Muse back!
July 21, 2008 / Monday
Palaces In The Rain
I wisened up on Sunday and took an Aleve for my back before embarking on our tour. The weather had reverted to the St. Petersburg norm: rain. Fortunately, the schedule called for visits to a couple palaces, which involved van transport and mostly indoor tours.
I met Sergey and the van downstairs at 10 and we headed for the town of Pushkin (now re-renamed to Czar's Village), home to Catherine Palace. Catherine, as in Catherine the Great. Like many buildings, palaces, and churches here, most of this was destroyed by the Germans in World War II, but it was painstakingly reconstructed. As with the Hermitage, I was surprised to see art from all corners of the world represented. I was dazzled and amazed, and was saddened by all the historical photos of the destroyed palace after the Germans set fire to it. Even before they did that, they mistreated the magnificent property; I'm told they rode motorcycles inside one of the grand golden ballrooms.
I could not imagine destroying something so beautiful. War or not.
I did learn, however, that many of the statues in the St. Petersburg area were buried in the ground during the war to protect them, and that this did indeed save many of them. Hooray for that.
Next, we headed for Pavlovsk to visit the palace of Paul, Catherine's son. Unlike Catherine Palace, with its overly grand baroque style, Pavlovsk's neoclassical style makes it grand in a much more subtle way. We're told that Paul did this on purpose because he hated his mother, and didn't want his residence to look anything like hers.
Pavlovsk was almost completely destroyed in World War II also. Again, I find this unfathomably sad. Splitting Germany in two after the war now does not seem so harsh. Well, except for all the people that were impacted. Getting separated from your family by a giant wall is pretty harsh.
One of the rooms in the palace was full of giant green columns. Surprisingly, the columns are completely for show, and are actually hollow and hung from the ceiling. They sure did LOOK sturdy.
My favorite painting in the palace was one of a cupid pointing an arrow out at the viewer. No matter where I stood, it looked as if the arrow was pointing at me. I walked left, I walked right, I ducked, I dodged, and still cupid was pointing that arrow in my direction. I made a video. I hope it comes out.
After so many tours, my brain was starting to suffer from overload. Sergey is amazing; he has stories not only about specific sites, but specific objects within those sites. If you ever find yourself in St. Petersburg and truly want to learn about the city and its history, you should try to see if he's free for a tour. He really makes the city come alive. Here's his card.
Puddles had formed from all the rain, and while it's nice to have water shoes in when it's wet because they dry quickly, they don't exactly keep your feet dry... especially when they have holes in the soles for drainage! My feet were pretty soaked by the time we left Pavlovsk, but it was warm out so it didn't matter. I rinsed off the shoes after I got back and they dried the next day.
Podvorye
After Pavlovsk, we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Podvorye, a large wooden cabin restaurant serving traditional Russian food. I'm particularly pleased with the fact that I can link you to its website because I had to decipher the English spelling of its name from a picture of its Russian name (Подворье) on the menu. See that bear with the vodka? We toasted with him. I wonder if Putin and other heads of state did too when they came here.
I had a traditional Russian fish soup with giant chunks of different kinds of fish in it, and we as a group shared a dish of several different meats. The real animal pelts on the wall made it all feel extra authentic. My boss went over to pet a few of them on our way out. :)
Rasputin's Grave
On our way back, we made a quick stop near a bunch of old ruined buildings, St. Theodore town. We slogged through mud and smacked at mosquitoes, but at the end we came to the site where Rasputin was buried before his body was dug up and burned. A decade ago, I knew the name only as the record store I went to when I didn't feel like going to math class, and here I found myself standing at the man's former grave. Imagine that.
Russian Brown Bread
Got back to the apartment nice and early, around 7, if I remember correctly. Sergey had told me about a certain brown bread that's eaten here, and how one of his American friends wishes he could get it in the US. I didn't know which brown loaf he meant, so he went with me to the bakery downstairs from the apartment and helped me get half a loaf. It's pretty good, and tastes hearty. I think I'll go have a slice now...
July 21, 2008 09:24 AM | St. Petersburg