St Petersburg is quite simply, an exquisite city. Stunning architecture abounds on every street and at every turn of the head there is something new (or more accurately, old) with which to reward the eyes.
We quickly realised that the two and a half days we had dedicated to St Petersburg would nowhere near be enough. We adopted a frenetic pace and tried to cram in as much as possible, while still taking time to appreciate the beauty around us.
Arriving at our hostel at lunchtime, we endured cold showers (the only option available to us after spending five nights on trains), admired the river view from our room's window, and then made a beeline for the State Hermitage Museum. With it's unrivalled and seemingly infinite art collections, we easily lost four hours of time: wandering through the over three hundred rooms of the Winter Palace, marvelling at the Egyptian, Greek and Roman sculptures, and ticking off paintings by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Picasso, Da Vinci, Ceyzanne, Monet and Renoir, just to name a few.
The State Hermitage Museum
Da Vinci's 'Madonna and Child'
Rembrandt's 'The Prodigal Son'
The Church on Spilled Blood was amazing. Built upon the spot of Alexander II's assassination, and partly modelled on Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral, its colours were dazzling both inside and out, and the life-sized mosaics filled every possible nook and cranny.
We spent much of our time at Palace Square (scene of the 1905 Bloody Sunday massacre), adjacent to the Hermitage Museum. This massive square proved to be the hub of tourist activity, and we found ourselves repeatedly walking through it, sitting and eating kiosk food on its periphery, admiring its Alexander Column (commemorating Alexander I's victory over Napoleon), and riding laps on segways around its impressive space.
St Petersburg is sometimes referred to as 'the Venice of the North'. With it's many canals and river systems, it is often difficult to navigate beyond the city centre. A boat cruise took us to places we could never have found on foot, including the city's northern industrial zone and the Bay of Finland. The city is also surprisingly poorly serviced by public transport. Metro train stations are few and far between, and the easiest way to get around is by walking. On average we walked 10-15 kilometres per day in 30 degree temperatures and high humidity (who ever knew that it got hot in Russia!), and our legs and feet were definitely feeling the pain.
We visited the Kunstkamera, which I can undoubtedly say is the most bizarre museum I've ever seen. Amongst other things, it housed Peter the Great's private collection of two-headed foetuses, conjoined twins, deformed body parts, and other monstrosities. Despite descriptions in English, I left still being unable to fathom why somebody would ever even consider collecting such ghoulish human anatomy.
Peter and Paul Fortress was a lovely surprise. Not knowing much about the place, other than the fact that it was planned by Peter the Great as a defence against the Swedes in 1703, we arrived to find the fortress was located on a pretty island, with many interesting buildings including a prison and commandant's house. The highlight however, was the SS Peter and Paul Cathedral, where, previously unbeknown to us, the bodies of the assassinated Romanov family are buried, as well as the bodies of Peter the Great and Catherine I.
I have always been intrigued by Russian history, including the story of the Romanov family's downfall and the ensuing Russian Revolution. Arriving in St Petersburg, I was keen to learn more about one particularly fascinating element: Grigory Rasputin. However, this proved much trickier than first thought. Years ago I had heard the rumour that Rasputin's dismembered penis was on display in a quiet museum in St Petersburg. Despite this no doubt being a hoax, we arrived at the location of the museum only to be told that 'the museum is stopped working'. Dejected, we walked away, but still feeling optimistic with two more potential Rasputin experiences ahead of us. Next, we tried to book a Rasputin walking tour of the city, but due to time and cost restraints we were unable to do so and hence failed again in our endeavour to learn more about this crazy creepy man. Our final hope was the Rasputin tour at the Yusopov Palace, which takes people through the underground secret passages and rooms where Rasputin was poisoned and shot by Felix Yusopov (prior to him finalising the murder by throwing Rasputin's body into the river). We were aware that only twenty tickets were allocated per day, and that the tour was in Russian with no English translation. Determined not to miss out, we queued at the ticket box half an hour before opening time and were sixth in line. Score! However, When we tried to book our tickets we were arrogantly and rudely told we couldn't do the tour because we were not Russian. We explained that we didn't mind listening in Russian and that were happy to just tag along to see the rooms and read the displays. We were again told no, this time with the excuse that the tickets had suddenly sold out. We knew this was not the case, and despite our protests, the nasty woman in the ticket office shooed us away and then continued to sell tickets to the Russian tourists behind us. With neither Richard or I willing to put up with any form of racism or prejudice, we entered the Palace and sought out an English speaking staff member. We demanded an explanation, and before we knew it we were being escorted back to the ticket office by one very proactive worker to purchase our tickets from a now VERY angry ticket seller (who obviously despised losing face in front of two westerners), and then, believe it or not, we were given a private tour of the chambers on our own, by a super-friendly, super-accommodating museum curator. The exhibit was fantastic, and it was eery to stand in the very location of such a significant event in Russian history. We then visited the many rooms of the palace itself, all of which were extravagantly decorated and restored.
We visited the Kunstkamera, which I can undoubtedly say is the most bizarre museum I've ever seen. Amongst other things, it housed Peter the Great's private collection of two-headed foetuses, conjoined twins, deformed body parts, and other monstrosities. Despite descriptions in English, I left still being unable to fathom why somebody would ever even consider collecting such ghoulish human anatomy.
Peter and Paul Fortress was a lovely surprise. Not knowing much about the place, other than the fact that it was planned by Peter the Great as a defence against the Swedes in 1703, we arrived to find the fortress was located on a pretty island, with many interesting buildings including a prison and commandant's house. The highlight however, was the SS Peter and Paul Cathedral, where, previously unbeknown to us, the bodies of the assassinated Romanov family are buried, as well as the bodies of Peter the Great and Catherine I.
I have always been intrigued by Russian history, including the story of the Romanov family's downfall and the ensuing Russian Revolution. Arriving in St Petersburg, I was keen to learn more about one particularly fascinating element: Grigory Rasputin. However, this proved much trickier than first thought. Years ago I had heard the rumour that Rasputin's dismembered penis was on display in a quiet museum in St Petersburg. Despite this no doubt being a hoax, we arrived at the location of the museum only to be told that 'the museum is stopped working'. Dejected, we walked away, but still feeling optimistic with two more potential Rasputin experiences ahead of us. Next, we tried to book a Rasputin walking tour of the city, but due to time and cost restraints we were unable to do so and hence failed again in our endeavour to learn more about this crazy creepy man. Our final hope was the Rasputin tour at the Yusopov Palace, which takes people through the underground secret passages and rooms where Rasputin was poisoned and shot by Felix Yusopov (prior to him finalising the murder by throwing Rasputin's body into the river). We were aware that only twenty tickets were allocated per day, and that the tour was in Russian with no English translation. Determined not to miss out, we queued at the ticket box half an hour before opening time and were sixth in line. Score! However, When we tried to book our tickets we were arrogantly and rudely told we couldn't do the tour because we were not Russian. We explained that we didn't mind listening in Russian and that were happy to just tag along to see the rooms and read the displays. We were again told no, this time with the excuse that the tickets had suddenly sold out. We knew this was not the case, and despite our protests, the nasty woman in the ticket office shooed us away and then continued to sell tickets to the Russian tourists behind us. With neither Richard or I willing to put up with any form of racism or prejudice, we entered the Palace and sought out an English speaking staff member. We demanded an explanation, and before we knew it we were being escorted back to the ticket office by one very proactive worker to purchase our tickets from a now VERY angry ticket seller (who obviously despised losing face in front of two westerners), and then, believe it or not, we were given a private tour of the chambers on our own, by a super-friendly, super-accommodating museum curator. The exhibit was fantastic, and it was eery to stand in the very location of such a significant event in Russian history. We then visited the many rooms of the palace itself, all of which were extravagantly decorated and restored.
Walking the streets of St Petersburg, we saw a sign advertising a performance of Swan Lake at one of the theatres affiliated with the Hermitage Museum (Aurora Palace). Amazingly, we were still able to purchase tickets at short notice, and while the performance was nowhere near the standard (nor the cost) of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, it was thrilling to watch such a famous ballet being performed in such a beautiful city.
Now, in the past, I've been to two of Melbourne's White Night festivals. And they've been great. But seriously, St Petersburg knows how to pull off a real White Night. With the sky still a glorious daylight blue well past midnight, and with dawn breaking again at around 3:00am, the streets of the city seem to be an endless night time party. This played havoc with our body clocks, and we found that we were still awake well into the early hours of each morning. It did have its advantages, with us feeling perfectly safe walking the city streets beyond midnight, and with so many people around, the twenty minute walk to our hostel from the city centre was quite entertaining.
St Petersburg well and truly lived up to our every expectation, and perhaps one day we will be able to visit this majestic city once again. But for now we bid it farewell as we board yet another overnight train, this time for a complete change of scenery: the city of Murmansk above the arctic circle.
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