July 27- The Fun In Russia Continues

Last night, one of Courtney’s friends, Mari, came to the room looking for her. I told her she went to Moscow, and then we starting chatting. She asked me what I was doing the next day, and I told her I didn’t have any plans except that I wanted to go to a synagogue downtown but I didn’t have anyone to go with. It just so happens that she wanted to go to a park that was in the same area but she didn’t have anyone to go with either. So naturally, we made plans to travel together.

Mari likes to sleep in, so we met at the dining hall for lunch and left for the city afterwards. We didn’t have great directions on how to get to the synagogue, and the metro system is kind of confusing. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but getting around Russian is challenging because of the signs are in Cyrillic and they look like this:  русский алфавит. It’s impossible for me to read. In all of the other countries we’ve been to, I could at least read the names of certain places because they use the same alphabet. Here? Not so much. So each metro station had three names- one in Cyrillic, one in Russian (but with our alphabet), and one in English. But each map and sign seemed to use a different one of those three options. So nothing matched up.

Anyways, it was difficult to navigate, but we finally got off at the right stop. We walked down the street for a ways until we got to the park Mari wanted to visit called the Yusupov Gardens. It just so happens that one of Mari’s best friends back home is Elizabeth Yusupove, and she is a descendent of Russian royalty. So Mari wanted to visit the Yusupov Gardens and the Yusupob Palace for her friend. We meandered through the park for a while, and it was really nice.

Padlocks on the park bridge

Yusupov Park

From there, we took off in the general direction of where we thought the synagogue might be. Completely on accident, we happened to walk by St. Nicholas’s Cathedral. It’s one of St. Petersburg’s many famous churches. I really wanted to see it while I was here, but I didn’t know where it was or how to get there. So that was rather serendipitous.

Church of St. Nicholas

Once we left the church, we had a pretty good idea of where we were. It wasn’t hard to find the synagogue from here. We learned about Judaism in my religions class, and I have to write a paper on a Jewish religious site. It was my first time seeing a synagogue, let alone to go inside one, and it was a great experience. It was strange to see the synagogue after seeing so many of the huge, grand Eastern Orthodox cathedrals around the city in the past couple days. Compared to those bad boys, the synagogue was definitely small, humble and simple. It was still beautiful though. Just like my first time in an Eastern Orthodox Church just three days ago, I felt a different energy in the synagogue than I had ever felt before. I love how each place of worship I’ve visited has a different feel to it. It makes the visits truly unique in more ways than one.

The Grand Choral Synagogue

The Main Sanctuary

When we were done at the synagogue, Mari and I needed a break. We stopped at a nearby subway and she bought a cookie so we could use the bathroom and chill out in there for a while. They were playing the new movie Vampire Academy on the TV, and we got a little too into it. The entire movie was in Russian, but we found it very entertaining to try to follow the story even though we had no idea what the actors were saying. After a while, we forced ourselves to leave the store and head to the Yusupov Palace.

The Palace was amazing. The entrance fee was a little expensive, but it was definitely worth it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures inside, but the interior was gorgeous! Most of the furniture dated back to the mid-1800’s, and it was really cool to see how a noble family’s palace would have looked like 150 years ago. It was different because it wasn’t medieval or anything even close to that. The building almost seemed modern but just really, really classy. It was beautiful. Mari was freaking out a little, and I don’t blame her. It would be so cool to walk through this place knowing one of my best friends family actually lived here not too many years ago. “Grandeur” and “opulent” would be two perfect words to describe this place.

After the palace, we head back to the city center. Along the way, we saw a cat café. We were intrigued as to what it might be only to find out it was exactly what the name suggested. It was a café that was cat themed! So cute!!

Mari with an awesome cat statue

The Cat Cafe

When we got back to the city center, we made a stop at one last church: St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Right at the heart of the city, St. Isaac’s is one of St. Petersburg’s most popular tourist destination. The building is absolutely enormous, and you can see it’s golden dome almost anywhere in the city (that’s how tall it is). The inside was very grand, too.

Inside St. Isaac's

St. Isaac's Cathdral

It was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to make our way back to the metro station. We had to walk through a park on our way, and there was a lot of people gathered around. I guess today is Russia’s “Navy Day” where the country celebrates that branch of their military. We were warned beforehand to be especially careful today, and we were explicitly told to avoid men with striped shirts. Of course, as soon as we’re about to leave the park and go on to Nevsky Prospect, we ran into a bunch of guys in striped shirts. A ton of navy guys were playing in the park’s main fountain. I’m not entirely sure what they were doing, but they had a big crowd surrounding them. They played in the water and yelled crazy stuff in Russia. They had just gotten together and were starting a chant when we decided it would probably be best to leave. We walked down Nevsky Prospect until we got to the metro. It was much easier finding our way back then it was this morning to try to get there.

So mature...

Happy Russian Navy Day!

Nevsky Prospect

We then ate dinner and now I’m in my room. Today was the hottest and most humid day I’ve had this entire summer. I feel pretty drained. I hope all this traveling isn’t making my sickness worse, but it probably is. Oh well, I can’t let a sore throat/cough keep me from enjoying my time in Russia. I very well might not ever come back here. I’ve now seen all that I wanted to see, and I visited all of the major churches in the city. I might take it easy tomorrow though. We have five days here instead of our usual four, and I feel satisfied with my time in Russia. I might just take the day to relax and recover and do homework.

PS- Today’s my mom’s birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!! I love and miss you so much! I wish I could have talked to you today on the phone, but my wifi connection wouldn’t go through. I hope you have a fabulous day, and I’ll see you in a few weeks. Mwah!