Теремок which is a store that sells blini (Russian pancakes). I had one stuffed with mushrooms and cheese, and another one that was ham and cheese. It was very tasty.
Later that night I learned how to play Дурак (Fool) it's a favorite Russian past time. It's a card game that consists of 36 cards, you take out numbers 2 through 5 of each suite. The idea of the game is to run out of cards first. There are no winners, only losers. 6 cards are dealt out to each player, then the deck is put down and one card is revealed. The suite that is on that card (hearts, diamonds, spades, clovers) is the trump suite. Any trump card can beat any card. The person that goes first is the one who has the lowest card in the suite. It then consists of attacking and defending that works in a clockwise direction. The person who goes first is the attacker to the person of the left of them. They can put down whatever card they want. If there are more than 2 players, other players can join in as well, by putting down a card of the same number as the attacker. The defender then needs to trump all of those cards. If they can't, they need to take them, and their hand grows. At the end of a round of attacking and defending, the attacker is the first to draw cards, because they always need 6 in their hand. Once the pile runs out of cards, there is no more drawing. If the defender takes the cards because they can not beat what the attacker put out for them, they do not get a turn as the attacker. However, if they do beat the attacker's cards, they become the attacker to the person to the left of them. It's pretty easy, and a lot of fun to play, and is definitely worth knowing if you plan to come to Russia and spend time with some Russians.
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