Monday, July 16, 2001
Tuesday, July 17, 2001
Wednesday, July 18, 2001
Thursday, July 19, 2001
Friday, July 20, 2001
Saturday, July 21, 2001
Sunday, July 22, 2001

Pre-Trip Journal Week One Week Two Week Three Week Four Week Five Week Six Week Seven Week Eight Week Nine Week Ten Week Eleven Week Twelve Week Thirteen Week Fourteen Week Fifteen

Monday, July 16, 2001
It was already hot when I woke up this morning. The air was still with the humidity off the charts. It poured around 10:30, and then cleared up a bit, which made the humidity even worse, but the temperature cooler.

I finally got my airline tickets today. I'm so glad to have all of that worry over! My mom also sent an interesting selection of photos to show my friends. The house, Odie's backyard palace, a Christmas tree, a bear in our yard in Duluth... I showed the photos to my classmates, but I'm not sure they were all that interested.

At lunchtime I bought two tickets to see Giselle on Thursday at the Rimskij-Korsakov Conservatory. Claire will accompany me to the performance. An elderly woman had a little table in the lobby where she was selling tickets for the ballet and a violin concert. I think it's student pricing; the tickets were 100 rubles ($3) each.

After class today I met with Jacob Picheny, a friend of my Uncle Pat. He lives in Berkeley, but spends time in St. Petersburg every year. We sat on a bench for a while, and then tried to escape the sudden downpour that came around 5 p.m. Of course I had taken my umbrella out of my backpack this morning because I thought it was too heavy. I got completely soaked, so I just gave up on hiding under trees and in doorways and walked down the street in the rain.

Tuesday, July 17, 2001
I had planned to go to the Hermitage this afternoon, but when I got there, the line was very long, almost to the corner of the building. They were only letting a few people in every once and a while, so I decided to scrap the idea. I walked down the Neva quite a ways, and then walked around the Marble Palace (it was closed today.) What a beautiful building. The entire neoclassical facade is marble, hence its name. I will be sure to return when the palace is open, even though the main entrance is covered in scaffolding.

After that, I noticed that I was fairly close to the Church on Spilled Blood, so I decided to walk in that general direction. I came to the church through the souvenir market. Of course I decided to buy a few little things as presents. Then I went into a small exhibit on the reign of Alexander II. (The church was built on the spot where he was murdered, apparently carrying plans for a Russian parliament.) I decided not to go into the church today, because although the humidity is down, the temperature is up!

I'm pretty excited about this weekend. Sara Nagel, the director of the career center where I used to work, is coming for a visit. She has been in Moscow for several days already, and I guess she's pretty anxious to see St. Petersburg. I just think it will be great to see a familiar face from home! And of course I'm going to have a great time showing her around the city.

Wednesday, July 18, 2001
It started to rain just as I got home yesterday, but I had no idea how bad the storm was until I arrived at school today. It took me a little while to figure out what had happened (it was early, and I don't think I was fully awake yet). I saw men with chain saws cutting apart trees, and I was pretty upset because I really liked the trees in the courtyard. Then I realized that they weren't cutting them down, but it was storm damage. It looked like at least 1/4 of the trees were lost. Later I learned that lightening had struck the dome of the the Cathedral, knocking off the main cross. And one of the falling trees landed on a student at the CRLC; he's currently in the hospital (I don't know him.) It was a strange way to start the day, to say the least.

Other than wild storms, the weather has been awful! It was over 90 degrees today, and very, very humid. You all may laugh with the heat wave that you've experienced, but just remember: there is no air conditioning in Russia. I don't even have a fan. So all we can do is just suffer through the heat as best we can.

Thursday, July 19, 2001
It's a little cooler today, but still pretty awful. I am very proud of the fortitude I have exhibited in the face of extreme heat. I think the cool showers in the morning and the afternoon have really helped, though. I had to break down and make a little fan out of a sheet of paper in class today, because I was getting pretty sticky.

Claire and I went to the ballet tonight. We had expected to see Giselle but instead they performed Swan Lake. It was terrible. So terrible that it was funny. One of the dancers fell and landed on his butt on the first act, and it never got much better. When I arrived home, Yulia just laughed. Apparently the Rimsky-Korsakov is notoriously horrible. She said the last time she was there, the leading female dancer was in a white costume, and she fell so many times that her butt was completely black by the end of the performance.

I talked to Sara this evening. She's arriving at 11 p.m. tomorrow instead of coming on the night train. I asked her if she wanted me to get some theater tickets for Saturday night, and she thought that sounded like a great idea. I think I'll get something at the Marinsky.

Friday, July 20, 2001
I went to buy theater tickets today. We will see Don Kikhot, a ballet by Boris Eiffman at the Marinsky tomorrow night. I think it will be pretty good, although a little untraditional. I'm pretty sure I paid the Russian price for the tickets, because it was only 250 rubles per ticket for third row, main floor, at St. Petersburg's best theater (and one of the top two in Russia). Normally foreigner's pay about two to three times as much!

After the buying the tickets, I decided to go to the Russian Museum. I saw some incredible portraits by an artist named Ivan Kramskoy. They were so lifelike, it was breathtaking. I think it was the eyes. You could really see the soul of the subjects through their eyes. It was like the canvas had come to life, and the person was having a conversation with me. I always prefer portraits, because I am interested in people, but I had never, ever seen anything like this before. Even the work of Ilya Repin, one of Russia's most praised painters, couldn't compare to these portraits by Kramskoy.

After the museum, I had planned to go straight home. But on the way through the Nevsky underpass, I was captured by two violins and a cello. The music was superb, but what was even more impressive was that it was a family playing together. The girl was about 11, the younger boy around 8, and an older was brother in his late teens. I stood for 40 minutes just enjoying their performance. I thought I should have been in the big concert hall, it was so excellent.

Perhaps more interesting than the musicians were the other people who stopped to listen. One, pretty grubby boy around 12, arrived shortly after I did; he was still there when I left. Another little boy had a kitten in his jacket. My favorite, though, was a really tough, scrappy looking guy with his younger brother. They were hurrying past, when all of a sudden, the big brother grabbed the boy and dragged him back to listen for several minutes. They were about the last people I would expect to enjoy a violin concerto.

So, my fun filled day of cultural activity over, I went home. Yulia decided that I should come swimming with her, Ilya and Natasha. I agreed, and we were off. Just the breeze of driving in the car felt wonderful. Then we swam for a while in an old quarry (not the same one) and then walked down to the Neva. The water there was cold! Almost like Lake Superior! I didn't feel like getting hypothermia today, so I decided against taking a dip in the river, although I did wade past my knees.

They dropped me off at the Metro station on the way home so that I wouldn't be late to meet Sara. I went to KFC for dinner, and then headed to the train station. Sara's train was about 10 minutes late, but that was fine. We met surprisingly easily. Then we went to the hotel, checked in, dropped off he bag, and walked the short distance to Pelikan for some beer. I had to take a cab home, as the Metro was closed. I did well, because the cabbie didn't try to pull anything on me, and I got home in less than 20 minutes.

Saturday, July 21, 2001
Wow. What a day. I can't believe how much stuff Sara and I did today. I met her at the hotel at 9:30 this morning, and the first thing on the agenda was to buy a ticket for the night train to Moscow tomorrow. The woman at the ticket counter was not at all helpful, she told us that the only tickets remaining were seats, and that we should come back tomorrow night.

Sara decided she needed a cup of coffee, so we stopped in at the Idealnaya Chashka (Ideal Cup), a chain of coffee shops in St. Petersburg. I had never been there before, but Sara said the coffee was really good. Then we proceeded with our walk down Nevsky Prospekt. I tried to point out all of the interesting buildings along the way, but I think it was probably all pretty overwhelming. I know I felt that way my first few days.

After stopping to buy some drawings at an artists market on the street, we came into Palace Square to a sweeping view of the Winter Palace. Sara proclaimed that it reminded her of Vienna. I was a bit surprised at that, but since I have never been to Vienna, I can't make a comparison. We sat on a bench in front of the fountain for a while, and then went into the Hermitage.

We had decided beforehand that we would just tour the state rooms, since the Hermitage is very large and tends to cause a bit of sensory overload. So we went through all of the truly impressive rooms, and then left to find something to eat.

We had a great, leisurely lunch at Cafe Joy, on the Griboedova Canal. Then we were off to the Souvenir Market in front of the Church on Spilled Blood. Sara shopped until about 6:15, and then we caught a cab to the Mariinsky Theater.

We had quite a time at the Theater. Apparently, the reason the tickets were so cheap was because I got the student price. Since Sara didn't have a student ID, they made us get the ticket reissued at the foreigner price, which was about $40 more than what I had paid. I was very upset, but Sara assured me that everything was fine.

We forgot all about the price of her ticket once we entered the theater. This was the Royal theater, and the interior is so luxurious that I can't begin to describe it. Gold ornamentation, chandeliers, painted ceilings, and an incredible curtain. Our seats, in the third row, were high-backed wooden chairs. And the ballet! The dancing was fantastic. I've decided to go at least once a week for the rest of my stay. I won't see anything like it in Minnesota, that's for sure!

After leaving the theater, we walked up the Griboedova canal to Sennaya Ploschad. Sara was quite intrigued by the area, and was even more interested when I told her that this was the slum of the city -- the setting of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. She took a couple of photos, and then we got on the Metro. I asked her if she wanted to take a quick tour of the more interesting St. Petersburg Metro stations, and she agreed.

We spent about a half hour riding to some different stations, and then went back to Ploschad Vostaniya, where the hotel and train station are located. We walked down a couple of blocks to Pizza Hut for dinner -- very tasty, of course! We finished our late dinner, and went home to sleep.

Sunday, July 22, 2001
I was really slow getting started today. I met Sara about ten after eleven, and we went to the train station to try to get a sleeping coach for tonight. Unfortunately, we had no better luck today, and she just bought a seat for the midnight train. But, for 200 rubles, I guess it's hard to complain.

The next big problem to be solved was with the bank. Sara took some money out of a cash machine yesterday, but the receipt said she took out three times the amount she received. After some trouble trying to figure out how to use the phone, we explained the problem, but unfortunately there was nothing we could do about it today.

We took the Metro to Vitebsky train Station and bought tickets to Pavlovsk. The train left about 10 minutes after we boarded, and within a half an hour, we arrived. We decided to walk through the gardens to the palace. I was pretty upset at this point that I had forgotten to bring my camera, but I decided that I would come back another time to take pictures. It's only a 15 minute ride from the Kupchino station after all!

We bought tickets into the flower garden near the palace, and enjoyed the beautiful roses and lilies. I realized that I haven't seen such a garden since I arrived in St. Petersburg. I thought about my mom's garden, (which I usually don't pay any attention to) and realized that having bright flowers around is really important. We sat and enjoyed the view for a while, and decided to go see the palace. After struggling for several minutes to get the courage to climb over a railing and jump to the ground on the other side, we discovered that we went the wrong way. Thankfully, they didn't charge us to reenter the park.

We stopped at the cafe in the palace, and were pleasantly surprised. The employees were very helpful and the food was excellent. We had a great cream of mushroom soup, some shepherd's pies, and of course, dessert. Fortified, we left for the palace.

The palace itself was wonderful. Sara and I agree that it is St. Petersburg's best kept secret. The palace was completely destroyed during the second World War (we are talking complete ruin. We saw the pictures.) The restoration is incredible. The curator spent years recovering the furniture and artifacts stolen by the Nazis. The result is a palace which gives the viewer a great sense of what it must have been like for the royal family to live in such a place.

We took a marshrutka back to the city, called Yulia, made plans to meet later, and headed back to the center to take a cruise on the Neva. I think Sara had a good time. I think it's a good way to get an idea of what the city's layout is. Afterwards we rushed by cab to the Moscow Railway Station to meet Yulia, almost half an hour late. (I was relieved to see that she had brought one of her detective novels to read!) We tried once again to buy tickets for a sleeping coach, but there were none. Yulia said that it would be Ok, because she could pay extra once on the train for a sleeping compartment.

Yulia was hungry, and she had her heart set on McDonald's. So we went there for dinner and had the McFresh sandwich, a summer special. (very good -- made of cucumbers, tomato, lettuce, cheese, mayo and of course, ground beef) We sat there until it was time to get on the train. Sure enough, Yulia secured Sara a bed on the train for 500 rubles by bribing one of the employees. Sara was happy, and we were glad that she wouldn't have to sit all night. We stayed almost until the train departed, and then said good-bye.

I'm glad she came to visit. I had a really great time.