Laura and I are sitting in the airport waiting to board our flight to Berlin. It's been fun, but we're both pretty much ready to get out of the country. B-)
St. Petersburg is a city of museums. You can't throw a rock without bouncing it off of five museums before it falls into the river next to a ship which is also a museum.
We went to the Hermitage, saw a Michealangelo statue and two DaVinci paintings, as well as hundreds and hundreds of paintings, vases, statues, and all sorts of art. Heck, the entire set of buildings that make up the Hermitage was a work of art!
We also went to the museum of "curiosities", which had all sorts of interesting anthropological artifacts, and then a room full of fetuses and body parts and skeletons. Curious is an understatement. Laura was as happy as I was that there was only one room of teratology.
It's also a city of palaces. We must have seen 50 of them around the city, and we took a trip to see Catherine's Summer Palace. I told Laura that I wanted one.
The food is amazing...or not. We had some great "pie" at one restaurant, and borscht and beef stroganoff at another. That latter restaurant had these crafty menus and boardgames and toys. I had a bear pat me on the back at the hotel's restaurant. And sushi must be a Russian thing because you see this one restaurant chain as often as you see Starbucks in America. McDonald's, KFC, and Subway are also in abundance.
The city can get very cold, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the locals. Short skirts, no hats, and shorts?
Oops, time to board the plane. Stay tuned next time when Laura and I talk Berlinese.
Nice to see the post, and I agree it's cold up there. Venice of the North is a bit misleading. But now you can say, I went to Russia and saw it out of my "window".
ReplyDeleteHave a great flight to Belin and let the bus tour begin. Look forward to your next post. You must get your pic taken at Checkpoint Charlie for a few $$.