The City of Three Revolutions

It took all of about 3 minutes in St Petersburg to be impressed and we had gone the distance it took to get off the bus and walk the 100 meters to the underground.  Due to St Petersburg’s geography the underground is on average the deepest in the world and we entered into a huge domed building with bright mosaics on the walls showing Soviet military heros.  We descended for around 5 minutes, being passed by Russians aged from 8 - 80 running down the never ending escalator (points were awarded for style, speed and using no hands) before passing stations filled with marble columns and statues.  We had expected travelling around Russia to be very difficult but each sign used both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet and we made it to our hostel unscathed.  Apparently the Cyrillic alphabet only has 6 additional characters although I am convinced Russian ONLY uses these 6 characters!  Despite the alphabet Russians have been as friendly and helpful as anywhere we have travelled and have been a huge part in making our visit incredibly interesting, enjoyable and stress free.

Trying to blend in the the locals

You get what you pay for with accommodation and the 10 Euro a night room was comfy enough although the combined shower and kitchen was a design feature I had never encountered before!  Having been worried about the cold before we arrived the heat inside proved to be just as extreme as heating bills in Russia are apparently very cheap due to the reserves of natural resources in the country.  Sleeping with a window wide open as temperatures plunged into negative double figures whilst still being hot could not have been further from living in Newcastle,  where putting the heating on for an hour to warm the house up before wearing thermals indoors comes as standard!  The location was excellent though and proved to be the perfect base to explore with a short walk across the Neva River leading us straight into the heart of the city.

Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

St. Petersburg is built across the marshlands of the Neva River delta, and after Peter the Great (the city’s founder) visited Amsterdam canals with a total length of 300 kilometres with over 800 bridges were installed.  Coupled with the huge baroque buildings that line the canals and the palaces, churches and monuments, St Petersburg is as grand as any other European city that I have seen.  Visiting in winter a little imagination needed to be used to picture the vibrant colours of the buildings and parks in full splendour but in the dark (which came at 4pm) the buildings were beautifully illuminated.  On our first evening we visited the spectacular Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, a Russian-style church built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 by the Peoples Will. The church claims to have more mosaics than any other church in the world and the ornate domes and unique architecture rival the Blue Mosque for its breath taking first impression.  It is not just the iconic church though that makes St Petersburg such an enchanting city with a supporting cast of St Isaacs church, the Nevsky Prospekt and my favourite building, The Winter Palace.  

The Winter Palace

St Petersburg’s turbulent history mirrors that of Russia, which other modern city has changed its name four times!  From St Petersburg, to Petrograd, to Leningrad and back to St Petersburg the city is a focal point of History, not just for Russia but for the world in the twentieth century.  Created to reflect the importance and wealth of the Tsar for Western Europe, the city was turned upside down with the October Revolution of 1917 signalling the start of Communism for the nation.  Leningrad was also of huge significance during WW2 with the city surviving a three year siege by the Nazis before finally become the turning point of the war in Europe.  For this the Winter Palace stands out as being one of the iconic buildings of Europe.  The building itself is physically imposing and dominates the area with the gigantic Alexander Column (it apparently took 3000 men to pull the solid granite 600 ton structure upright!) standing outside.  The scene of three revolutions, standing in Palace Square and imagining the Red Guards storming the building was for me a captivating experience.  The last Tsar to use it as a full time residence was Alexander II and now the Palace is used as one of the world’s most famous museums.

The main staircase

Over 3 million exhibits; the largest collection of paintings in the world; founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 making it one of the oldest museums in the world….. it is safe to say the Hermitage deserves a mention on any visit to St Petersburg and it fully lived up to its global reputation.  Not really being an art critic (I struggled to name 8 artists playing ‘How many can you name’ the previous day) we went in and just looked at things we liked rather than spending an age looking at the most renown artists on display.   Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Raphael, Michelangelo and a lot of other artists I should probably know are all on display (Rembrandt was pretty impressive despite Hannah managing to light up the painting with the camera by mistake and getting a murderous stare from one of the room wenches hiding in the corner- yes she was mortified) but the highlight for me was just being in the building itself which alone would be enough to spend a day in marvelling at the amazingly lavish rooms.  It turned out November was a great month to visit as whole rooms and corridors were empty and we spent nearly 7 hours admiring the treasures.  My favourite area was the Ancient Egyptian room full of sarcophagus and old parchment as well as the huge 1st Century A.D. Roman copy of a Greek statue of Zeus, one of the ancient 7 wonders of the world.  Eventually we reached our limit of culture for one day and left looking for beer but it is a great excuse to go back to St Petersburg and see more of the museums riches.

The chapel in the Winter Palace

In a bid for points with Hannah we were very fortunate to get tickets to watch a performance of the Nutcracker at the world famous Mariinsky Theatre, where it first premièred in 1892.  Similar to my art knowledge the only thing I knew about ballet in advance was that there was a famous ballet dancer (sex unknown) called Nijinsky and this information came from a race horse.   Not carrying any nice clothes in our back backs we arrived alongside a glamorous audience of fur lined blonde Russians wearing some practical walking shoes, my best jeans and a porridge stained jumper.  Unperturbed we spent 30 minutes exploring the labyrinth of rooms and corridors  in search of a beer but finding only wine and caviar we waited for the doors to open.  The theatre was stunning inside and it was an incredibly rich experience sitting under the Tsars box soaking up the music and performance on stage, surrounded by the golden stalls and crystal chandeliers.  The walk back through the snow alongside the canals of St Petersburg added to the delusion of grandeur our evening had brought to us both (although this was soon gone when showering in the kitchen back at the hostel).  My initial watsapp review stated that there was a lot of ‘penis, breasts and arse on display but some canny music and prancing about’.  Although any future career as an art critic may have been crushed I stand by my initial review but the overall experience was unforgettable and worth blowing our budget on for a once in a life time opportunity!

Inside the Mariinsky Theatre

The  start of the adventure

Although we were sad to leave St Petersburg our great adventure travelling all the way to Hanoi on a train over the next 6 weeks was about to begin and we were both very excited to arrive at the train station and set off on the sleeper train to Moscow.  With our previous experiences of overnight trains in Eastern Europe we were anxious to learn our fate for the evening but as with our whole experience in Russia we need not have worried.  In second class our compartment came with a TV, WiFi, comfy beds and two lovely blonde Russian women.  The women were very friendly and one of them was a rep for a contact lens company who insisted on making us have eye drops and use moisturising wipes before going to sleep, giving us her phone number and telling us to call if we were ever lost in Moscow.  Sharing a compartment with 3 women was not all it is cracked up to be however and I spent a restless night under pressure not to snore or fart in a roasting hot cabin.  Each carriage has its own attendant and we were woken up an hour before arriving with coffee and porridge by our smiling host before heading off into the capital of the Motherland.