So, I arrived back from Brussels on Saturday October 18, 2008 at 10am, which gave me less than 24 hours before I had to be at the airport for my trip to RUSSIA! I first took a much deserved nap, then did some laundry, packed, ate dinner and got some sleep before waking up at 6am!
Blue Point: Copenhagen Red Line: Plane
Red Point: St. Petersberg Yellow Line: Bus
Green Point: Novorgord Blue Line: Overnight Train
Light Blue Point: Moscow
Sunday October 19, 2008:
07:30 - I met my Russia group at the airport for our 09:35 SAS flight to St. Petersberg. We had to fill out some intense immigration forms on the flight in order to get in and out of the country. Oh and did I mention that we had to apply for Russian Tour Visa's one month prior to leaving in order to go to Russia! They are very strict on who can enter their country.
13:40 - We arrived in St. Petersberg (it was slightly raining) and made our way to our hotel.
View from the hotel
Street next to hotel
Soviet era bomb shelter
18:30 - We went out to dinner at a restaurant called Cafe Jam with our tour leader and about 10 Russian students studying in St. Petersberg. At dinner our tour leader taught us the proper way to drink vodka, which was quite interesting/entertaining. After dinner we wandered the streets of St. Petersberg with the local Russian students.
Dinner
Chris and I pounding shots with Jon (the tour leader)
Monday October 20, 2008:
10:00 - After breakfast, we headed on a bus for the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is the original citadel of St. Petersberg, founded in 1703 by Peter the Great and completed in 1740. The fortress includes the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where the remains of the Russian tsars rest, six bastions and other buildings. From the roof of the bastions we got an amazing view of the Neva River and some of the city's most important landmarks, including the Winter Palace.
The Bronze Horseman commemorating Peter the Great
Inside the Peter & Paul Cathedral
View from the bastions
View from bastions showing the Peter & Paul Cathedral
After visiting the Peter & Paul fortress, we ate lunch as a group and then we were given free time to explore St. Petersberg and do some shopping.
We came across this man swimming in a canal
On the way to the open-air shopping market, we stopped at the Church of Spilled Blood, which had the most amazing murals I have ever seen.
Church of Spilled Blood
Tuesday October 21, 2008:
10:00 - We began the day with a guided walking tour, "St. Petersberg behind the Fascade," which gave us a unique view of St. Petersberg because we got to experience the city from its poorer, everyday or perhaps darker side! We were split up into groups of 5 or 6 and a local Russian guided us through the streets, showing us courtyards, underground art exhibits, people's apartments etc... This tour gave us a peek into what Soviet rule was like and how the buildings were constructed during the communist rule. We ate lunch with our local guide at a crepes restaurant and then met up with the rest of our group at the Hermitage Museum for a another guided tour. The Hermitage Museum is located in the center of St. Petersberg by the banks of the Neva River. The main building is the Winter Palace, the residence of the Russian tsars. Founded by Catherine the Great -- the Hermitage collection has continued to grow ever since, and now contains more than 3,000,000 items and works of art from the the Stone Age to the 20th century! A truly amazing collection.
Tour Guide
One of the many canals
The Hermitage
Winter Palace
19:30 - After the tour of the Hermitage, we ate some dinner and then headed back to the Hermitage theater for the ballet! We saw the famous Russian play "Swan Lake," by the famous Russian composer Tchaikovksy. Believe it or not, I really enjoyed the ballet, it was very entertaining and definitely showed me some Russian culture.
The Hermitage Theatre
Swan Lake
Wednesday October 22, 2008:
08:30 - We check out of the hotel in St. Petersberg and loaded all of our luggage on the bus. We then departed for Novgorod, Russia - which was a 3.5 hour bus ride south-east of St. Petersberg. Novgorod is Russia's most ancient city. It was founded by the Viking prince Rurik in the 9th century. Today the city is a large provincial town with 217,000 inhabitants. The city's ensemble of ancient churches, its Kremlin walls and monasteries are included in the UNESCO world heritage list.
The Kremlin wall in Novgorod
Sofia Cathedral = Russian Orthodox Church
St. George's Monastery
The bald man is a monk who lives in isolation
14:00 - After a day long visit to Novgorod (a much different Russian city when comparing it to St. Petersberg and Moscow) we loaded back on the bus and drove back to St. Petersberg. Unfortunately we hit major traffic on our way back into the city and it took us about 5.5 hours to get back to St. Petersberg.
00:40 - Departure to Moscow by night train no. 55 --> This was quite the experience! I felt like I was on the Orient Express, we were separated into cabins of 4 people, which were pretty cramped and hot - we could not get the air conditioning to work or crack a window! Our tour leader suggested drinking some vodka or some Russian beer before going to bed in order to fall asleep. We took his advice and it actually worked, we slept like babies and woke up at 09:53 when we arrived in Moscow! The rhythm of the train reminded me of the rocking of a cruise ship at night, which rocked us to sleep!
Me and Chris in our sleeper car to Moscow!
Thursday October 23, 2008:
09:53 - Arrival in Moscow!
Moscow Train Station10:30- We ate breakfast at a cafe and then headed for Red Square and Lenin's Mausoleum. Red Square was magnificent, it was much larger than I anticipated and the Kremlin walls were quite tall as well. Luckily we were also able to see Lenin's Mausoleum, which is Lenin's Tomb! His embalmed body has been on display here since 1924 when he died. In order to get into the Mausoleum, we could not bring in any cameras and we had to walk through metal detectors. Inside the Mausoleum, there were guards situated every three feet, making sure nobody disturbed Lenin's body.
Kremlin walls behind me
Red Square
Lenin's Masoleum
13:00- After spending the morning at Red Square we got on a bus and headed to our hotel: Hotel Cosmos, which was a very nice hotel located in the city.
17:30- We met up with local Moscow students who took us to their homes to cook dinner and talk about life in Moscow. The students I was put with did not cook us anything authentic to Russia, but rather cooked us pasta! It was fun talking with the students and hearing their viewpoints on topics such as: the Georgia conflict, Vladamir Putin, and State Censorship. Also, we asked them if they remembered the fall of Communism, but they all said they were too young to remember. Overall, it was a great opportunity to learn about Russian culture and the day-to-day lives of Russians.
Dinner! Ummhh
Tim (Russian) Playing the flute for usFriday, October 24, 2008:
11:00- Tour of the Kremlin. The Kremlin is massive! It consists of 4 palaces, 4 churches, an armory chamber and the Kremlin towers, all surrounded by the fortress walls. We had a very knowledgeable tour guide, which made the tour very interesting.
Tour guide in the Kremlin
Government Buildings in Kremlin
Church inside Kremlin14:00- We had a farewell lunch in Moscow and then had the rest of the time on our own to further explore Moscow. Chris and I went to the Olympic stadium and an open-air market. The interesting thing about the Olympic stadium was that there were not any Olympic rings present, instead there was a giant statue of Lenin.
Statue of Lenin in front of Olympic Stadium 
Inside Moscow Olympic Stadium
DIS gave us a booklet of things to do on our own in Moscow. One of the places was a nightclub in Moscow called the Hungry Duck, which according to DIS is the "craziest club in all of Europe and Russia." So, we decided to go... Let's just say that it was an interesting night. For starters, I got thrown against the wall by a bouncer for taking pictures of friends from the study tour, needless to say, I talked my way out of it and was ok. There were also a few more instances of people running into problems, but the good news is that we all made it out of the Hungry Duck and will probably never go back!!
Saturday October 25, 2008:12:00- We departed the hotel Cosmos for the Moscow airport. Our flight back to Copenhagen departed at 15:50 and arrived in Copenhagen at 16:20(local time). Luckily no one got stopped going through passport control!
Monument to Space Travel, right outside our hotelWhen I arrived at the airport, Matt (my brother) was waiting for me in the lobby of the Hilton! And our week long European Adventure begun!
Posts
