St. Petersburg, Russia June 5th - Part 1

 

We had made arrangements to meet a student named Dmitri at the port.  We found each other on the Couchsurfing website.  We made application to have him visit the ship.  We thought he would enjoy it, but the ship lost the application.  I wasn’t happy and filled out another one, even thought they might not have enough time to process the request.  Last night I was told the application was approved…yeah.

So this morning we met with Dmitri, a 20 year old 6’4” college student.  He speaks English very well and understands it almost as well.  So we went through emigration with our passports and papers and got him and tried to reenter the ship.  The Russian authorities couldn’t figure out how to make that happen.  After about and hour, we decided to forget the ship and start our visit.

It was wonderful.  Dmitri is the perfect guide and a very nice man.  We walked a ways and took a bus, then a subway to the main street of St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospekt.  The buildings on that street are amazing.  We could bore you with dozens of pictures of them.

Bye the way, did you know that the Spb subway is the deepest in the world?  I didn’t either.  I thought it was London’s.

    

Can you tell that this is a Russian subway?  It looks just like an American subway, except cleaner.  Notice the people dress just like everywhere else in Europe and any developed country.

I, Arleen, had been to Spb in 1989, one year before the coup that finished communism.  The difference between what I saw then and what I see now is amazing.  First, Dmitri has traveled to about 10 different countries with his parents.  That was not possible before.  He lives with his aunt and she has a flat panel TV and cable, also not possible.  They seem to live very much like we do at home.  The streets are full of cars and buses and subways are well used.  Just like any big city.  I am very happy for them.

There are many canals here.  We didn’t get around to taking a canal boat ride.

I seem to be unable to stop taking pictures of Mc Donald’s signs.  I think it is amazing that you find them EVERYWHERE.

One of the churches we passed was built in the style of the Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral, the Church of the Resurrection. 

   

                                                   

 

                                                       

These icons are not painted, they are mosaics.  The artists who made them were taken from a different church, and that church was never finished.  The whole church looks like this.  Yes, of course we have more pictures.

I hope this doesn’t offend anyone, but I thought this was a funny way to look at this mosaic.  This of course is a picture of Mary, and Joseph and the baby Jesus.  If you look at it like a family photo, it looks like Mary just checked Jesus’s diaper and says “Oy” while Joseph holds his head.

     In case you couldn’t see Joseph.

This is the Cathedral that the locals get to use.  The Church of the Resurrection is only used for big holidays. 

                                              

 

We walked a while taking pictures on Nevsky Prospekt until we got to Katherine’s Winter Palace, now the home of the Hermitage Museum.  Actually, the Hermitage is made up of 5 buildings.  We visited the main palace and only saw a tiny bit.  If you spent 7 seconds in front of each item, it would take your whole life to see all the items owned by the museum.  Only 18 years for what is on display.  I just noticed how many pictures I want to share with you of the Hermitage, so I will post  them separately.