July 16, 2007

Eternal Flame at Peskarovskov’s Memorial cemetery.

Church of the Savior on the Spilt Blood.

Me on a bridge over one of the Canals in St. Petersburg.

After a long train ride and journey, we arrived in St. Petersburg. (Our train was delayed due to a train derailment outside of Moscow)  As we waited for our bus to pick us up and bring us to the our hotel, I observed my surroundings.  St. Petersburg looks VERY European!  The buildings have a “European feel” to them.  There are also a ton of canals throughout the city.   I noticed a Coca-Cola sign above a huge building in front of the train station.  People were speaking all sorts of languages – I heard Spanish, Italian, German, English, and of course Russian.

Our bus finally arrived and we were brought to our hotel. Karen (my roommate from the U of I) and I went upstairs to our room to shower and change (Karen was my roommate again – she’s wonderful!).  We slept in our clothes on the train and felt a little “dirty.”  We ate some lunch downstairs at the hotel buffet (the food was MUCH better at the hotel).

We then ventured on the bus again for a tour of St. Petersburg.  We went to Peskarovskov’s Memorial Cemetery (this is a cemetery of the victims from the 900 day seize on Leningrad during WW II).  Such a sad place – it reminded me a lot of the American Cemetery in Normandy.  Very quiet.  Very peaceful.  I took a few pictures of the statues, graves, and the eternal flame (see photo above).  Thousands and thousands of Leningrad citizens that starved and died are buried in mass graves at this cemetery.

Stopped at this ridiculous gift shop that was intended for our tour guide to get a commission on anything we bought in the shop.  All of the American teachers were annoyed with this stop.  And, the prices were in Euros – you could pay with rubles, Euros, or American money.  I found this a little odd since we were told that it was illegal for shop owners to take American money.

Our next stop:  the Church of the Savior of Spilt Blood (see photo above).  This is the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881.  He will later die in the Winter Palace from his wounds.  I had my picture taken outside of the church by the canal (see photo above). 

 There is an open market area across the street from the church so I shopped.  I found some matryoshka dolls of Bon Jovi as a gift for my sister – she LOVES Bon Jovi! 🙂  Ron tried on a few hats from the Soviet period.  He tried to barter with the guy but the price was too high.

We went back to the hotel for some dinner.  A group of Americans decided to go out for the evening but I was so exhausted that I stayed in and went to sleep.  It was tough to sleep – it was still light outside at midnight!  We missed White Nights but we still had a lot of sunlight and daylight.