St. Petersburg

This weekend I went to St. Petersburg and since I've actually randomly read a lot about the Russian royal family, it was my most anticipated destination. To get to St. Petersburg from Yaroslavl you have to take a 12hr, overnight train. I've only been on one overnight train before - from Prague to Krakow - and it was a terrible experience. Let me just say the Russian overnight train wasn't much of an improvement. While they are "sleeper cars" it's basically an open car with people lying on the bunk "beds" that come down from the wall. My friend Bayleigh and I were on the same train as the rest of our group, however since our tickets were purchased at a different time, we were in a different car. We said good-bye to all our friends and headed to our car at the train station and what happens but an entire company of Russian soldiers come on the car with us. It was literally us two girls and a bunch of loud, smelly, gross Russian soldiers. Needless to say I was not too pleased with the arrangement. I expected the train ride to be uncomfortable but I didn't think I would have to worry about my safety. As the train started moving there were a few tears (from me) and we decided that it just was not safe to put ourselves in a situation like this. We were trying to figure out how to stay somewhere else, in a different car near people we knew when one of our friends from a different car made his way to us to see if we were ok. I was SO happy to see a familiar face and when he said there was room for us in their car we wasted no time in heading over there. You cannot comprehend how relieved I was when we arrived in our friend's car - there were about 4 other people from our group there and we were all hanging out, talking and swapping snacks. However, what I did not realize is that the train stops at several locations along the route and NEW people come on the train… I think you can see where this is heading. The new car that had "plenty of space" was taken over by a family that had tickets for those open beds. Getting a little frantic at the thought of going back to the "army car" we followed some friends to the dining car where after some more tears (from me) I was able to calm down a little bit and everyone reassured us that there was no way we were going to go back to the car with all of the soldiers. After about an hour of trying to figure out where to go and what to do (mind you this is at 2am and the train was moving) 2 of the guys said that we could switch bunks - we could stay in their reserved bunks (near other people we knew) and they would take our bunks with the Russian soldiers. They were INCREDIBLY generous and I still don't know how to thank them but after they showed us where to go and we told them our spots, I was able to get in maybe 2 or 3 hrs worth of sleep. Still much better than what I would've gotten had I stayed in the army car. Here is our train car getting attached to the rest of the train in Yaroslavl...

We pulled into St. Petersburg around 11:20am on Friday and went straight to the hotel (after figuring out the metro and walking about a mile underground - me and a few other volunteers figured out that the train station was only about a 10 min walk from the hotel). EVERYONE was in need of a shower after that thoroughly Russian experience of the train ride and after a quick lunch at McDonalds (yes, yes, I finally gave in and ate McDonalds) the group was off on a 3hr city bus tour. Seeing an overview of St. Petersburg, really any city, is really the way to go. We hit all the main sights and got a short history on each place - in addition to pulilng over 4 or 5 times to take pictures at really famous monuments. A few of the places we drove by were St. Isaac's Cathedral (one of the 3 largest in the world, next to St. Pauls in London and St. Peter in Rome), Peter and Paul Fortress (where St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great), the Winter Palace (now a part of the Hermitage museum where the tsars lived and all along the river embankment. That night I went with a group to get Italian food for dinner - honestly I get kinda burned out on Russian cuisine during the week - and then back to the hotel to change for the night. Although some people wanted to go to some of the crazy Euro clubs - I kinda have the "been there, done that" mentality from my time in Prague- so I went with another group - we walked down the Nevsky Prospect (the main road) and walked for a few hours, taking it all in and watching the sun set (at around 1am :).

On Saturday after another delicious Russian breakfast (lots of vegetables? cold cuts, and other interesting looking foods) the group headed out for a day at Peterhof Palace. This was the Summer palace of the tsars and is about an hour bus ride or - in my case - about a half hour BOAT ride, as the palace sits right on the Gulf of Finland. The palace was built to resemble Versailles and they did a pretty spectacular job at replicating it! Coming from the Gulf, you walk down a path to the main palace and in front of the palace are incredible fountains that seem to spurt water from every direction. entire grounds were really an amazing place to walk around, not only is there a beautiful palace, the Gulf and golden fountains but it is also surrounded by acres and acres of park grounds and beach. While we were there to tour the palace, many people came to just have a picnic or lay out in the sun. Strolling around the grounds, me being the history nerd, was imagining Catherine the Great and Anastasia walking around the same paths, going in the same water and enjoying the warm summer weather. Below you can see me in front of the palace and the fountains :)

And here's me putting my feet in the Gulf of Finland. Why? Just because I can :)

After a full 4 hours at Peterhof we returned via boat to St. Petersburg and grabbed a quick dinner and then did one of the most amazing things that I've done in any of my time abroad. St. Isaac's cathedral only opens from 6pm-11pm for visitors but you can ascend the 200 stairs to the top of the dome to get amazing views of St. Petersburg - so of course we did!! I have to say the views I saw from the top of the dome were truly breathtaking. For miles and miles all you could see were the beautiful imperial palaces, the churches and the river - all while the sun was just descending on the horizon. I don't remember the last time I saw something quite so beautiful...

In the second photo below you can see the Winter Palace - the green and white building on the left..

St. Petersburg has hands down become one of my favorite cities - not just in Russia - but that I have ever visited. The city is full of history, grand palaces, a beautiful river and has an overall majestic feel to it. They say that this city was built to be more "European" than "Russian" and I have to say that it does remind me of several European imperial cities I've been to (Madrid and Vienna come to mind - combined with the canals and waterways of Venice :).

St. Petersburg is probably the one city in Russia that I would return to some day and I wholeheartedly hope that I do. I have one more day here until I return to Yaroslavl and the plan is to go inside the Hermitage to see the Winter Palace and the museum. I'm sure I'll have more to write after seeing that - in addition to the train ride home... everyone keep your fingers crossed it's not quite as 'eventful' as the train ride here!

From St. Petersburg... Happy 4th of July!