St. Petersburg, May 13-16, 2010

Before we get to St. Petersburg, a quick word (rant) about Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. Though on paper Sheremetyevo has but two terminals, terminal 1 and terminal 2, in reality there seem to be about 43 terminal buildings, miles and miles apart, none of which are connected in any rational way. I think this sprawling mess of an airport actually covers about 3% of Russia's land mass. Despite knowing that getting between terminals is impossible and therefore checking for the appropriate terminal, our taxi dropped us off in the wrong place. The inter-terminal shuttle consisted of waiting forever for a city bus (!) (!), finding fares for the four of us in a panic, wrestling our luggage over the turnstile (!) (!) on the bus, and figuring out the right stop. JFK is a toilet of an airport, but at least they have the excuse that it was built in the 1940s. No such excuse at Sheremetyevo, which was built for the 1980 Olympics. (It really seemed absurd at the time, but writing it down makes it sound like nothing. Plus my dad pointed out that it used to be worse, he had to pay $50 for a taxi between terminals in the 90s.)


Anyway, we made it to St. Petersburg! St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and was the capital of Russia until the revolution. Peter's desire to westernize Russia is obvious in St. Petersburg, which feels distinctly European compared to Moscow. Canals that divide up the city reminded me of Amsterdam. Thursday afternoon we walked around with Victoria, a St. Petersburg resident and sister of one of Yehudit's colleagues, to get a feel for the city. Noam, me, Rachel, and Yehudit in front of the Winter Palace of the Hermitage museum of art and culture. The Winter Palace was the official residence of the imperial family until the revolution.
Ten five-meter tall Atlantes hold up the roof of the old public entrance to the Hermitage museum. Looks heavy:

Nevskiy Prospekt is the main shopping and entertainment street in town. Nevskiy Prospekt crosses one of the canals on the Anichkov Bridge, which is adored by four statues showing four stages of taming a wild horse. I might have done things a little differently horse-taming wise (like I would probably be wearing shoes at the point in training illustrated below), but those statues are awesome.

The Church on Spilled Blood, or Resurrection Church of Our Savior (this indecision in naming churches seems distinctly Russian - every church in Russia seems to have multiple names), was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. It is the only church of this type (onion-domed, timber construction) in St. Petersburg:

Noam in front of the Singer house, built for the Singer Sewing Machine Company, on Nevskiy Prospekt:

Another equestrian statue on Anichkov bridge:

Yehudit in front of a diorama of the inside of the Mariinskiy Theater, home of the famous Ballets Russes:

We saw a performance of Swan Lake at another theater. It was my first ballet, and it was fantastic. On our last evening, we went to a show of folk music and dancing called "Feel Yourself Russian." Check out this HUGE guitar-like thing:

The show was held in the Nikolaevskiy Palace:

Russian folk dancing, particularly for the male performers, seems to be more about feats of strength than poise, grace, or elegance. I'm not sure I felt myself Russian, but it was cool. Noam posing by one of St. Petersburg's canals on our last evening in Russia: