22 May 2006

After one year of being here we finally made it to russia. not so surprising because of how much of a big deal it is. the visa cost about $100, you have to have a letter of invite $30 (from a tourist company), and you have to register once you get there, meaning you have to stay in a hotel somewhere, sometime so they can register you. all in all though, it was worth it. st. petersburg is beautiful, moscow is an experience, and i met some great family there.

we took a night train from kyiv to moscow. surprisingly there were no problems at the border. we arrived about 8am in moscow the next day at one of the six train stations. moscow is huge! there are 10 million registered citizens. that means there are about 12 million people.(you can click on any pic to get a larger version) this says "moskva", what moscow is called in russian, why we call it moscow i dont know. please comment if you know. we actually traveled to st. pete that night. but i am going to describe all of moscow first then st. pete. so on to the tourist stuff.

we headed for the famous red square. to see the kremlin, st. basils, and lenin's old dried up, green body. for the upcoming holidays (may day and victory day)they had red square fenced off. this is probably a very rare picture of red square vacant.
you see st. basil's on the left(usually mistaken for the kremlin by us americans), the kremlin main gate in the center and lenin's tomb is the square building in front of the kremlin wall. well shit, lenin's tomb and the kremlin were closed during the holidays. so i can not see lenin's mummy. i guess there is one reason for me to go back. thats ok i got to see live (probably zombies)stalin and two lenins!

this is the history museum which is bright red. here is the difference between bright red and orange.
next we went to visit st. basils. probably the most iconic part of all of russia. when you think russia you think st. basils. interesting enough, stalin wanted to tear it down since it got in the way of his military parades. public outcry stopped that from happening. amazing the power of the people to be able to stop stalin from doing something. thought the architect that led the public outcry was imprisoned for 10 years, a very light punishment in stalin's time.
the front gate to the real kremlin.

it being holidays, lots of people come and lay flowers on monuments. this is the monument of the unknown soldier, please remain reverent or this guy will stick a foot up your a$$.
capitalism has come a long way in russia. even though there are still a lot of state run businesses there is american capitalistic culture everywhere. and yes there is a mcdonalds next to red square.

another tourist attraction that i have only seen in moscow and kyiv is the subway stations. this is the subway station "revolution square". it sports a lot of statues of the proletariat doing what they do best, kindof not working and staring into the distance.
a couple of days later we went to the "great patriotic war" museum park. here they have the fountains colored for victory day.
this is the state university, the most prestigious university in all of the CIS (modern USSR). a lot different from the universities that we are used to with campuses and such.
i got to drive a little in moscow, although it wasnt much fun cause this clown would not get his foot out of the door, plus i couldnt get the car started.

ok, on to st petersburg.
st. petersburg was built by peter the great. he wanted to build a city to connect russia with europe and also have a western navy. this city was built in grand style in the 18th century on top of a finish swamp. it was built to show off to the world russian glory. and that it does. it is very baroque.
we get there and check into a hotel. we had a very communist room (barebones) but with a great view.
it is a bit hazy, but it is one of the first sunny days in a long time we were told by the locals. that is the neva river. in the distance on the left is the cathedral of savior on the blood(strange name), and on the right is the aurora, the ship that fired a blank to start the russian revolution. this is the cannon fired to start almost a hundred years of a totalitarian government. communism doesnt have much to do with being totalitarian, but that was how lenin and his boys took it.
we visited a fortress called peter and paul fortress. the cathedral is the tallest point in st. pete. in communist times it was a political prison, the nevsky gates on the left are dubbed the "death gates."

in the cathedral, it houses the resting places of most of russia's tsars.
also in the cathedral, as in most, the ceilings are extravagantly painted. i particularly like the optical illusion of the columns to the window to heaven on this one.
st. pete has many waterways. in fact the neva river is considered the main street, even though there are not many boats besides tourist. st. pete has twice as many islands as venice and the bridges are raised at night and dont go down until the morning, so make sure that you are on the right side. you say, no problem it only happens at night, but in st pete there is a month and a half of constant daylight, called white nights(or party central). when we were there the sun didnt go down till close to 11pm.
being the holidays i did get to see a little of a military parade, but no tanks and missiles :(
we went to a lot of museums in st. pete. i went to kunstkamera, a collection of deformities and organs in jars collected by peter the great. we also went to the world famous hermitage, second only to the louvre, it is an awesome museum of art and artifacts from all over the world.this is the courtyard of the hermitage, where the military parade was the day before. where's waldo?close up of the church of savior on the blood, built on top of the place of the assassination of alexander ii. also known as the church of the bleeding savior.
st. isaac's cathedral (below). it was built by a french architect. it took 40 years to build, finished in 1858. it was a church for about the same time. it was turned into a museum of atheism by the communist, then destroyed in ww2, and now a museum. the architect wanted to be buried in his life's work but was not because he was not orthodox.
st. pete is definitely beautiful, and does not seem like russia, or the ussr at all. it is very 1700s european. moscow is a vast contrast, and there are more differences than i thought would be between it and kyiv, but that may be cause i have lived here ONE YEAR now. and i still dont know russian, but i guess i wont have to in a couple of months.
well that about sums it up. if you made it this far, thanks and let me know what you think.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

well guys it has been a year! though to me it seems a lot longer. the pics of moscow and st. petersburg are amazing. i'm so jealous. well i'm glad that both of you had a great time and got to see all these amazing places.

22 May, 2006 18:51  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the pics and story that follows. You guy's look great. We miss you!

Cuz Melissa

23 May, 2006 00:01  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

love the 2 pictures of my nephew. great building, not enough of my nephew. jk, haidyn and the gang miss you,

ash~

23 May, 2006 22:41  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like the university. It's huge! It looks like a Vegas hotel. Do students live in there? They raise the bridges at night? So no bar hopping on the other side of the river then...

27 May, 2006 20:31  
Blogger tripp said...

no students live there, it is all classrooms, offices, labs and such.

they raise the bridges at night, but there is bar hopping, it just turns going home at 2am to going home at 6am. heh

28 May, 2006 13:07  

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