I enjoyed St. Petersburg much better than Moscow. It was warmer, closer together, walkable, and had a much more calm feel than Moscow. Our hostel was located right in the center of everything which made it wonderful! Our four days in the city were filled with adventure but felt very paced out and do-able.
Day one saw us on a 5 hour walking tour with the best tour guide. She continually had us in and out so we were able to warm up in-between jaunts around the city. We got to hear random stories and weird history. Example: Lots of young Russian couples like to get married in a certain beautiful park during the summer, the park is a mass grave from the 1,000 day siege of WWII. Romantic. That night we dressed up and headed off to the Russian Ballet in a beautiful theater.
Over the next three days we saw more museums, cathedrals, and went to a great show called Feel Yourself Russian which featured traditional folk dances, songs, and incredibly talented performers. Three of the boys in our group were chosen to dance with three of the girls during the audience participation dance. Three particular visits from those three days stand out.
The first would be the Hermitage. Started by Catherine the Great (I think), it is the second biggest art collection in the world. Formerly the largest, approximately 1/3 of the collection was sold off by the Soviet Union for money to fund the regime. The Russian government is working on restoring the collection but success has been limited. It is a beautiful gallery across the street from the winter palace as it was originally a private collection for the royal family. There were ball rooms, throne rooms, ad great halls. I have now seen original works by Monet, Picasso, and Rembrandt, among others. My favorite part was the great hall used for balls. It was like a scene out of a movie, I could see the great ladies and gentlemen twirling to the music. Royalty is easier to image when you are standing in their party room.
The second would be the Church of Our Savior On the Spilt Blood. The cathedral, which was funded almost entirely by peasant donation, stands on the assassination spot of Alexander II (the our savior standing on his spilt blood), the Tsar who freed the surfs from their servitude. The nobles, losing their slaves, where determined to murder the Tsar and after eight failed assassination attempts, they were successful. The inside of the church is entirely mosaic; walls, ceilings, pillars, everything. It took 24 years to complete the original work. During WWII the church was bombed, miraculously, the ammunition lodged in the rafters but never detonated. It remained there until the 1970's. Stalin wanted to explode the church himself because the building is a testament to a Tsar but because of the church's location, right next to the canal, it would cost too much to repair the canal from an explosion. It was saved for a second time. In 1970 the value of the church was again seen and restoration began. Restoration took 27 years and the church was re-opened as a museum in 1997.
My final awe-inspiring moment came from attending an orthodox service. I love worshipping God in ways that open my eyes to how big and powerful He really is. Coming from a Protestant background, I am well versed in God as my friend. I walk around church barefoot and sit on a comfortable chair during service. That is not wrong, it is an aspect of God's character. But we sometimes miss the holiness of God. Orthodox cathedrals are ornate and beautiful because it is God's dwelling, there are no chairs because it is unthinkable that a human sit in the presence of their God. God is Holy, God is powerful, God is real. I could go on but I feel it would turn into more of a preachy rant than it already becoming so I will leave it at this: it was beautiful.
We boarded an overnight train back to Latvia and rode a bus back to home sweet home in Klaipeda. Mexico and Florida have nothing on Russia... except maybe some sun.
Coolest Spring Break Ever.
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