St. Petersburg
This may actually be the coolest city I've ever been in. It stays light at night until very very late.
We took Russian language classes taught by little old ladies from St. Petersburg University. It
was great for helping me learn Russian. Plus, we went out nearly every night to "soak up" some
Russian culture.
Picture we drew in one of our Russian language classes... it actually helped us understand the story!
Palace Square, next to the Hermitage.
Inside the Hermitage.
Me with Kristichnaya on the boat trip in the Neva.
Peter and Paul fortress.
St. Issac's Cathedral, which has the tallest point in historical Petersburg.
The Bronze Horseman- statue to Peter the Great.
More Peter and Paul fortress- the first one built by Peter the Great.
The Hermitage. If you spent 1 minute looking at every single piece of artwork, it would take you
10 years to look at everything there.
The Neva River. We took a boat ride on it and it was so pretty!
Trevor, Kristi and Zach on the boat.
"Russia. Land of Opportunities." Sound familiar...?
The Church of Spilt Blood. At the exact site of this curch, Tsar Alexander II was murdered.
Trevor, Kate, Ginny, Peter, Hannah, and 1/2 of Rob at Dubai, our local bar.
At Pavlosk- a palace Catherine the Great built for her son as a sort of consolation prize since she hated him.
Bronze Horesman again.
Close up of St. Issac's.
Pretty archway... forget what it's called.
Out with Kscenia at a local bar she likes.
Tuesday with Tony. We went with Kscenia to a mafia run bar/resturant that also sold vodka by the bottle
... and it turns out Tony likes vodka... hehe.
Oh Peter.... he likes vidka too...
Gotta love that St. Petersburg smog... mmm mmm good.
These are pictures from a palace of the best friend of Peter the Great- he was Peter's
trusted frisnd and was given a lot of money to build up one of the islands of St. Petersburg.
The beach near our appartment building.
Pretty sunset.
Nice fat man walking on the beach. This water must have been freezing, but people were
swimming in it anyways.
More pretty sunsets. These were taken at 12 midnight.
More pretty sunsets.
Literature class with Tony outside.
Inside Peter and Paul fortress. There's a church there that is in the center of the fortress.
This was the tsar's place where they stood during the services.
Tsar Peter the Great's tomb. In Peter and Paul there are many tombs of tsars.
Memorial to Nicholas Romonov and his family.
Statue to Peter the Great. There's a lot of contraversy about this statue since it portrays Peter
with a freakishly small head. Some people think Peter was an amazing tsar since he built St.
Petersburg, but others think that he was really mean. Lots and lots of pesants died when they were
forced to build the city.
Out with Kscenia.
"Alle Parus"- this was the night of graduation for all high school students. It was so amazing. I think
everyone was out this night. Nevsky Prospekt, the biggest street in St. Petersburg, was completely
full of people. The bridges couldn't go up because so many people were on them. There was also
a live concert with lots of bands. Very cool.
At Peterhof. This was a palace that Peter built on the outskirts of the city so that he could
watch out for Finnish boats who might be attacking Petersburg.
This fountian was a "magic" fountian. There's this one specific rock that when you step on it, makes
the sprinklers go off... ok not really. Actually there's a little old man sitting on a bench that
sets off the water when people go in it. Peter had this built to make fun of visiting dignitaries.
At Peterhof again. Pretty gardens.
View of the Gulf of Finland from Peterhof.
Pretty fountians at Peterhof. There aren't any electronic pumps or anything. All the water systems
are made using gravity or something like that.
The front of the Peterhof palace. It's got beautiful fountians in the front.
Close up of the statue/fountian in front of the palace. It's a man wrentching open the mouth
of a lion, which symbolizes the Russian victory over Napoleon. This was built a little after Peter
built the palace.
A fountian with Chinese dragons on it. Chinese and Japanese culture was very very popular in the
time of the tsars and they often had rooms decorated with Chinese paintings and porcelin.
More pretty fountians.
Close up of the man with the lion. The water is turned off every day at 6 PM.
This is hard to see, but it's actually a picture of Lenin talking to Stalin that is hung in
a little bar/club thing.
Hannah and Victor.
Bridges going up.
Yes there actually is a museum dedicated to Vodka. And in case you were wondering, yes, it does
include a free shot of vodka.
Statue of Tsar Alexander.
Boat that fired the first shots in the October Revolution into the Winter Palace.
Original house of Peter the Great. He lived here while they were building Peterhof.
Furnishing in his house.
Bust of Peter the Great.
Sailboat that Peter buily himself.
The side of the house.
Rob at a Chinese resturant waiting for food.
Weekend trip to the country. Vert pretty.
Church in the country. Right next to the house that Nobokov (a Russian-American author) lived in.
Icon of Nicholas Romonov and his family. They were sainted in the Russian Orthadox Church ver recently.
Old wagon at the Post Station Museum.
This is an old post station- when people were traveling they would stop here and switch their
horses or spend the night, or get some food or something.
Old clothes from the post station.
Old samovar.
Me with Zohar, a Dutch guy that I met while in St. Petersburg, at Peterhof. We had fun toghether.
At Novgorod, one of the oldest cities in northern Russia. It was one of only 2 towns that were
able to resist Tartar invadors.
This is a statue dedicated to the many centuries of Russia. It's got 3 rows of figures, and
all the important people are depicted on it.
Church of Wisdom in Novgorod.
It's hard to see, but there's a little dove sitting on top of this church. It's made out of stone and
the town used to think that as long as the dove was there they would be safe.
Church again
Leaning tower of Novgorod. It really is leaning.
Old bell tower inside Kremlin at Novgorod.
Windmill built out of wood. Part of a museum of wooden structures.
Monastary in Novgorod.
Wooden museum of old structures.
Church of Pskof, the other city that was never incaded by Tatars.
Church to St. Sophia. She was a saint who founded the city.
Statue to the many who died in all of the wars of Russia.
Map of the Kremlin of Pskof.
Original icon from a long time ago... forget how old.
View from the top of the bell tower of Pskof.
INside the little church in Pskof.
Bridges going up. They go up every night at 1:30 AM.
On our little beach near the appartment buildings.
The bridges going up again.
Alexander Sukarev, the director of the program from St. Petersburg University.
My graduation certificate!
At the graduation dinner.