I opened my eyes slowly. I was startled. What did wake me up? Shouldn’t I be on my way to the classes already? I couldn’t make up mind after this short night, moved by nervousness, a little fear from the unknown. Who wouldn’t be, if there is only a couple of weeks left. Although, at that moment it seemed to me that the passage of time wouldn’t be the reason for me to get up. Was there a reason once? What did the hamster say: Existance – why? Just a few days ago, at least that’s how I remembered, I had been at Arena Riga for a tremendous start of NIN’s Europe and UK tour. Hurt still sent me shivers down my spine when I was already at home.
I realised something else. A thing that had nothing to do with the past. I should get myself together, kill the alarm clock and be on my way to the bus station.
I forced my mind back to the things lying in front of me. Throwing some hardly digestable food in my mouth, grabbing my far too heavily packed back, and walking towards the bus station. Riga showed itself from its most beautiful sunny side. How many days might be left for us here?
Honestly, I was scared. The decision struck me to be too spontaneous. A few weeks of preparation, only little visa troubles. But nonetheless it would be the first time for me to actually leave Europe. I met Anna and Jenja at the bus station.
I woke up in Narva. What a far away place in Estonia. Several passport controls; I filled out the registration form (super small sized, but super important), nervously my hands shook when I handed my passport to the young customs women, make-up too thick, nails to shiny for her job. But I managed. Everybody else was a little annoyed by my sweaty face and wet hands. I found myself in Russia, heading back into the bus and looking through the grey windows to find a landscape even more grey. Did the sky just change its colour? Do people actually prefer this to the decision of getting closer to the west? I tried to acquire some Russian one the way. At least the letters. The small book I bought for emergency situation was in a strange style. Meeting people and Flirting were topics far more important than saying hello. I never learned saying Hello.
A few hours later my brain tricked me. I honestly thought I was home, far away. Did I fall asleep and all of my stay in Riga was just a dream? Am I still in Berlin? Where did all the satellite cites come from? So many vanished hopes and abandoned dreams in these sowjet-style living quarters. In the end, this didn’t look like Berlin. Mostly because we didn’t have a Baltiskaya train station. Also usually in Berlin I could read the advertisements – seems like my instant Russian course was not satisfactory.
*wikipedia switch on* Founded 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great in the middle of nothingness of the swamps of Neva delta (who thinks I can get more of in one sentence?) Санкт-Петербург soon become one of the world’s most interesting cities. By now it’s the most northern city with over one million citizens, and, having thousands of castles and chateus and stuff like this, it’s often refered to as ‚Northern Venice‘, although to me it looked more like ‚Northern Paris‘. But hey, I am not a specialist on this field, so jeah, whatever. Anyway I’d rather recommend going there as it is a marvelously beautiful city. For interested folks, thanks to Carolina, I can also advise you a Hostel: Baby Lemomade. Friendly staff, clean and colourful interior, simple breakfast included.
St. Petersburg offers a wide spectrum of like – ALL the architecture: Jugendstil, Classicism, Baroque, Stalin’s Monumentalism (as a Berlin guy, I directly felt at home – and I instantly remembered the story of Stalin’s Bathroom in Berlin.)
So Baltiskaya is the place where you arrived when once you came from direction of Tallinn, but nowadays only regional trains go there.
So much to see, so much to feel. I didn’t even know where to look first. Is this what it felt like as a child to come to a new place of miraculous wonders? I certainly deserved my shower.
The new day’s dawn would have brought more adventures; that I was sure of. I aimlessly walked around that morning, not knowing that I already tricked myself. I forgot the battery of my camera at home. Stupid – I called myself even worse things as this definitely belonged to the situations I would have liked to avoid at all. I pondered if this would mean the day would become even worse. I reflected upon this while waiting for the others at Nevskiy prospekts metro station. Right in the centre of the capital of education of Russia, as I would learn later. A bus brought us to Puschkin town. For decades the highnesses of the Russian Empire resided here. The Catherine Palace gave room for the Amber Room. It’s marvelous appearance made me understand why some people wanted to have it – and why it the searches for it were so desperately forced. I remembered different castles all over Europe, all belonging to the same period or same style. But this room was something special, as if its magic had been transfered even through the reconstruction.
Catherine Palace + Catherine Garden + Alexander Palace + Alexander Garden are right next to each other at the village of Puschkin, which is more of a small city, but belongs to the St. Petersburg region anyway. There is a little Puschkin statue as well in case you like to take a photo with him (as did all of the million tourists there). The Catherine Garden is beautiful to watch, but we didn’t have so much time, so I cannot really give any more tips on this. I read quite a bit on wikipedia about the Amber Room though. The history strikes me pretty interesting, but I do not need to tell you as you can have a look for yourself. Definitely it’s a visit worthwhile if you are staying there. Most tourists get there by coach, but we managed to find the way via marschrutka.
As days progress during travels I sometimes wondered what kind of reason there is that made you get along perfectly fine with some people, and why with others I did not even seem to get connection enough to get to know their names. Why are these two Russian women lying in her beds all the time listening to transient relaxation music and answering my questions with disembodied stares to the ceiling? Why were the Korean guys so friendly? I interestingly listened to the story of the old Dutch-Swiss lady who had come to St. Petersburg to study Russian. In the end, it didn’t even matter. I needed to get out. Out to the place, where the streets had no name, at least to me. I still was reading very slowly. We drove to Peterhof, the Tsarian Versailles. Peter’s summer residence. How much time these people must have had to walk around there accurately decorated parks. How many people must have had spent their entire life working on it. St. Petersburg university celebrated its 290th birthday, I didn’t even understand a single thing of the show. The combination of traditional ballet and modern pop music was – I must say – kind of expected, but certainly inappropriate. I swallowed my thought and kept the stereotypes for later.
As the sun was burning remorslessly, I felt my skin reddening. It was time to go.
Avtovo metro station, outside
Avtovo metro station, inside
Peterhof, as a picture, including church
Peterhof, Neptun fountain in front, design according to the one in Nuremberg
View onto the chateu from the canal
View to the Gulf of Finland from the terrace
You’re supposed to throw coins into the guy’s boots for luck – I didn’t try
Peterhof garden, fountain cascade
The Grand Cascade
Peterhof garden
Peterhof garden
The Orangerie
The Roman Fountains in the Lower Garden
The Chessboard Hill Fountain
The Lion Cascade
That day’s adventures started from Avtovo metro station – supposedly one of the most beautiful stations of the metro system, by the way the deepest system in the world. I guess that’s needed when you build an entire city on swamp.
Peterhof started as a s small place to rest for the Tsar on his ways from and to Kronstadt, but of course this would not suffice for an empire with ambitions. You need something to represent, not a single shaddy shad. So he had himself built a giant castle with even bigger garden around it. As a lot of things in St. Petersburg the castle has been severly damaged during the war, the reconstructions are still going on. The most interesting part about the garden are the myriad of fountains which starts at the cascade in front of the building and is continued over several parts of the rest of the park.
Remember when you couldn’t get into the Louvre, because the queue was to long? Or when you decided to leave a museum, because you already had too much of art and history, although you had seen not even 10% of it. This overwhelming impression necessarily came to me when we went to Hermitage. I was reminded once again, how small I am in the face of history. Millenia were presented here, but time waited for no one – neither the good nor the bad, especially not the ones living in yesterday’s life. Monumental buildings are made for these purposes. They were designed to show the poor citizens their worthlessness in contrast to the world of the higher borns, the world that would never open to them. They built a place to build the palaces around, crowned it with a giant statue. But remember nothing will last.
Mixed feelings flooded me as I stood on the steps of history. Places which symbolism cannot be denied for the relevance to the last 100 years. Does history repeat itself?
A boat ride brought us out of the deafening might of the high walls. I saw it again from the outside. Didn’t it look small and insignificant compared to the black waters of the Neva? It did. Just as most things do when compared to Mother Nature. Nonetheless, also human craftsmanship did impress me.
I took a walk. After all these walked miles I wanted to see another symbol of revolution, but I didn’t find it until later. Feets hurting, the evening progressing I strolled along the river of this but so strange city. A short rest only I gave myself, before I left once more, nervous, restless to see another pecularity of Northern Venice.
Gate in the Great Staff Building onto the Palace place
Palace Place with Alexander statue and Great Staff building in the background
Palace Place with Alexander statue and Great Staff building in the background, no. 2
Stairs at the Hermitage, Winterpalace
The library of Nicholas II, last Tsar of Russia
The staircase which the October revolutionists took into the Winter Palace
The Golden Room, Winter Palace
The Throne
A canal in St. Petersburg
Peter and Paul fortress with Peter and Paul Cathedral in the sunset
The Hermitage complexe: Old Hermitage, Small Hermitage, Winter Palace
St. Isaac’s Cathedrale and the Bronze Horseman
St Isaak’s from another view
View on the harbour, found some submarines
St. Petersburg by night: Peter and Paul fortress
St Petersburg by night: Dvortsovy bridge and Kunstkamera
St Petersburg by night: the opened bridge I was standing next to
The Hermitage, the museum. It is one of the world’s most important art museums. Across all centuries, spread over several buildings. We had free entrance for some reason I cannot recall, but only an hour to spend, so we more or less rushed through it, to get at least an idea of the contents and to enjoy the interior design of the Winter Palace. It has been a private collection first, started by Catherine the Great, but it was Nicholas I. who opened the Winter Palace and the collection to the general public, just as you do as a good enlightened absolutist.
The October Revolution played a major role in the history of the building. The temporary goverment after the fall of the Tsar was located here, and the Bolsheviki stormed the building to put them down.
Although the art collection is outstanding in the world, the financial situation is notoriously bad and the museum constantly under-funded.
A highlight of St. Petersburg is the opening of the bridges everyday around 1:30 a.m. It’s really popular among tourists, especially during the White Nights in early summer, but it’s unfortunately also causing a lot of troubles as it is bringing all traffic at night time to a rest for up to five hours. The streets are already totally over-crowded, so I guess it’s not really making the situation any better. Nevertheless, I have never seen something like this before, so it was really special for me to witness. Actually I walked around ~25km that day, so it was really hard for me to stay awake, but definitely worth it.
As the nights always end early in the northern summer, there is no time to rest. I packed my stuff, left it there until the afternoon. I was in a horrible conflict. It was going to be 33°C; though, I didn’t know that when I left. I brought a sweatshirt to cover my itching sunburn- so what was the decision? Burn even more or melt? I cursed my own ignorance of the day before and went on. There were things left to see in my proximity. I walked to the funny weird church, played the Tetris song in my mind. Built after Moscow example, pretty colourful. On a place of spilled blood. How much blood is buried under stone? Too much in this city. Strolled on back to Nevskiy Prospekt and found more architecture. Where was my personal architect to explain what I saw? Climbed up and climbed down. Walked around the heat to get to my last two destinations.
The place were St. Petersburg started, a lot of famous Russian men had been inprisoned. I met Anna there, Jenja still on search for his motorbike parts. Fortress in form of a museum, but, surprisingly, far less tourists. Or better to say: far less English speaking. Having seen the thin hands of a Tsar, polished by millions of visitors, and the burial ground of the last emperial family, I finally was able to see the last thing: the cruiser Aurora, the battleship that gave a signal.
Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ
altar
Christ Pantocrator
Singer House at Nevskiy Prospekt
Kazan Cathedral, at Nevskiy Prospekt
St Isaac’s from the other side
View from the top of St. Isaacs, No. 1
View from the top of St. Isaacs, No. 2
View from the top of St. Isaacs, No. 3
Peter and Paul Cathedral
Peter I. (the Great), look at the scary fingers
inside the Peter and Paul Cathedral
Cruiser Aurora and me
The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ (that’s the official name, but the Cathedral of the Saviour on Spilled Blood is far more catchy in English Tourist guides) was built upon the place were Tsar Alexander II. was assassinated. They actually narrowed the nearby canal so that the relevant part of the street could be included into the building. I call that determination. Its design is taken from the Moscow church with the similar style (St. Basil’s cathedral). All in all, it generally lacks any fitting with the baroque or classicist style of the rest of the city, but I guess that is intended. The interior is widely covered in mosaics, and actually it never was never planned to serve a religous function and was always intended as memorial monument.
The Nevskiy prospekt is St. Petersburg’s main street. It shows all kinds of different buildings and styles, but I don’t feel comfortable talking about this anymore as I consider it to be really redudant and boring. I really liked the Gostiny Dvor, some kind of shopping mall, that is nearly a kilometer long and thus creates its own city quarter.
You can get inside and on top of St. Isaac’s Cathedral (what I did). I think I showed you a couple of churches, so have a look at the pictures. Melting under the Russian sun, I walked towards Peter and Paul Fortress, where I would meet with Anna. The Fortress itself is the first thing that was something in St. Petersburg. Intended as defense against the Swedes in the 18th century, it was never used as a defensive structure and turned into a prison in the late 19th century, incarcerating so famous or infamous names as Dostoevsky, Gorky, Trotsky and Tito. The Cathedral is the burial place of the emperial family, a conclusive list of all the people buried there can be easily found.
The last thing on my list was cruiser Aurora, an old, battle-proven battleship of the Russian Empire. It became famous as one of the first events of the October Revolution happened here, when a blank salvo shot from its cannon gave the signal to the assault on the Winter Palace. The main reason to see it were mum and dad constantly asking if I had seen Panzerkreuzer Aurora already, to which now finally I can answer: Yes, I did. *wikipedia switch off*
This is the point were I had to say goodbye to Anna and Jenja. Thank you very much, you two, for your help and your company. And of course also thank you to our excellent local guide.
I stood in the bus, sticky from the sweat, full of dust from the dry winds. A failed conversation with a Russian stranger who had the same destination as I made me look back to the grey buildings of outer St. Petersburg. It soon was left behind, in front: the future? First a futurstic airport, Pulkovo terminal right ahead. Another trembling over-the-counter pass control. Not suspicious? I hoped for some fluent English conversations in one of the world’s leading coffee chains. Didn’t happen though. Tiredly I boarded the half-empty Bombadier Dash Q8-400, totally ignoring the flight attendant flirting with me. So this is the end? A memorable trip, for sure. A trip I actually got a passport for.
My feet touched Latvian ground: I am home.
Song of a trip: Pink Floyd – Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Live)
expeRIGAnce 