Links
Archives
Orginially from Ohio, I went to the big city of New York for about 5 years (mainly for school), and now I am working towards my masters at Cambridge in England. I hope this website gives everyone a taste of what my life is like here... and if nothing else I think you will find it fun and entertaining!!
Sunday, April 10, 2005
St. Petersburg Day 1: Bus Tour
So we finally arrived in St. Petersburg... all hot and sweaty and yucky. We checked into our "hotel" hahaha (wait until you see the pictures of this later!!!) and had an hour (actually less by the time they got down to Lindsay and me on the list.... hehe recall: Lindsay = my roommate). Then they took us on a bus to St. Petersburg University for our first class, followed by a bus tour of the city. Perhaps after I post all of the pictures, I will get inspired and post all of the notes I took in the classes... some were really quite interesting. The bad news was that they did not allocate enough time for all of us to eat before classes started, so I skipped lunch so I wouldn't miss the class... and I basically had not had anything to eat since I left Cambridge... other than the croissant in the food box they gave us on the train, the fruit salad from the plane (read as a grape and a slice from an orange), and the granola bars (thank G-D shoop came grocery shopping with me before I left and suggested I get them!!).
Pictures from the bus on the way to St. Petersburg University.
Sorry about the glare... but hey its a bus...
And we reached St. Petersburg University!!!
Here I am outside the door to the main building our classes were held in.
ohhhh so I learned how to read Russian... well kind of... so it says the russian culture center of the University of St. Petersburg.
You will notice that they use lots of bright colors for their buildings.
The bright colored paint was originally used because it wasn't expensive (well that mainly goes for the yellow and green buildings I think) but it was continued because of tradition at this point.
Check out the snow!! Yes this is Russia at the end of March!!
You can start to see the really bright vivid blue color of the building in this photo where the sunlight hits the building.... I believe they said that this was some kind of museum (we never went inside)... but it was still part of the university campus.
Some other building in the distance.
And now we are on the bus tour... it was really interesting that in Russia (where there is so much snow they basically don't even bother to clean it up anymore) they have far fewer SUV and 4 wheel drive vehicles than in America... hehe in fact most of the cars were tiny and super old, like cars you might see in junk yards in the US.
Check out all of the snow and the river (or maybe this was a canal) was frozen over. Yet those kids are still using a bike to get around.
They have highways hehehe!!
The skyline in the background is what is recognized world wide as the symbol of St. Petersburg. The tallest building is Peter and Paul Cathedral (I visited there later) and it is all on the fortress, which was the orginial St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg is made up of many islands basically. Peter the Great (the founder of St. Petersburg... although he thought it too look too full of himself to name the town after himself, so he named the town after his patron saint: St Peter hahahha tooooo funny) had a phobia of ships and water when he was younger, so his mom made him study it a lot to get over the fear, so he became obsessed with it. Then when he visited Venice and saw they used boats and water for transportation using canals, he decided he wanted to make a place like that. So in many ways, St Petersburg is similar to Venice and hence is called the Venice of the North. St Petersburg was founded also to give Russia a port for trade. However, the marshy lands caused problems for the town and the fact that it gets flooded there a lot is also detrimental... but it would be absolutely stunning if Russia had more money for renovation and for cleaning it up.
The fortress from the tour bus while we cross some bridge.
The bridges had quite intricate light fixtures... reminded me of Clifton (hehe sorry only my family and Cincinnati friends might get that).
look at that huge group of soldiers marching down the street.
apparently those are student soldiers in training... only in russia do their soldiers wear fur hats hehehe.
"During World War II and the 900-day Siege of Leningrad the guns of the ship were taken down and used on the front line of the city's defenses. Then the Russians sank it to protect it from German bombs.
The historical ship Aurora has been turned into a museum and is docked in the Bolshaya Nevka." (http://info.travel.spb.ru/theguide/museums8.html)
and the back of the boat with the russian flag... the bus was moving too fast hehe.
The infamous Hermitage Museum... you will see more up close photos and photos inside later on...
These huge Rostral Columns (there are two of them) were actually used as lighthouses... though they are quite ornate and decorative... they were originally built to show the naval supremecy of the Russian Empire.
This was called the Stock Exchange, but now houses the naval museum.
Peter and Paul Fortress in the background... check out all the dirty snow!!
and zoom in on the fortress...
The Hermitage (Winter Palace) from across the Neva River.
The cape is called the Spit of Basil Island... and as you can see, it is quite windy.
The river is so frozen, that some people went to walk on it.
see the people on the river? My mom will be proud that I stayed on dry land :)
Check out Peter and Paul Fortress in the background.
Oh finally my hair is under control for long enough to get a photo.
An up close shot of the statue on the Rostral Column.
Another shot of the column.
St.Isaac Cathedral (Isaakievsky sobor)... the biggest Orthdox Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
monument for peter the great I think anyway hehe
The special thing about this statue is that normally, statues of horses with men on them need something other than the two legs of the horse to support the weight (a snake for example)... but the sculptor was so confident that it wouldn't collapse, that when he unveiled it to the public, he stood underneath the horse. And the only reason its still around today and that anyone cares about it basically is for its engineering feat.
St. Isaacs Cathedral from out of the bus.
Look how gorgeous of a day it was...
you wouldn't imagine that it is FREEZING cold outside.
Look at the moon... pretty cool photo.
HUGE statue of Peter the Great... man sure does have a lot of statues of himself for someone "modest" who didn't want to name a city after himself so named it after his patron saint!!!
And anther statue of Peter the Great... see how the tail of the horse is used as support in addition to the 2 legs of the horse?
hehe fascinating ;)
I have a thing for old light fixtures I guess.
Some potentially important building... why do so many countries use red, white and blue in their flag?
The Palace Square... and the big column is: "The colossal Alexander Column (Alexandrinskaya Colonna) with the bronze figure of an angel at the top was erected in the center of the Square in 1834 to commemorate the triumphant victory of the Russians over Napoleon in the Patriotic War 1812. It was built by architect Monferran and was named after Emperor Alexander The First. The bronze angel on its top resembles the Emperor Alexander while the snake he is trampling by his cross looks much like Napoleon. This means the victory the good over the evil. (http://info.travel.spb.ru/theguide/museums2.html)" ... a better photo will follow later.
It is starting to get dark outside... so that plus the windows on the bus make for bad photo opps hehehe.
The Church of our Savior on the Spilled Blood: "This marvelous Russian-style multicolored, onion-domed church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1, 1881. On this site a terrorist Grinevitsky, a member of the revolutionary organization People's Will, mortally wounded Tsar, by tossing a bomb at at his royal carriage. (http://info.travel.spb.ru/theguide/museums5.html)"
and there I am off the bus!!!
one more shot... grrrr not enough daylight left.
So at the end of the day I was RAVENOUSLY hungry... and we went to this restaraunt which was quite yummy... except I ordered 2 appetizers thinking one was an appetizer and one was an entree... but it turned out ok. I had this really interesting eggplant appetizer with cheese inside. Georgian wine which was quite unlike anything I have ever tasted... and I forget what the other appetizer was that I got.
Pictures from the bus on the way to St. Petersburg University.
Sorry about the glare... but hey its a bus...
And we reached St. Petersburg University!!!
Here I am outside the door to the main building our classes were held in.
ohhhh so I learned how to read Russian... well kind of... so it says the russian culture center of the University of St. Petersburg.
You will notice that they use lots of bright colors for their buildings.
The bright colored paint was originally used because it wasn't expensive (well that mainly goes for the yellow and green buildings I think) but it was continued because of tradition at this point.
Check out the snow!! Yes this is Russia at the end of March!!
You can start to see the really bright vivid blue color of the building in this photo where the sunlight hits the building.... I believe they said that this was some kind of museum (we never went inside)... but it was still part of the university campus.
Some other building in the distance.
And now we are on the bus tour... it was really interesting that in Russia (where there is so much snow they basically don't even bother to clean it up anymore) they have far fewer SUV and 4 wheel drive vehicles than in America... hehe in fact most of the cars were tiny and super old, like cars you might see in junk yards in the US.
Check out all of the snow and the river (or maybe this was a canal) was frozen over. Yet those kids are still using a bike to get around.
They have highways hehehe!!
The skyline in the background is what is recognized world wide as the symbol of St. Petersburg. The tallest building is Peter and Paul Cathedral (I visited there later) and it is all on the fortress, which was the orginial St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg is made up of many islands basically. Peter the Great (the founder of St. Petersburg... although he thought it too look too full of himself to name the town after himself, so he named the town after his patron saint: St Peter hahahha tooooo funny) had a phobia of ships and water when he was younger, so his mom made him study it a lot to get over the fear, so he became obsessed with it. Then when he visited Venice and saw they used boats and water for transportation using canals, he decided he wanted to make a place like that. So in many ways, St Petersburg is similar to Venice and hence is called the Venice of the North. St Petersburg was founded also to give Russia a port for trade. However, the marshy lands caused problems for the town and the fact that it gets flooded there a lot is also detrimental... but it would be absolutely stunning if Russia had more money for renovation and for cleaning it up.
The fortress from the tour bus while we cross some bridge.
The bridges had quite intricate light fixtures... reminded me of Clifton (hehe sorry only my family and Cincinnati friends might get that).
look at that huge group of soldiers marching down the street.
apparently those are student soldiers in training... only in russia do their soldiers wear fur hats hehehe.
"During World War II and the 900-day Siege of Leningrad the guns of the ship were taken down and used on the front line of the city's defenses. Then the Russians sank it to protect it from German bombs.
The historical ship Aurora has been turned into a museum and is docked in the Bolshaya Nevka." (http://info.travel.spb.ru/theguide/museums8.html)
and the back of the boat with the russian flag... the bus was moving too fast hehe.
The infamous Hermitage Museum... you will see more up close photos and photos inside later on...
These huge Rostral Columns (there are two of them) were actually used as lighthouses... though they are quite ornate and decorative... they were originally built to show the naval supremecy of the Russian Empire.
This was called the Stock Exchange, but now houses the naval museum.
Peter and Paul Fortress in the background... check out all the dirty snow!!
and zoom in on the fortress...
The Hermitage (Winter Palace) from across the Neva River.
The cape is called the Spit of Basil Island... and as you can see, it is quite windy.
The river is so frozen, that some people went to walk on it.
see the people on the river? My mom will be proud that I stayed on dry land :)
Check out Peter and Paul Fortress in the background.
Oh finally my hair is under control for long enough to get a photo.
An up close shot of the statue on the Rostral Column.
Another shot of the column.
St.Isaac Cathedral (Isaakievsky sobor)... the biggest Orthdox Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
monument for peter the great I think anyway hehe
The special thing about this statue is that normally, statues of horses with men on them need something other than the two legs of the horse to support the weight (a snake for example)... but the sculptor was so confident that it wouldn't collapse, that when he unveiled it to the public, he stood underneath the horse. And the only reason its still around today and that anyone cares about it basically is for its engineering feat.
St. Isaacs Cathedral from out of the bus.
Look how gorgeous of a day it was...
you wouldn't imagine that it is FREEZING cold outside.
Look at the moon... pretty cool photo.
HUGE statue of Peter the Great... man sure does have a lot of statues of himself for someone "modest" who didn't want to name a city after himself so named it after his patron saint!!!
And anther statue of Peter the Great... see how the tail of the horse is used as support in addition to the 2 legs of the horse?
hehe fascinating ;)
I have a thing for old light fixtures I guess.
Some potentially important building... why do so many countries use red, white and blue in their flag?
The Palace Square... and the big column is: "The colossal Alexander Column (Alexandrinskaya Colonna) with the bronze figure of an angel at the top was erected in the center of the Square in 1834 to commemorate the triumphant victory of the Russians over Napoleon in the Patriotic War 1812. It was built by architect Monferran and was named after Emperor Alexander The First. The bronze angel on its top resembles the Emperor Alexander while the snake he is trampling by his cross looks much like Napoleon. This means the victory the good over the evil. (http://info.travel.spb.ru/theguide/museums2.html)" ... a better photo will follow later.
It is starting to get dark outside... so that plus the windows on the bus make for bad photo opps hehehe.
The Church of our Savior on the Spilled Blood: "This marvelous Russian-style multicolored, onion-domed church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1, 1881. On this site a terrorist Grinevitsky, a member of the revolutionary organization People's Will, mortally wounded Tsar, by tossing a bomb at at his royal carriage. (http://info.travel.spb.ru/theguide/museums5.html)"
and there I am off the bus!!!
one more shot... grrrr not enough daylight left.
So at the end of the day I was RAVENOUSLY hungry... and we went to this restaraunt which was quite yummy... except I ordered 2 appetizers thinking one was an appetizer and one was an entree... but it turned out ok. I had this really interesting eggplant appetizer with cheese inside. Georgian wine which was quite unlike anything I have ever tasted... and I forget what the other appetizer was that I got.
