July 24- St. Petersburg, Russia

We’re finally in Russia! Although Norway was the country I was most excited to visit, I think St. Petersburg was the city I’ve been most anxious to see. This morning, I got up early and headed to breakfast in the main dining hall. Usually we are allowed to get off the ship at 8:00 am, but today we had to postpone our disembarkation because we had a representative from the US State Department come give us a brief safety talk. I don’t remember the guy’s name, but he has worked for the State Department for over 20 years. He has served all around the world, and he has worked in Russia for a good number of years. I don’t remember his name, but I really enjoyed listening to him speak. He informed us a lot on the current situation between Russia and the US, but, unlike the speakers from the pre-port last night, he wasn’t trying to scare us. He told us that St. Petersburg was a perfectly safe city and just to be as cautious as we would in any country. He said that most of the locals, especially the youth, are very friendly and helpful (if they speak English). Some people on the voyage are planning to visit Moscow while we’re docked here, and he made the comparison that St. Petersburg is like Washington DC while Moscow is like New York. Both are relatively safe cities, but they’re different. He also told us a lot about his job and what he does for a living. I’m glad we had the opportunity to listen to him speak.

When the speech was over, I went back to my room to get ready for the day. Technically we were allowed to get off the ship, but I had to meet my class at 12:00 for our Field Lab. We all gathered in dining hall with Professor Connolly and grabbed a quick bite to eat. Then we went out into Russia!

This port is a little bit different from the others because we have to go through immigration every time we get off and on the ship. Basically, that just means that we have to go through a terminal and have the workers check our passports. That also means that we have to carry our passports with us at all times, which also means that we have to be extra careful not to lose it (ahem, refer to my last day in Norway if you want to read about my stupidity in losing (and finding) my passport).

Once we checked through security, we got on a bus and did a short driving tour of the city. Let me say this, St. Petersburg is absolutely beautiful!! I didn’t really know what to expect because I hadn’t seen very many pictures of the city before coming on this trip, but driving alongside the Neva River was incredible! The buildings are all so old and so pretty. The entire riverside is very picturesque, and the only structures that you can see over the rooftops are the spires of St. Petersburg’s most famous cathedrals. To preserve its historic city skyline, the city has construction laws that don't allow anyone to build new structures over about 50 meters. This is actually a hotly debated controversy right now because big corporations are fighting to build skyscrapers for their companies. I really hope this never happens because I am a big fan of the way the city looks without any stinkin’ skyscrapers.

Sorry, that was completely off topic. Anyways, during our bus tour we stopped along the river to look at these huge Sphinx statues that Russia bought or stole (I don’t remember which). They seemed oddly out of place. 3000 year-old cat/god statues in the middle of a 300 year-old Russian city? Weird. That’s another geeky architectural fact about St. Petersburg. It was completely built up from nothing in only a few decades by Peter I in 1703. Through sheer willpower and determination (and a lot of forced labor from serfs), St. Petersburg was entirely constructed on a horribly wet and nasty swamp.

My first view of St. Petersburg

One of the Sphinx Statues

Then we went to a Vladimir Nabokov Museum and saw where the famous Russian author actually lived for a number of years. I thought was pretty interesting, but unless you like Russian literature it probably wouldn’t make a lot of sense. One fun-fact I learned is that Nabokov was really into butterflies. He studied them all throughout his life and even discovered several species all on his own.

Nabokov Museum

Pretty view from inside Nabokov's house

After that, we went to the Tikhivin Cemetery and got to see where a lot of famous Russians were buried. Unfortunately, I didn’t know who hardly any of them are so I couldn't really appreciate it very much, but we did get to see Fyodor Dostoevsky’s grave. He wrote Crime and Punishment which is the one Russian novel we were required to read before getting to St. Petersburg. Most of our day was scheduled around Dostoevsky (as you’ll soon find out), so it was really neat to see where the guy was buried.

The Tikhivin Cemetery

I hope I'm as happy as this guy when I die.

Fyodor Dostoevsly's Grave

We then went to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra church which was right next to the cemetery. It was my first time being in an Eastern Orthodox Church, and I loved it! It looked so beautiful from the outside, but it was even more beautiful on the inside. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the interior, which was too bad. It was a great experience though. We were told to bring scarves because women have to cover their heads while being inside the church. It was unlike any church I’d ever been in, and the spiritual energy inside was unlike anything I had ever felt either. I could just tell that I was in a completely different place in a completely different culture with completely different beliefs.

The Alexander Nevsky Lavra

After that cool experience, we went to the apartment of the fictional pawnbroker in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment where the famous murder scene takes place. We then walked the same path Raskolnikov (the main character) would have taken to go back to his apartment after the crime was committed. The walk was okay, but it was hard to connect with the story because all of the buildings around us were so modern. If was difficult to put ourselves in Raskolnikov’s shoes and experience the city as if we were the character ourselves.

The pawnbroker's apartment

Raskolnikov's apartment

We got a little behind schedule after that. We went to a Dostoevsky Museum and briefly walked through his old house. We were rushed and could only spend 15 minutes there, but it fun to see nonetheless. I wish we could have spent more time because there was a lot to see that we just had to kind of skip over. We then went to dinner at a nearby hotel and had a nice three-course meal (included by SAS in the field lab/tuition = bonus!). They served us tomato mozzarella salad, the vegetarians in the group got vegetarian lasagna (everyone else got salmon), and apple charlotte with coffee. As you can imagine, it was just delightful!

Dostoevsky Museum

Dostoevsky's Work Room

Vegetarian Lasagna

And that was the end of our Field Lab. We got back to the ship around 8:30. I guess I never mentioned how HOT it was all day. I heard that this week will be the best weather St. Petersburg is supposed to get all year. I love the sun and all, but my gosh was it hot. I’m not sure what the temperature ever got up to. I think it was only in the high 80’s but it felt much hotter than that because of the humidity. It’s funny that these northern countries of Norway and Russia have been the warmest countries we’ve been to (especially compared to Portugal and Spain which were just chilly and rainy). But then again, it is later in the summer, too.

I spent the evening hanging out with friends. We went up to the pool deck and ate snacks until about 11:30. The sun sets so late here that is was still very bright outside by the time we went to bed.

That’s about it for now. Tomorrow I’m meeting some friends to go to the Hermitage Museum... going to be a beautiful day!

PS- I should also mention that Courtney is staying in the city at a hotel with some friends. She invited me to join, but I wasn’t feeling it. I actually really like staying on the ship. Our three-meals-a-day are included. When we are at port I get to sleep when I want, get up when I want, eat what I want, and I can have alone time which is always a plus. So I’m on my own for the next couple days. I love Courtney to death, but it will be nice to have the room to myself for a while.