St. Petersburg, Russia: July 1 - July 5

On July 1 at around 7:45 AM we arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia. For the past three days we have heard nothing but warnings about the hazards here: gypsy thieves, pick pockets, skinheads, the police, etc. Many of us wanted to remain on the ship but we have 5 days here (the theme of the voyage is Russia and the West) so we had to brave the outdoors eventually.

"Clearing the ship" was a bit more complicated here than in Norway. In Norway we were cleared by around 9:00 A.M. and we weren't required to travel with our passports. Here, we waited until about 10:30 AM to hear that the ship had been cleared. After our diplomatic briefing (which happens at every port), we were called up group by group to get our passports. We were told that we need to have them with us at all times. The police are known to randomly stop people and ask for their papers. You must be able to show your passport immediately. (Having some extra rubles with you is also advisable.)

As for a bit of history: St. Petersburg was founded by the Tsar Peter I on 1703 and it was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than 200 years. It is Russia's second largest city and Europe's 4th largest city after Moscow, London and Paris. The population is 4.6 million people; equal to the entire country of Norway -- our last stop. It is built on a swamp along the Neva River and has been called the Venice of the North.

St. Petersburg was was renamed Petrograd in the early 1900s because, at the start of World War I, St. Petersburg was perceived to be too German-sounding a name. Three days after Lenin's death in 1924 it was renamed Leningrad. In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the name was again changed back to St. Petersburg.

But back to us... eventually we began to disembark. Most of us had a 12:30 or 1:00 tour scheduled but getting through customs would prove to be a VERY lengthy process. The picture below is a glimpse of the line in which most of waited for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours.

I was very close to the end of the line and scheduled to go on a tour of the Circus Museum with LaVahn Hoh and about 12 students. Four of us on that tour were waiting at the end of the line. After about 90 minutes, the Russian tour guide came to get us and moved us to the front since we were on a small tour and were holding it up. Needless to say we didn't make any new friends by doing this. We finally departed for our destination about 45 minutes late.


On the way to the Circus Museum we had a great tour guide who pointed out everything along the way: churches, old palaces, bridges, etc. My last name translates to "bridge" in Russian and St. Petersburg has about 6 bridges in the center of town that all cross the Neva River. It has been pretty cool to see my name following every bridge (e.g., the Birzhevoy Most)!

After about 20 minutes or so we arrived at the Circus Museum. It is in a wonderful old building with great statues all around it.

The inside is equally quaint and we had a wonderful tour guide there as well. My two favortie items were the stuffed bear from the Moscow Olympics and the statue below.

At the end of the tour we were told it was time to play. We all had the chance to juggle first two, and then three rubber balls, twirl a hula hoop, and balance a large stick with a plastic squirrel at the end. Pictures are below.

We then headed back to the ship for a quick dinner before the ballet. About 250 Faculty, staff and students gathered to get on 7 buses to travel to the ballet to see Swan Lake. It was a wonderful performance in a classic old-style Russian theater: 5 levels, small "boxes" at each level with 4 wooden chairs, a huge chandelier in the middle and heavy burgandy curtains with decorations of gold. The ballet was divided into three parts. At the end of the second part, many of us throught it was over (there was a large curtain call) and began to head out. But we then heard the ringing of a bell signaling the end of intermission and headed back up to our seats. Part III was short and ended with a twist (or so I have been told). In the original version of swan lake, the swan dies but in this version the swan lives and marries the prince (the evil-doers die). I was told that the ballet is performed with two endings: the sad one where the swan dies and the happier one (which we saw) where the swan lives. The ending is a surprise to the audience. I thought the performances were excellent and it was a lovely night (despite the heat and some rude moments with some of the locals).

Wednesday

Three of us decided to head out on foot today to try to see The Hermitage Museum and the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. The Hermitage occupies 6 amazing buildings along the Neva River. It was the Winter Palace of the Russian tsars and was designed by an Italian architect between 1754 and 1762. The Church was built between 1883 and 1907 where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated on March 1, 1881 (that's the origin of the name "spilled blood"). Both are gorgeous buildings. (The first picture is the Church; the next two are from The Hermitage -- the Winter Palace and the Plaza).

Walking in St. Petersburg means risking your life because crossing the street is impossible -- even if the light is green. Cars drive at warp speed and come at you from all directions. In addition, the ship is pretty far away. End result -- we walked and walked and walked for about 5 hours today. We saw beautiful buildings: there are an estimted 30 palaces here. Everything was or is a palace and there is gold everywhere. At the same time, many of the buildings are run down, the city can be very dirty in parts, and the main street, Nevsky Prospekt, is packed with stores and people.

We never made it into the Hermitage -- we encountered some tourists who told us they weren't able to get in because the lines were too long so we just toured the grounds. We saw lots of wonderful landmarks, however, such as the famous Statue of the Bronze Horseman, an equestrian statue of Peter the Great. We also walked the Nevsky Prospekt--the 5th Avenue of St. Petersburg.

Thursday

Determined to have a more precise destination today we (Mary Carlson, Liz Gushee and Virginia Talley and I) set off for Peterhof (Dutch for "Peter's Court"). Peterhof houses a series of palaces, gardens and a chapel (see pictures below) designed by Peter the Great. It has been called the "Versailles of Russia." The most amazing area is called the Grand Cascade and Samson Fountain.

It is magnificent and even more incredible is the fact that Peter the Great designed most of the 140 fountains himself. In addition, all of them work without pumps. Water is supplied from natural springs and it collects in reservoirs. The pressure that drives the fountains is created by the elevational differences. The Samson Fountain is supplied by a special aqueduct (which is over 4 km long) and it draws its water and pressure from a source at a higher-elevation.

The Samson water fountain is, however, a reconstruction; it is not the one that Peter installed. The reason for this is that during World War II the Germans captured Peterhof. The people tried to bury the gold water fountains but they were unable to save them all; about 75% were destroyed. Russia began the restoriation process after the war.

We walked all throughout the gardens and they really are amazing. Hard to imagine what it must have been like to come home to something like this. The tough part of the day was that we couldn't get IN to the palace. We stood in a line for almost 30 minutes only to be told that "foreign tickets were sold inside the museum." We couldn't get in the museum to buy a ticket because we didn't have a ticket. We were told (yelled at?) to come back at 2:00 but that didn't work either. Finally, one of the women I was travelling who speaks Spanish found a tour guide who spoke Spanish and she told us we couldn't get in before 4:00. We gave up and just walked around some more. It was very crowded inside anyway...

After the 20-mile walk back to the ship (okay, not quite but it's about a 45-50 minute walk from the start of the downtown area), we were again exhausted. We had plans to go out to dinner but couldn't muster the strength. We ate on the ship and then rallied to go across the street and get a shot of Vodka. (How can one leave Russia without having Vodka?). We decided the shot was a bit too strong and wanted to mix it with something. There was no tonic so we ended up with very delicious cherry juice and mixed the two together. The shot was 60 rubles, the juice was 30 rubles (this converts to just under $4.00). It was quite delicious and one was plenty. We then tried to navigate through a grocery store and met the first cordial person in Russia who helped us pick out some things. Luckily, the dollar is doing a bit better against the ruble than the kroner and so our money goes much further here than it did in Norway.

We had a nice (short) walk back to the ship and at around midnight (with it looking like it was 3 in the afternoon) we called it a day. We're at the tail end of the "White Nights" in St. Petersburg where the sun never sets. We figure its dark for about 1-2 hours each day -- sometime between about 1:00 and 3:00. Amazing.

Friday

Friday was our last full day in Russia and Mary Carlson and I set out to master the Nevsky Prospect (see photo above and picture 5th Avenue on steroids). Just getting there is a 45 minute walk but it was a beautiful day and off we went. Our first stop was for coffee and we found a wonderful cafe with a great view of the street. Personally, I could have sat there for hours watching people but there was more to see and do.

After coffee off we went to try to find some jewelry and trinkets, to walk through the "souvenir flea market" and to avoid pick-pockets and gypsies. We walked and walked and walked and found some nice items as well as a lovely outdoor restaurant for lunch with a menu partially in English. Unlike Norway, very few people speak English here (those who do speak only a little) and most people we encountered did not want to help us. One exception was a very helpful woman in a bookstore who gets credit for directing us to the great lunch spot. Despite warnings to avoid water, ice, fresh fruits and vegtables (because they have been washed in water), meat and fish we decided this was a nice enough place and we could be a bit risky. Mary got a salad and a salmon panini sandwich (and avoided most of the lettuce). I got a caprese salad which was excellent.

After lunch, more walking, a few stores and the L-O-N-G trek back to the ship. We returned at around 4:00 feeling quite weary.

Saturday

Our last day here and because of the potential problems with getting off and then back on the ship most of us are aiming to return by noon even though "ship time" is not until 7:00 P.M. It will be nice to have some time to rest and relax. One thing we realized today is that there is no "down time," no weekend. When we're at sea we're teaching and in meetings; when in port, we want to be out and about. Thus, we basically go non-stop. No wonder we are all so tired.

We had another successful departure: all 583 students were on board, on time with no lost passports among the 1,000 people on the ship. Several people did experience some thefts -- pick-pocketed credit cards, cameras, a slashed backpack and a few other incidents. No one was hurt. Our next destination in Copenhagen but, unfortunately, we dock in Korsor which is about a 90-minute bus ride/60 minute train ride from Copenhagen. We'll be spending a lot of time commuting but we're all quite excited about our next port.