Tuesday, November 09, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG aka Petrograd, Leningrad, Hero City
See photos related to this posting at the Yahoo Photo Album. (NB: Will open in a new browser window)
We were met at the train by a very pleasant man who spoke no English but was able to tell us that his name was Igor. He helped us with our bags -- how tired we are of hauling these two heavy cases, even though they have lots of wheels and they are easy to maneuver. They still need to be lifted from the train to the platform, and from the sidewalk to the trunk of a car or van (and the reverse when we come back to the train). We’re looking forward to the conveyor belts at the airport, where the bags just disappear until you land. Igor led us to his car -- a very old and well kept 1960s Pontiac styled auto in sea mist green, with very soft springs and an even looser gear shift, which he managed skillfully. Igor drove us to our homestay, which just happened to be his mother’s apartment, which he shares from time to time.
Again, we were housed in an apartment complex, this one built around a large inner courtyard. Iron gates led from the sidewalk on the street through a vaulted passage to the courtyard. Igor parked his car inside at nighttime. Up 3 flights of concrete stairs to a very heavy wooden door with a very complicated lock with 3 inner bolts to click open. Inside along an outer corridor - home of shoes and coats -- to another locked door. Into the apartment which had 2 rooms plus a kitchen and toilet/bath. Our host was Antonina, a short, stocky gray-haired woman, a perfect example of the Russian babushka. She cared for us as if we were her own children. When not preparing delicious meals, she spent much of her time embroidering in front of the television in the living/bedroom. At night, she and Igor and her granddaughter all slept in this room -- there were fold up beds lined against the wall for nighttime use.
To our great surprise, at Antonina’s we found another of our fellow travellers, Barbara from Wisconsin, who was scheduled to fly home later that day. We spent the morning with her, and she gave us valuable tips on finding our way around. We accompanied her for her final trip to the city centre, a 20-minute walk from Igor and Antonina’s apartment. Barbara also had all the email addresses which I had lost, along with my wallet, in Moscow.
St. Petersburg is a city of fountains, verdant parks, commemorative statuary, rivers, canals and bridges, as well as classical and baroque buildings in pastel colours - yellow, orange, green and blue. Lots of gold leaf, many church domes and spires, as well as impressive facades of columns topped with decorative capitals and window surrounds of baroque garlands. The downtown area is very impressive - shining from the refurbishments made in 2003 to celebrate the city’s 300th anniversary. There is a stateliness about this city which we haven’t seen elsewhere on this trip. SP was the centre for Tsarist rule since Peter the Great ordered his new capital built here. He wanted a window on Europe, a first step in his plan for the modernization of Russia. The site covers the delta of the Neva River, which flows into the Gulf of Finland. Because it was very marshy, many canals were built to drain the land for building. These canals are charming, lined with baroque styled buildings, winding in an arc through the southern side of the Neva River, holding the reflections of the buildings which line them. In comparison with Moscow, which sprawls out from the Kremlin, St. Petersburg is quite compact, which made it very easy for us to see the many famous sites.
The residents of St. Petersburg are very fond and proud of their city - thus the name Hero City. The fact that the city withstood the siege of the German army during World War 2 is often a topic of conversation with visitors. When we drove to the airport, we could see the demarcation between the old city buildings and the new -- obviously the place where the German troops were stopped in their march to take the city. In a downtown courtyard, our guide showed us a small bronze sculpture of a cat, telling us how cats were brought in from the countryside to keep the rat and mouse population in check during the siege, so that the precious stores of grain would last to feed the inhabitants. Despite the fact that the Germans never got as far as the city centre, many buildings were destroyed by their bombing. But the character of that earlier age is still present in the cityscape of today.
Vignettes
GOODBYE TO ST. PETERSBURG AND TO RUSSIA
Our final night in this beautiful city was spent repacking our suitcases, and generally getting ready for the next day, which would be filled with travel and time changes -- from St. Petersburg to Frankfurt to Toronto, arriving shortly after lunch, Toronto time.
With Igor and his amazing mist green machine, we travelled through this city of 5 million at 4:00 am, all quietly eerie and empty around us. We watched as Igor gauged the next red light, economizing on the number of times he had to shift gears.
Gradually, we began to realize that soon we would be in a country where, for the first time in almost a year, we would be able to read the signs and know what the people around us were saying. Not only had we lived with few language skills in China, we had then spent three weeks in yet another country where the written as well as spoken language was unrecognizable to us!
Retrospect tends to cover experience with the rosy glow of memory romanticised by distance. Our travels from Beijing, through Mongolia and on the Trans Siberian in Russia made the world seem a smaller place. Our fellow humans on the other side of the planet were, for the most part, welcoming and friendly and eager to have us understand what moved them, what made them happy and proud. And if this final leg of our journey taught us anything it was that, even at our age and acknowledging our infirmities, we could do it. Our travels also confirmed the paradox, that for us, coming from Canada, the old world of China, Mongolia and Russia was indeed for us a “brave new world that has such people in it”. We still look back at the wonder of it all.
See photos related to this posting at the Yahoo Photo Album. (NB: Will open in a new browser window)
We were met at the train by a very pleasant man who spoke no English but was able to tell us that his name was Igor. He helped us with our bags -- how tired we are of hauling these two heavy cases, even though they have lots of wheels and they are easy to maneuver. They still need to be lifted from the train to the platform, and from the sidewalk to the trunk of a car or van (and the reverse when we come back to the train). We’re looking forward to the conveyor belts at the airport, where the bags just disappear until you land. Igor led us to his car -- a very old and well kept 1960s Pontiac styled auto in sea mist green, with very soft springs and an even looser gear shift, which he managed skillfully. Igor drove us to our homestay, which just happened to be his mother’s apartment, which he shares from time to time.
Again, we were housed in an apartment complex, this one built around a large inner courtyard. Iron gates led from the sidewalk on the street through a vaulted passage to the courtyard. Igor parked his car inside at nighttime. Up 3 flights of concrete stairs to a very heavy wooden door with a very complicated lock with 3 inner bolts to click open. Inside along an outer corridor - home of shoes and coats -- to another locked door. Into the apartment which had 2 rooms plus a kitchen and toilet/bath. Our host was Antonina, a short, stocky gray-haired woman, a perfect example of the Russian babushka. She cared for us as if we were her own children. When not preparing delicious meals, she spent much of her time embroidering in front of the television in the living/bedroom. At night, she and Igor and her granddaughter all slept in this room -- there were fold up beds lined against the wall for nighttime use.
To our great surprise, at Antonina’s we found another of our fellow travellers, Barbara from Wisconsin, who was scheduled to fly home later that day. We spent the morning with her, and she gave us valuable tips on finding our way around. We accompanied her for her final trip to the city centre, a 20-minute walk from Igor and Antonina’s apartment. Barbara also had all the email addresses which I had lost, along with my wallet, in Moscow.
St. Petersburg is a city of fountains, verdant parks, commemorative statuary, rivers, canals and bridges, as well as classical and baroque buildings in pastel colours - yellow, orange, green and blue. Lots of gold leaf, many church domes and spires, as well as impressive facades of columns topped with decorative capitals and window surrounds of baroque garlands. The downtown area is very impressive - shining from the refurbishments made in 2003 to celebrate the city’s 300th anniversary. There is a stateliness about this city which we haven’t seen elsewhere on this trip. SP was the centre for Tsarist rule since Peter the Great ordered his new capital built here. He wanted a window on Europe, a first step in his plan for the modernization of Russia. The site covers the delta of the Neva River, which flows into the Gulf of Finland. Because it was very marshy, many canals were built to drain the land for building. These canals are charming, lined with baroque styled buildings, winding in an arc through the southern side of the Neva River, holding the reflections of the buildings which line them. In comparison with Moscow, which sprawls out from the Kremlin, St. Petersburg is quite compact, which made it very easy for us to see the many famous sites.
The residents of St. Petersburg are very fond and proud of their city - thus the name Hero City. The fact that the city withstood the siege of the German army during World War 2 is often a topic of conversation with visitors. When we drove to the airport, we could see the demarcation between the old city buildings and the new -- obviously the place where the German troops were stopped in their march to take the city. In a downtown courtyard, our guide showed us a small bronze sculpture of a cat, telling us how cats were brought in from the countryside to keep the rat and mouse population in check during the siege, so that the precious stores of grain would last to feed the inhabitants. Despite the fact that the Germans never got as far as the city centre, many buildings were destroyed by their bombing. But the character of that earlier age is still present in the cityscape of today.
Vignettes
- THE HERMITAGE
This was a major attraction for us - one of the great art museums of the world, the home to numerous important European works, and the setting for the movie The Ark, which we had enjoyed a few years ago. We spent two days at the Hermitage. Day one was a great frustration as we tried unsuccessfully to navigate through the maze of rooms and crowds of tourists. Groups of fast moving Japanese and Europeans, trying to keep up with their guides’ umbrellas, constantly got in our way. The floor map was very difficult to decipher. Just when we expected to turn the corner into the late 19th and early 20th century French paintings (our major destination), we would meet yet another dead-end. However, despite our quest, we saw rooms decorated in malachite, a golden royal carriage in all its splendour, rooms full of delicious Rembrandts, icons, swords, chandeliers and so much more. Although there were attendants - women who seemed to be volunteers rather than staff - they spoke no English, and many seemed more interested in chatting with their colleagues than keeping an eye on the visitors and the works.
When we returned the second day, early in the morning, we were able to use the ingenious touch screen computer information stations with some success. Our attempts the previous day had been thwarted because the printers, designed to give us a print out of the directions to a certain gallery, were out of paper. Armed with this map, we found our way with no difficulty.
And it was hot! The tall windows were open and breezes wafted through the galleries, along with the bright sunlight of the day. A very few of the rooms were air conditioned, but generally there were no climate and humidity controls. The lighting produced glare on the large oil canvases, making it impossible to view the entire painting at once, from a single angle. We were constantly moving in front of a piece, trying to see details through the glare. Once in the 19th and 20th century French paintings, we visited room after room of exciting Impressionist and Post Impressionist pieces, rooms full of Matisse and Picasso. In the end, a very satisfying experience.
The Hermitage also has many other facilities, including an Internet Cafe where one can eat and email at the same time. We had fun sending emails from here to our art gallery friends in Canada. Down the hall was a post office where we mailed post cards which said “From Russia with love”. And yes, you can exchange money at the bank which is also part of the Hermitage.
Situated on the banks of the Neva River, the Hermitage glitters in white, gold and green. Arcades of round-topped windows with broken pediments decorated in gold alternate with Corinthian columns topped with gilded capitals. Not one building but five, joined by courtyards and walkways on the exterior and narrow hallways and stairs on the interior. Catherine the Great’s little getaway (her hermitage) has morphed into a huge labyrinth. Don’t go there without a plan or face endless frustration! On the other side is the huge Dvortsovaya Square, a giant angel-topped column in its centre, with the severely classical pale yellow General Staff Offices curving inward to a central arch topped with a chariot and 6 charging horses. Grandiose, impressive, stately! - NEVSKY PROSPEKT is the main downtown street in St. Petersburg, extending from the Neva River, the Hermitage and Dvortsovaya Square for 4 km to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (monastery) from which it gets its name. Baroque and classically inspired buildings line this fairly narrow street which was bustling with shoppers - tourists in white sneakers, back packs and maps; residents, especially young women, in form hugging summer shirts, short skirts or tight tight pants, and extremely high heeled sandals. Department stores, restaurants, bars, art galleries, banks, chocolate shops, gift shops of all descriptions for blocks, interspersed with canals and pedestrian malls leading off the main street to more treasures and famous buildings. At one point a semi circle of arcaded columns with a classically designed church in the centre - Kazan Cathedral - reminiscent of St. Peter’s in Rome. As is the case with many churches in Russia, this building is now a museum - ironically it’s the Museum of the History of Religion! At another, a huge yellow and white building, several stories high which was the original merchants’ market, now bustling with small boutiques and restaurants, with streams of people coming and going from the metro stop which is now part of this complex.
We had several good lunches on Nevsky Prospekt and found some end of season summer sale bargains, especially in summer shoes. We roamed through the many souvenir shops, finding reasonably priced trinkets which we think our friends will enjoy.
We also had a very disturbing experience here, when Ken was swarmed by a group of 8 gypsy girls, who were intent on taking the shopping bag he was carrying. They came out of nowhere and gathered around him with lightning speed. He was alert to them, and held on to his bag and his pockets. As he was about to kick the nearest girl, the band moved on, much to our relief. Afterwards, several Russians motioned to us to hold on to our bags and to be careful. All this in the middle of the afternoon on a street crowded with people. Not a policeman in sight, and no one came to our aid. - The SP METRO, like the Moscow metro, is deep underground. Escalators seem endless as they take passengers into the bowels of the earth. We took our first metro ride with our guide, Jenya, a university student with a fine command of English. He told us that in some of the stations there are great metal barricades which can be closed, effectively separating the platform from the tracks. This is to prevent the stations from flooding, apparently a serious concern here. (see draining the marshes, above)
Our second Metro trip, using the same route we’d travelled with Jenya the day before, was another interesting experience. We were followed into the metro car by two very tall Russian men, one carrying a top coat over his arm. This seemed strange on such a hot day. These two men stood directly in front of us and just as we were pulling into the next station, Judy felt a tug on her purse, and reached down to find a man’s hand on the zipper. Ken then felt a tug on his bag, which the other man was attempting to open! We both exclaimed at the same time; the two men turned and ran off the train, losing themselves in the crowd. Since this was our stop, we too left the train, but of course, saw neither of the pickpockets. We were very glad that we had been able to thwart this further attempt to steal from us.
What with the gypsies and the pickpockets, we were very, very careful for the rest of our stay. - BALLET AT THE PUSHKIN THEATRE
We’d noticed posters advertising the ballet summer troupe, who was performing Swan Lake at the nearby Pushkin Theatre, just behind a lovely small park with a huge statue of Catherine the Great and an equally huge fountain.
We made our way to the theatre box office and were able to purchase two tickets for the next night’s performance. Seated on red velvet cushioned benches, which ranged in semi circles around the stage, we waited with many other tourists for the curtain to rise for the performance. As we had found everywhere, there was no air conditioning here, and we waited with trickles of perspiration creeping slowly down our backs. Our seats were near those of a German tour group, mostly teachers. We had a lively conversation with a retired German teacher who was fascinated with our account of teaching in China. He had been to Canada, on a tour which arrived in Toronto, drove through Algonquin Park to Ottawa and Montreal.
The dancers were wonderful; Odette as light as a feather. Although it was a ballet we’d seen several times, we thoroughly enjoyed this performance. At the intermission, we joined others on the second floor terrace of this classical theatre, looking out over Catherine the Great and the fountain.
After the performance, we walked back to our homestay, along the nearby canal. Although it was after 11:00 pm, the night was very light, as if the sun had just set. A reminder of the northerly situation of St. Petersburg. - TWO FABULOUS CHURCHES
West of the Admiralty, a delightful yellow and white building with a gold spire which is a landmark, and behind the Bronze Horseman, a famous equestrian statue of Peter the Great with a dragon under the hoof of his horse, is the famous St. Isaac’s Cathedral, a huge building held up by gigantic marble columns and sporting a golden dome which rises above any other building in the area. Inside are walls covered in mosaics, rich in the history of the Greek Orthodox church. Stone from the Russian Urals has been used for walls, frames and moldings, with amber and malachite providing colourful reminders of the mineral riches of this vast country. One wall contained a huge stained glass window depicting Christ in a deep red robe, arm raised in blessing, head surrounded in an aura of golden light. From our combined memory of Jenya’s talk, it was on St. Isaac ‘s day that Peter the Great was born, thus this unusual name. This church doesn’t hold regular services, and seems more a museum than an active house of faith.
East off Nevsky Prospekt, on the south side of the canal, stands a red brick church with colourful domes reminiscent of St. Basil’s in Moscow. This is the Church of the Resurrection, commonly called the Church on the Blood. Tsar Alexander 2 was assassinated here in 1881, and the church was built as a way of commemorating this event. Much smaller than St. Isaac’s, it is a gem filled with the most amazing mosaics. No wall is empty. Light glitters from the tilted mosaic tiles, emphasizing the richness of this interior. The iconostasis is layered with religious celebrities, many surrounded in gold sheets decorated in repoussee designs. Across the street is a wonderful quiet park, cool in the afternoon heat, bordered by a delicate art nouveau wrought iron fence. After the intensity of the church, we enjoyed the peaceful greens of lawns and trees.
As we walked back to Nevsky Prospekt, Ken spied a man carrying a huge box of fur hats. Of course they were for sale. Which one would we like? After trying on several, despite the heat of the day, Judy decided on a white Arctic Fox hat, a reminder of the cold blustery winters ahead. - A CRUISE ON THE NEVA
On our final day in St. Petersburg we took a boat ride on the river. What a marvelous and relaxing way to view all the wonderful historic buildings which line the river. What a great way to beat the heat. What a great way to get sunburned! Despite the running commentary only in Russian, we managed to locate many of the sights we’d visited on shore, including the Peter and Paul Fortress, where a sparkling thin spire from the Cathedral there rises majestically above the fortress walls, in front of which many bathers enjoyed the cool waters of the river (not recommended by the authorities as a safe bathing spot!) In this Cathedral are buried the remains of Nicholas and Alexandra, the Romanov rulers murdered so ruthlessly in Ekaterinburg, returned to the Romanov crypt in 1998.
Further along was a newly built wooden replica of a sailing ship from the past, a very upscale gym full of exercise equipment on several levels. Our captain took us by the battleship Aurora, permanently on display on a tributary, bedecked with many sightseers as we cruised by. Painted a pretty baby blue, it complimented a splendid baroque church in blue and white which stood on the shore nearby. The crew of the Aurora fired on the defenders of the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917, thereby initiating the October Revolution, our guidebook tells us.
On our way back, we passed several of the multi- decked cruise ships which moor to the west, unable to come further up the river because of their size. These dazzling white monsters bring thousands of tourists to the city every week.
GOODBYE TO ST. PETERSBURG AND TO RUSSIA
Our final night in this beautiful city was spent repacking our suitcases, and generally getting ready for the next day, which would be filled with travel and time changes -- from St. Petersburg to Frankfurt to Toronto, arriving shortly after lunch, Toronto time.
With Igor and his amazing mist green machine, we travelled through this city of 5 million at 4:00 am, all quietly eerie and empty around us. We watched as Igor gauged the next red light, economizing on the number of times he had to shift gears.
Gradually, we began to realize that soon we would be in a country where, for the first time in almost a year, we would be able to read the signs and know what the people around us were saying. Not only had we lived with few language skills in China, we had then spent three weeks in yet another country where the written as well as spoken language was unrecognizable to us!
Retrospect tends to cover experience with the rosy glow of memory romanticised by distance. Our travels from Beijing, through Mongolia and on the Trans Siberian in Russia made the world seem a smaller place. Our fellow humans on the other side of the planet were, for the most part, welcoming and friendly and eager to have us understand what moved them, what made them happy and proud. And if this final leg of our journey taught us anything it was that, even at our age and acknowledging our infirmities, we could do it. Our travels also confirmed the paradox, that for us, coming from Canada, the old world of China, Mongolia and Russia was indeed for us a “brave new world that has such people in it”. We still look back at the wonder of it all.
All text and photography © copyright Harkaway, 2003 - 2004
