Day 15 ~ St. Isacc's Cathedral and The Hermitage

17. July

The group had to meet at 10 at the corner to get ready for more walking and sigh seeing. After sleeping in until the last possible moment a bunch of us went to McDonalds for breakfast. The menu has many different things on the menu than in America, but it’s funny when they transliterated American breakfast items into Russian. I can’t even remember what my food was called, but it was the closest equivalent to a Mcmuffin I guess, but the meat tasted like a veggie burger. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Haha, again, I just found the cheapest thing and ordered. It wasn’t terrible. ]

From here we got a tour of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. St. Isaac was the patron Saint of Peter the Great therefore a opportunity to build a church in his honor! The Cathedral was beautiful. I had never seen a church look the way this one did. The pictures don’t do it enough justice, I had to take a video inside to capture what it looked like fully. There was a lot of gold, mosaics, icons and chandeliers as well as huge bronze doors with sculptures coming out of it. The doors are so large that they’ve only been opened once or twice, amazing to look at, not very useable. You can walk up the outside of the church and get an arial view. I didn’t go but Doug borrowed my camera and took pictures. Apparently to get up it’s a trek many many narrow windy stairs that make you feel dizzy after going in circles for a while.
Of course we saw some more newlyweds in our travels. From here it was onto the Hermitage, pronounced “ermitage” by some. This is a museum of Art basically, and its one of the biggest galleries of art in the world. It is located in the Winter Palace.

Basically, this place was breathtaking. There is soo much art and things to look at that if you spent one minute looking at everything it would take you three years. Yes, three years, 24 hours a day. That’s how much stuff is in this place.
Furthermore, each room has different architecture and designs so I spent most of my time focusing on that than individual things. Again, it would be better for you all to spend time looking at the picutures of the Hermitage than for me to explain how grand it was. I don’t really know what to say other than it really is phenomenal. Lots of gold and more chandeliers.

The most awesome thing about the Hermitage in my opinion was being able to see the real artwork of very famous artists. But, not only just that, getting so close to it you could touch it, and being allowed to take pictures. You had to pay to take pictures, but it’s soo worth it. I know in the United States this would not be allowed.

Please look here for the Official Website: The State Hermitage Museum

Here if you search the artists that have works here, and also have a virtual tour. If you look at the Collection Highlights page, it will tell you lots too. Soo much in this place, I can't even remember everything.

Wikipedia : The Hermitage

Hermitage: Works Owned by the Hermitage

Anyways, I saw works of art by the following:
Leonardo da Vinci : The Madonna with a Flower (The Benois Madonna), The Madonna and Child (Madonna Litta)
Michelangelo: The Crouching Boy
Rembrandt: Danae and Flora (as well as many others, there was a whole huge room full of his paintings.

Monet: Haystack at Giverny, Lady in the Garden, Meadows at Giverny, Poppy Field (there was a whole area of Monet’s, I didn’t get pictures of all of them but I know there were more there ..?? )

Renoir: Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary .. and more.

Van Gogh: Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) and Arena at Arles (there was also a whole section of Van Gogh but my camera died so I wasn’t able to get photos of them).

And so much more, but those were some that I got pictures of!

Other artists that I saw after my camera included a bunch of Picasso photos. Michelle got pictures of these, so I will get copies of hers someday.

This is also a good site: At the Hermitage

Overall it was soo neat to see the original works and everything. Michelle was freaking out a bit because art is her thing, she’s an art major at Brockport, and I was very excited just to say oh hey yeah I saw some Van Gogh and da Vinci. Plus, I was excited because my mom is also an artists, so mom I thought of you a lot as I was here. I think you really would have enjoyed seeing this place!

After seeing the Hermitage, Liza recommended that we eat at this pie place as she called it.

It turned out to be my favorite returant that I’ve been to in Russia so far. Funny thing, it’s a german restaurant and they make these “pies”. Well, I can’t really describe how they looked, I wouldn’t call them pies, but they were great. Picture says more than I can. However, these pies are filled with all sorts of things from meat to mushrooms to fruit. I tried one filled with rabbit and mushrooms. Yes, rabbit. I’ve never had a rabbit, reminded me of chicken but it was sweet in a way. The mushrooms were amazing, the best mushrooms I’ve had in my life, not kidding.
On that note, the mushrooms in Russia are the best, better than home! Apparently Russia had mushroom fields and many people go mushroom picking. I don’t even know what kind of mushrooms I ate but for someone who loves mushrooms, I was in heaven. So much better than the small ones we buy in a can at home. I think the Russians would find American canned mushrooms a joke.

I also tried a bit of pie with cabbage, amazing! Definitely have to come here again, and I am sad that Novgorod doesn’t have this pie place. I marked its location on my map so if I ever return to St. Petersburg I will go there again. If only I could get recipes!

Following the pie place we went to a small square where venders were selling souvineers. I bought a Russian winter hat. It’s all white and made of real leather and fox fur. I shouldn’t say how much I paid, much less than most places would charge, (Liza helped me bargain and lower the price 30 percent). Basically, it’s a really cute hat, and my goal was to find myself a real Russian winter hat while here, so I am very pleased.

When we got home Masha and I were exhausted so we took a nice nap for at least 2 hours and found out most everyone had eaten dinner already so she and I went to some 24 restaurant across the street. It was a Georgian restaurant, so there wasn’t much Russian cuisine on the menu. I got a turkey shish kabob thing and some rice and salad with eggplant. It wasn’t bad for a 24 hour place.

After eating Masha and I decided we didn’t want to sit indoors all night so we took a walk around the city. The sun was slowly going down and there were gorgeous clouds on the horizon. Again, the city looked so beautiful with all it’s lights. We spent the time walking through some park and then along the river. Fireworks were going off and they were so neat to watch high above the river in such a great city. I don’t know what was going on today, but there was some type of celebration. The anniversary of the death of Alexander (which one, I don’t know, but some royalty).
I really am in love with the beauty of this city; it’s the most beautiful city I’ve ever been too! In the Winter Palace square there were hundreds of bike riders and rollerbladders. I don’t know what they were doing, it looked like a convention. Haha, anyways, they eventually all took off and rode around the city I imagine. Along with that Michelle and I saw a bunch of drunk guys on one of the boats in the canal. Whatever they were singing I don’t know, but they were quite comical. I recorded their performance.

Additionally, there is always someone performing something in the square in front of the palace, it’s quite the opportune place for performing.

Side note, the videos that I’ve taken in the city I cannot post online while in Russia because they literally take hours to upload so you’ll have to wait until I get home.

After a long walk around the city Masha and I returned and hung out a little bit with everyone upstairs and then we all went to bed around 2am.

The next day was a full day filled with two tours of some more palaces and a Russian ballet performance of Swan lake!
Love,
Sasha.


Picture Links:

Day 15 ~ St. Petersburg: St. Issac's and The Hermitage


There are two more albums I am working on uploading from this day... coming soon!