St. Petersburg

photo credit: danielkorzeniewski

St. Petersburg is the 2nd largest city in Russia with a population of 5million. It was built by the famous 'Peter the Great'. When Peter the Great ruled Russia, he opened and reformed his country to grow and become one of the most powerful in Europe. The city is like a big cultural center, it has 150 museums and 60 theaters.

'Da'...."Dubra Utra"!

Means "Yes, Good Morning!" in Russian Greetings.

<Russian Breakfast>

Here everything is big. The people, the buildings, the plate, spoon and fork, the doors are so huge I can not push it open alone. Food quantity is also big my stomach size became small.

Looking down the city streets from the hotel window...Drivers here drive crazily. Reports said that in just a year there are 200,000 road accidents that happen. 

When I arrived in Pulkovo airport, it is raining and windy. Then I learned that it is always raining in St. Petersburg. There is only an average of 33 sunny days. Everywhere it is wet.

St. Isaac Cathedral 

Our guide said it took 40 yrs for its construction. It reaches up to 122meters at its highest point. Since the cathedral is the city's landmark here in this area, there are no other high buildings because it is forbidden to build higher than the cathedral. Inside the Cathedral have no seats inside the people have to stand to show respect in the presence of God

When we asked about the possibility of finding a job in Russia, our local guide complained about the "stupid system of government taxes eating profits at high expense". They have low salaries and it is impossible to survive with only one job. Teachers work part times, engineers work as plumbers and scientists work as taxi drivers.

It is so cold, i want to hug someone. huhuhu.

Synagogue 120yrs old. Jewish have no instruments on the sabbath because they are not allowed to do any occupations on the holy day.

Traditional Russian Dance

One of Leonardo da Vinci's painting of Madonna and the Child inside the Hermitage. We have to fall in line for an hour inside the very crowded museum before we can get a close look to this small painting.

The trees are turning all orange this season. It feels so orange.

Inside the St.Isaac Cathedral it has golden gilded dome and marble columns.

Inside the church above the dome when you look up the top most part of the ceiling, there is a white dove. It looks so small but its wings span is actually 3 meters wide.

 The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums and it holds the largest collection in the world.

It was so large that at the end of our day-tour when I finally lie down my bed at the hotel, my mind was still swimming full of images of the paintings and bronze-gold-wooden carvings and sculptures, they looked very real and alive.

Catherine's Palace

It is a blue-green-white-gold palace. Huge and expensive. According to our guide, they used more than 100 kilograms of gold to gild the building façade and it has many statues on the roof. Legend said that even the roof was made of gold. It served as a summer residence of the Russian 'Tsars' or Royalties.

So, Russians really love to preserve their heritage.

According to history: "The building has been pulled down six times to the foundation, then built up again till it was brought to its present state. The sum of a million six hundred thousand rubles was spent on the construction"

Golds and golds everywhere.

It is now Autumn in Russia, and is very cold. But a lot of tourists still visited the St. Catherine Museum. Inside it is very crowded with people of different origins- mostly Chinese, Americans. Some Japanese, British, a few Filipinos like me hehe.

Neva River, the river with hundreds of bridges. Peter the Great built 700 bridges over the Neva River (inspired by the city of Amsterdam)

Traditional Russian Delicacies - Caviar and the Vodka.
 Russians love to eat meat and drink alcohol, they invented the famous Beef Stroganoff and the Vodka.

River and Canal Cruise along the Neva River. Cold cold morning.
River grey sky and grey water is typical in St. Petersburg.

Inside the boat, we had some local performance of songs and dance. 

Russians have beautiful bright grey eyes.

It is freezing here in October. Brrrrr.

Angleterre Hotel

Nice and comfortable but very expensive because of its location, in the center of St Petersburg. Just beside the St Isaac’s Cathedral.

Silent Train Station. The people are very behaved here. If you talk loudly people turn at you with a strange look. Our tour guide warned us of pick pockets also. So be careful with your money wherever there are big crowds.

St. Petersburg Railway Station going to Moscow.

Our itinerary for 3 days