"Dream a little dream of Russia" Louis Armstrongov

So here we are, my last couple of days here in St. Petersburg. I'll probably be posting still when I get back to the states, at least to cover what I skipped (MOSCOW) and put pictures up.

Last weekend was clearly a dream. Friday we had a Dostoevsky tour. Now this tour wasn't a regular old writer's tour which entails us walking around their house (like it was for Pushkin and Tolstoy).

Instead, we walked around the part of town where Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" takes place. Dostoevsky also rented several apartments in this area. The tour guide took us through the novel, pointing out places were scenes happened or could have happened (such as the event - don't want to ruin it for you guys, just know it's the event).

[To the left you can see how someone painted Raskolnikov (the main character) on the wall of an alleyway. This city has so much character and personality, it amazes me. ]

Of course, this tour included us walking through eerie alleyways, seeing a room that just HAS to be some sort of torture chamber (there honestly is no other explanation - check out the 'window' below), and being yelled at by a German (and thanks to Tobi, I now know some German curse words. Sweet.)

Creep-tastic.

Also, there was graffiti along the walls of many of the places that we visited that related to the book, in both English and in Russian. It was pretty cool, a way for people of the past to connect with us - we all came here with the same purpose in mind.

After our tour, I went to see "Swan Lake" at the Mariinsky Theater. I understand I already saw it at the Mihailovsky Theater, but it is "Swan Lake" and it is the Mariinsky. It made no sense not to go.

[The theater from outside]

To be fair, I like the production, as a whole better at the Mihailovksy. There was just more life to it. But the girl who played Odette (Anastasia Kolegova) in the Mariinsky production was AMAZING. Her lines were so strong and fluid. Ahhhh it was beautiful.

[The inside of the Theater]

[The first act of "Swan Lake", also know as "Natalie being a bad girl and taking pictures during a performance"]

Saturday we took a tour of all the Religious places in St. Petersburg. I got to our meeting spot about an hour early, and I spent that hour in the large bookstore next to where we were meeting. It's call Дом Книги and is a pretty large bookstore (Borders-sized). It's famous because apparently this is where they used to make the Russian sewing machines? Something along those lines.

Anyways, the religious tour took us everywhere: from visiting churches for various Christian denominations, to more Orthodox churches (where we had to wear head-scarves), a Synagogue, a Buddhist temple, and even a Mosque (it was gorgeous, but we were unable to go inside. Sad. Here's a picture of the main door at least, so you guys can get a sense of it).

After this tour - which took about 3-4 hours - the group of us who were going to the Mariinsky Theater again that night (I was such a theater buff that weekend) headed to McDonalds for dinner. I know, ugh McDs, but I broke my boycott for a little bit to try how Russian's did it. It wasn't too bad. I also learned what a McGangBang was. You take a chicken burger and put it all in the middle of a double cheese burger. I tried a bite. It was pretty good, but I could feel my arteries shudder after that. :P

So that night we saw an opera: Eugene Onegin, which is based off a short story by Pushkin, I believe. It was my first opera. I had figured that since my mother went to a Conservatory for opera singing I should probably check some out. I really enjoyed it. The story was simple, realistic, and beautiful. The set design was amazing and the man who played Onegin had a wonderful voice.

[here is a shot of Lensky, another main character, and the absolutely gorgeous set (my favorite was the fall set, but I don't have any pictures of that).]

The schedule of all the shows and concerts at the Mariinsky

We had gone with my friends' hazaika to the opera, and she took us out to a couple clubs afterwards. We spent most of our time at 'red door', which I have mentioned before. It is shaping out to be my favorite club. It is very low-key; not too many people know of it. It doesn't even have an actual name. I feel that something like 'red door' would work out pretty well in New Haven, at least for the artsy and hipster crowd (I refused to combine the two, especially since I used to always consider myself 'artsy'). Apparently, another friend's hazain (male hazaika) DJed there the night before. Pretty cool. The music that night was the best: 70s - 90s music mash ups, from Billy Idol to U2. My kind of music. Yeah baby.

Later we went to another club where the hazaika's friend was DJing. It's call the "Laundrymat" and actually works as a laundry mat during the day. Those resourceful Russians.

Their hazaika also let Sam and I spend the night, so we wouldn't have to deal with more bridge escapades. She called a gypsy cab to take a group of us to her place. For those who don't know, a gypsy cab is where you stick your arm out and any rando who needs a few extra rubles will pull up and drive you wherever you need to go. Pretty sketchy if you don't know what you are doing. Apparently, my friends' hazaika always says the same thing "200 rubles. It's not far," even if it is far. Love her. So the 5 of us piled into the three available seats and we were off.

The next day was pretty chill, but maybe one of my favorite days here. We didn't really have a plan. A group of us just started wandering the side streets off Nevsky. We found this amazing park, bought ice cream, and just relaxed in the shade. I didn't realize such calm places could be

found so close to the crazy center of St. Petersburg. We also found a giant souvenir market (or рынок) where we proceeded to haggle with the kiosk owners. It was actually a lot of fun, and I managed to pull off being a Russian, or at least not an oblivious American. I didn't buy anything, though. The plan is to give our friend, Allen, a list of what we want and he will buy it for us. He is actually Russian, so he definitely gets the better deals. Plus, if we buy things in bulk we get better prices. We Yalies are savvy fools.

[The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. During sunset. It's given this name because this is where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. Every corner of this city has some historical significance. It feels so strange to be living here, right where all these moments happened.]

So there was my beautiful dream, only to be disrupted by school the next day. Darn.

Natalie wonders why it took so long to realize the beauty that is Russian dessert

My dad told me as I was being shipped off to Russia that there are two things Russia is known for which I must try: their vodka and their ice cream. I have to say....the ice cream is delicious. :P At every corner there must be another lady with a cart selling ice cream bars, and if you go into shops, that's where the real magic is. Their scooped ice cream is to DIE FOR.

I can't recall how many times I've had it (which could be a bad sign), but I have yet to have a flavor I do not like. Even during those times when I had absolutely no idea which flavor I was eating. I just pointed and asked for a scoop. My favorite would have to be the Venetian Evening (Венецианской вечер) which I had in Moscow- chocolate with caramelized almonds. Amazing.

They have other wonders besides ice cream - there is a pastry truck that stops outside the metro station near my apartment every day. Today I decided to give in to its teasing and try something small. I asked for something with chocolate, and I bought a small pastry for 20 rubles (about 65 cents). It tasted like a donut, but much richer. The chocolate on top was amazing, like a mix between milk and dark. Ahh heavenly. I'm going to have to pick one up again soon.

What's even better is the fruit. Fruit isn't too common here, except for apples and bananas, because most things aren't in season or are too expensive. Therefore, what you are able to get is completely worth it. I bought cherries my second week here, and they must have been some of the best cherries I have every had.

Story time: I come home yesterday, extremely thirsty (Russia is having a record-breaking summer at the moment). I head to the fridge because I remembered leaving a bottle of water there to cool over the night. I open the fridge door and what do I see? The entire fridge (not an exaggeration - at all) is filled with pots and pots of raspberries (малина). I was stunned. My hazaika explained to me later that she buys them in bulk over the summer and then preserves them as jams or juices. Raspberry juice - OHMIGAWD so good. It might be one of the best types of juices ever. It is sweet and thick, like nectar, but not overwhelmingly sweet. It has a tangy aftertaste as well.

For tea today (because you always have something sweet to go with your tea. I love this country) I made myself блины with that raspberry jam. (блины are like French crepes - thin pancake made into rolls with a filling that could be jelly, honey, cheese, meat, etc. My mom makes them at home, and I had never realized how much of a delicatessen they are) It got to a point when I was eating the jam straight out of the jar. Self-restraint, Natasha, come on.

To be fair, most sweets anywhere are amazing, but they have just been wonderful in Russia. Annie and I found a cafe/bakery, similar to Panera Bread, that has these gorgeous cakes/pastries/parfait displays. Annie and I had made a plan to sample all the cakes they had, but with only having a week left here (ahh! I don't wanna leave!), I don't see how that's possible.

And on a more simple side - the plan butter cookies here are delicious. I'm going to see if I can bring some home with me.

It might get to a point where I will forego the silly "meal" stuff and head for the sweets. Sounds like a plan.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, what a great find - the Broncosaurus! A creature that survived merely on beer and waffle cookies...."

So I'm writing this as I'm packing to go on my Midnight Train to Moscow (Gladys Knight got nothing on me), I figured I should write my short blurb on our camping trip last weekend.

Prologue: outside the station....

Here is a large Lenin Monument. We were wondering if this had been torn down during the siege.

Outside most of the metro and train stations you can usually see old ladies selling either flowers or fruit.

Aaaand Welcome to Lake Lagoda, an absolutely GINORMOUS lake in the north of Russia. ("A" was our camping spot, St. Petersburg towards the bottom, and ohhellofinland to the left). Since it is pretty north, the White Nights were even more prominent. It maybe got dark-ish around 3? But then it would brighten back up before 4. We would usually go to bed around 4:30, so it was pretty light by then.

Our trip - first we take a 3 1/2 hour train to the rural parts of Russia. It's amazing how different it was from St. Petersburg. But to tell you the truth, this is how I pictured Russia: fields and fields with scattered cabins/houses throughout. So peaceful. All it needs are the dancing bears and my vision is set. Then we get on a rickety bus with an insane driver. From various movies, picture the stereotypical Russian sleez-ball (skinny, losing hair, crazy voice, shouts randomly, plays gypsy music on the radio, practically drives our bus off cliffs). yea. He even stopped at a market for 'water,' but reminded us that we could buy alcohol inside if we wanted. So begins our wonderful trip. haha

Once we get to the site (after some more walking - we were really in the middle of nowhere), we see that people are already there. I actually got to meet Russian gypsies (or at least that's how I'm describing them)! A bunch of хозяйки joined us on our trip as well. These were of the younger crowd, maybe just two or three years older than us. They were all wonderful people and meshed amazingly with our group (the guys were great soccer players, just sayin').

The main camp was in a little clearing in the forest, but a group of us decided to set up our tents on the beach. Best idea ever. It was wonderful waking up to the lake every morning (bad because it was freezing during the night and a sauna in the morning, but totally worth it). And it motivated me to do some yoga on the beach. Makes me wonder why I never did it before.

We spent our time there between cooking meals, cutting down trees, and wandering the beach. In the evenings I joined the guys in soccer games in the sand (which is ridiculously difficult). I actually made a goal. Go me! :D

[By now you must all be saying: why, Natasha, how did you survive missing the Germany-Argentina game on Saturday?!

Well, my young friends, we managed to get updates via texts as someone's хозяйн kept asking people back in the city. You can imagine my excitement when I got the final score :D Ah, those were happier times....]

We also reverted back to our younger selves and started building sand castles (or Russian Cathedrals :P). I also realized that once you hit a certain age, you really just want to dig as deep of a hole as you can. No real goal in mind, just to dig. At least, that was the case for some guys in our group (they wanted to build a sauna?). Bronco wanted to be covered in sand, so we decided to get creative with it and make him into a giant dinosaur-turtle-thing. We had a whole story set up, and an unveiling. yea, 5 years old are we?

There was also canoeing! The lake is much much much larger than you think it is, and an island that seems close by is twice as far as you thought. (you heard me, this lake had multiple islands). We didn't get to see them all, but the ones we know of are as follows: squishy moss island (known in some circles as shimmy island?), naked island, and bird island. All pretty self-explanatory.

While I had avoided falling into the lake (can't say so for some other people...), on the second day we all decided to brave the freezing waters and jump in together. Live together, dietogether, catch hypothermia together, all along those lines. IT WAS FREEZING. I mean, we did jump in right after playing soccer, so we were all warmed up, but it was still SO COLD. I have no idea how those Scandinavian kids do it. It got to a point where my legs were heating up, which I took to be a bad sign. Needless to say, our game of frisbee in the lake ended pretty quickly.

And one of my absolute most favorite moments was when we all gathered on a smaller inlet and watched the sunset (at 11:30). My group got lost at first, and ended up on top of a mountain. It was gorgeous, and reminded me of FOOT :)

Scratch that. My favorite moment must have been right after, where I helped lead a campfire sing-a-long that lasted 3 hours. What started with Classic Rock songs moved to 90s hits (Mambo #5, anyone?) and later to foreign pieces (picked up a few good Russian songs, as well as an attempt at Numa Numa). Loved it.

Also, I'm currently heart broken over the German loss last night. I watched the game at a bar with a German and an Englishman (who switched over to support Germany after England's loss). Let's just say it was a UN of dispair.

Cutting off here - heading on my train to Moscow in T-minus 40 minutes!

Пока!

--Н.И--

NEWS FLASH

I just got hot water again, after two weeks of washing myself out of a bucket of heated water. Урааа!

See, this is how it goes in St. Petersburg: every summer they shut off the hot water to clean the pipes. Which means, I had only cold water to wash myself during my showers. Either that, or I could heat up a bucket of water on the stove and pour it over me with a pot. Since my хозяйка comes home late (10 or later) I figured I could make do with just taking cold showers. False. This cold is not your average cold. It's absolutely freezing. And I think it is the main reason why I'm currently sick.

Needless to say, I quickly switched to the boil-water-and-pour-out-of-pan method.

But no longer! Hot water, here I come!

Пока!

--Н.И--

Медвежонок = little bear. aka the President.

Again, another week rap up (I'll get better at this, I promise)

The beginning of the week was pretty basic: went to class, pronounced words wrong, talked about who we would like to meet if we could meet anyone (my answer was Robert Plant :P), and the such.

On Monday, Sveta (Света), who is a friend of Anya's, offered to take some of us on a tour of where she worked. She is a writer for a St. Petersburg finance newspaper. I was excited to see how a newspaper usually worked (never been to a newspaper office before, only seen some on television).

After a 15 minute walk, a 10 minute bus ride, and another 10 minute walk, we were there. What's really cool is that it is situated at a "business center;" the office for Microsoft was right next door. Walking inside, it looked like I stepped into an Ikea showroom. Everything was colorful and made out of that Ikea styled wood. They even had multiple fish tanks all over (with ridiculous amounts of exotic fish...and some sharks?). After a quick tour we all gathered in a conference room and discussed the development of technology in the world and how that affects news reporting and the development of businesses (from contraptions to facebook). They even told us that if we would like to, we could write articles about budding businesses at Yale and they will publish them in their paper. Sweet.

Tuesday, Olya (Оля), another friend of Anya's, offered to take some of us to the top of the St. Isaac's Cathedral (Исаа́киевский Собо́р), the largest Russian Orthodox church in the city. It is absolutely magnificent in all senses of the word. For the past two weeks, it's been surrounding me: we can see it directly accross the Neva from our university (pictured), we pass by it constantly to get to other National landmarks, sit in the parks around it, and when Eunju and I were stuck because of the bridges, we chilled around it for a while. As a class we are not going to see it, which is really a shame, but we were free to go see it whenever we would like. I wanted to go to the top of the church since I first saw it, so I jumped at the opportunity to go with Olya.

From here, you can see every point of the city. It's amazing.

Nicholas I Monument from above. St. Issac's sits right between Nicholas and Peter the Great (the Bronze Horseman). Funny story: originally, this statue was going to face the other way, away from St. Issac's in order to face the governmental building. However, it would seem as if Nicholas was sticking his butt in Peter's direction (his statue at least), and they couldn't have that. So the plans were changed and Nicholas switched around.

The Neva River and the Admiralty (former Naval base-> now Academy)

The city (lovely shot of the Russian flag if you squint)

One of the many statues surrounding the top of the Cathedral (reminds me a little of "Don't Blink," haha Doctor Who)

The Hermitage (left) and Alexander's Column (right)

After leaving the Cathedral, we bought ice cream and sat in a park facing the Neva along with the Bronze Horseman.

Peter in all of his glory

View of St. Isaac's from where we were sitting

And then on Wednesday we took as nice old trip to the Russian Museum. Originally it was the Mihailovsky Palace, though it was later turned into a museum and opened to the public in 1898.

Here we saw mostly religious paintings (what we are currently studying in our culture class), such as icons from the 14th century, to more modern pieces of the early 1900s. Me being the art fanatic that I am, took notes and will be looking up my favorite pieces soon. Our guide was wonderful. He not only explained the history of the artist and the pieces, but also different aspects of the piece itself (technique, images, etc), what he believed they reflected, and how they related to the time period. He made me toy again with the idea of maybe majoring in something arty.

You needed to buy a special pass to take pictures inside, so I only have pictures of the outside.

A statue of Pushkin in a park in front of the museum aptly called "Art Park" (it's surrounded by theaters and museums).

Our class walking to the museum

"State Russian Museum"

One of the lions protecting the museum. These lions (along with sphinxes) can be found all over the city, in many different forms. They are a sign of power. However, Lewis Carroll described the lions during his visit as 'playful kittens with big balls of yarn.'

And the rest of the week entailed of us getting ready for our camping trip this past weekend (I'll do a whole blog post on that....I'm coming, I'm coming!). I had to buy a backpack for the trip, given that my bag broke this week and my хозяйка didn't have one (though considering I think she's going on 70, that's not too much of a surprise). The thing is with russian stores, everything is specialized - everything. There is no one stop shopping store a-la Walmart to supply all your needs. Luckily there is a sport's store at the metro station near my apartment, so I was able to grab a backpack there. I feel like my russian reaches its best when I have to buy obscure necessities like an internet router or a backpack, but absent when I'm ordering lunch at a restaurant. I guess the process of learning russian takes a detour? Может быть.

Also, while at the store I swear I heard another song by this guy on the intercom (someone showed me this back in New Haven. Worth the watch). Possibly the only black rapper in Russia.

I'll come back soon with a new update on camping this past weekend. Even while sick, I'm so happy I went. Rural Russia is much different from the hustle and bustle of St. Petersburg.

Пока!

--Н.И--

And now for something completely different

...Also known as the one where Natalie squeals a little about the German

National Team.

I know this isn't really relevant to Russia, but I did watch the game while

in Russia, and Russians actually like soccer (except for my хозяйка, joy).

I'm just so happy that Germany won :D. And it was 4-1, so even if the

second English goal was counted (which, personally, it should have been),

Germany still would have won.

Plus, how can you look at this and not smile...

Пока!
--Н.И--

For future reference, it's the other bridge

So I thought I would give a quick run down of my Saturday night. Interesting story.

Saturday, we spent most of the day at Peterhof (amazing amazing amazing) and when we got back we were all exhausted. Except most people had plans to go out that night. I thought, "well, what the heck. I haven't gone out at all yet because I was sick, and I am in St. Petersburg..." I decided to join the group of people going with Allen and Jon-Michael. Their хозяйка (hostess) was planing on taking people out bar/club hopping. It was actually a lot of fun, especially during the White Nights when it's still light out. We moved from a pretty basic bar to one that played spanish-inspired russian music (my favorite one), to one that looked like it belonged in a coming-of age foreign film (weird graffiti and art on the walls, neon lights, lasers, etc), to the last one hidden in the basement of a building where you have to squeeze between a fence to get into (oh, you know it). All pretty fun.

Some people wanted to head back around 1:30 am, so some of us decided

to walk them home. See, Eunju and I live on the island, while the bars and most of the homestays for people are on the mainland. The bridges to get to the island go up at 1:30 am to allow ships to pass through (the Neva River is HUGE), but there is one that comes down at 2:45 am until 3:10. That gives us a little window to cross the bridge and go home. Eunju and I were already planning on staying out past the bridges going up and then crossing over during that window. Since we had time to spare, we hung out at a cafe with Panos, and then wandered around the Hermitage taking pictures. It was actually kind of dark at this time (the sky was a lovely, deep, dark sea blue), but there were plenty of tourists around.

As we sat by the bridge, waiting for it to come down we met a group of 4 kids from Dartmouth, also waiting for the bridge. Talking, we realized that the bridge should have come down a while ago. So we asked a bridge security officer about the situation. He told us that this bridge actually doesn't come down until 4:55 am. Though the bridge "over-there" is down right now, but will go up in 5 minutes. ... We were waiting at the wrong bridge. Crap.

We ran to the other bridge (me in heels. darn Russian women always wearing heels) and made it there in time to watch it go back up. With us on the wrong side of the river.

(Note: Not my picture. Will upload one once I steal one from Eunju :P)

Soooo. We had time to kill until 5 am. Wonderful. We wandered around St. Petersburg, seeing the sights all glorious in the actual darkness, passing the chocolate museum, as well as the vodka museum. Stopping at a hotel to use the restroom, we decided to hang out in their lobby until it was time to head back.

We left the hotel at around 4:45, walked to the bridge, and made it over safely :D Then, we headed in the direction where most people live. I live on the other side of the island, so I left them at one point to go to the metro. It didn't open until 5:30, and my train didn't actually get there until 6:01. By that time a guy hit on me and creepily stared at me until the last possible minute before he missed his train. As I was walking from the station to my apartment, another guy asked me to have some champagne with him (at least they're classy?? but it was 6 am....welcome to Russia, again). I was then paranoid the rest of the way home. But my хозяйка did not wake up. Bed time: 6:45 am. So much win.

It just reminds me of what Julia Titus (my former professor) told me when she found out where I'll be living: I should not walk home by myself, or I'll be mistaken for a lady of 'quesionable character.' Duly noted, Julia, duly noted.

My first night going out in St. Petersburg? Not too bad. Had an unwelcomed adventure, but it was fun :D

Пока!

--Н.И--