8-30-19 - St. Petersburg - the cultural capital of Russia
/Day 75.
The overnight ferry arrives in St. Petersburg in the morning. We are revved up and ready to go since we only have 72 hours which is the maximum time you can spend visa-free. We would have loved to spend more time in Russia but the thought of getting 7 Russian visas at an embassy in a non-English speaking country after our China visa ordeal was just too daunting.
We have to go through Russian passport control at the ferry terminal. Our strategy is to send the kids through first so that if there is a problem, at least were still on the side of immigration where we can still intervene and help. So far, it’s been no problem, but something about Russian passport control still evokes images of the KGB and Siberia from 30+ years ago. So we go over answers to all the possible questions they could ask. The kids filter through one-by-one. Each one takes a while so it appears, they are being thorough but none of the kids have been hauled off yet.
When it’s my turn, I go up and the Russian officer is smiling ear-to-ear. “All those kids are with you?” she asks. “Yes,” I reply. She starts cracking up laughing and says something in Russian to her colleague in the next station and she starts laughing. I didn’t have my google translator out and ready to go as I was not prepared for this development. So I don’t know what she said but I’m guessing it was something along the lines of these Americans are crazy, nuts, out-of-their-mind but I’ll never know as I didn’t want to rock the boat by demanding she tell me in English what she said.
After checking in the hotel, we head out to St. Isaacs Cathedral. One of my favorite things to do when we get to a city is just walk around and take in the architecture, layout of the city, people, buildings, etc. We do this on the way to the Cathedral. The city is very vibrant with a lot of people coming and going in every direction.
We thought St. Stephan’s Cathedral in Budapest was impressive until we see St. Isaacs. While it doesn’t crack the top 10 list for tallest cathedral’s in the world, it still surpasses the 100 meter mark at 101.5 meters. As impressive as the outside it, it’s really the inside that dazzles you. There are marble columns, gold statues and the most amazing paintings on the walls and ceilings.
We learn here of what is a recurring theme we will experience. With the advent of communism, expressions of religion were forbidden and all the churches were turned into museums of the History of Religion and Atheism. St. Issacs were converted in 1931. After the fall of communism, the Governor of St. Petersburg offered to give it back to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917 but there was such a public outcry at the loss of the museum that governor’s decision is being disputed in court and it still remains a museum.
Next we have scheduled bus tour to take us around the city to see the different buildings and landmarks of significance. The bus tour is hours long and the guide still has to speak as fast as the FedEx guy from the old commercials to identity and tells us about each one. There is a dizzying array of cathedrals, churches, museums, palaces, government buildings, parks, rivers, canals, bridges, squares, monuments, statues, opera house, theatres, etc. It’s now pretty clear why the call St. Petersburg the cultural capital of Russia. I try to take notes on my laptop but I abandon my quest realizing I’d have to be the world’s fastest typing tourist to keep up with the guide and that most certainly is not the case. We do get a good sense of which ones we want to visit tomorrow morning.
Next, we go to a local, authentic Russian restaurant. We are still maintaining a strong track record of having at least one meal of authentic local cuisine that we try out. I must admit that the Russian menu was a little challenging. Most of us settle on beef stroganoff. My mom used to make it for us as kids so at least it’s not totally foreign territory. The meal is quite good and the children manage to fend off starvation in a foreign land yet again.
Post dinner, we have tickets to a Russian Folk Show. I’m not sure what to expect given its in Russian but John was very excited to go. 10 weeks into the trip and I’m still trying to figure out what “no photography” mean. Yes, I know, it sounds like a simple thing but let’s take the Russian Folk Show. They say no pictures or videos please. As soon as the show starts, 2/3 of the audience whips out their phones and start taking pictures and videos. The attendants in the aisle seem completely unphased and make no move shut the offending tourists down. They also said it in 3 different languages so it seems unlikely the entire audience didn’t understand it. But we have been other places where merely putting your hand in your pocket that has your cell phone evokes a security guard to spring into action and tackle you. And God forbid if someone actually gets a picture off in one these places, the security guard hauls you into the back room after tackling you and confiscating your phone. Seems like the best course of action is when in Rome…
The show itself is really entertaining. There was great music, instrument playing, singing and dancing but there were a lot of performers where you could understand the character and plot sequence without knowing Russian. For intermission, they had an elaborate room with sparkling wine, appetizers, cheese and crackers and were also selling Faberge eggs, Babushka Dolls and other Russian specialty souvenirs. After the show, the kids said they really enjoyed it. We think our cultural enlightenment is making progress as if we had tried to take the kids to the same show at home in California, they would have staged a protest followed by a revolt.
