St. Petersburg

Street in St. Petersburg


This past weekend I got to visit St. Petersburg for the first time! We took another night train (which I'm now convinced is the greatest way ever to travel--board the train, go to bed, wake up 8 hours later when you're there) and packed in as many of the sights as we could in two days. Here were the highlights:

Climbing St. Isaac's-

When it was finished in 1848, this was the tallest Eastern Orthodox church in the world--very famous. This probably had something to do with the fact that soviet authorities later turned it into a "museum of atheism." Its incredible how hard soviet leaders tried to shut down religion--Stalin had almost every cathedral we've seen and learned about here demolished or changed to be used for non-religious purposes in the early - mid 1900s. While we didn't go inside (they charged an arm and a leg to get in) we did pay to climb "the colonnade," which gave us an incredible view of the city:


A shot of the roof. You can also see one of the cranes in the background that St. Petersburg is very well-known for.


These gold domes were originally "spraypainted" w/ a mixture containing huge amounts of toxic mercury, which eventually killed an unknown number of the workers. During the War, they were painted grey to try and protect it.


Overlooking St. Isaac's square, in the center of which is the monument to Nicolas I. I love this statue's claim to fame: "the first equestrian statue in the world with only two support points (the rear hoofs of the horse)."

I somehow forgot to take a picture of the outside of it... so this is one I snagged from the internet:



Going to a service inside the Kazan Cathedral:

Again, I forgot to take a picture of this somehow. I think I'm getting tired of taking pictures. Here it is, though:


Pretty impressive.

Within the first minute of entering the building, we knew that this service was somehow a special one: there was a camera crew filming it, and instead of just one or two priests conducting the service, there were at least twenty of them there. We think that a new priest was being ordained, perhaps.


The Kazan's interior (also from internet)

Basically, the priests in these services do a lot of the following: singing/chanting, marching around while holding various highly guilded and bejeweled objects (such as pitchers and books), and swinging the incense-filled censer (which, apparently, is supposed to be filled w/ a mix of frankincense and sweet-smelling incense)at the icons and the congregation-- all while the people in the congregation frequently bow and cross themselves (interesting: Orthodox believers cross themselves from their right to the left shoulder--I'm pretty sure Catholics do it the opposite way).

I admittedly have some mixed feelings about these services. Its all very repetitive, and parts of it appear to be much more showy than sincere. This, for instance, is the kind of outfit the priests are decked out in:



On the other hand, though, every time I've gone into a cathedral here in Russia, I've really felt that many of the people in attendance were truly humble and genuine about their worship. Its so common to see little babushkas in particular at services, some of whom seem to be barely able to walk, yet somehow manage to get themselves there. While aspects of this religion are very foreign and strange to me, the overriding feeling I seem to have whenever I've attended is simply that there are good, sincere people all over the world. The promise that all earnest seekers of truth will someday find it has become more precious to me here.

Winter Palace

This beautiful former residence of the Czars was very cool to see. The inside of it houses part of the Hermitage Museum, too, which was also awesome (largely because it got us out of the freezing wind outside!)

Inside the courtyard:


A side shot. I love the sea-green color of this place.


My favorite picture, mostly because you can also see part of the square where the October Revolution took place.


Another on the square:

Can you tell it was windy??

900-Day Siege Museum:

The place we visited that endeared St. Petersburg the most to me was definitely this museum. When Hitler's attempts to take it over failed, St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) was surrounded by Nazi forces and basically cut off from the rest of the world. The terrible summary of it is that conditions for these people were unthinkable, and well over a million of them died--mostly from starvation. My Grandma Jan has often told me about meeting a woman in St. Petersburg (who later visited them in Fort Bragg) who had been a young girl during the siege, and remembered all of the cats and dogs in the city being gone within just the first few weeks and later watching her mom have to boil her favorite shoes for food. Anyway, that many of the people of St. Petersburg not only got through this, but sustained hope despite it (ie. an unbelievable amount of poetry, literature and music was written and performed for the soldiers and general public within Leningrad during the siege) is really miraculous. You couldn't help getting kind of emotional there.

A few of the signs that were posted during the siege:


A very tough-looking Lenin encouraging the army.


Something along the lines of "Red Army, Save Us!" Notice the symbol on the knife.


A pretty funny depiction of Hitler.

For some reason, this next picture near the end of the museum really got to me:

The arrival of the first train into Leningrad after the breakthrough of the siege. Was a big symbol that it was finally over.

Some photographs of the people after the breakthrough:


Jewish Synagogue
Acting on a suggestion from my dad, Whitney and I sought out the Grand Choral Synagogue on Saturday. Since they wouldn't let us in (we forgot that Saturday was their holy day), we came back on Sunday, and kind of ended up sneaking in while some people were setting up for what looked to be a huge wedding party (THAT would have been interesting to attend!). While the interior was beautiful, it was infinitely more simple than what we've become used to seeing in the Orthodox Cathedrals. It almost could have passed for an LDS tabernacle. Here were some pictures of the outside:

Notice the Star of David above the door. This symbol was used somewhat frequently yet, for lack of a better word, "tastefully" inside. Nothing was crazy and overdone... which was very nice.


Afterward, we visited the kosher grocery store next door to it, which had lots of interesting/expensive food. There was some 15-dollar yet delicous-looking peanut butter and a really cute figurine of a guy w/ a fiddle sitting on a roof that I really wanted to get. :)

One last picture--this advertisement was everywhere in St. Petersburg. Considering the fact that Russians seem to wear winter clothes no matter how cold it really is outside, it was kind of fitting that this guy still had his winter hat on in a hot tub. We thought it was funny. :)


While the trip was short, we all definitely had great time! I'm so excited for our big trip this weekend!!