Muse back!
July 20, 2008 / Sunday
They Build Things Big Here
Saturday brought us another outing with Sergey, this time by foot and hydrofoil. The weather was absolutely beautiful for it. Sergey lives only a few blocks from my apartment, so he met me downstairs at 10 and we headed off to meet up with my boss at the Hermitage. Along the way, we ran into one of his dog walking friends and got to talking about his dog. His current dog is his fourth, and each one has been a rescued stray. He got Dulci (short for Dulcinea) as a wee little puppy in really bad shape (fleas, fights, hair falling out) and she now walks all over the place with him and carries his stuff. Sounds cute! I hope to meet her later this week, if I happen to be at the apartment when they pass by on one of their walks. I also learned that he does professional photography, sometimes at archaeological digs, now that he no longer digs himself. Our guide gets more interesting every day.
Finally, after a pleasant walk that bypassed most of Nevsky Prospekt (that's a good thing, as it's the only street I really know and it's big and busy), we arrived at the Hermitage. There was a huge line on one side and a huge line on the other. Sergey, however, knows people, and we walked right to the front, where we met a lady who talked to a guard who promptly let us in. She walked off and returned quickly with tickets, and after a short stint in the security line we were good to go. Awesome!
The Hermitage (pronounced "her-mi-tij" here, not "her-mi-tahj" as I hear in the US) is big. No, I mean, BIG, as it's actually several large buildings interconnected. And it's beautifully decorated. They say that only 7-10% of its collection is displayed at any one time, and even if you were to spend only a minute in front of each piece, you'd have to be there for weeks to see everything. The variety was astounding. I had expected European art, but they have Egyptian and Oriental collections also. Since we didn't have several weeks, Sergey took us to the more notable pieces there.
We saw paintings galore, from more artists than I could keep track of, but I did write down names for the ones I could recognize: Monet, Cezanne, van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Degas, Renoir, da Vinci, Raphael, and Rembrandt. I was fascinated by the works of Monet (impressionism) and Signac (pointillism); it's crazy how those strokes and dots don't resemble anything up close. We heard about this painting by Raphael, and how they discovered the reason behind why she is holding her book so awkwardly when they peeled back the layers behind the painting: the original object in her hand was a pomegranate! We also got to see the Rembrandt that was damaged in an acid and knife attack back in 1985. It truly is an amazing piece. My favorite? Picasso. That stuff is screwed up.
The Hermitage was amazing, but that didn't keep my back from KILLING ME. Apparently, I don't do well when I have to stand or walk slowly. Walking at a normal pace is fine, but walking at crowded tourist pace and stopping all the time was not. I blame it on lack of exercise. I'm kind of bummed about that; I haven't been able to do anything since Whitney, and while I want to just jump back into being super active when I get home, that'll probably result in instant injury. Sigh.
Petrodvorets (Peterhof)
After the Hermitage, we met up with big boss and headed to Peterhof on a hydrofoil. Yes, that's right, a hydrofoil! Zip zip, zoom!
Peterhof, located on the Gulf of Finland, is home to some amazing palaces, fountains, and parks from the time of Peter the Great. Most amazing, however, are the fountains, which all run without the aid of a pump. Water is collected uphill and each day the fountains are turned on between 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM. There were even fountains with rotating features, also driven by gravity/water power. Tourists came for the sights, but there were a good number of locals there just to play in the water. Sergey says that Russia's first potato was planted here.
We took a hydrofoil back to St. Petersburg. This one, however, was super cushy. We had individual reclining/swiveling leather seats with tray tables, arranged so that groups of four could gather and talk around a center table. Yes, we travel in style.
Back in St. Petersburg, we paid a visit to St. Isaac's Cathedral. St. Isaac's Cathedral, HUGE. I just stood in the center of the church looking at everything in awe. I also figured out that the only way to document what I was seeing was to make a short video, as my panorama stitching program would surely crash trying to piece together all the pictures I'd have to take to capture everything.
They were holding mass while we were there in a corner of the church. It sounded absolutely beautiful. I wanted to make a video (mostly to capture the sound), but a lot of people really were there for mass, and it felt disrespectful to do so. So, no video for you. Sorry!
Tickets were also available to visit the colonnade, but both boss and big boss had been up there, so I passed. I'll do it next week, when I explore on my own.
Kazan Cathedral
Next, we walked to Kazan Cathedral. This one is still fully active, and doesn't cost any money to go inside. They were holding mass also. It didn't sound as upliftingly beautiful as St. Isaac's did, though; the service was dominated by deep chanting sounds that kind of creeped me out. People lit candles and kissed paintings. (Gross, everyone else kissed there too!) They didn't allow pictures, so I spent more time taking things in instead of trying to figure out what I needed to take pictures of. So many robes. So much ceremony. I settled a bit and just watched and listened. It was all very... moving. I guess I can understand this whole idea of religious experience. I attribute it all to chemicals in the body and brain, though, not to some supernatural being.
Feed Me, Please!
Good news: My stomach is back! Bad news: Needing to eat every three hours is really inconvenient when you're out and about. I was quite hungry before we even reached Kazan, and ravenous by the time we left. The first restaurant we tried had a nearly nonexistent non-smoking section (I had mentioned in an earlier post that they don't smoke much in restaurants. I was wrong.), so we went to a place a few blocks away that served pie. It was 8:30 by the time we got there, and since they close at 9:00, all they had left was cabbage pie. (Russians like cabbage almost as much as mushrooms.) Okay, then, cabbage pie me! I inhaled the pie, walked with boss and big boss back to their hotel, then headed back to the apartment.
I got back before 10. This was the earliest night I've had all week, and boy was I glad! I went to sleep well before midnight. Huzzah!
July 20, 2008 08:29 AM | St. Petersburg
Comments
glad your stomach's back and can't wait to see pix when you return!
also i don't get the =tahj= pronunciation of hermitage, unless someone was trying to be silly. i saw stuff named hermitage in nashville and everyone i knew used =tij=. weird.
Posted by: heather at July 21, 2008 11:25 AM
I really need to get pics up in parallel, because I want to illustrate what I'm talking about. Not enough time to document everything properly!
For some reason, I heard only "-tahj" back in the US. Maybe California's got it wrong and Tennessee's got it right?
Posted by: Viv at July 21, 2008 11:29 AM