Tallinn, Moscow and some other things

So I’m probably the worst blogger ever, since it’s been almost a month since my last post. But I also suck at correspondence in general, so no surprise there. Anyway, a lot has happened in the meantime, so I better get started on that.

In my last blog I ended with me telling you about “Масленица,” i.e. Pancakeweek. On Sunday, the last day of Масленица we went to a park, somewhere on an island I think, I honestly can’t remember, but anyway there’s supposed to be lots to do in parks on Масленица. So after entering the park (which had an entrance fee, greedy sons of ^%#@^%), so first of we waited for about half an hour so we could use the ladies room, and after that we were starving and cold (of course it was freezing), so we stood in line for some fresh super-hot blini’s, and they’d never tasted so good! After being fed we wandered through the park, and there was indeed lots to do, if we’d been kids. Caia, Frank and I had gotten separated from the rest of the group and we decided to call it a day and return home. So we missed the highlight of the day: the burning of a big doll made out of hay or something, but I think we’ll live.

I’ve been in Saint Petersburg for more than two months now, but there is actually still quite a long list of things I still want to see. One of them is the exhibition on Rasputin in the basements of the Yusupov Palace. But apparently there is only one tour a day, and of course when we gor there it was already sold out. We did see the Yusupov Palace itself, which was incredibly beautiful (it even had its own theatre), but still, we came for Rasputin. Well, maybe we’ll try again later.

On 17th of March we, as Dutchmen, decided to celebrate an Irish holiday in Russia, Saint Patrick’s day. We had tickets for a sort of small festival of Irish folk music performed by Russian bands. Sounds strange? Yeah it kinda does, but it was great! Members of Irish dance schools had free entrance to the event, and they performed all kinds of Irish dances, so that was really fun to watch and the music was pretty good as well. But the atmosphere was the best of all, very relaxed and open, and no snobby, high heeled, short skirted Russian dolls snorting around. (and yes, we wore green ;) )

We also finally saw the Isaakievskiy sobor (the largest orthodox cathedral in Petersburg), which was breathtakingly beautiful. It was also fun to read about the history of the cathedral, during the time of the blockade of Leningrad cabbage grew in front of the cathedral (see pictures) and in communist times the cathedral was turned into an anti-religious museum, very strange. We also climbed (almost) to the top of the cathedral, from which we had an amazing view.

We met up with some different groups of Russians (we are here after all to learn the language), once with a group of Russians who study Dutch and once with the sister of one of our teachers, and some of her friends, which was really fun. Not only to learn more Russian, but also to hear their views on contemporary life in Russia.

After our first failed attempt to go to tsarskoye selo somewhere in February we did make it to the Catherine Palace this time. The trip was quite worth it, the palace and her chambers are very beautiful. Unfortunately during WWII almost all rooms were destroyed, so almost everything you see is not original, but renovated or replaced, except for the objects, they were brought to safety prior to the bombing. Although it was cold (when is it not, I know), we made a very nice walk around the park and we even slid of a self-made slide.

We had another taste of Russian nightlife as well, this time it was ladies night out, so it was only Caia, Marieke and myself. First we met up with some Russian girls, but later it was just the three of us. The night was pretty eventful, we were in a pretty cool club, with quite normal people, and it was really fun. But when a tiny Brazilian started to get a bit too friendly towards Marieke (who was more than a foot taller than he was) and his not so tiny long-haired friend in a Harley Davidson jacket started to get a bit too close to me, we decided it was time to leave. The next bar was fine as well until a Russian guy literally came and sat on Caia and me. Marieke and I started to talk with him, and that was fine in the beginning. I mean he was a bit strange, wanting to show us around Kupchino in the middle of the night and stuff, but fine. And then he left. But then he came back. And back again and again and again. And we were getting pretty sick of him following us around showing all of us ‘I love you’ typed on his mobile phone etc. At one point we even literally ran up the stairs and he just ran after us. So we decided to call it a night and go home. But of course when we wanted to leave he was leaving as well asking us, where are we going? We made it clear that WE were going away and he wasn’t going to come with us, so he left. But of course he was waiting outside until we got out and started to follow us. Again. At one point Caia started to run, I ran after her and Marieke, of course, started to run after us. Well you can guess who ran after us as well. So somewhere on the corner we stopped and decided to once and for all make it very clear that he was not going to come with us. And after some not so nice words he finally went away and we went home in peace. Next time we’ll probably bring some male company again.

The last weekend of March I went to Tallinn together with Caia, Sharony and Thijs. We’d booked an apartment and bus tickets and went on a mini holiday. After our passports were checked five times, of course 4 times by the Russian and only once by the Estonians, we arrived in Tallinn! Although I love Saint Petersburg it was really nice to be away from the city for a while. Tallinn was really peaceful and quiet compared to Petersburg. We’d rented a really clean and cosy apartment very close to the city and were all set to fill our days with everything that Tallinn has to offer. We were only there from Thursday evening till two o’clock Sunday and unfortunately we hadn’t realized that Friday was Good Friday and Sunday Easter Sunday, so every museum was closed when we were there. That was a pity, but the city itself was really beautiful. We did visit the Teletorn, which wasn’t closed. The Teletorn is a transmission tower build in the 60’s by the soviets to widely broadcast the part of the Olympics which was held in Tallinn. The tower in 364 meters high and you can go up to the 21st floor (170m) and see the whole city. The view was really amazing. Tallinn itself was quit soothing and we returned to Saint Petersburg fully relaxed. (and we got to pay in euro’s again, jeej!)

April is a busy month for me, because the next weekend we went to Moscow! Where Tallinn was relaxing, Moscow was the opposite. We went there by night train (I’d never been on a night train before), which was pretty cool. We had our own coupe. Sleeping however was crappy and we arrived in Moscow at 07:15. But after spending about an hour in the hostel we were already on our way to the Kremlin. We had a very good guide, who told us a lot. We walked around the Kremlin and we went into almost every church there. Unfortunately, it’s not allowed to take pictures in the churches. I found the church were all the tsars until Peter I are buried especially interesting. After visiting the Kremlin we went to the Red Square where Lenin’s mausoleum remains safely hidden under a gigantic UFO, or party tent. He’s under restoration, so closed for visitors. Too bad. We had lunch in the ГУМ, a very old shopping centre by the Red Square and after that we visited the History Museum. I must confess, although I love Russian history, I could barely keep my eyes open. So after dining in a quite expensive restaurant we went to bed early, ‘cause our schedule for the next day was also crammed. On Saturday we made a bus tour around the city and stopped at a lot of interesting places. I’m not going to name them all, ‘cause I probably don’t remember them all. After that we went to Saint Basil’s cathedral on the Red Square. Really old and really pretty. Novodevichy Convent was next on our list and we ended the day with a visit to the graveyard next to the convent where we visited the graves of some famous people like Yeltsin and Khrushchev. We had the Sunday for ourselves (at least until the train left) and we decided to go to the New Tretyakov State Gallery, where Russian art from the 20th century is displayed (and some of the 21st century). We left Russia with the Sapsam, a high speed train, and made it back to St. Petersburg in less than four hours. Our trip to Moscow was rushed, but so is the city itself, so that kinda fits.

And here we are now, longest post ever btw. On Thursday my mother and her cousin arrive, so I’m really looking forward to that. The weather forecast is pretty positive as well, next week it might even stop freezing at night. Our cockroaches are happy as ever, although their population seems to slowly dwindle. Finally.

I’m off to bed now, so nighty night!