The Petersburg trip

The trip to St. Petersburg was truly a success. First of all, we had the nicest train car in Russia: many upgrades have been made since I last took a train. Russian trains only have two levels of beds (unlike the three levels I've seen elsewhere in Europe), so there's room to comfortably sit. We rode in the 2nd class, which has four beds in a closed compartment (1st class has only the lower beds, 3rd class has no compartments). We got tickets with food, which was surprisingly decent (a hot meal of cutlets, buckwheat -- my favorite! -- and cabbage and cucumbers, plus a box of cookies, crackers, jam, tea, and coffee. There was also a working air conditioner (the instruction to close the window first elicited horror, then joy when heard the word "conditioner"), plus a little train toiletry kit, including slippers, a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and a shoehorn. Pure comfort! If only we hadn't arrived at 5 am....

The metro in Petersburg doesn't open until 6, so we walked about 30 minutes to our hostel, which was directly behind the Kazan Cathedral. We (8 people from the course) booked an 8-bed dorm room, but there were still two (rather stinky) men sleeping there, so not everyone could take a nap. We could, however, take showers. By 8:30 we were off to have breakfast at "Coffee House", which we quickly discovered was the worst place to have breakfast. The waitress gave up on us, probably because she couldn't seem to figure out that a pen and paper was a better way to take a large order rather than running to the computer after 2 1/2 people chose their breakfasts. We ended up with a nicer young man, but still not satisfactory. At this point we broke off into two groups: 2nd breakfast, followed by a nap, or pressing onward to the Hermitage. I made myself press onward, and we made it to the Hermitage by 11:30, when the line was already 2 hours long. We promised ourselves to spend at least as much time in the museum as we spent in line, and my guidebook had very helpful advice on what not to miss (and what to miss). Highlights: state rooms of the Romanov family, who used the main building as a winter palace (there's a second building, originally intended as an art gallery, connected), the Da Vinci pieces, and my favorite: 20th century treasures (Picasso, Matisse, Gaugin). Then the antiquities: Greek and Roman statues, what's probably the worlds largest vase, and a real mummy.

Afterwards, we treated ourselves to an ice cream, and came across a couple with a bearcub on a leash. They were offering to take pictures with the bear (for a fee of 200 rubles), and I couldn't resist. We were happy to find out it was a circus bear, born to a circus bear, who still spends time with his momma-bear, and is getting used to people for a life in the circus. At the end of the day, the bear is probably treated better than a lot of other more domesticated animals in Russia (the homeless animal problem here is a topic for an entire post of its own).

I met up with a couple friends in Princeton, one who lives and works in Piter (as the city is commonly called), and one who is only there for the summer. We had drinks at an Irish-style pub, which is a big trend in the bar industry, and then dinner at a Dagestani restaurant. Similar to Georgian food, but a few dishes I'd never heard of. The big thing seemed to be "chudu" which is not unlike two large crepes, with a filling of meat, pumpkin or farmer's cheese. The waitress treated us to a shot of vodka after dinner, perhaps as a way to account for the 40% service charge. Considering 10% is normal, it may seem extravagant, but you quickly learn that everyone is subject to the whimsy of others, even non-foreigners.

Day 2 was a trip out to Peterhof, which was built by Peter the Great. The reason to go is the lovely fountains, so my friend and I skipped the palace entirely. It's right on the Gulf of Finland, and the weather was absolutely lovely. Unfortunately, it took up the entire day, since the traffic held us up for an extra hour on the way out there. However, it was also the anniversary of the founding of the city, so there were interesting festivities going on, including a parade led by a Peter I impersonator (of which there are probably 100 throughout the city and region, including the lovely man who kissed my hand as a way to get me to give him money to take my picture with him in his costume.)

After a day of being in the sun, our group all met up for dinner at a place called "The Idiot", named after a Dostoevsky work. It was a bit pricey, but lots of fun. One of our comrades took them up on the 40 thimbles challenge: drink 40 thimbles of vodka without spilling or taking a break longer than 2 seconds between each thimble. The prize: 100 grams of vodka (a large shot). He won, but the rest of us split the prize. The restaurant was on one of the many canals, so we found the closest dock offering boat tours. Usually there's a lot of obnoxious ladies with bullhorns begging you to take the tour, and then a similarly obnoxious lady narrates your hour trip. We lucked out: for the regular price, we had a silent captain take us out in a smaller boat, which just 7 of us, plus two more passers-by. It was just near sunset (as in around 11 pm!!) and the weather was perfect: not too cold, not too hot.

My last day turned out to be really packed, in order to see as much as I could. At 10:15, I showed up at the Russian museum, an art gallery for Russian artists only. Next door is my favorite, the ethnographic museum. By 12:45 I was on my way to the third musuem, which is dedicated to the Leningrad blockade. It's really sad how much the people suffered during the first winter without heat or food, and I'd love it if you read about it at least on the wikipedia link. At the museum, we saw the tiny ration of bread, which had sawdust as filler, and read a diary entry of a small child about how they killed the cat for food.

Luckily, we were able to have a better lunch: blinys at my favorite chain in Petersburg, along with borsch and my favorite new salad: "herring under a fur coat". It has herring, beets, potatoes, and mayonaisse, and tastes better than it probably sounds. Unless you really don't like herring or beets. After lunch I headed off to see the Peter and Paul Fortress, and got a free ticket into the Museum of Cosmonautics (my MGU student ID is saving me a lot of money...). It would have been an easy trip back to the palace square to meet up with the rest of the group for dinner, but the bridge was closed due to some water parade, which involved fireworks in the middle of the day. This was after finding out that the metro stop needed to get to the fortress was closed, so I probably spent more time trying to get to and and away from this place than I actually spent on the site.

Dinner was at a lovely Georgian restaurant, followed by a bit of rest before our train. Then...another early rise (this time at 6) and off to a day of classes...hopefully tonight I can catch up on sleep...