Day Five - Feeling Russian!

Hello Hello Hello!

We had a relatively laid back day today. In the morning we toured “Rabbit Island,” the smallest island in St. Petersburg and “the birthplace of the city”. There we saw St. Petersburg Cathedral, Trubetskoy Bastion (an old political prison), and a sprinkling of other sites. We had a fun little jump scare at noon; at exactly noon every day, they fire a blank shot on one of the old cannons. We all knew it was going to happen, but failed to realize just how loud that bang was going to be. Good stuff. After that the group split up a bit and some of us went to a grocery store to get fixings for sandwiches and whatnot.

We had a few hours of free time (nap time for some of us), then in the evening we met up to go to “Feel Yourself Russian.” I personally had no idea what it was going to be, just some kind of show. It turns out Feel Yourself Russian is a kind of compilation of traditional Russian song and dance. The singing and dancing were very well done, the costumes were beautiful, and many of the bits were funny or sweet. However, there was one thing that was totally out of left field. In the middle of the show, there was some Eskimo dance thing involving weird masks. First I was scared. Then I was confused. Then it looked like one of the masks was looking right at me and I was lost in a series of giggle-fits that did not subside until we got back to the hotel. Whatever that was about, it was very well done.

After we Felt Ourselves Russian, we got supper at Pizza Hut and retired back to the hotel. Did you know “Pooty Poot” Vladimir Putin (the current Prime Minister of Russia) is from St. Petersburg? True story.

Nighty Night

Kelly K.

PS: Keep the comments coming! We love hearing from you all. =) And we're trying to post more pictures, but the blog's server and the Russian internet aren't cooperating. We'll keep trying as long as you keep commenting!

Day Four - Arriving in St. Petersburg!

Greetings from St. Petersburg!

We took an overnight train from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and were pleasantly surprised by the accommodations.  Bathrooms were clean, bed linens were provided, dinner/breakfast (consisting of pepperoni, bread, and salad) was included, as well as some “fancy” red slippers to roam the hallway.  Four people stayed together in a cabin, and overall, it was an excellent experience.

Once arriving by train, we walked to our hotel; Oktobersky, and got ready to begin our city tour of St. Petersburg.  We were introduced to our St. Petersburg tour guide, Svetlana (who knows Sergai), and were off to the bus for our tour.  We were briefly delayed because of bus problems, but our handy bus driver, Constantine, took out his tools and soon the new Mercedes bus was traveling the streets of the amazing city! Traveling through the streets of St. Petersburg left us in awe of all its beauty.  St. Petersburg is known as the Venice of the North, and we can all attest to this comment.  The city is completely different from Moscow, and the fast hustle isn’t as prominent as it was in Moscow.

On our city tour, Svetlana gave us a quick introduction to the different sites we’ll be seeing and learning about over the next week.  These sites include viewing a Folklore Show called Feel Yourself Russian, touring Isaak’s Cathedral, the Hermitage Museum, the Summer Residence of the Russian Czars.  We’ll also be visiting St. Petersburg University, flea markets, Russia homes for conversations about life in Russia, and much much more!!

We’ll elaborate more on our experiences after we tour the different sites!  We’re all having a blast and learning so much about the Russian culture.  Be ready for some wonderful stories—both educational and entertaining!!

As I’m blogging, it’s 11pm and it's still light out because of the white nights they have during May-June!!!  It messes with our time systems but is fun to experience!

Kelsey S. M.

(This photo was snapped at 10:30 pm--the sun was just setting! White nights are here!)

Day Three- Kremlin and Hanging out with Jane’s friends Natasha and Andre

Hello family and friends!

Today was a busy day and we were all worried it would be long, but it actually went   by very quickly.  We started the day on the metro once again.  We have gotten very good at filing ourselves through, the station in an orderly fashion.  We headed to the Kremlin, seat of Russian government and past home of many Russian Tsars.  First, we toured the Armory, museum of the private collections of the Tsars such as jewelry, clothing, personal possessions and gifts.  We saw beautiful Faberge Easter eggs, tons of gold and jewels, drinking games of the Tsars (J), and beautiful coronation gowns of the Tsarinas.  Many were extremely skinny and we learned that one of the Tsarinas had the smallest waist in Europe—8 inches!!  Also, we learned about one of the past Tsarinas of Russia, Catherine the Great, who spent most of Russia’s money on one of the largest diamonds in the world, and after she died they opened her wardrobes to find 30,000 dresses!!  After this museum, we wondered throughout the Kremlin grounds, going into a couple of the cathedrals, seeing the “largest bell and canon in the world,” and coming feet of the offices of the President of Russia, which was awesome because we never would have been able to do that in the US!

After this we went to a food court and all had pizza because we missed American food J  Then we went outside and took pictures by a fountain.  Wendy took a picture with a snake!  We also had to say goodbye to Sergei today L L L  This moment was very sad, the saddest of our time here.  He was so cute as he walked away because he kept looking back at us.

Then we took another metro to Natasha and Andre’s apartment.  As we walked from the subway to their place, we went to a farmer’s market and bought real fruit- yum!  We sat in their apartment and chatted for a few hours.  It was very nice and we learned a lot from Natasha, who is brilliant!  Their apartment was very nice, but small so everything had to be very compact and efficient, something we are not familiar with at home.  We left their place to go back and get our luggage from the hotel and prepare for our overnight train ride to St. Petersburg.  More from Kelsey later!

P.S. If you are reading this, please please please comment! We want to know if anyone’s out there!

Shaughnessy

Day two- Tour of Sergiev Passad Monastery

Pribet!  We are finally accustomed to our new sleeping schedule, hotel location and have accumulated a few important Russian phrases and can now fully enjoy trekking around Moscow’s crowded streets to see the sights.  Even Sergei, our knowledgeable guide, has mentioned how much more lively and inquisitiveness we have become.

Our first venture of the day was to Sergiev Posad, which is the home to a beautiful 14^th century monastery as well as the famous matryoshka dolls.  We spent the majority of our time there exploring the monastery, admiring the blue and gold onion domes, and learning about Orthodox traditions.  One of the more interesting facts we learned about the Orthodox faith is that there are two different kinds of priests: black and white.  The white priest is able to marry once and become a parish priest.  On the other hand, the black priest is not allowed to get married and can become a more prestigious member of the Orthodox Church, such as a monk or archbishop.  We spent the last hour of our tour at the monastery attempting to differentiate the black priests from the white priests.

For lunch we enjoyed traditional Russian bread and desserts at the monastery and tried to add a few slang words to Sergei’s English lexicon (you know, the usual…dork, nerd, fo shizzle).  He was a good sport J

 We finished the day by perusing the streets of Moscow looking for souvenirs and being entertained by the intricate and face-paced dance moves from Russian high school students.      

Interesting Thought of the Day: Why aren’t there any other tourists?  Tourism does not seem to be a big industry in Russia.  When we visited some of the big sites, there were only a few tourists taking pictures.  There are also not as many vendors selling souvenirs and hassling tourists as there are in other popular sites around the world.  Russia is a beautiful country that is rich in history, art and culture – I wish more people could be here to learn and appreciate it.

Interesting fact of the day: Russian Orthodox priests must be able to sing well and are required to take several music theory courses.  All 300 monks at the Sergiev Posad monastery participate in the “United Choir” (the largest choir in Russia) along with 600 seminary students and many parishioners.    

Meghan R.

Tour of Moscow

5.26.2011

Hello from Moscow, what an incredible day. Today we got a chance to experience several of the adventures and sights of the city, learning a tremendous amount about Russian culture, politics and history. The morning started with a busy Russian breakfast at the hotel Cosmos, and we met up with our certified tour guide Sergei , a local and an expert in the goings on of the city.

Our first destination was Christ the Savior Cathedral, a beautiful Cathedral built over 3 generations of Czars (beginning with Nicholas II and finishing in 1887 under his grandson Alexander III). Stalin destroyed the Cathedral in 1931. Then under the rule of Boris Yeltsin, Christ the Savior was rebuilt beginning in 1994 and the exact replica was completed in 1998. Thanks to thousands of pieces salvaged in city archives, the exact replica was able to be built.  

Next we traveled through the old part of the city, down “Lazy Street” (the shortest street in the city) and down St. Barbara St. (the oldest street, named to St. Barbara, the patron saint of merchants), to the New Maiden Nunnery. In the time of Czars, men sent wives to the nunnery so they could remarry and get rid of their wives. It was then converted to a prison during WWII, a museum of “Female Emancipation” in the sixties, and was re-established as a nunnery in 1991. The New Maiden Nunnery is located on the lake that was the inspiration for Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”—a beautiful piece of nature amid all the chaos of the city.

Other highlights included seeing the stadiums of the 1980 Olympics, standing in the Red Square seeing Lenin’s tomb, St. Basil’s Cathedral and the red walls of the Kremlin. We drove past Moscow State University known as: “the Wedding Cake of Russia”. We then ventured across the river to an Iconic Russian art gallery, the Tretyakov, getting a chance to view some stunning Russian pieces and learned an immense about them through the expertise of our tour guide.

It has been astounding to learn about “New Russia”, an identity only about 20 years old, but also understanding that WWII and the impact of Communism is an ever present force still shaping the economy, culture, and psyche of Russia and its citizens               .   

We finished the day at a local, traditional Russian café that no one could  pronounce the name of. It has been an adventure already, and its difficult to believe we have only been here for a day and half. We’ve been enjoying the culture and people, the beautiful weather and stunning sights.

We are quickly understanding the meaning behind a quote of Nicolai Gogol, roughly translated as- “There is no measure stick to measure Russia”. 

Gretchen Sitzer

Fun Fact: The first Mother Superior of the New Maiden Nunnery (once reestablished in ’91) was a Professor of Mathematics at Moscow State University.

We've arrived!

Greetings! We wanted to send a quick post out to everyone following us to let you all know that we've arrived safely in Moscow. While the flights were a bit long, the journey here was uneventful and quite safe. We're so excited to be in this bustling city and even more eager to begin learning as much as we can about this wonderful country! Tomorrow we'll tour Moscow and the Red Square, but for now we need to catch up on our sleep! Keep visiting us to find out more about our adventures abroad!

Links to Learn

Check out these links to learn more about Russia!

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia

http://www.visitrussia.com/guide/quickfacts.htm

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1006.html

Russia May-Term Itinerary

We are so excited to be embarking on our journey to Russia in a matter of weeks! Below is a rough itinerary of what we'll be doing when we're abroad.


Tuesday, May 24th: Depart for Moscow!


Wednesday, May 25th: Arrive in Moscow, settle into our hotel


Thursday, May 26th: Moscow city tour including the Kremlin and Red Square


Friday, May 27th: Tour of the Armory and the Diamond Fund; depart for St. Petersburg


Saturday, May 28th: Tour to the monastery of Sergiev Pasad; round-table discussion with Russian women


Sunday, May 29th:  Tour to the Russian Museum; Russian Folklore dinner show


Monday, May 30th: Visit to local schools and dinner in Russian homes


Tuesday, May 31st: Tour to the Peter the Great Summe Residence-Petrodvorets


Wednesday, June 1st: Tour to Isaak's Cathedral and Savior on the Blood plus a visit to the flea market


Thursday, June 2nd: Tour of the Hermitage Museum


Friday, June 3rd: Tour to the Summer Residence of Catherine the Great 


Saturday, June 4th: Tour to Peter and Paul Fortress and visit to the St. Petersburg University


Sunday, June 5th: Day with a Russian family


Monday, June 6th: Depart for Minneapolis