A Thrill to Remember
Sunday March 13th
The night before proved to be quite horribly loud and annoying until about 6am, so no sleep for me! The hostel we stayed at was really nice, however, the walls were super thin, so all the sound would travel right into our room. There were about 6 people sitting in the kitchen drinking, singing, shouting, doing typical drunk Russian things. It sounded like they were in the room with us, and it didn't seem to matter to our hosts in the least. Guess it's just that Russian mentality.
We "woke up" at 10am, got breakfast at McDonald's and I made the mistake of buying 2 chicken caesar wraps. You know how in the US snack wraps are really small, and you need at least two to get filled up? Well, in Russia, they are made big, and one works just fine as a meal. The second one ended up in my purse, which I decided would work as a snack for later in the day.
Our first stop was St. Isaac's Cathedral.
This beautiful cathedral is now a museum open to the public, for a price of course. It has doors 15 feet tall, and sculptures on the outside of guardian angels protecting all the entrances. To my surprise, even though it had multiple stores within it, and no icons to venerate, it did have a working altar inside of it.
This had to be one of my favorite parts of the inside of the cathedral. First of all, I love churches that have the dome with an opening, 2nd of all, I love the symbol of the dove as the holy spirit. Those two points combined = awesome.
After we walked around the inside and looked at all the paintings and doors, we headed outside, and went to the other side of the church where we were able to climb to the top of the cathedral. I have been in much more treacherous and ancient bell towers, so this one was nothing! Heck, the stairs were labeled, telling you how many more you needed to climb! Being able to see all of St. Petersburg before me, felt amazing. I was giddy and just so excited. Will on the other hand, was having major vertigo issues and would not go near the railing.
At least I now know that I am not afraid of heights. If I ever decide to go skydiving one day, I know I won't chicken out, that easily anyway! I took a picture from every spot I could, so I more or less took a 360.
Whenever I saw something of interest, I couldn't help but stop and take another picture, such as a barge going down a the middle of the river Neva, chipping away at the melting ice. The air in St. Petersburg is cleaner than in Moscow, so breathing in the air up so high on the cathedral felt great. I could have stayed up there for several hours just staring out into the distance and taking pictures, but alas, the others were getting bored and we were losing daylight.
When we met Marina at the bottom of the stairway she asked us if we wanted to see Peter on his horse. She said that Alexander Pushkin wrote a story called: Медный всадник, literally "The Copper Horseman." It's a famous and well-known sculpture and story, and it wouldn't right for us to leave and not have seen it. This statue is important to St. Petersburg, much like the Statue of Liberty is to New York. At the base of the horse's tail there are snakes trying to bit at his tail and hooves. Peter is pointing off towards the River Neva. The stone is a symbol of the Thunder Stone, the biggest stone ever to be moved by man.
We were on our way to the Hermitage only to find out that there was a 2 hour wait. Rachel argued that the Hermitage was the main thing she wanted to see when coming to St. Pete's, and that there may not be another chance for us. Will and Chris said, no way, see you later, and went off to a museum that is similar to a "Believe it or Not" type.
You can't really see the line in this picture very well, but it was very long, and that's just the first archway, it continued into the courtyard all the way up to the front steps. While we were waiting in line, my purse seemed to be a little heavy, and I recalled that I had a tasty little friend waiting to be indulged upon. I hated to take my hands out of my pockets, after standing and not moving except for a few paces, we were all getting near frozen. I got Spencer to help me it, and he thanked me for being a stupid American and buying the "snack" wrap. I was happy that I was a stupid American too! When we finally made it inside the Hermitage, we only had 2 hours until it closed. We hurried off to the cloakroom, you can't go anywhere in Russia without them wanting to take your coats, that's just how it works. We found a map, and figured it out what we wanted to see. We headed up to the 2nd floor and made our way through French, Italian, German, and British art until we at long last came upon the Russian cultural art. We were able to take our time at this point, but before we knew it, we had to run back downstairs to grab our coats and leave. We got to see plenty, and this was only a small part of the building, that even though we were walking at a decently fast pace, took us 2 whole hours. Imagine going through the entire palace, it would take days. I definitely would suggest going here, but only if you have a FULL DAY to dedicate it to. It just wasn't possible with out group because we only had three days to spend in St. Pete's and there was just so much to see.
We walked back to the hostel packed, and went aboard the train at 10pm. Chris and I were teaching Tara how to play Дурак on the train, and were having a really good time. Before we knew it, there were 3 policemen that walked by and asked us in the most threatening way possible, "WHAT are you doing?!" I was very confused, because we weren't doing anything, just talking, sitting, and playing cards. He then asks if I speak Russian, and I said "Да." (Yes) I must have looked as confused as I was, because Chris pointed at the cards then at the policemen and said "Дурак." The policeman points at the cards and says "Дурак...JAIL!"
Ok, so evidently playing a friendly game of cards can get you into jail...we put the cards away and they walked away to the next cabin where everyone else was. Trevor was fast asleep on a top bunk, and the others were just whispering quietly to one another. The guards stopped there too, and one said while pointing at Trevor "Вот он!" (There he is!) as if Trevor was some sort of criminal. They then walked away. Dan and Spencer soon came over after they left our part of the train, sat down, and burst out laughing, asking "What the hell just happened?" I honestly, had no idea.
Luckily, there were no more incidents that night, but it turned out to be yet another sleepless night due to snoring angels. We arrived in Moscow at 6am, and it was beautiful outside, and everyone was asking, where did the snow go? It melted a tremendous amount, and it was warm outside, near 30 degrees, and by noon that day it hit the 40's. I skipped my 10:50am class that morning and slept till noon. It is now Thursday evening, and I think after a full weekend of not sleeping at all, I have caught up enough, and my body is back on track. :)
The night before proved to be quite horribly loud and annoying until about 6am, so no sleep for me! The hostel we stayed at was really nice, however, the walls were super thin, so all the sound would travel right into our room. There were about 6 people sitting in the kitchen drinking, singing, shouting, doing typical drunk Russian things. It sounded like they were in the room with us, and it didn't seem to matter to our hosts in the least. Guess it's just that Russian mentality.
We "woke up" at 10am, got breakfast at McDonald's and I made the mistake of buying 2 chicken caesar wraps. You know how in the US snack wraps are really small, and you need at least two to get filled up? Well, in Russia, they are made big, and one works just fine as a meal. The second one ended up in my purse, which I decided would work as a snack for later in the day.
Our first stop was St. Isaac's Cathedral.
This had to be one of my favorite parts of the inside of the cathedral. First of all, I love churches that have the dome with an opening, 2nd of all, I love the symbol of the dove as the holy spirit. Those two points combined = awesome.
After we walked around the inside and looked at all the paintings and doors, we headed outside, and went to the other side of the church where we were able to climb to the top of the cathedral. I have been in much more treacherous and ancient bell towers, so this one was nothing! Heck, the stairs were labeled, telling you how many more you needed to climb! Being able to see all of St. Petersburg before me, felt amazing. I was giddy and just so excited. Will on the other hand, was having major vertigo issues and would not go near the railing.
At least I now know that I am not afraid of heights. If I ever decide to go skydiving one day, I know I won't chicken out, that easily anyway! I took a picture from every spot I could, so I more or less took a 360.
Whenever I saw something of interest, I couldn't help but stop and take another picture, such as a barge going down a the middle of the river Neva, chipping away at the melting ice. The air in St. Petersburg is cleaner than in Moscow, so breathing in the air up so high on the cathedral felt great. I could have stayed up there for several hours just staring out into the distance and taking pictures, but alas, the others were getting bored and we were losing daylight.
We were on our way to the Hermitage only to find out that there was a 2 hour wait. Rachel argued that the Hermitage was the main thing she wanted to see when coming to St. Pete's, and that there may not be another chance for us. Will and Chris said, no way, see you later, and went off to a museum that is similar to a "Believe it or Not" type.
You can't really see the line in this picture very well, but it was very long, and that's just the first archway, it continued into the courtyard all the way up to the front steps. While we were waiting in line, my purse seemed to be a little heavy, and I recalled that I had a tasty little friend waiting to be indulged upon. I hated to take my hands out of my pockets, after standing and not moving except for a few paces, we were all getting near frozen. I got Spencer to help me it, and he thanked me for being a stupid American and buying the "snack" wrap. I was happy that I was a stupid American too! When we finally made it inside the Hermitage, we only had 2 hours until it closed. We hurried off to the cloakroom, you can't go anywhere in Russia without them wanting to take your coats, that's just how it works. We found a map, and figured it out what we wanted to see. We headed up to the 2nd floor and made our way through French, Italian, German, and British art until we at long last came upon the Russian cultural art. We were able to take our time at this point, but before we knew it, we had to run back downstairs to grab our coats and leave. We got to see plenty, and this was only a small part of the building, that even though we were walking at a decently fast pace, took us 2 whole hours. Imagine going through the entire palace, it would take days. I definitely would suggest going here, but only if you have a FULL DAY to dedicate it to. It just wasn't possible with out group because we only had three days to spend in St. Pete's and there was just so much to see.
We walked back to the hostel packed, and went aboard the train at 10pm. Chris and I were teaching Tara how to play Дурак on the train, and were having a really good time. Before we knew it, there were 3 policemen that walked by and asked us in the most threatening way possible, "WHAT are you doing?!" I was very confused, because we weren't doing anything, just talking, sitting, and playing cards. He then asks if I speak Russian, and I said "Да." (Yes) I must have looked as confused as I was, because Chris pointed at the cards then at the policemen and said "Дурак." The policeman points at the cards and says "Дурак...JAIL!"
Ok, so evidently playing a friendly game of cards can get you into jail...we put the cards away and they walked away to the next cabin where everyone else was. Trevor was fast asleep on a top bunk, and the others were just whispering quietly to one another. The guards stopped there too, and one said while pointing at Trevor "Вот он!" (There he is!) as if Trevor was some sort of criminal. They then walked away. Dan and Spencer soon came over after they left our part of the train, sat down, and burst out laughing, asking "What the hell just happened?" I honestly, had no idea.
Luckily, there were no more incidents that night, but it turned out to be yet another sleepless night due to snoring angels. We arrived in Moscow at 6am, and it was beautiful outside, and everyone was asking, where did the snow go? It melted a tremendous amount, and it was warm outside, near 30 degrees, and by noon that day it hit the 40's. I skipped my 10:50am class that morning and slept till noon. It is now Thursday evening, and I think after a full weekend of not sleeping at all, I have caught up enough, and my body is back on track. :)
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