St Petersburg (And the Baltics)

So, no blogging in the Baltics. It was gorgeous outside, and night time was a liver endurance test. Laura pointed something out to me the other night, and that was that I couldn't remember the last night in a row I didn't drink. So last night I played Scrabble. And actually the night before that I took a train, so that's two in a row! I'll break that streak tonight.

Anyway, here's all I get to say on my eight days in Vilnius and Riga, because I want to get to my day in St. Petersburg. Vilnius was a cute little town, very much unchanged (or at least rebuilt to look like) a thriving medieval town. 24 churches in an area that's 15 minutes in any direction. Pretty impressive, really. Riga is a much bigger city, with slightly fewer churches, but many, many more coffee shops, international restaurants, strip clubs, and mafia beatings. It's known as the Sin City of the Baltics, and they're actually pissed about all the men coming for bachelor parties destroying their city every single weekend. Both the Baltic cities I went to were good for going out - Vilnius, mostly on the weekend, I guess but that's when I was there - and both places are full of beautiful women everywhere you look. I won't go into any more detail on that point... (So Laura, I, uh, hung out with a lot of guys in the hostels. We may have discussed this once or twice.) And the locals were actually pretty friendly both places - I had heard they wouldn't be in Riga, but it was all good.

The other thing that's similar and quite sad about both places is the history. Both were first independent right around WWI, after years of invasion and bloodshed, and in 1939, when Hitler and Stalin signed the pact with Stalin dividing up everything between, they were given to Russia. Eventually, when Germany and Russia were on opposite sides, the people of both countries turned to help the Nazis because they were liberating the Baltics. As a result, both countries' hugely thriving Jewish population were almost completely wiped out in the span of a few months. I noticed this most when I attempted to find a Judaica shop to buy a gift, and only the Jewish Museum in Riga had a little cabinet. That's it. The history is there, and they are working hard to preserve it, but the culture is completely gone. Anyway, even the resistance movements in the 80's were eerily similar with very good museums documenting them, and both states became free in the beginning of the 90's. The Vilnius KGB museum, in particular, was also very similar to Budapest's Terror House - both in the former Nazi/KGB headquarters, even.

Ok, so onto St. Petersburg. Took the overnight train and started off by annoying an older woman with her son (also older than me) who was sitting in my window seat. They had their stuff everywhere, so I kept moving it out of my way, until she got up with a huff and cleared it all. About halfway through the 13 hour trip though, she warmed to me, when she realized I was just a clueless American and didn't know what the heck was going on, like with passport control, etc. By the way, no one on the train, including this woman, spoke a word of English. Oh, and the compartments weren't exactly plush, so I slept only minimally.

Next, I get into St. Petersburg, and make all the turns to where my hostel should be (guessing here, since street signs are pretty much optional in this city), and I eventaully ask three people where I am, where again, no one speaks English - not even the standard reply of "no English", only to realize I came into a different train station, 2 km away... So I walked, checking the map every couple min, because of those stupid missing street signs, and an hour later, checked into the hostel, and passed out for four hours. Then I went and ran a few errands (which, since no one speaks English, took forever - noticing a pattern here?) and stayed in the hostel with a couple Irish girls (they're everywhere!), and like I mentioned, played Scrabble.

So today I aimed to get up early and do another super-tourist day like in Istanbul. Well, my super-tourist day started with me essentially getting mugged by the ticket agent at the train station, who way overcharged me, and when I called her on it she basically shrugged. Wow, did I feel powerless. Welcome to friggin Russia, man. After nursing my bruises, I went down to Kazan Cathedral, on the way to the Hermitage, which doesn't open until 10:30. I walked into the Orthodox Cathedral, and there was a priest chanting monotonously, and churchgoers were scattered everywhere, occasionally crossing themselves. There was a sporadic crescendo in the chanting, which sounded oddly like an auctioneer's sale. Then the next auction started immediately after. Another priest was walking around with incense, spreading it everywhere - it was interesting. Only later did it occur to me that today was Sunday, so trying to sightsee in a church at 10AM might be rude, but I'm kinda glad I went in then. The church itself was massive, full of marble columns and gold everywhere, and a repeated single floral square throughout the ceiling. Not the nicest I've seen, but ok. Though that reminds me to mention St. Peter's in Riga - the style on the inside was all red brick patterns on plain, white plaster. And a carved, unpainted wooden altar. Probably my favorite church I've seen yet, because they did so much with so little, and I thought that simplicity was incredibly beautiful.

Anyway, onto the Hermitage. This is, well, just a massive, massive art museum that has swallowed a former palace, two or three former government buildings, and a small island safari. Well ok, not the last, but I didn't see the whole thing. I went in fully prepared, ready to blaze through with my Lonely Planet's highlights section, only to find that half of the highlights were closed, so I went even faster and had to go see more to feel I really did enough. However, the closed exhibits are the only normal pathway to certain other exhibits, so it's an absurd maze to try and get around there, so eventually, I gave up. Anyway, the highlights to me (of what I saw, which given my patience for art museums, probably wasn't enough) were a couple really cool Picassos and the Winter Palace itself, which clrealy dwarfed a lot of the art held inside. The ceiling, the chandeliers, everything - that was really amazing, and quite worth the admission fee. Though of course the other awesome thing about the Hermitage it that it's free for students! I'd definitely go there a few times if I were around more because of that. Well, except for the huge lines even before opening. Oh, and I ran into random MIT people there - a brother and sister it seemed - Fong, who I seem to remember as 04? and a younger guy I did TKD with, but don't remember his name... Whoops. Anyway, I'm almost surprised that didn't actually happen earlier in my trip - it has before, but that was funny.

Anyway, then when I left, it started pooring, but I trekked on to see basically the rest of St. Petersburg proper. Church on Spilled Blood was very ho-hum, and way too expensive to get in. The mosaics had the feel of the Sistine Chapel's overcrowded painting without as much beauty. But compared to Issac's Cathedral, that one was cheap, so I didn't even go into the latter. The only other thing I did today was wander around the canals (the city is built like Amsterdam, with artificial islands and canals) and meet a Hungarian guy at lunch randomly. Ah, lunch. What a fun meal that was. I ordered Okroshka, a soup with beer. I figured you mix beer in with the broth, and soup would be great on a cold, rainy day. Well, hot soup would have been great, indeed. What it turns out I ordered was cubed radish, ham, potatoes, scallions, egg, and a dollop of sour cream, essentially a so-so salad, in a bowl, with ... wait for it ... a pint of beer dumped in. Yeah... They must have thought I was an alcoholic when I ordered a beer to drink, too. This dish is pretty much as appetizing as it sounds, though maybe not even. I went back and ordered a blini (Russian pancake) with smoked salmon and cucumber after. Aaah, much better.

And so, I find myself at a computer, pretty much done with the city in six hours, and with a train tomorrow night at 1AM. Perhaps I rushed it a bit today, but at least I won't have to wake up early tomorrow. Gotta try that Russian vodka, after all.