Snow-covered Stroganoff

02.11.06

We have now spent two days in St Petersburg and it's rapidly shaping up to be my fave city so far. It's more Melbourne than Sydney, more Paris than London, if that makes sense... lots of beautiful buildings and churches but a slight layer of grunge as well to make things interesting.

Today, Isco wisely decided to check out some galleries, but, ever the intrepid explorer, and with an idea to see a bit more of my new top destination, I decided to do a walking tour of the city.

I caught the metro to the furthest point in my sightseeing, planning to stroll back. As soon as I came out of the station, it started to snow, so the weather wasn't exactly suited to standing around outside gawping at buildings!

My first spot was the Fortress of Peter & Paul, at which I think I was the only lone tourist among a sea of school and guided-tour groups. The only thing really worth looking at, I figured, was the large cathedral where all the Tsars are buried, and it was pretty impressive. Lots of gold and kind of pastel green and orangey striped walls inside and a lovely needlepoint golden spire outside.

Making my way back to the city from the fortress involved crossing St Petersburg's main river, the Neva. Midway over the bridge, I was startled by a canon firing. Startled, in part, by the recollection that the canon is fired daily from the fortress at noon, and I could have actually seen the thing (I was right there!) if I'd remembered this fact, or understood the Russian announcement I heard just as I was making my way out, d'oh!

Next stop was the Church of Spilled Blood, which is a bit of a knock-off of St Basils in Moscow (the colourful onion domes, you know it). The guidebook said the exterior was more impressive than the interior so I decided to save myself 170rb (about $8.50) and just took a few pix of the outside. Then Kazan Cathedral came accross my path, which is a knock-off of St Peters in Rome (a church I didn't manage to see when in Rome, but that's a whole 'nother story). As it was free I checked it out, and it rates highest on the 'holiness-factor' of all the churches I've seen so far this trip. Lots of people queuing up to whisper at and kiss some special picture of our lady, and candles lit etc.

After that I had a really bad lunch then, as recompense, did a Gourmet pilgrimage to Stroganoff Palace, where I saw they had a lovely looking cafe that I COULD have eaten at, again, if I'd remembered to check the guidebook before hunkering down at horrible-mass-produced-pizza and worst-beer-in-the-world joint, oh well, at least it was warm!

We went to the ballet last night here, at the Marinsky Theatre and saw (we think) the Kirov Ballet. It was so good, I kept getting goosebumps! The theatre was just lovely and compared to the Ykaterinberg performance, this was indescribably better. Fantastic dancing, lovely costumes etc. etc.

Other highlights of St Petes have included doing our washing in a machine (a swirl in the bath with 'French Flowers' shampoo just don't cut it after 3 weeks on the road). And the place we found was the Coolest Laundromat in the World.