Day 16 ~ Peterhof and Pushkin

18. July

Before you get to far ahead make sure to check out these two albums from the rest of the Hermitage and my night walk in St. Pete's (All from yesturday)

Picture Links:

Russia ~ Day 15 ~ St. Petersburg: Hermitage and Nightfall

Russia ~ Day 15 ~ St. Petersburg: A St. Petersburg Stroll



Ok, back to buisness..

The group ate breakfast in this morning. Last night we all went to a grocery store (the first one I had been to in Russia) and bought food for breakfast, we found it easier than going out.

Oh, one thing about this store, outside the entrance it had a map of where things were located and the cashiers got to sit. I am very jealous! I only wish I could sit at work! Additionally, I though the map was amusing.

The first place on our journey today was Peterhof. It’s the location of the summer palace of Peter the Great. Located in I guess what you would call the suburbs of the city. With traffic it was about an hour ride. On the way our tour guide pointed out some interesting buildings around the city along the way.

Wanna know more about Peterhof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterhof

So, Peterhof is one of my favorite places in Russia. It’s basically got this amazing palace and extensive gargens and fountains. If you don’t know, I love nature and gardens and flowers, so I was basically really happy here! It’s soo beautiful. I will again direct you to pictures to explain so much better what I cannot. Peter had seen the Palace at Versailles and said he wanted to have more fountains and larger gardens, basically it had to look better, so that’s what he got, it’s really interesting and quite impressive.

It’s located right next to the gulf of Finland, which I thought was really neat! To think I was so far North that I was near Finland! Wow, that’s almost to the arctic circle!?

Anyways, this place had hundreds of fountains and lots of pretty gardens that were nicely landscaped and arranged. Also, there were cute red squirrels that ran around some of the bushes. I noticed that some other tourists were all huddled looking at something and I was curious and realized it was a little squirrel and it was coming up to people looking for food. I quickly squatted down and got him to come up to my hand twice. The picture I was able to get I am pretty proud of. That squirrel, whom I’ve affectionately named Boris, made my day. He was adorable. I wish I could pack him and take him home as a pet!

Liza said that Russia didn’t really havem any squirrels or chipmunks, especially in Novgorod, she’s correct, so I was surprised to find them here. Apparently they are in Siberia.

Some of the fountains here were trick fountains. Apparently Peter the Great liked to play jokes on elderly visitors. There were some places that had stone pathways and if you stepped on the wrong stones you would get all wet. Apparently certain stones turned on some of the fountains so the trick was to figure out which ones weren’t the tricky ones. Well, when the group went over we were supposed to watch our guide, she knew where they were. Let’s just say that was easier said than done and I got the most wet out of everyone. My whole upper right ride was wet!

Anyways, this place was so pretty and I loved that it had fountains, gardens, lots of trees as well as a shoreline , so much all in one place.

From here we all piled back into our van. Which, by the way was a purple Mercedes, amazing I know. Headed to Pushkin where another Palace is located. This place was nice. We got a tour of the castle which was pretty huge, and very pretty. There are also gardens here but we didn’t have time to tour these. Pushkin is also known as Tsarskoe Selo. Also, the name Pushkin is derived from one of the most famous Russia Writers, Alexander Pushkin.

Wanna know more about Pushkin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarskoe_Selo

The palace here is similar style to the Winter palace. There is a lot of gold, although this palace is infamous for its Amber room. I never knew that Amber is made hardened tree sap and is not actually a stone. Most of the worlds Amber is located around the Baltic sea so Russia is known for it.

Oh, on a side note, when we were touring the insides of these palaces we had to put booties on our shoes, like surgeons would wear. This helps keep the marble and wood floors in better condition, but it makes things slippery. I thought it was a good idea, and should be instituted in other really old places.

I’ve noticed that in these palaces the architecture is different in every room and there are often paintings and intricate carvings all over. The detail and such effort put into these buildings is phenomenal and so impressive. The architecture of most of the city is impressively detailed, which is another thing I love about St. Petersburg.

This palace was nice, but personally I loved Peterhof and preferred it. When we got home we all quickly rested, got dressed up and ate.

Steve and I decided to eat at Pizza hut. It’s funny we come to this great Russian city and spent most of the time eating non Russian cuisine. We ordered a Hawaiian pizza and it was an almost 30 minute wait. The restaurant was playing American music and had American decorations. It was interesting. The menu was in English and Russian, although that wasn’t surprising, most places had those.

From here is was onto the ballet, which was a not so fun 20 minute walk in dress shoes. My shoes must have shrunk. I know when I purchased them they fit fine, but tonight they were a bit tight and I got a nice blister on the back of my left ankle. Ugh, just what I didn’t need, oh well. Masha and I were commented that we can’t imagine how Russian women can deal with wearing dress shoes, mainly high heels, everyday! It’s insane; they must not have feeling in the bottoms of their feet.
The ballet was “Swan Lake” by Tchaikovsky. This performance was nothing short of impressive, as is most things in the city. Personally I love watching it because you can see so many of the ballerinas muscles. They are of course in tip top shape, amazingly strong, with lots of endurance. Watching their muscles as they perform is really neat. I guess it’s my love of anatomy coming back to me!

The abilities of the ballerinas as a whole are quite phenomenal and it was a great performance, I enjoyed it. The only thing is that we had box seats, which weren’t that bad, but the boxes were really tiny with small chairs and basically just enough room for the chairs. It was a little uncomfortable sitting. The orchestra was also great, and I love listening to live music! All in all a very pleasing performance.
Doug, who is a dancer, says that the lead female ballerina is well on her way to needing some type of joint replacement soon and went on to describe how ballet ruins the body and wears it out from the demanding routines. Furthermore, the demand on the ballerina’s joints to go so out of their normal range of motion it is just destructive to them. Personally there were many times where I went, whoa, I can’t believe they just bent or moved that way! Again, thinking back to anatomy class, it’s interesting, and a bit uncomfortable, to think of what their bodies are able to do.

When we got back, we all changed out of our outfits and Masha was hungry since she slept through dinner. Steve and I accompanied her to Subway. Haha, another American place I know! It was actually really good! I really liked it.

From here Masha and I wanted to take a boat ride in the canals and river. It cost 500 rubles a person, a bit pricy but worth it. It was 1 am when we started and we were on the boat until about 2:30am.

The boat was fun and played a mix of Russian techno music and America music by Whitney Houston, Justin Timberlake, and others. It was enjoyable for a boat ride (they didn’t play the “I’m on a boat” song though).

If you remember, St. Petersburg has many bridges that connect the different islands, and these bridges go up between 1 and 2am. Well, it was awesome to see the bridges go up while being on the boat, as well as see the city again at dark! I loved it all, and the mood was a bright red too and looked cool. I took some awesome video and tried to take decent pictures despite being in a rocking boat, it’s tricky. The bridges are lit up and watching them go up is quite an experience.
St. Petersburg never ceases to please or amaze. It’s the NYC of Russia. The only thing I don’t like is that there are tons of people everywhere, even at 2am, and everything is more expensive than it should be. The city never sleeps. Again, make sure to check out the pictures, they do more justice then I can here!
Free day to do whatever tomorrow!

Love,
Sasha!

Picture Links:

Russia ~ Day 16 ~ St. Petersburg: Peterhof

Russia ~ Day 16 ~ St. Petes: Peterhof and Pushkin Tsarskoye Selo

Russia ~ Day 16 ~ St. Petersburg: Pizza Hut, Swan Lake, Boats