Day One - 21/10/10
After a looong 10 hour journey through Finland and across the strict Russian border, we arrived at the Hotel Ibis. We checked into our cosey new abode and changed our Euros into Russian Roubles. There was just enough time to buy a bottle of water and chat to a semi-drunk Russian who knew Newcastle as a place with "good beer but a bad football team". We then boarded the coach once again and were taken to a traditional Russian meal.
The restaurant was like a cavern! The food left a lot to be desired - salad and bread, cheesey mushrooms (which were pretty good!), tomato and onion soup, more salad, potato wedges and something that reminded me of a snozzberry from the BFG. Then there was some traditional Russian singing and dancing and games before a desert of pancakes wth ice cream and jam!
Day two started with an early rise and quick breakfast at the hotel (taking something from the breakfast buffet for dinner later) then back on the coach. We were taken outside of St. Peterburg to Pushkin, or 'The Village of the Tsars', where we spent the morning at Catherine Palace. This is an enormous Palace that belonged to numerous Russian Royalty throughout the years dating back to the 1700's. Most famously, it belonged to Catherine the Great - A German who took the throne by force and is considered to be one of the best rulers of Russian history. The interiors were insane! Included in the impressive decor was a room entirely covered by amber (Amber Room), which went 'missing' during WWII and was restored with painstaking detail. The original photosgraphs were in black and white and so every new piece of amber was photographed to colour match in B&W - that's just crazy!
After the Cathedral tour Helen and I had a wander around a small market, picking up a few souviner bargains before being taken back to the hotel.
On the evening we were given a night tour - by boat! The cruise had free soviet champagne, which was barely drinkable (but coming from a non-drinker thats probably a biased opinion). Despite the freezing temperature on deck, the cruise was a lot of fun and the city looked amazing by night.
The morning routine of day 3 was similar to day two - early rise and a quick breakfast before piling back onto the coach for a bus tour of the city. We stopped at a few sights for photo opportunities:
Smolny Convent
A convent and surrounding buildings built for Empress Elizabeth after she got bored of being a busy ruler. During it's building, she became celebate and practiced religion intensely. However, before it completetion she got bored, got a boyfriend and never moved to the convent.
Russian Cruiser Aurora
This battleship played an important role in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and survived both the first and second world wars. However, it did sink during WWI but was salvaged and it now serves as a museum!
The fortress was established by Peter the great for defence purposes, but was never used as enemies never got close enough! It was therefore turned into a prison where Peter's son, Aleksi was tortutred and murdered for having different opinions to his father - how nice!! The fortress also has a Cathedral with a spire covered by gold. The angel on the top is so thin it continually needs restortation. There is a story of a roofer once doing the work without any safety harnesses, and as payment got given free vodka from every bar in St. P for the rest of his life. However, in his drunken state he kept losing the papers to say who he was, and so got a tattoo on his neck! It is now common for the people in St. Petersburg to tap their neck when referencing drinking! We arrived at 12pm which meant there was a VERY loud canon shot!
The last stop took us to St. Isaac's Cathedral, another building with impressive interiors. For an extra 100 Roubles we walked 200 (knackering) steps to the panoramic viewing platform. Being up so high gave us a great view of the city, showing its true size. However, I do not feel it did the city's buildings justice, as they looked a bit dank, grey and delapitated. This is not the case as ground level!
The last tour stop of the day was the Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, the 3rd largest museum in the world which houses over 3 million artifacts and paintings. It would literally take years to see everything. In our 2 hour tour we were shown the most interesting pieces, which included work by Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Michelangelo.
Day Four - 24/10/10
On our last day we were taken to the Yusupov Palace, which belonged to a rich Russian family and is the site of Rasputins murder in 1916. Although quite modest from the outside and on the lower ground, the palace did not fail to deliver grand and over the top interiors like the other places we had visited. The solid marbel staircase extravagantly carved opened out to the upper level which once housed an indoor winter garden with exotic birds. The various room included a music hall, tapestry room, art gallery and theatre!
At 2pm we left and headed back to Kuopio - which took 11 hours due to delays at the border (3-4 hours).
In the four days there I also learned one word of Russian that came in very useful - Spasibo (spaz-ee-bah) which means 'Thank You'.
I really can't express just how amazing the last 4 days have been. The trip has given me such an appreciation of how lucky I am to be taking a study year out. Although I get very home sick, I know that this is a once in a life time opportunity and I don't want to take it for granted anymore. The people here in Finland are SO nice and I have had nothing but positive experiences. I also want to state that I wouldn't be able to do this on my own, and I am SO glad I get to do it with my best friend! (n'awww).
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