Saint Petersburg - Peter the Great's 'window to the west'

My spontaneous trip to St. Petersburg

Day 17

I am in St Petersburg!

It all started taking the metro in Moscow to Leningradsky trainstation which impressed me a lot. Very modern, very big, very efficient and lots of security guards. I looked for my train on the info board and found one going to Murmansk that corresponded to my train number and departure time. So I thought that must be it then. But Murmansk? I went to the platform anyway and looked for my coach number. I like this way of entering the train and finding your seat. Since I had Anna book my ticket online I knew which coach number and which seat exactly. So I showed the lady waiting at the entrance to my coach my passport (I didn’t even have to print my ticket) and she checked it with her list. So basically your ticket was checked before you entered the train and not sometime randomly when you’re already seated and maybe asleep. When she checked me off her list I knew this definitely is the right train. Then I went inside and was pleasantly surprised. I had seen pictures of the Russian night trains and thought I would have to face some worn out dark colored coaches with red leather benches but instead I saw a new looking white interior with blue cushions and my bed already made with clean white bedsheets. I didn’t take a picture but will on the return trip. The beds were arranged in groups of four, two top ones and two bottom ones facing each other. On the other side of the aisle two more were placed sideways, where the bottom one converted to a small table with two seats. All designed for excellent use of space.  My bed was number 8, a top bunkbed and therefore my storage room was sort of limited. The lower beds could use the entire space under the bed for bags etc. I put my backpack and small bag on the shelf above my bed where additional pillows and blankets were placed. Then I only had to figure out how to get up there. It wasn’t high, but I didn’t want to step on the bed below. I used the little step that was applied on the dividing wall to the next compartment and made myself comfy. It was very warm in there, so I didn’t need a blanket. The bed was very short, so only ideal for people about a foot shorter than me, but since I usually curl up anyway that was ok. But curling up also made me “wider” and the bed was very narrow so I feared perhaps falling out of the bed when the train braked. But the other guy in my compartment showed me there was a thing on my bed I could tilt over to make a barrier to prevent falling off. After that was settled I donned my sleep mask and earplugs and actually went to sleep since I was very tired. I woke up a couple of times though because my neighbor was snoring. They should definitely use that as a criteria to assign beds, snoring and non-snoring passengers. I set my alarm afraid that I would end up in Murmansk, but another service offered by the train company was a wake-up nudge. I was very pleased with myself when we arrived. I immediately found the right way to the metro, bought a one-trip token and took the metro to Nevsky Prospekt Station. The train station there, Ladoj station, was also very nice and modern with signs in English! When I had to change lines I asked someone who also spoke English and was very helpful and showed me towards the right exit. Outside I took a few minutes to orient myself. I knew where the hotel was on the map and knew where the metro station was, but the exit was at a four-way crossing. Using my guide I identified the big colorful Cathedral which was just around the corner from my hotel and started up the street. I found the Moyka street and then the sign that said Hotel. I read the reviews for the hotel and knew that you had to enter through a back courtyard. It really didn’t make the best impression, but inside everything was fine. The receptionist was nice and spoke English well. They even let me check in, even though check-in time usually is at 2 pm. I had to email them the hotel voucher since I had no opportunity to print it. The wifi works excellent! I had some breakfast in my room from my goody-bag I took with me and then started my first tour of the city.

I went back towards the colorful church which is the Cathedral of Christ’s Resurrection, then back down the street (Nevsky Boulevard) from this morning to the big crossing. There was a very cool building on the right called House of books. There’s a bookstore on the bottom and a café on the second floor, called Café Singer (from the sewing machine company). It has a glass dome that’s lighted in blue when it’s dark.

Across from the House of books is the Kazan Cathedral. It’s supposed to be the St Peter’s Basilica (Rome) for St Petersburg. I walked around the back the Hippogriff’s bridge – very cute. 

Then went back to the Nevsky Boulevard and continued down the road. I passed the Stroganov Palais where supposedly Beef Stroganov was invented. Next to it is the House of columns in pink and white and further down the road I arrived at the Alexanderpark with the Admiraltejsky building. Sadly it was under construction so I could really only see the gold pointy dome with the gold sailboat at the top. I fed some nice fog crows the remaining pieces of the pastry that I was still carrying around with me and naturally once you start feeding one a whole flock of pigeons appears. So there I was trying to strategically feed the fog crows without making it too easy for the pigeons and then made it obvious to them that the pastry was gone by shaking out the remaining crumbs from the plastic wrap. Usually I find that when you do that and walk away that they understand. However, what happened today was that the whole group of pigeons, sparrows and fog crows kept following me through the park.  Not pushy or aggressive, just kept my pace following me.

Then I took some pictures of the Bronze Horseman and took a look at the river neva and the opposite little islands. It was soooo windy that it felt icy cold. I also tried to take a picture of me with the self-timer. This usually works well if I can find a flat surface with a good height to put it on, which I did. But it was so windy that the wind actually knocked over my camera and naturally it fell on the lense. I thought I had irrevocably broken it, but after a few on and offs and straightening the lense it worked again – hallelujah! Lesson learned: no selfies when it’s windy. I turned back and walked past the Manege (former equestrian center or royal stable) towards the St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which also had a tower under construction. It’s the fourth largest dome in the world (according to my book). I wanted to buy a ticket go to the top because it said in my book that the view over the city was great. But of course, it said the top part was closed due to strong winds. So I continued by walk and passed the Isaac square with a statue of Nicholas the 1^st. I also took a look at the Astoria hotel and Hotel Angleterre. Then I went along a sidestreet back towards Nevsky Boulevard with lots of pretty buildings. I also went inside a Faberge jewelry shop, but they didn’t let me take pictures. I crossed Nevsky Boulevard and entered the Castle Square through the Triumph arch. 

There I saw the Hermitage and the Alexander Pillar. I walked across the singer’s bridge (St. Petersburg has lots of water channels and therefore lots of bridges. Saw the house where Pushkin died and then went along the winterchannel past the Hermitage theater onto the riverside road which is called the palace embankment because all the wealthy people had their palaces here. So I walked along and found that most of the pretty palace buildings looked unoccupied. I passed the Marblepalace and saw the Trinitybridge before I turned back to the Mars park, which is actually quite close to my hotel. I wanted to go to the Summergarden park but it was closed because of a storm warning. So walked south along the Engineer’s palace, the old circus and then back towards town past the Russian , ethnographic museum, palace of the fine arts, crossed the street to the small park where the Pushkin Monument stood and had a peek inside the Hotel Europe which looks much more impressive than the Astoria or Kempinski. I ended up back at Nevsky Boulevard. I had some cocoa in a nice little café and then went towards the St Petri Church which the Sovjets used as a public swimming pool. I also found a miniature Teremok (the fast food place I mentioned where you can get all kinds of Blinis etc.). It was not much bigger than a news stand booth. I walked around some more and finally had some Beef Stroganov in a nice but good priced Restauraunt across from the Stroganov palais. Back at the hotel I really enjoyed my shower!

I really like St Petersburg. It has a nostalgic glamorous atmosphere which is undermined by all the pretty buildings and only rarely disturbed by modern architecture.  Perhaps you could try a tour through St Petersburg with Google Street View to give you an impression. I didn’t take a picture of every building even though most are really pretty. You can just imagine women in lovely dresses and furs and men in top hats go around their business in horse drawn carriages or sleighs. Also I feel much more welcome in St Petersburg than in Moscow because the people here appear very helpful, can speak English and even the signs are in English telling which sight is in which direction.

Day 18

I began my day with the breakfast buffet at the hotel which could have featured a bit more European options. It was rather rudimentary with only two types of bread (white and whole wheat toast), coffee or tea (no hot chocolate L ) and then 3 variations of cut sausage meat, one plate of cheese, sausages (like hot dogs) , the small brown granulate noodle variation I’ve also seen in hungary, cornflakes and cocoapuffs, pre-packed yoghurt and fortunately some miniature croissants out of the bag. But even the sugary cereal was a welcome variation from my breakfast habits in Moscow. Then I started out toward the summer park to see the summer palace. The park was still closed but I got a peek through the fence at the summer palace. Evidently I had confused the palace with another one, because this was the temporary residence of the tsar and was rather small and simple, but still pretty. Then I walked across the Trinity bridge and saw the sun rise over the summer park. I continued east along the embankment to look at the Aurora marine ship, which was not available for tourists that day. I turned back and went to the Peter and Paul Fortress. I got the standard ticket for the Cathedral, Prison, Commandant’s House and History Museum in the wall. The prison was not very impressive, just lots of prison cells and some information about their occupants. The Saints Paul and Peter Cathedral was pretty and inside were lots of marble tombs. Thankfully the lady at the ticket office gave me a pamphlet that identified each coffin. I saw Peter the Great’s tomb and Catherine the Great and so on and so on. The Romanov remains were interred here in 1998 in a separate little room next to their servants who were also murdered in 1918.

The Commandant’s house featured a very nice museum with lots of interesting things such as old bathtubs, toilets, travel toiletries, clothing, sewing machines, typewriters, etc. It also showed a lot of pictures of old trains, old horse drawn trams (with rails) the first cars etc.

At 12 o’clock the canon was shot to mark the time just as it had been since Peter’s reign and then the Churchbells rung a very pretty melody. I went to the outside walkway next to the Kronwerk bridge and had my little picknick lunch enjoying the view across the Neva at the Basilius Island the palaces on the other embankment. The sun was shining and it just really beautiful.

I crossed the bridge and looked at the Kronwerk Artillerymuseum from the outside and turned back. I walked by the big ship which I had thought from afar was a reconstruction of some royal hanseatic vessel. But I don’t think it was really a ship and just built to look like one. It had a gym, a spa and a restaurant inside. You could see the threadmills through big glass windows . I crossed the bridge onto Basilius Island and looked at the Rostra lighthouses and the Naval Musuem, then passed the Kunstkammer, University, Menschikov palace and the Academy of arts. Infront of the academy they had two small marble sphinxes from Egypt. I continued down the other bridge (Maria bridge) and looked at the “English Embankment” where more pretty houses stood. I walked to the Rumancjev Villa and Bismarck’s Residence. I turned back towards the Nicolaus palace then walked along another channel with “new Holland” to the right. I was disappointed by this. It looks really cool on the map,  a triangular island inside the city, but it was just a boarded up old ugly building. It could have been fixed up nicely to use it for something. I walked down further towards the Marijinsky theater (old and new) and the conservatory on the other side of the road. 

I had been looking for a cheap café to have some tea an use the restroom and naturally, when you’re looking for something it’s nowhere to be found. But eventually after hearing myself complaining about the cold out loud I found a subway and had some tea. After warming up I wanted to use the bathroom, but at the door was a scanner that would only let you in if you still had your receipt from your purchase. Of course, I had already thrown mine away. But when I asked the cashier she gave a spare receipt. How complicated. Back outside, I walked down even further along the little channel to the Nicolaus Marine Cathedral, the church for sailors in baby blue. 

I walked back and looked at the  Jusopov palace, by now it was getting dark and all the building were nicely lit up. I walked towards St Isaac’s square and down Malaja Morskaja street, where I found the house Tchaikovsky died in and then finally headed back to the hotel and stopped by a nice self serve restaurant and had dinner.

Day 19

I got up, had breakfast and headed over to the Hermitage, which is only 10 minutes walking distance from my hotel. The museum opens at 10:30, I was there at 10:15 and already a small line had formed. So I stood in line and waited patiently. When I saw the school classes herded around by teachers I feared the worst. Mom and I had previously had bad experiences with school classes in Vienna. When the door opened naturally a lot of people cut the line and pushed ahead. As I mentioned before, Russians can’t queue and possibly other tourists as well. Only the British take the concept of queuing by heart.

Inside they fortunately had many ticket offices, and this lady here accepted my student ID so I got in for free! I left my jacket and backpack at the cloak room and then had to find my orientation as there were several entrances with metal detectors and scanners for purses.

I got an audioguide and started my tour through the Hermitage. Up the main staircase and then through (almost) every room of the first floor and second floor, where I left out some of the Asian art. Then I had to find my way into the groundfloor to the prehistoric stuff. After 5 hours of walking and looking and listening to my audioguide my feet hurt and I was tired and thirsty. I had seen two small paintings from DaVinci, a sculpture from Michelangelo, lots of Picassos, Monets, Renoirs, Cezannes, etc. The rooms were mostly very pretty and very elaborate. What I liked best was the peacock clock.

I left and headed towards the ticket office for theatershows. I was thinking about going to a performance of Swan lake or a Russian folk show. But the Lady at the ticket office was not very helpful and the prices were higher than the ones I had looked up on the internet. It was only 4 o’clock so I tried to figure out what to do with the next two hours. I decided to give the museum in St. Isaac’s Cathedral a chance, went there but the lady at the ticket office did not accept my student ID. And I refuse to pay 250 ruble to go into a church. So I fed some birds in the park and headed south to what my guide book called the “haymarket” which is supposed to be a market and a shopping center. When I got there it was just a plain old shopping mall, so I decided to take the metro to Nevsky Prospect again instead of walking which wasn’t the smartest idea. Changing metro lines in Russia means walking around endlessly underground. So I don’t think it was that much shorter than just walking. Also you have to pay attention on which exit to take at the station, because you might end up at a totally different street and then have to walk back a whole block. I went to the self-service restaurant again and had Borsht soup and then looked for a Produkty to buy some desert and water for the next day. But the producty I had seen that morning was not a good producty at all. It was really just a kiosk with beer, chips and some chocolate etc.

So I decided to go to the Restaurant “Stolle” around the corner which I had read about online, it was supposed to have the best pie (pastry pie) in town. I got into conversation with a girl from Manchester and we had some quark pie. She was working in Moscow and maybe we’ll do some sightseeing together next week.

Day 20

I took the metro from Nevsky Prospekt to ist southern end destination called „Kupcino“ (pronounced coopcheena) and then looked for the bus to take me to Catherina palace in the suburbian town called Pushkin. I had looked it up online previously and looked for bus 186. At first I found the right bus, but was on the wrong side of the street. So I went to the other side and soon enough my bus 186 came. I asked the driver with the note I had written if he’s driving to the palace and he said no. So that took me aback a little and then I started asking random people if they spoke English. The third person tried to help me. With my note, clarifying where I wanted to go, he walked me up to another bus, a minibus, and asked him if he could take me to Pushkin. The girl who sat next to the driver (as I said it was a minibus, more like those airport shuttles from hotels) and she spoke English. So I arrived directly at the palace park after about 15 minutes and searched for the entrance. Next time, I would probably take the train directly from inside the city and then walk the rest from Pushkin train station to the palace. If you don’t mind adventures then taking the bus is an option as well. The metro only costs 28 ruble and the bus ride another 35 which I suspect is cheaper than the train.

Since it’s winter season now, the palace like many other sights are under construction so the front façade of the palace was partially covered. I got my student discount and rented an audioguide. This one was very good, because it had one track for each room you went through telling you where to look and what to note in particular. So I made my way through the royal rooms which were all very nicely restored after they were destroyed during the war. The main attraction at the palace is the amber room. The amber room had also been looted and a lot of myths evolved about its whereabouts. The current amber room was mostly financed by Germany.

After I had purchased an extra ticket to look at some other rooms with personal items of the tsars and finished that part as well I walked through the park a bit and fed the birds. In summer I can imagine the park would be pretty. But I missed flower beds and ornate bushed. There were only trees and grass and walkways and statues that had already been covered for winter. But there were lots of squirrels running around too. When I offered one of them some bread, it came right up to me, not shy at all and sniffed at the bread. Apparently it must be a very spoiled squirrel population because it did not want my whole grain toast. So the ducks got it instead.

I went back to the bus stop and took one where “Metro Kupcino” was printed on the side and then took the same way back into the city. I changed onto the green line and went one stop further onto the Basilius island to go to the Kunstkammer. This was actually the first public museum Peter the 1^st established to educate his people. Most of the exhibitions were about different ethnic groups, Eskimos, Indians, Chinese etc. but the main and most interesting part was the “monster” collection or natural science collection as it’s called in English. The German name would be Raritäten- or Kuriositätensammlung. There were some stuffed exotic animals, butterflies and beetles but also tons of jars with formaldehyde containing deformed babies, stillborn most likely. There were lots of Siamese twins, Cyclops babies, siren babies (with fused legs, like a fin) and others with huge brain hernias, or cleft spines. All very gruesome and disturbing but on the other hand sort of interesting. Also two headed calves, four legged chickens, two headed cats etc. Apparently collecting odd things was a trend at that time, but Peter 1^st had wanted people to collect these things specifically so they could be analyzed by his specialists and to educate people that it was not the devil’s work that some babies were deformed.  Peter had also founded the academy of sciences where 9 out of 13 members were German.

It was already dark again when I left and headed back across the bridge at the Hermitage towards Nevsky Prospekt where I had something to eat. I really wanted some hot chocolate and maybe a piece of cake or a cookie for desert but either you pay 200 rubles for a hot chocolate (300 even at the Singer café in the House of books!!!), or they don’t even have hot chocolate on the menue or people don’t understand what you want. So I was kind of frustrated when I was back at the hotel and had some tea instead.

Day 21

I packed my things and then googled what I would do that day. I had already seen everything on my list and even the top 10 must see sight lists on the internet didn’t help very much with my schedule for the day. I also looked through my book and decided to go to the Museum of Ethnography first. On my way I passed the colorful church again and thought I might as well look inside. But here the ticket lady didn’t accept my student ID and I refuse to pay 250 rubles to look into a church. I then went through the Michaelsky park, fed some birds and then went to the museum around the corner. The museum was nice, it had lots of costumes, outfits and artsy crafty stuff of different cultural tribes of all regions from Russia. Then I decided to go to the east side of town to the Alexander Nevsky monastery, one of three monasteries in Russia that have some special title. I was disappointed when I got there, it just another big church with a couple of building surrounding it and some cemetaries. Then I bought a ticket (200 rubles!!!) to look at the cemetery where Tschaikovsky and a bunch of other famous people were buried. I wouldn’t recommend going here. 

Then I thought since I was on the east side anyway I might as well go a little further north to where the Tauride palace and another monastery was. But I could not figure out how to get there with a bus or tram. I didn’t want to walk, because it was a bit far and it was slightly raining. After walking around the same building 3 times asking people how to get there and being sent in different directions I decided just to take the metro back to the town center. There I looked into the Kazan Cathedral, which was free of charge. There were lots of people standing in line waiting to say their prayer in front of an Icon and kiss it. That just appears very weird to me. I walked down Nevsky Prospekt some more past the big shopping center and old library to the statue of Catherine the Great. I looked around the Alexandrinsky theater behind it and walked along the “prettiest street of St Petersburg” according to my book. It was designed by the Italian architect Rossi and featured lots of white pillars on yellow buildings. I wasn’t too impressed and walked back. I went to this cool building on the other side of the street which was the Jelissejew delicatessen shop and café. 

It was really cool! Very art nouveau and lots and lots of yummy things. Each side featured different specialties, cheese and wine, baked goods, confectionary, vodka and caviar, sausage and ham and more sweets. In the middle they had a giant palmtree with chandeliers hanging from the leaves and a red velvet couch around it with little café tables and chairs. So I decided to have something warm to drink. They had a tea and muffin offer for 250 which I thought was ok for a place like this. It was also not just a tea cup but a small tea pot enough for three cups. They had a nice piano with classical music playing, the keys were actually moving and when I left the band played on the inner balcony. I chatted with a family from Manchester and then went back to Kazan Cathedral to meet Sarah, the girl from England. We strolled around a bit to look at St Petersburg in the dark and then went had dinner at the self-serve restaurant where I had been the evening before. When I told her about the Jelissejew café we decided to go there again and had a very ornately decorated éclair with praline filling, so yummy! We walked back to the hotel and I picked up my bags. By then it was already 11 o’clock and I panicked a little bit because I thought I still had plenty of time. So I rushed to the metro, ran down the escalator, rode to Mayakovskaya and then marched down the street to the big train station. The thing was that my ticket said the train station is called “Glavny” (a different one than the one I arrived at) but the one I was walking towards was called Mosvkowsky. I had googled it and asked the girl at the hotel and knew it was around here somewhere, whether it was the same one I didn’t know. So anyway, I ran around trying to find the right entrance and finally found the sign with the train schedule and found my train that would leave at 11:36. I rushed through security, beeped in the scanner, but fortunately the security guards didn’t car and ran to my platform. I was on the train, puffing and sweating at 11:30, phew! This time the train had white interiors and red leather benches. I had a lower bed and across sat a girl who spoke English very well and we started talking. Next to us was a group of boys in camouflage and Russian hats who were army newbies together with their boss. I was worried a bit that they would be up all night, but they were well behaved. They had unpacked an entire grocery store inventory from a magic mary popping bag and offered us some candy and apples etc. I made my bed and said good night at about 1 o’clock. I found out that if you have the upper bed, you bed is already made when you arrive, if you have the lower one, you have to put on the sheets yourself. I was so tired I went to sleep and arrived safely in Moscow at 6:30 am.

here's a picture of my bunk bed with sheets and mattress already removed.

Adjusting to Russian life

Day 12

I didn’t really do much except work on my paper and do some laundry. In the evening, Adrian and I went to the little café/restaurant in the neighboring building. They have student prices there with basics of Russian food such as Borsht soup, pelmeni etc. Afterwards we stopped by the Producty across the street to buy some desert. At the checkout a little plastic bag with little brown balls caught my eye. I went to confirm my suspicion and was right – caramelized peanuts! A big portion for only 50 rubles, that just made my day!

What I also discovered at the dairy product shelf – they have RUDIs here! I was introduced to Rudis in Hungary and love them. They are small chocolate covered little things, filled with what we Germans call “Quark” or in English “curd”. It sort of tastes like bitesize chocolate covered cheesecake. The traditional one is with dark chocolate and plain white Quark (sweetened) inside. However, here in Russia they have all kinds of different variations, from low fat to double chocolate, vanilla quark, coconut quark, ones with a jelly core inside etc. They cost around 8-14 rubles (0,18 – 0,32 €) depending on the brand.

Other interesting observations I made at the grocery store: in the frozen food section you can bag your own frozen French fries or frozen clams (I wondered about the hygiene there). Then there were yoghurts stored in non-cooled shelves as well as cooled ones. Also I think milk is expensive. I bought a tiny half liter box and payed around 50 rubles, the 1 liter sizes are from 70 to 110 rubles (1,60-2,50 €). In Germany we pay around 0,7 € for a liter of regular milk.

Day 13

Today I finished my paper and wrote the summary and conclusion. At 2 I drove into the city. I wanted to check out the Zero Kilometer thing, and fortunately it wasn’t busy this time. So I stood in the middle and threw my little coin and made a wish.

 Lenin and Stalin with tourists

Then I went to the GUM again to find out what the historic toilet was all about, because several people have asked me what it was. I only know that you have to pay around 80 rubles to get in. So I took some pictures of the old photographs that hung on the wall instead. 

 the tower in the old picture is probably the same one as in the lower picture

Then I walked in a U along Nikolsky street back to Teatralnya metro. Infront of the Bolshoi Theater I fed a poor fog crow with a broken wing.  He was very mistrusting but got a lot of big bites of pastry from me. Then I had to head back to take the green metro line towards campus. I met Artem who told me that Someone had told him about the cat in the room and of the boyfriends that spend the night, so he told me he would talk to the person responsible for the dorm to put me in another room. I also got my passport back (I had to hand it in for registration). Then I met my supervisor who is really nice and we talked about my work and what my next task would be. I would have to prepare a small presentation for Friday. I went back to the dorm and ate some of my instant tomato soup. I also met Marc who said that I could move to another room this evening. So we went and got the keys, he did all the talking, and went to the room. The girls, one Malaysian and one Indian, weren’t there, but as soon as I had a look at their bathroom I decided I would rather stay in my current room. But Marc talked to the lady in the office again and she decided that I could stay in the guest room. So I will take a look tomorrow and see if it’s any better.

Day 14

I woke up when my roommates had already left. I really don’t understand their wake-sleep schedule. And either they had opened the window for me to be nice, since I’m the only one opening it, or the wind had pushed it open, because they only turn the handle to the swing open position and then push it shut. The handle shows a little resistance when moving from one position to another but as I mentioned before I don’t think they know how to use it. So anyway, the window was open and it was indeed a bit chilly and to my surprise it was snowing! Actually more like snow/rain. I immediately checked if my milk was still on the window sill and it was, nice and cold too. I was concerned when I put it there last night, because the window sill is a little bit slanted outward and the German guy had warned me that the cheese they put on his window sill had disappeared during a stormy night.

So I had my sweet bread and milk for breakfast when a man from the dormitory administration came and I guess he wanted to speak to the Vietnamese girls about the cat and so on. I asked the Columbian girl to translate and afterwards I went downstairs to meet Marc downstairs at the office at 10. There were now 4 people plus me and Marc discussing about my room situation. Of course I didn’t understand anything, but in the end what happened was that the guestroom they had talked about last evening apparently was not available after all and that they would send the Vietnamese student representative to talk to the girls this evening and make them remove the cat and forbid them to let their boyfriends stay overnight. I felt really bad because I didn’t want to get them into trouble.

Then I continued working on my research. And at 6 Adrian and I left to meet the remaining IAESTE people at a nice restaurant to celebrate his last evening. I also learned that Russians can’t speak the letter “H”, they have a sound corresponding to the German “ch” which they spell with “X”, but every word they adapt from other languages that starts with an “H” they use “G” instead, for example “gamburger” or “pizza gawaii”. I thought this was funny.

Day 15

I worked on my presentation which took much longer than expected and then took the metro and tram to meet my supervisor at 6. There were 3 others from her team and I presented my work and then had to introduce myself for her colleagues, where I come from, what I’m doing etc.

Then they continued with a presentation from one guy about the centralized maintenance system Airbus uses and why it’s such an advantage over what the Russian aircraft have. But all in Russian, so naturally I could only follow things he wrote on the board and afterwards they wanted to calculate some leasing rates for aircraft, explaining that the method to calculate lease rates are different according to Russian economic law. So all in all it was a very unspectacular evening. At 9:30 I went back home and stopped at the grocery store near the metro Schukinskaya, where the tram stops. And what bothered me most was that you can’t really go window shopping because all the stores that are not from international brands use kyrillic letters and you can’t tell what’s inside from afar. Next to the grocery store there is a shopping center with several stores, but I wouldn’t know what they sell without actually going in.

What I’ve noticed as well was there are lots of little stores that sell flower bouquets. And lots and lots of men buy them for their wives/girlfriends. And I’m not talking about the average small bunch of flowers but really big bouquets with long stemmed roses and all extras.

I also decided to go to St. Petersburg because I was only required to come back to a meeting next Saturday so I looked up some hotels, flights and trains.

Day 16

I spent the morning figuring out which hotel to book and which train to take. When I finally decided and wanted to book my ticket it didn’t work. So I had to call Anna, who also arranged the train ticket for the other German guy. I booked my hotel, which seems really nice in a good location. Then I went to Metro Park Pobedy to go to the Victory Monument. It was very pompous and not very pretty in my opinion. I walked up the Obelisk which is all black, so you can’t really distinguish the designs on it then went past another flame memorial for 2^nd Worldwar and walked up to the ticket office. Everything was in Russian so I looked around a bit to figure out what kind of exhibition it actually was. Then I saw the sign for the war weaponry and fortification exhibition which showed a big blue arrow pointing right. To the right were stairs going down towards the back of the halfround Monument building. So I went down. And then where? No sign, no nothing. There were big doors on either side of the stairs, but they didn’t look open nor was there any sign. I walked around a bit to maybe find another sign, but no. So I walked back up and asked someone. He actually spoke English and said, yes, down the stairs and then straight for one kilometer. So I thought ok, that’s far but we’ll see. I went back down and along the walkway until some distance away (maybe 500m) I saw another big sign with a big blue arrow pointing left. So I walked left on the pathway through the trees. And yes, soon I saw a big fence and some tanks behind it and people with cameras. But how in the world would I get on the other side of the fence? The Fence obviously was built later than the pathway and jus placed right across it. There were no signs, no gate, not even a pathway parallel to the fence. So I wound my way through the trees on partial pathways following the fence, turning a corner and then finally saw something that looked like an entrance with ticket office. So I bought my ticket, this time she didn’t accept my student ID and went in. The setting was neat, lots of tanks and guns and a rebuilt trench. Sadly it started raining a bit and it was freezing cold. My jacket kept me very warm, but my face was just super cold. Putting on my hat and hood and gloves I kept on walking towards the area with the airplanes, helicopters, trains and even boats. All very interesting – with English Info signs!

Then I went to Kiewsky station and wanted to take a look at the big shopping mall because supposedly there was a Matrushka exhibition there. I thought I might grab a hot cocoa or tea and tried to locate the food court. I’ve never seen such an unorganized shopping mall. How anyone could find their way around without getting lost beats me. I walked up and down around corners but thing I found was a sushi bar in the middle. So I decided to go back instead. By then it was rush hour, but being Saturday not too bad. I even got a seat on the metro and took the bus from the metro to the dorm without complications. I stopped by the little café and had some Borsht soup which was surprisingly good. Now I also know how to say “check please” – it’s “schtschot paschalusta” which you pronounce more like “shoat pajaloosta”. I packed my things for St. Petersburg and organized my stuff a bit before leaving to Leningradsky Trainstation. 

For day 17 - day 21: see my post "Saint Petersburg" (click on the link in the blog archive on the right)

Day 22

What I thought was very funny when I arrived back in Moscow was that at the train station they played real Russian music, in Germany the equivalent would have been the Bavarian oohmpahpa music. I headed “home” and when I arrived my roommates were about to leave, so I went to bed for 2 hours or so because I wasn’t feeling too well. I stayed in that day and worked on my paper. In the evening I had borsht soup again at the little café. Having no access to a water boiler or kettle makes life really difficult. I always have to ask the girls next door, but they were gone that evening, so I couldn’t even make myself some tea.

Day 23

I went do Novodevichy Monastery today because it was supposed to be very pretty. At first I looked at the cemetery which was interesting, I wouldn’t call it beautiful, but interesting. Apparently, it’s a Russian thing to have the deceased image on the tomb stone. Old stones had photo-medaillons attached on the tomb, others had entire stone busts or profile engravings. The new ones had laser engraved photos. Some tomb stones were like real monuments, expressing important things from the person’s life. For example, someone was depicted ice skating, others with airplaces, rockets, racing jumpsuits and helmets, women as ballerinas etc. Some very actually very pretty, some just plain grotesque. But all in all, it was very pompous and the choice of stone (black or dark red) made it depressing as well. In Rome I went to a very pretty cemetery with only white marble tomb stones and that made it so much nicer. There was a map telling you which person lay where, but only in Russian of course. You could have bought the English map for 100 rubles, but I just looked at the displayed sample to find Tolstoy’s grave, which I didn’t find very pretty and then went around the block to the monastery. I immediately thought this would have been an ideal setting for a Christmas market. Very spacious, but also enclosed by high walls. The monastery was used to get rid of high society wives and daughters as early as 1598 by Tsar Boris Godunow. Peter 1^st sent his half-sister to the monastery because she conspired against him and later his first wife as well.

I then took the metro one station further to the highest metro platform in the world in the Moscow “sparrow hills”. I walked up the path to look at the map to find the lookout point. When I saw the walkway I thought that at that small angle it would take forever to get up the little hill. I saw a couple of people walk up a steeper slope just in front of me and thought that they seemed to know where to go and decided to follow. This turned out to be a very stupid idea, because the slope was super muddy and slippery and of course I was wearing my sneakers instead of my boots. But oh well, half way up I decided to keep going and managed not to slip or fall and then arrived right next to a big highway. Even further up there was a bridge, so I had to get up there as well. Up there I found the upper pathway towards the lookout point, so indeed, it was a shortcut, but a very muddy one. At the lookout point there were tons of people from several wedding parties taking pictures. I didn’t think the view was that memorable to be chosen for a wedding picture because there were factory towers and other ugly buildings in the background. I turned towards the university to look for the metro station that was supposed to be there. It turned out the metro station was little further on. 
The university building is one of "Stalin's 7 Sisters" with the typical architecture.

I went back into the city and wanted to meet with the girl from Portugal. She was late though so I went to the GUM to get some tea. It was super busy inside and the queues were really long. But I stood in line because I really wanted something warm to drink. When I got to the checkout I saw that they even had hot cocoa for only 50 rubles – woohoo! I met her later on at the Zero Kilometer with a friend of hers and we walked towards Pushkin square looking at some buildings, for example the old telegraph center. Then they left and I went to meet the others at Kitai Gorod. I had dinner at subway and was surprised that they charge you extra for cheese. The little parks were all nicely lit up and when I met the others we went to a Chinese bar with a real fireplace.

Day 24

I started my day by going to the Produkty to buy some water, food and toilet paper since there was none left. This is my third pack of toilet paper I’ve bought since I’ve been here. I don’t know why it’s always gone. We are 5 girls, and usually there are at least 2 or 3 rolls in the little toilet vestibule (ontop of the water tank, since they don’t have a toilet roll holder). You might recall that the toilet is separate from the sink and shower.  I’ve bought, white, yellow and now pink toilet paper, all “aroma” versions, since they have that a lot here and the pink one is just what I grabbed at the Produkty. I worked a little bit on my paper and then met the IAESTE people on the island in the Moskva river to go to a gallery with a photo exhibition. I didn’t expect too much since I’m not the usual exhibition-goer but the photos were actually quite nice. The topic was 70s rock stars, so it was fun to see Santana, Mick Jagger and ABBA etc. when they were young.

Then we went to the GUM to have lunch at the soviet style self-serve restaurant. I tried a carrot-fritter. It was ok, but very greasy. Downstairs in the GUM they had a small exhibition about vintage clothing and oldtimer cars as well as a Christmas ornament market in the middle.

Day 25

I stayed in the dorm and finished my calculations. It was raining anyway. I then took the metro and tram to the university and met Artem who took me to an office where I got my salary, 2700 rubles. I then went to a café on campus where I had some tea and finished the layout and some alterations on my report and then met up with my supervisor. I presented my work and when we were about to leave she asked me which tram I would take. She told to come with her and her sister, so we walked around the block to her car and she drove me to the tram stop, which I could have walked to. But it was a nice gesture. She also offered to meet me on Wednesday and show me the Tretjakov gallery.

Day 26

When I woke up it was snowing! It didn’t really stick to the ground, but it was snow none the less.

I took the metro to Kitai Gorod to go to the Polytechnic Museum, but of course it’s closed for renovation. So went to the Romanov Chambers instead, when I arrived, it was closed, because of course Tuesday is the day off. The opening hours of museums are really strange. Some have either Monday or Tuesday off, the Kreml has Thursday off and then they have weird extra days like the first Monday of every month or last Friday of every month.

So I fed the birds with the yucky leftover pastry I still had from the boys on the trainride. They look like sweet filled little things, but one was evidently filled with sourkraut or something similar. I didn’t even try the second one, but I suspect it was filled with red beet. The ravens are always very reserved, they won’t touch the food unless you back up at least 10 feet. But the sparrows make up for that being really tame and inquisitive. Then I had tea and honey cake for 80 rubles at a small little café in an old building next to the Romanov house. It was very cute, with tiny little windows and tea from a real hand painted porcelain cup.

I walked to the Bolshoi theater because I wanted to take a tour. The security staff there naturally spoke no English and only told me where the “kacca” (ticket office) was, there it said that only one tour is offered in English each day and costs 500 rubles. I then decided to do some other little things instead, so I went to the grey metro line and got out at the Nikolin Circus to take a picture of a cool brass statue of a guy and a car. Doesn’t sound spectacular I know. 

I went one stop further to Mendelejev to take a picture of the doggie statue which was erected in tribute to a stray dog, Malchik,  who lived in the metro station and protected it against drunks and other dogs. He was stabbed to death by a crazy drunk woman.

I took the ring line to Park Kultury to go to the Moscow city museum. When I got there at first it was difficult to figure out which building was the correct one because there were three and the signs only in Russian of course. When I finally found the ticket office and asked a lady who spoke English, she said that the museum is only in Russian so I decided not to go. I then walked around the block to the Tolstoy estate museum. It was sort of cute. In the middle of big ugly apartment building stood this little house with low ceilings and crooked walls. Inside it was nice and every room had an info sign in English. I went back to Arbat street to have something to eat at My-My (“moo moo”). The cheese soup was very good with big pieces of broccoli and potato. But the so-called ceasar salad was not good at all. I don’t know if that was the Russian version of it. Instead of real (white) chicken meat it was more like chicken-döner meatstrips and instead of ceasar dressing it was plain mayonnaise. The croutons were good though.  

I then walked to Pushkin square in the snow and met Erik’s colleague’s friend at Ulitsa 1905 metro station.  We went to a nice pub and then I went back home where I finished the condensed version of my report. By then the snow was sticking and everything looked very pretty, at least as pretty as snow covered ugly buildings can look like.

Day 27

I was supposed to meet my supervisor at 1 to go to the Tretjakov gallery, I got there early and waited and waited. I finally texted her and she said that we would have to postpone. So I walked around the red square in the snow and back towards the Romanov House. I had tea again in the little café I went yesterday and then went to the museum. They had info sheets for every room. It was very interesting and the doors were soo small! They must have been tiny people. 

I walked to the metro and drove to Kolomenskoje Park. It was really cold and because I anticipated a day in the museum I only wore normal clothes and my big jacket. I wished I had my thermo leggings on to keep my legs and butt warm! The park was nice, nothing too special, with a couple of old buildings, for example Peter 1^st wooden house he lived in while supervising some project. They re-erected it here.  Everything was glittery white and even the sun shone! I saw a very cool horse drawn carriage like from Disney’s Cinderella movie, round and see-through. 

I went back to the dorm and had some Kartoshka at the mall. I also found a stand selling little cakes on the top floor of the mall. It’s good I only discovered it now, otherwise I would have tried a different kind each day! ;-) 

Day 29

I drove to the IAESTE office and picked up my certificate. On my way back to the metro I saw the ugliest little dog. It was one of those that are almost naked and he definitely was in need of his winter coat, scarf and hood!

Then I went to Izmailovo market and bought some souvenirs. This is really the cheapest place for souvenirs, you just need to make sure you browse each stand first, without letting your gaze linger or the stand owners will try to persuade you to buy their items, a little bit like in Mexico. Once you made the tour you and compare prices you can come back to your desired booth.

Then I went back to the dorm and did some last minute edits on my report because my supervisor asked me to change some things. Then I headed towards campus where I met my supervisor and one from her team. The head of department couldn’t make it so I thought it was sort of pointless since I had already told her everything and had presented my results last time. But oh well.

When that was done I went back to the dorm and met with the girls next door and some of their friends and had a nice evening.

By the way – it’s less than 4 weeks until Christmas!

Day 30

I met Sarah, the girl from Manchester I met in St Petersburg, at the GUM where we had something to eat and then we took the Metro to Tsaritsina park. As usual there were several exits from the metro and we decided to take the left one. It was not a very nice neighborhood being almost at the end of the metro line with just lots of little kiosk stores etc. We went up this street because there were lots of people coming and going but the street ended at a train station. So we asked the security guard how to get there. It was actually very easy, we should have turned left instead of right and then walk along the street which led right up to the park. Even from afar it looked pretty with a big palace in the middle. So we walked around, over the bridge across the lake, fed the ducks and walked up to the palace. We went into a new building that was the entrance to the museum and as usual there was a security guard. She didn’t speak English and seemed very angry and annoyed with us, because she wanted us to close the door behind us which we didn’t understand. But after walking back and forth through the security thing we were finally allowed inside. But at the ticket office they did not accept my student ID and the regular price would have been 300 rubles to see the royal porcelain. I’ve already seen the porcelain collection in Dresden and Vienna, so I didn’t want to go for that price. We walked around some more and saw a squirrel and fed him some more bread and then went back to the metro. We also saw lots and lots of brides and grooms who were having their photo shoots at the palace and park. At the GUM we saw a few as well.

I said good bye to Sarah, who had to go home, and then walked around a bit, through the TSUM shopping center where they had a very nice Christmas section with cool decorations and music.

Then back through the Alexander park where I fed the last of my bread to the ravens and then took some pictures of the GUM delicatessen store where they had lots of yummy cakes, candy and pastries etc. 
I met the IAESTE people at the rendez-vous spot in the metro and then went to the Yolki Palki restaurant that I had chosen because it was supposed to be cheap, good food and have interesting decoration. The interior was actually quite cute, with a fake tree in the middle with branches hanging over tables and very rustic accessories. The food was good, I had grenki and kwas. Kwas is a traditional non-alcoholic Russian drink made out of bread. It is very dark brown and liquid like any other drink, not mushy or creamy and tastes a little bit like malt beer or root beer. I wanted to try the cherry dumplings but they didn’t have any, so I asked for the cottage cheese pancakes, but they didn’t have those either. When I ordered the honey cake they were out as well. So I was a little bit disappointed. I said good bye to everyone there and went back to the dorm where I packed my things. 

Day 31

I got up early and finished packing my things trying not to wake up my room mates. But I guess I was a little bit too loud because they woke up and they said good bye and gave me a key chain from Vietnam each. I walked to the Produkty where I bought something for breakfast and headed towards the metro when suddenly one of the miniature buses was driving past and honked at me and the driver waved for me to get on. So I thought ok, and took the bus to the metro instead of walking. I wanted to return my metro card to get the 50 rubles deposit back and buy one single ticket. The lady at the ticket counter did not understand and did not speak English. She thought I wanted to recharge the card. So I was very frustrated and finally found a girl who helped me. In the metro I tried to fix the zipper on my backpack, which of course broke again this morning. I had fixed it previously and tried to do it again. Eventually I wrapped my scarf around it instead to keep it from opening. I arrived at Kievsky train station and bought a ticket and waited because I was bit too early. The aeroexpress is actually a very nice train, clean, modern and lots of room for legs and luggage. At the airport I was very annoyed with the security personnel. To enter the terminal you had to go through security like in the museums. Luggage went through the scanner on a conveyor belt and people had to go through the scanner leaving cell phones and wallets on the little table in between. I did that as well but when I put my little travel purse which only has room for cell phone, wallet and passport she was complaining in Russian and I gathered she wanted me to put it on the conveyor belt as well. But I didn’t want to put the most important things throught that machine where anyone could steal it. In the end I did because I didn’t see any other way to get through, since I couldn’t argue with her. I was very mad though. Then I couldn’t find the Werman Wings check-in and after asking some airline employees who could speak English (wow!) they told me I was in the wrong terminal building. So had to go outside and walk a few meters to the next terminal building and had to go through security again, same situation only this time the security woman seemed nicer. I looked for the check-in and finally found it. To get there you had to have you bags scanned again. After I got my ticket I went to the next floor and through passport control. Then I read my book near the duty free area because I had lots of time left. I also had 100 rubles left to spend, since you’re theoretically not allowed to export Russian currency. So I bought a piece of pizza and had lunch, the women at the pizza place could also not speak English, but pointing to the slice of pizza you want worked well enough. I really think it’s strange that people who work in museums or airports who are confronted with tourists every day do not speak English and don’t even try. You would think it’s a hiring requirement.

After that I went to the gate and had to go through security again, the “actual” security point, but I didn’t have to take out my laptop and I doubt that I was required to show my little bag of liquids. So anyway, I got to the gate and on the plane and finally left Moscow after 30 days. People from IAESTE, the dorm and my supervisor kept asking me what I thought of Moscow and if I liked it and the best diplomatic reply I think is to say “it was interesting”.  I liked St Petersburg and some things in Moscow were nice but all in all I don’t think I want to go to Moscow again. It was an experience. And it made me realize how lucky I am to live in a developed country like Germany, grew up in a house with a garden, have clean air to breathe etc. It made me appreciate the little things even more than I already did. 

Dá Swidania!