St. Petersburg, Russia: Outside the Burg

Today, I took myself out of the city by metro and then bus to the impressively regal Peterhof.  This complex, initially designed and built by Peter the Great as a palatial complex outside of St. Petersburg, was begun in 1714, inhabitable a few years later, and added to by subsequent emperors and empresses until the revolution in 1917.  After WWII, it was restored, and is now a giant group of museums and gardens.  It was raining when I took this picture in front of the Grand Palace in the Upper Garden in the morning, but by the afternoon the rain cleared and it was beautiful!

This is a view of the Grand Palace and fountains from the Lower Garden.

The Lower Garden is littered with grandiose fountains of all styles and inspirations, as you can see from the Chessboard Cascade in the background of the picture above.  They are close enough to walk to, but far enough apart to not clash, and I spent a delightful afternoon walking the wooded paths and coming upon these fountains.

This is a view of the fountains in front the Grand Palace from the terrace.  I went inside the Palace, which was incredibly opulent and had a very interesting history (which I learned about because I discreetly tagged along with an English tour group), but unfortunately, you were not allowed to take photos, so I can not include any.  However, the channel coming from these fountains empties into the bay of Finland, and I walked down there...and I saw Finland!  Just kidding, it was St. Petersburg, but I thought it was Finland until the hostel receptionist told me otherwise, and I was really excited for a couple of hours.

For all of you non-Anastasia fans, this is the Winter Palace of the tsars, in front of which is the Alexander II monument.  It now houses a museum of Western European art.  For all of you Anastasia fan out there, this is it--the palace the Anastasia finds Dmitri in in the movie :-) 

St. Petersburg, Russia: The Venice of the North (?)

We finally made it to St. Petersburg at around 10:30 this morning, after the debacle of yesterday and getting up at 4:00 to get a plane.  Once we arrived, we began the sight-seeing route with a walking tour of half of the historical center.  They call St. Petersburg the Venice of the north, and having recently been to Venice, my initial impressions are as follows.  Similarities: lots of canals, beautiful old buildings everywhere, boat transport, a plethora of churches.  Differences: in Venice Italy, mullets are no longer in style (they are here); in Italy, men generally wear shirts (not so much the case in Russia--lots of unbuttoned and completely shirtless people); and in Italy, music is generally from the last 10 years (in Russia, 80s pop ballads seem to be a favorite).  I suppose time will tell if the 'Venice of the North' nickname is deserved...Anyhow, first on the list was the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood.  This Orthodox church was built in the last two decades of the 1800s over the spot where Alexander II (a tsar, I believe) was mortally wounded.  As you can see, the church is very unique, but absolutely gorgeous from the outside...

...and on the inside.  Though this picture doesn't do them justice, all of the artwork on the inside is intricate mosaics.  In fact, there are 7000 square meters (roughly 63000 square feet) of mosaics that cover every surface except the floor, which is itself a masterpiece in marble.  The sight is truly breathtaking.

This building behind me is the engineer's castle...not particularly noteworthy, but poetic, eh?

We ended our first day in Russia with a trip to the Conservatory to see one of the best-known Russian ballets, Swan Lake.  Despite the fact that we were oh-so-tired, the show was wonderful.  And when it finished at 11pm...it was still light out!  Gotta love the north in the summer :-)

Kiev, Ukraine: The First Big Glitch

Today we tried to fly from Bucharest, Romania to St. Petersburg, Russia (notice the signage in both English and Russian, which is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, which I have no hope of reading or pronouncing).  Unfortunately, there was a boarding pass/customs/airline-not-listening-to-us error, and we are stuck in Kiev, Ukraine :-(

The upside is that we have a nice hotel near the airport (yay travel insurance!), food, and are on the next flight to St. Petersburg at 7:00am.  So, to Russia I say...see you tomorrow.

Bucharest, Romania: A City of Contradictions

We took the train from Sibiu southeast over the Carpathian Mountains (which are very beautiful) to Bucharest, Romania's capital.  Our discussions and research about this city had left us wary--it has gotten anything but positive reviews--but I found it to be a city of contradictions.  For example, some of the buildings, such as our hostel, were built long ago, in a time where people were much shorter (for evidence, see the image of me standing next to the door to our room as evidence).

There is also a beautiful fountain- and tree-lined street in the city, modeled after the Champs Elysees in Paris, which was built in the 1980s.

However, when you see the Parliamentary Palace at the end of the street--which, though it is the second-largest administrative building in the world behind the Pentagon--you begin to wonder, as it's not all that attractive.  In addition, when you learn that Ceausescu (Communist leader of Romania until the revolution in 1989) tore down an entire district of historic buildings to build this street and palace--to the tune of 3.3 billion Euros, while the vast majority of his people were starving--you get a rather bad taste in your mouth.

Still, it does have its architectural gems, like these buildings in the 'old town'.  All in all, the brand-new metro/hoardes of cars because they just started giving loans/ridiculous inflation (literally double the cost of everywhere else we went in Romania)/new streets but ancient, broken sidewalks/outdoor cafes surrounded by packs of stray dogs left me more confused than anything.  Leaving this half pre-industrial, half trying-to-be-worthy-of-the-EU nation has given me more questions than ever about the past, present, and future of Eastern Europe.

Sighisoara, Romania: Land of Dracula

Today was one of Janine and my favorite days so far!  After our two-hour train ride from Sibiu, we decided to take a guided tour of the citadel, since much our research about this place was conflicting, and none of the signs were in English.  Our tour guides turned out to be these two local high school girls working at a non-profit organization, and they were very informative; even better was the fact that Janine and I were the only ones on the tour, so we were able to ask them lots of questions, not only about Sighisoara, but also about Romanian life in general.  I'm not going to relate everything they told us, but these pictures and text should hit some of the highlights.  First, the statue above is a bust of Vlad Drac, legendary Romanian king who was thought to inspire the vampire Dracula.  We found out today that though the story of Dracula does take place in Transylvania, the novel was actually written, then the name of the vampire and its setting changed after the author found out about Vlad Drac.  The real king, who held the throne a total of three times in the twelfth century, was quite brutual--he was famous for torturing his enemies by impaling them through the spine, so that it would take them 48 painful hours to die.  He also frequently tortured his subjects for minor crimes, particularly the Germans who were living in Transylvania.  Anyhow, Dracula is not based on him, but that apparently does not stop lots of people from coming and roaming the citadel where the real Vlad Drac spent his youth and ruled.

This is the only inhabited tower in Europe, and its tenant is Sighisoara's cemetery caretaker (who has a remarkable garden).  The citadel originally had nineteen towers (one erected by each craftsman's guild in the city) for protection, nine of which are still standing today.  This tower was erected by the shoemaker's guild.

After our tour, we went through the history museum, which is housed in the tallest tower in the city, the clock tower.  This tower was jointly constructed and maintained by all the guilds, and the view from the top was lovely, as you can see above and below.  We also visited the torture museum, and saw the racks and chains and foot and hand devices used by Vlad Drac and his contemporaries.  No pictures allowed though...which is probably a good thing.

Again, a view from the top of the clock tower.  All of the buildings in this picture are contained within the walled citadel.  It was a very unique and interesting day...well-worth the side trip!

Sibiu, Romania: An Old Town

Today we explored the small but delightful town of Sibiu.  One of the cities of Romania that was used as a garrison during the Austo-Hungarian empire, there are still traces of the medieval wall surrounding the city.  Sibiu is situated firmly in Transylvania, and only became a part of Romania with the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I.  The shot above is on the cobbled street leading into the town's many square.

On the city's main square, eating gelato in celebration of a quarter of a century :-)

The tower of Sibiu's Evangelical Church, one of the most important community centers in the city until the revolution in 1989, surrounded by local shops and residences (most buildings date from medieval times).

The other important church in the city in a to-scale replica of the Haggai Sophia (in Constantinople) which was constructed in 1906.  This is the Orthodox center of the town, and the walls are beautifully painted.  The locals kept coming in off the street in a continuous stream to briefly pray--it was very interesting.

Sibiu, Romania: Happy birthday Grandpa!

First of all, happy birthday from Romania, Grandpa!  I hope you can read the sign...I'm sorry it wasn't in front of something more interesting, but all I did today was take an eleven-hour train ride from Budapest, Hungary to Sibiu, Romania.  The landscape outside was nice, but it was dark outside by the time we got to the mountains.  Tomorrow should be beautiful, though.

It rained on the train ride, and there was a lovely rainbow, just barely visible behind the old, broken train (those seem to dot the tracks everywhere here).  I am quite excited to start exploring tomorrow--my first few hours in Romania have left me with many questions that I hope will be answered over the next few days.