привет everyone! Don't ask me what that actually says, but it's 'hello' in Russian!
Last night was lots of fun. We got the train into town to meet the Topdeckers. I now understand the bad rep Russians get for being rude. Smiley, polite me approached the counter in the train station and asked for three tickets to whichever station, and the lady just grunted at me and kept pointing at a sign. Eventually we had our three train tokens literally thrown at us through the window. Happy happy joy joy!
Got the train and went for a walk near St Isaac's Cathedral, then met the Topdeckers! There are about 12 of the same group I was with left, and 24 new people. We had a great time on our river cruise. The guy that designed the city wanted it to resemble Amsterdam so there are canals everywhere! We made a drinking game where we had to drink each time we went under a bridge - boy were there a lot of bridges!!! And you had to duck when going under them as they are quite low!
Afterwards we went to a nightclub which very conveniently was about 300m from where we are staying!! Danced a bit of the night away and then some of the girls walked me back safely to the apartment.
Woke up this morning with a bit of a headache as there were way too many bridges but soldiered on!!!
We started our day by walking up Nevsky to the Hermitage. Got 10 minutes down the road when mum realised we had left the tickets we prepurchased at the apartment! So got them and then were on the way once more.
We arrived in Palace Square. My inner nerd was very very excited!! This is where the Tsar and his family lived and on January 22, 1905 people marched to the winter palace unarmed wanting a peaceful protest against the Tsar and his excessive lifestyle, and the Tsar's soldiers shot at them. This is referred to as 'Bloody Sunday'. Can remember writing many a year 12 essay about it, and now I was standing right where it all happened!!! The Hermitage was free today for some reason, but we had already paid. As it turned out though this was a really good thing. The queue was about 5km long (I exaggerate, but it was HUGE!) and we got to go right to the front. When the doors opened there was a stampede which was horrible. Bloody tourists!!! Haha.
We spent three hours there but you could easily spend a week. My favourite part was looking at all the lavish rooms. I can see why there was a revolution. People were freezing to death on the streets and eating horse meat while the tsar and his family lived in a palace with 1500 rooms! But the rooms were so beautiful. This was where I discovered that I have broken my camera though. Getting onto the boat last night I tripped and dropped it, and now the light sensor doesn't seem to be working properly. I needed a new one anyway as the zoom is broken, but apologies for weird laser beams in photos with chandeliers and things like that :( Oh well. I loved the peacock clock as well. We covered the entire first level which was European art and lavishly decorated rooms. Had a look upstairs at a Monet exhibition and gave the Asian art and Greek and roman stuff a miss. Can't see everything and I've seen my fair share of those!!
Next we walked to St Isaac's Cathedral. Got really confused about where to buy tickets but a really nice girl helped us and we then climbed up to the dome. Had panoramic views of the whole city. From above to be honest it's kind of ugly!!! But at ground level really beautiful.
Afterwards we went to Yusupov Palace. This is the site of where Rasputin was murdered in 1917. Who's Rasputin? He was a peasant mystic who supposedly had healing powers and was an advisor to the Romanovs (Tsar Nicholas II and his family). He allegedly cured Alexei's haemophilia (the Tsar's son) and so the Tsarina was very close to him from then on. For any Disney fans reading, he's the bad guy in the movie 'Anastacia'. Yusupov killed Rasputin and legend has it that he invited him over for dinner and poisoned him with enough cyanide to kill five men. Rasputin didn't die. He shot him in the back. Rasputin didn't die. He shot him three more times. Rasputin didn't die and tried to flee. He wrapped Rasputin in a carpet and threw him in the Moika River outside the palace. Rasputin finally died, BUT it wasn't due to the poison, bullets or drowning, he died of hyperthermia!!! Creepy. The palace interiors were really lovely and we enjoyed a very informative audio guide. I particularly liked the theatre! I bought a music box shaped like an onion domed church. We're twinnies now, Nan!!!
As the weather was lovely and sunny (YESSSS! Sunshine!!!) we went for a walk along the river. We went to Decembrist Square and saw the bronze horseman statue of Peter the Great. Then we each had a hotdog for lunch. We walked across to the Strelka, on a different island to where we had already been. There are two rostrsl columns here that used to be used to navigate ships by lighting gas fires atop them. Now they are only lit on public holidays! Mum had some corn on the cob and we walked alongside the water which was really nice.
Walked back through Palace Square and mum and I took a photo of us being grumpy Russians. I've had a good six people walk smack into me today and not even look at me afterwards. I get that smiling isn't part of their culture, that's fine, but if you nearly knock someone over, you at least raise your hand to say sorry. Mum also got elbowed by another lady. It's great though because hardly anyone speaks English, so I loudly said how rude she was and that mum should do it back and she didn't know what I said. Muahaha!!!
It's like another world here. I've never been anywhere where so little people speak English, and I expect Moscow will be worse. Even in Cambodia people spoke more English! Can't read any Cyrillic but lucky for me my photographic memory is incredible and we haven't gotten lost at all. I love how I can be in a city for just a few hours and know it back to front. Hope I never lose that skill!
We then walked to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. You have to pay 100 rubles more each after 6pm for some unknown reason, so we decided to go back tomorrow as we were really tired. We walked 20+km again today! Apparently the mosaics inside are amazing though so can't wait to check it out.
Tonight we went for dinner at a Russian restaurant called 'Masher and Bear'. All three of us had beef stroganoff and it was yummmmmm!!
Love to all
Claire
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