Nicole schreibt...

St. Petersburg 2007

Having grown up during the Cold War, Russia (or rather the Soviet Union) had always been "the enemy" and a grey concrete communist hell nobody would voluntarily set foot into. And though Gorbatchev's perestroika policy eventually brought the collapse of the Soviet Union about and German reunion, it took me a while longer to realize that Russia had had an existence before communism, that the Russia of the Tsars had culturally been a part of historical Europe just like France, Britain or Italy and that that Russia had given us world-famous literature like Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' and Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'. And that there was a town, known as Leningrad when I grew up, that was once and was now again St.Petersburg, a city of culture, chock-full with amazing sights. It was this St.Petersburg I finally ventured out to see for myself, courtesy of Germanwings' new direct flights. Going to Russia still involved getting a rather expensive visa beforehand and long queues at the small airport, but we had arranged airport pickup with the rather fancy hotel directly on Nevsky Prospekt, St.Petersburg's famous avenue that lead directly towards the Winter Palace of the Tsars, now home to the world-famous Hermitage art collection.

Nevsky Prospekt leads up to Palace Square, where the revolution was first sparked in 1905 when soldiers fired into an assembly of protesting workers and it was here where the mob finally gathered in October 1917 to storm the Winter Palace of the Tsars, the gorgeous green-white-painted building that is now the heart of the Hermitage art collection, once begun by Catherine the Great. Since the Hermitage is not open every day, we basically had to rush there on our first day to be able to get in - but definitely worth the rush because it truly is an outstanding collection covering everything from medieval art to modernist paintings. And of course you get to see the rooms of the Winter Palace itself, where the Tsars lived.

From one of the countless (sadly not very clean) windows I could even take a photo of the Newa, the river than runs through the city of St.Petersburg, seen here as pretty as a picture indeed. I didn't take all that many photos of the collections, since it was just so overwhelming that I rather bought the souvenir book. Also keep in mind when trying to tackle the Hermitage, that it's five buildings in total, not just the Winter Palace but extensions like the Little Hermitage, New Hermitage and Old Hermitage. So plan to spend all day there (which we sadly couldn't) and wear comfortable shoes.

Feeling at a loss where to go for food in this city and not knowing all much about Russian cuisine beyond the ubiquitous bliny and borshtsh soup, I relied heavily on my trusty Lonely Planet for advice and it led us to a really good Georgian restaurant near the hotel before crashing out for the day.

Next morning dawned bright and beautiful and we braved public transport to get to the famous Catherine Palace in the suburb of Tsarskoye Selo. The metro wasn't even that much of a problem (despite all stops being written in Russian only - I just counted the stops until we got to ours), but finding the right Marshrutka (minibus) from Moskovskaya Station (dominated by the spectacularly ugly "House of Soviet", a communist nightmare in concrete) onwards was a bit of a challenge. It was all worth it though, for the blue-white painted palace was a dream both from outside and from inside. As the name hints it was the favorite abode of Empress Catherine the Great, she who started out as a little unimportant princess from Germany. But that is not really why Germans flock to the palace now: They come to see the replica of the legendary Amber Room, that was made entirely of amber in 18th century and unique in the world. The nazis grabbed it when they looted the palace and took it to East-Prussian Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) where it vanished. Its whereabouts are still unknown as of today and colorful conspiracy theories and treasure hunts abound even today (not to mention a rather godawful German attempt at an Indiana Jones-style movie with the hero hunting the Amber Room). Germany coughed up millions in reparations though so that Russian craftsmen could recreate the Amber Room at the palace - indeed truly mindbogglingly beautiful, but alas forbidden to photograph. Check it out on Wikipedia for a good look. Here are a few other photos of the interior and the gardens though:

If a Broadway musical is a tourist must-do in New York, in St.Petersburg it's visiting the world-famous Kirov ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre. Not surprisingly we heard English, French and German spoken in the boxes around us, but no Russian anywhere. Still, it was a nice experience as was the walk around the area, where Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov skulked about in "Crime and Punishment". We also had dinner at the "Idiot" restaurant, which tries to recreate the atmosphere of the bohemian hangouts of Petersburg's literary elite quite nicely.

The last day, notabene the 30th of April, had been meant for a leisurely stroll around the city center, taking in all the sights we hadn't yet seen and a boat tour on the Newa and the canals of St.Petersburg. We had not counted on the Russian weather though and woke up to a snow storm. So much for a leisurely stroll - it became more of a dash between sights and huddling on the closed lower deck of the river boat.

But here's the Church of Spilled Blood in true Russian style, named thus to commemorate the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. in 1881. From there we went on to the Newa and our boat tour, offering a nice view on the Peter & Paul Fortress on its island, the Admiralty and a couple of other historical buildings along the river. One last stop was gorgeous St.Isaac's Cathedral (its golden dome visible behind the snow-covered trees in my picture) before returning to defrost in the hotel bathtub.

St.Petersburg had definitely been worth staying another one or two days to visit more museums and go out to Peterhof (Petrodvorets), the magnificent castle Tsar Peter had built for himself which is famous for the gardens dotted with musical fountains, cascades and ponds, so I may be back eventually and see Moscow as well. It was certainly an experience to visit Russia for myself and see this gorgeous town with its rich history. While it's still a drag to get into Russia because of the visa fuss and hotel prices are rather extortionate, it's definitely worth it.